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ANAHEIM, Calif. -- As long as they keep playing, we keep cranking out that Useless Information. Here's a Game 6 edition:
Before this game, only four teams had ever blown a lead of five or more runs at any point in any World Series game. But the Giants were the first team to do it when that game would have won them the World Series. Here are the others:
1929 Cubs: blew 8-0 lead to Athletics, Game 4.
1956 Yankees: blew 6-0 lead to Dodgers, Game 2.
1996 Braves: blew 6-0 lead to Yankees (thanks to Jim Leyritz), Game 4.
1993 Phillies: blew 14-9 lead to Blue Jays (thanks to Mitch Williams), Game 4.
The only other time the Angels went into the seventh inning without a run this month, they scored seven in the seventh and eighth innings to beat the Twins, in Game 4 of the ALCS.
It's almost 50 years since the Giants won a World Series. And here's one way to look at that: Seventeen different players have hit at least 100 homers for the Giants since then --and three have hit 400. The complete list, courtesy of Lee Sinins' new Sabermetric Baseball Encyclopedia:
1. Willie Mays, 581
2. Willie McCovey, 469
3. Barry Bonds, 437
4. Matt Williams, 247
5. Orlando Cepeda, 226
6. Bobby Bonds, 186
7. Will Clark, 176
8. Jeff Kent, 175
9. Jack Clark, 163
10. Jim Ray Hart, 157
11. Kevin Mitchell, 143
12. Darrell Evans, 142
13. Robby Thompson, 119
14. Rich Aurilia, 113
15. Tom Haller, 107
16. Chili Davis, 101
17. J.T. Snow, 100
On the other hand, only three pitchers have won 100 games for the Giants since then. Bet you can't name all three.
OK, time's up. Here they are:
1. Juan Marichal, 238
2. Gaylord Perry, 134
3. Mike McCormick, 107
Only one player ever hit more home runs in any World Series than Barry Bonds has in this one (four). That was Reginald M. Jackson, with five, in the 1977 Series in which he hit three in one game. But Jackson had 20 at-bats in that World Series and walked only three times. Bonds has 14 at-bats in this Series and walked 12 times.
Shawon Dunston's home run was only the 10th in the DH era by a National League DH -- and certainly one of the most unlikely. Here's the whole list, courtesy of the Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's David Vincent:
Dan Driessen, Cin., 10/19/1976, Gm. 3
Kurt Bevacqua, S.D., 10/10/1984, Gm. 2
Kurt Bevacqua, S.D., 10/14/1984, Gm. 5
Mike Davis, L.A., 10/20/1988, Gm. 5
Lonnie Smith, Atl., 10/22/1992, Gm. 5
Ryan Klesko, Atl., 10/24/1995, Gm. 3
Ryan Klesko, Atl., 10/25/1995, Gm. 4
Ryan Klesko, Atl., 10/26/1995, Gm. 5
Jim Eisenreich, Fla., 10/21/1997, Gm. 3
Shawon Dunston, S.F., 10/26/2002, Gm. 6
Dunston's last home run before this one: April 15, in his 10th at-bat of the season. That one was a pinch-homer off Bobby Jones in San Diego. Then, six months, 11 days and 148 at-bats later, he hit his next one. He's the first man to hit one home run all season and then hit another in the World Series since Ed Sprague in 1992. The complete list, courtesy of the Sultan:
Ed Sprague, 1992
Mickey Hatcher, 1988
Kurt Bevacqua, 1984
Jim Mason, 1976
Dave McNally, 1970
Dave McNally, 1969
Jose Santiago, 1967
Bobby Richardson, 1960
Chuck Essegian, 1959
Luis Olmo, 1949
Marty Marion, 1943
Bucky Walters, 1940
Bucky Harris, 1924
Chick Fewster, 1921
Jim Bagby, 1920
Before that home run, Dunston owned a total of one RBI (and no homers) in 48 career postseason at-bats.
There have only been nine home runs hit in any World Series by players older than the 39-year-old Dunston -- and by only five different men. Here's that list:
Enos Slaughter, 40 years, 162 days, 10/6/1956
Joe Morgan, 40 years, 25 days, 10/14/1983
Joe Morgan, 40 years, 22 days, 10/11/1983
Johnny Mize, 39 years, 271 days, 10/5/1952
Johnny Mize, 39, years, 270 days, 10/4/1952
Johnny Mize, 39 years, 269 days, 10/3/1952
Eddie Murray, 39 years, 240 days, 10/22/1995
Willie Stargell, 39 years, 225 days, 10/17/1979
Willie Stargell, 39 years, 221 days, 10/13/1979
Shawon Dunston, 39 years, 219 days, 10/26/2002
ESPN research guru Jeff Bennett reports that of that list, only Mize was older when he hit his first World Series home run. And had the Giants won, only Stargell would have been older when he homered in the game that won the World Series.
Bonds and Dunston hadn't hit home runs in the same game since Aug. 23, 2001. That was the day Bonds hit his 55th home run of his historic 73-homer season. He and Dunston both homered off Graeme Lloyd.
Bonds and Dunston don't have much else in common, either. Bonds walked 198 times this year. Dunston has walked 197 times in his whole career. Dunston owns 150 career homers. Bonds has hit 168 just in the 2000s.
Scott Spiezio has tied Sandy Alomar Jr.'s record of 19 RBIs in one postseason. And you can't say he lucked into it. He has gone 11 for 15 with men in scoring position.
Here's a World Series first you don't want to miss. Felix Rodriguez and Francisco Rodriguez both gave up home runs Saturday. It's the first time two pitchers with the same name have ever allowed home runs in the same World Series game, according to the Sultan.
Another measure of how well the Giants have played the big games in this postseason: They're 6-0 in games started by the other team's ace -- 2-0 against Tom Glavine in the Division Series, 2-0 versus Matt Morris in the NLCS, 2-0 against Jarrod Washburn in the World Series.
The Angels went into Game 6 with a team batting average of .328. The Giants went into Game 6 with a team average of .308. That gave this World Series a chance to be the first in history in which each team batted .300. And that also left the Angels in position to become the second team in World Series history to hit .300 and lose.
Highest averages by teams that didn't win the World Series:
1960 Yankees .338 (lost to Pirates)
1980 Royals .290 (lost to Phillies)
1997 Indians .291 (lost to Marlins)
So it's definitely been one of those weeks in which the pitchers have felt like joining the witness-protection program. The Giants scored more runs (38) through the first five games than any team ever had in a World Series games. And the Angels' 61 hits would have been a record for a five-game Series. So the combined batting average of the two teams through five games was .318 -- which would be the highest ever. (Current record: .300, in 1960). And both teams were averaging more than six runs a game. The only World Series of six games or more in which both teams averaged six-plus runs a game was 1993. The Phillies that year averaged 6.0 a game. The Blue Jays, who won, scored 7.5 a game.
Before Russ Ortiz made it into the seventh Saturday, no starting pitcher in the Series has gone longer than six innings -- and only Kirk Rueter in Game 4 even got that far. This is the 98th World Series -- and in all of the 97 that preceded it, at least one pitcher went at least seven innings somewhere along the line. Not so far this time.
Kevin Appier made his fifth start of the postseason in this game -- and didn't win any of them. (He's gone nine straight starts without a win.) The only other pitcher to make five starts in any postseason without winning, according to the Elias Sports Bureau: Orel Hershiser for the 1997 Indians.
The Angels carried a 6.91 ERA into this game. It went down slightly in this game. But only four teams in World Series history have had a higher ERA:
1932 Cubs: 9.26 (swept).
1989 Giants: 8.21 (swept).
1993 Phillies: 7.57 (lost in six).
1960 Pirates: 7.11 (won in seven).
Jeff Kent's two-homer game in Game 5 was the first by a second baseman in a World Series since Davey Lopes in Game 1, 1978.
The Angels struck out 11 times in Game 5. They had only five games all season in which they whiffed 10 times or more. They hadn't done it at all in the postseason.
The Giants scored 16 runs in Game 5. They hadn't scored 16 in a regular-season game played anywhere except Colorado since Aug. 25, 2000, in a game in Philadelphia. Only once in the three-year history of Pac Bell Park had anybody scored 16 in a game -- when the Giants scored 18 against the Expos on May 24, 2000.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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