Well, I’ll be damned. Game 2 of the Braves-Astros series is being played as I write this. I’m not watching it, but I just checked the game on the internet, and the Astros are winning 2-0 on 2 solo shots. One by Jeff Bagwell and one by Raul Chavez.
Raul Chavez!
Raul Chavez had 162 at-bats this season and hit no homeruns. Only 2 players had more at-bats without a dinger: Jamey Carroll (who actually had a decent year) and Brent Mayne. Nobody else was particularly close to 162 ABs. 523 people hit a homerun in the majors this year. Raul Chavez was not one of them. He is now one of 22 people to hit one during the playoffs. Even forgetting about homeruns, Chavez was one of the worst hitters in baseball this year. The only players with a worse OPS and at least 100 at-bats were Doug Glanville, Andy Green (who?) and Damian Rolls. So, I’d say its pretty damn surprising that he’s even starting a game in the postseason, let alone hitting a homer. Even more surprising is that he hit it off Mike Hampton, who was pretty stingy this year, allowing only 15 homers.
The only thing that comforts me somewhat about this is that Chavez does have 2 homers earlier in his career, as well as 32 career AAA homeruns in 2,538 at-bats, which is a lot of AAA at-bats. So, in the end, I guess I’m happy for the guy. He’s been toiling in the minors since 1990. He’s had a few cups of coffee in the majors, but this is the first year he’s had significant playing time. He probably won’t have much more of a career, but he can always say he hit a homerun in a playoff game, and a fairly important one at that. Pretty cool for Raul Chavez.

Amazingly, Chavez isn’t the first person to hit a homer this postseason after not hitting one during the regular season. Tom Wilson hit a solo shot in his only at-bat during game 1 of the Dodgers-Cards game. Wilson didn’t hit any homers this year, but he only had 12 ABs (including 4 with the Mets!). He did hit 12 taters in 195 minor league at-bats, so this wasn’t all that shocking. There have been some other pretty surprising catcher homeruns this postseason, too. Both Mike Matheny and Brad Ausmus have gone yard. What the hell is going on?