Much has been made about Carlos Ruiz's post-season heroics. When he was at bat last night, the stadium roared with cheers of "Choooooooch." He's becoming known as Senor Octubre.
But, maybe it's just that he should be known as "Carlos Ruiz, Dodger Killer."
Carlos Ruiz has been great in the post-season, but it hasn't been consistent. He's hit well in the World Series. Against the Rays, he posted a .375/.500/.688 triple-slash line for a 1.188 OPS. And he's been great in the NLCS. Combining this year and last year, he has a .417/.500/625 line for a 1.125 OPS. But, in his three NLDS's, Ruiz has been almost invisible. He has hit .222/.300/.250 for a .550 OPS over the past three years.
The thing about his NLCS performance is that it's very consistent with his career performance against the Dodgers. He's put up his 1.125 NLCS OPS in 28 plate appearances against the Dodgers this year and last. That OPS is almost identical to his lifetime regular-season OPS against the Dodgers: 1.132 in 48 plate appearances. In fact, each component is very similar to his regular-season OPS against the Dodgers: .378/.511/.622.
Thus, it may be that it's not this time of year that Chooch loves, but rather Dodger blue. After all, whatever the Dodgers' scouting report on Ruiz says must be wrong, very wrong.