Record-Setting Hitting and Pitching Performances in MLB Playoff History

The MLB playoffs are set to get started Tuesday night with the NL Wild Card Games, and another chapter in the illustrious history of this game will be written. During this postseason slate, a number of records and milestone individual performances may very well be replicated or even surpassed-- let's take stock of where things stand on the all-time charts.

Hitting Records

Former Yankees infielder Bobby Brown holds the record for highest postseason batting average at .439 in 46 plate appearances. Former Yankees and Red Sox dominate most of the record books, as Derek Jeter holds the playoff records for games played (158), at bats (650), runs scored (111) and hits (200).

Bernie Williams has the most playoff RBIs with 80, while Manny Ramirez's 29 home runs are the all-time record. Former Cleveland Indians speedster Kenny Lofton's 34 stolen bases are the highest ever, while the player with the highest Win Probability Added (WPA) is David Ortiz at 3.2.

Pitching Records

Mariano Rivera's incredible 0.70 ERA in postseason games the lowest such mark in the history of baseball, but the lowest WHIP all-time is former Giants lefty Jeremy Affeldt's 0.71.

Rivera also holds the records for most postseason pitching appearances with 96 (second place is Ryan Madson with 57) and saves with 42 (second place is Brad Lidge with 18), but Cardinals lefty Andrew Miller has the best K/9 ratio at 13.1. Andy Pettitte holds the record for innings pitched (277) and wins (19). Braves pitcher John Smoltz's 199 postseason strikeouts is the current high watermark.

Single-game Feats

There have been 65 grand slams in MLB postseason history, with the most recent coming from Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. On nine occasions, a player has hit three home runs in one postseason game, including two in the World Series courtesy of Reggie Jackson and Pablo Sandoval. The most recent three-homer game was thanks to Dodgers outfielder Kiké Hernandez.

There have only been two no-hitters in playoff history: Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series for the Yankees and the late Roy Halladay no-hitting the Reds in the 2010 NLDS as a member of the Phillies.

Hopefully, we can add a few more performances to this list by the time the 2019 postseason is all said and done.