We know what you’re thinking: How could a team that almost gets no-hit by Ramon Ortiz possibly make it to the World Series? Well, before you get too dreary about today’s Cardinal loss in Washington, consider a few facts. First, Ortiz didn’t actually succeed in throwing a no-hitter (not that two hits is anything to brag about). Even if he had, getting no-hit doesn’t preclude a team from making the playoffs, or even succeeding in them. In fact, since 1980, three teams have been no-no’d and still won a pennant: the 1990 Athletics, the 1988 Dodgers and the 1981 Dodgers:

*Perfect game

Two of those three teams won a World Championship. Granted, having the legendary Nolan Ryan shut you down is probably different from the Armando Reynoso-like Ramon Ortiz, but when a guy’s on, he’s on, right? And if one TLR-managed team can be blanked and still make it to the Fall Classic, why can’t another?

This entry was posted by Pip on Monday, September 4th, 2006 at 4:16 pm and is filed under analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.