Not that fun?

In early October, I watched a postseason game on TV. A top left-handed pitcher was on the mound. His performance was ok in that game, but during the game, some stats were shown on TV. It was about his pitching performance in the playoffs.

While reading the stats, I was just thinking about some star left-handed pitchers and their performances in the postseason. So, I decided to check on the great Fangraphs website to see if there’s something interesting.

Player Comparison (Postseason, Career)
Player	G	GS	IP	W-L	SV	SO	ERA	WHIP
Clayton Kershaw	41	32	196.2	13-13	1	213	4.62	1.14
David Price	23	14	99.1	5-9	1	91	4.62	1.20
Chris Sale	13	9	46.2	1-4	0	66	5.79	1.33

Well, I didn’t think about something too complicated. I just thought about 3 great left-handed pitchers. They are Clayton Kershaw, David Price and Chris Sale.

Firstly, let’s look at Clayton Kershaw, who retired after the 2025 season. In his career, he made 32 starts and 9 relief appearances in the playoffs. Kershaw tossed 196.2 innings in the postseason, posting a 4.62 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. He also struck out 213 batters. And he collected 1 save, which was in 2016.

In addition, David Price’s last game in the majors was in 2022. In his career, he made 14 starts and 9 relief appearances in the playoffs. Price threw 99.1 innings, posting a 4.62 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP. He got a save in 2008, which was his rookie season. Price struck out 91 batters in the playoffs.

Finally, Chris Sale is still pitching in the majors. So far in his career, he has made 9 starts and 4 relief appearances in the postseason. Sale threw 46.2 innings in October baseball, posting a 5.79 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP. He has thrown 66 strikeouts in the playoffs. In the 2026 playoffs, Chris Sale made 2 starts and 1 relief appearance, posting a 4.26 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP over 12.2 innings.

When we look at these 3 players’ pitching performance in the postseason, interestingly, Clayton Kershaw and David Price each had an ERA of 4.62 in the playoffs. Moreover, if we don’t pay much attention, we might not realize that Chris Sale’s ERA is over 5 in the postseason. Furthermore, among these 3 players, Kershaw is the only one with a WHIP below 1.20.

Well, Clayton Kershaw is a 3-time NL Cy Young award winner and he got the 2014 NL MVP award. David Price won the AL Cy Young award in 2012. And Chris Sale won the 2024 NL Cy Young award. These 3 pitchers are the Cy Young award winners. It’s quite clear that they are great pitchers. Nonetheless, their postseason performances aren’t as impressive as their performances during the regular season. That truly tells how difficult it is to pitch in the postseason. And as we check their stats in the postseason, Kershaw’s performance might seem to be relatively better.

And very interestingly, these 3 pitchers used to pitch in the same game in the playoffs. It was game 5 of the 2018 World Series. David Price started for the Red Sox and Clayton Kershaw took the mound for the Dodgers. They each went 7 innings. And Chris Sale went on the mound in the bottom of the 9th inning and he recorded the final out of the series. Well, we are not going to see them pitch in the same game. However, it will be worthwhile to see if Chirs Sale will pitch better in the postseason in the future.