CHICAGO Keep the ball Nicolas Beaudin Jersey in the ballpark.

Thats the goal, right? Make sure whatever damage allowed isnt real damage. Thats been the story of the playoffs so far, as far as starting pitching is concerned.

MLB PLAYOFFS 2016:

The starters who have done a better job preventing home runs have won the game. Its not completely that simple, of course nothing ever is but the numbers are pretty interesting. Here in Chicago on Friday night, San Francisco's Johnny Cueto and Chicago's Jon Lester were both brilliant, but Cueto gave up a solo home run and Lester didn't. That was Erik Gustafsson Jersey the difference in the game.

Lets look at the six division series games so far.Well start with the performances of the starters for the losing teams.

Cole Hamels: 3.1 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 1 HRYu Darvish: 5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 4 HRRick Porcello: 4.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 3 HRDavid Price: 3.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HRMax Scherzer: 6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 2 HRJohnny Cueto: 8 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, 1 HR

Totals: 7.55 ERA, 31 innings, 31 hits, 28 runs, 26 earned runs, 7 walks, 29 strikeouts, 12 homers

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And here are the performances from the starters for the winning teams.

Marco Estrada: 8 Steve Larmer Jersey .1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 0 HRJ.A. Happ: 5 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 0 HRTrevor Bauer: 4.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 2 HRCorey Kluber: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 0 HRClayton Kershaw: 5 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 0 HRJon Lester: 8 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 0 HR

Totals: 2.18 ERA, 33 Artem Anisimov Jersey innings, 35 hits, 8 runs, 8 earned runs, 5 walks, 36 strikeouts, 2 homers

The ERAs are ma sively different, obviously. But the hits allowed are pretty similar, and so are the walks and strikeouts. The big difference? Keep the ball in the ballpark. The starters for the losing teams allowed 12 home runs; the starters for the winning teams allowed just two (and both of those were given up by Bauer, opposite Porcello's three-homer outing).

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From Rangers manager Jeff Bannister, after he watched Darvish serve up the four home runs (out of only five hits allowed): "They hit the ball out of the ballpark. Other than that, I felt like Yu threw the ball well, came out really well. Felt like the ball was coming out clean. I do think that there were some Pierre Pilote Jersey situations in fastball counts that he tried to go with the offspeed stuff, didn't hit the offspeed stuff. But what it boils down to is a thin margin in these type of games. Four home runs and four unexecuted pitches."

In the playoffs, thin margins can be the difference between advancing to the next round or advancing to the next tee for an offseason round of golf.