DYK: Fall Classic HR records falling in 2017

A big storyline of the 2017 regular season was the record 6,105 home runs that were hit by Major Leaguers, and homers are quickly becoming the dominant storyline in this year's World Series, too.
Game 2 of the 113th World Series, which featured a record eight home runs, may have been one of the wildest non-elimination Fall Classic games ever seen. But Game 5 on Sunday night was on the same level. A contest that began with a rematch of former Cy Young Award winners Clayton Kershaw and Dallas Keuchel quickly broke out into a showcase for hitters, with dramatic home runs and extra-base hits being clubbed at nearly every big moment imaginable.
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In the end, Alex Bregman's walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th gave the Astros a dramatic 13-12 victory and a 3-2 lead in the Series as it heads back to Los Angeles. Houston now has a chance to win its first World Series championship on Tuesday with Justin Verlander on the mound.
How wild is this World Series home run barrage we're seeing? Let us count the ways:
• The 22 home runs hit by the Astros and Dodgers are a record for any World Series. The mark was previously held by the 2002 World Series, which featured 21 homers from the Angels and Giants.
• Brian McCann's ninth-inning solo shot made him the 14th player -- seven from each team -- to homer in this Series. That sets a record for a World Series, passing the 1953 duel between the Dodgers and Yankees, who had 13 players go deep a total of 17 times.
• We've seen a record 101 home runs hit during the course of the 2017 postseason, surpassing the total of 100 hit in '04.
• Fourteen of the 22 homers have either tied the game or given one side the lead. That's already a World Series record, surpassing the 10 game-tying or go-ahead homers recorded in the 1952, '57, '91, '92 and 2001 editions of the Fall Classic.
• Furthermore, the eight go-ahead homers and six game-tying blasts hit in Games 1 through 5 are both records for any Fall Classic of any length.

• Houston's 13 homers rank second for a Fall Classic behind San Francisco's 14 over seven games in 2002.
• The Astros' five homers on Sunday tied a single-game World Series record held by the 1989 A's (Game 3 vs. Giants) and '28 Yankees (Game 4 vs. Cardinals). Houston's five big flies came from five players, setting a record for the most to homer for one club in a World Series contest.
• Before Wednesday, the record for most combined homers in a World Series game was seven, by the A's and Giants in Game 2 of the 1989 Fall Classic. The Dodgers and Astros broke that record with eight homers in Game 2 of this Series before adding seven more in Game 5.
• Prior to Wednesday, there had never been a World Series game in which more than six players homered. Eight batters did so in Game 2, and seven more homered in Game 5.
• The three three-run homers hit Sunday marked the most recorded in a World Series game. Only one other postseason game has contained that many three-run dingers: Game 4 of the 1971 National League Championship Series between the Pirates and Giants.
• With all of those home runs flying, it figures that a Statcast™ record fell as well. Carlos Correa's two-run shot into the Crawford Boxes in the seventh -- which put the Astros ahead, 11-8 -- was struck with a 48-degree launch angle. That's the highest on any homer in 2017 and is just the fifth long ball since Statcast™ was introduced in 2015 to have a launch angle of 48 degrees or higher.

And the homers are only a taste of the wild action we saw in Game 5. Below are more facts and figures about one of the greatest World Series games in recent memory:
Bregman ends another Houston home win
• At 23 years, 214 days, Bregman is the third-youngest player to record a walk-off RBI in a World Series game. The only younger players to do so were Edgar Renteria (22 years, 80 days) for the Marlins in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series and Fred Merkle (22 years, 309 days) for the New York Giants in Game 5 of the 1911 Fall Classic.

• It was the first walk-off hit in the World Series since David Freese's 11th-inning homer for the Cardinals in Game 6 of the 2011 Series against the Rangers. It was the first Fall Classic walk-off hit for the Astros, and the first in any MLB game for Bregman.
• Bregman's hit pushed the Astros' home record this postseason to 8-1 and made them the second team to win eight home games in a single playoff run, joining the 2002 World Series-champion Angels (also 8-1).
• Now, the Astros have to finish this Series on the road. Since 1985, when the LCS switched to a best-of-seven format, teams with a 3-2 advantage in any best-of-seven series have gone on to win 37 of 56 times (66.1 percent). However, they are a modest 14-14 when going on the road for Games 6 and 7, compared with 23-5 when going back home. In this year's American League Championship Series, the Yankees held a 3-2 edge over the Astros but then dropped the final two contests at Minute Maid Park.
A long, wild night
• Bregman's walk-off single marked the seventh RBI of the 2017 Fall Classic that either tied or put a team ahead in the ninth inning or later. Through five games, that's already a record for any World Series, surpassing three of the greatest Series in history: 1975, 2001 and '11.

• Game 5 lasted five hours and 17 minutes, making it the second-longest World Series game on record. The Astros' 7-5, 14-inning loss to the White Sox in Game 3 of the 2005 Series holds the record, at five hours and 41 minutes.
• This was the fourth World Series game in which both teams scored in double digits and only the second in which both teams scored at least 12 runs. The other was Game 4 of the 1993 Series, when the Blue Jays outlasted the Phillies, 15-14, in a wild nine-inning affair at Veterans Stadium.
• That Toronto-Philadelphia game also holds the record for total runs in a World Series contest, at 29. The Dodgers and Astros tied for second with Game 3 of the 1997 Series, a 14-11 Marlins win over the Indians.
• Entering Sunday, the record for most extra-base hits by one team in a World Series game was eight, done five times. The Astros and Dodgers each clubbed eight extra-base hits in Game 5, marking the first time both teams have hit that many in the same Fall Classic contest.
Altuve strikes again
• Jose Altuve's game-tying homer off reliever Kenta Maeda in the fifth was his seventh home run of the 2017 playoffs. That puts him one away from tying Nelson Cruz (2011 Rangers), current teammate Carlos Beltrán ('04 Astros) and Barry Bonds ('02 Giants) for the most in a single postseason.

• The seven homers tie Daniel Murphy (2015 Mets) for the most by a second baseman in a single postseason. Altuve moved past the Dodgers' Chase Utley, who hit six with the '09 Phillies.
• Altuve has cracked six of those seven homers at Minute Maid Park. Jayson Werth of the 2009 Phillies is the only other hitter to go deep six times at home in a single postseason.
• The homer -- along with a fourth-inning single and a go-ahead seventh-inning double -- gave Altuve three hits in the game and 17 at home in these playoffs. With that, he passed the previous single-postseason record of 15 home hits held by two Cardinals -- Albert Pujols (2004) and David Eckstein ('06).
• It was Altuve's fourth three-hit game this postseason, which tied another record. Pujols (2004 Cardinals), Edgar Martinez (1995 Mariners) and Jay Buhner ('95 Mariners) previously accomplished that feat.
Bellinger gets on the home run board
• Dodgers first baseman Cody Bellinger picked up Kershaw with a three-run home run to right field in the fifth, making him the youngest Dodgers player to homer in a World Series game at 22 years and 108 days.

• The only players who were younger than Bellinger at the time of their World Series home runs were Andruw Jones (who hit two in Game 1 of the 1996 Fall Classic at 19 years and 180 days), Miguel Cabrera (2003, 20 years and 187 days), Mickey Mantle (1952 and '53, shortly before his 21st and 22nd birthdays), Jimmy Sebring (1903, 21 years and 190 days), Jimmie Foxx (twice in 1929, shortly before 22nd birthday) and Tony Kubek (1957, 21 years and 358 days).
• Bellinger tacked on an RBI triple that put the Dodgers ahead -- momentarily -- in the top of the seventh, making him only the second player to hit a go-ahead home run and a go-ahead triple in the same World Series game. Kirby Puckett was the other, in his famous performance in Game 6 of the 1991 Fall Classic for the Twins.
Leaky 'pens on both sides
• Houston was able to overcome a bullpen effort that allowed eight runs, tied for the second most allowed by a bullpen in a World Series game. Only one team (the Rockies over the Giants on June 15) won a game during the 2017 regular season in which its bullpen allowed at least eight runs, and the Astros are the first club to overcome that to win a World Series matchup.
• Kenley Jansen, the Dodgers' All-Star closer, had allowed only five extra-base hits (one home run and four doubles) in a postseason career that spanned 25 appearances entering the World Series. But Jansen has allowed three extra-base hits (home runs in Games 2 and 4, and a double in Game 5) in three appearances in this Series.
• Jansen has allowed runs in his three most recent appearances, his first stretch of three consecutive appearances with at least one run allowed since July 29-Aug. 1, 2015. Jansen traversed 180 regular-season and postseason appearances from Aug. 5, 2015, until Game 2 on Wednesday without allowing runs in three straight outings.