Florida Marlins (Mark Redman) at Chicago Cubs (Kerry Wood)
The Cubs have had an edge in play during most of the series, and the numbers bear that out. Chicago has outscored the Marlins 36 to 31 (a Base Runs edge of 34.4 to 31.1). They have the edge in extra-base hits (23 to 20) and sacrifice hits (7 to 3). In most other areas, the teams are even. But the Marlins have struck out 15 fewer times, and this ought to go in the "surprising" category.
Prior has struck out 11 in 63 Batters Faced (17.5%); Wood ... 7 in 30 (23.3%); Zambrano/Clement ... 11 in 81 (13.6%); the A relief corps ... 7 in 49 (14.3%); the B relief corps ... 0 in 22 (0%).
Overall, the Marlins have struck out only 36 times in 245 plate appearances excluding intentional walks - that's a rate of 14.7%. During the regular season, Cubs pitchers struck out 1404 batters, leading the league by 113 strikeouts. They struck out batters in 22.7% of plate appearances less intentional walks. The Marlins' performance represents a savings of almost 20 strikeouts over the 6 LCS games compared to what Cubs opponents achieved during the regular season.
Another snippet: the Marlins have been caught stealing 3 times in 3 tries against Chicago's starting pitchers, but have been successful 3 out of 3 against relievers. Just one prediction tonight: if Wood gets less than 10 strikeouts today, the Marlins win.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20031015080231999