World Series Special with Bud Black

Advice on overcoming a series deficit from someone who has done it

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History favors the Braves. Only six teams have rallied from a three-games-to-one deficit in World Series history.

After their Game 5 victory in Atlanta on Sunday, the Astros returned home in the hopes of adding their name to the record books.

“The way to do it is to win the next game... you just keep winning one game,” says Rockies manager Bud Black, a member of the 1985 Royals — a team that overcame a 3-1 deficit.

That Royals team had also fallen into a 3-1 hole against the Blue Jays in the ALCS. “I think that definitely helped,” Black says about the comeback experience. “Beating Toronto gave us a ton of belief against the Cardinals.”

“We were like most playoff teams. We had a veteran team that had been there before.”

George Brett, Frank White, and Hal McRae were members of the Royals teams that lost three consecutive times in the ALCS to the Yankees during the 1976-1978 seasons. They had also lost the 1980 World Series to the Phillies. That team was battle-tested.

Though the battles may be different, the Astros have lived through — and subjected themselves to — adversity that may benefit them in their current position.

For the 1985 Royals, they knew they had the pitching to carry them one game at a time.

That team used only six different pitchers in the seven-game series. Think about that! The Braves and Astros have each deployed 13 different pitchers in the current series. The Astros have used six per game in all but Game 2 (when only five pitchers appeared).

During the 1985 I-70 Showdown, World Series MVP Bret Saberhagen threw two complete games. Danny Jackson and Charlie Leibrandt each made two starts and logged 16 and 16.1 innings, respectively. That trio accounted for more than 80% of the outs recorded by the KC pitching staff.

Black, who pitched out of the pen in Game 1 and recorded the final out, started Game 4 and was lifted for a pinch hitter after five innings of work.

During the ninth inning of Game 6, he was warming up for extra innings if the Royals tied the game. Dane Iorg’s two-run single won the game, however, and Black wasn’t needed. The next night, Saberhagen gave the entire staff the night off with a Series-clinching complete-game five-hitter.

Pitching in this postseason hasn’t looked like it did in the ’80s. Still, if the Astros are going to join the 2016 Cubs, ’85 Royals, 1979 Pirates, 1968 Tigers, 1958 Yankees, and 1925 Pirates, it will start with their starters.

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