With all the excitement surrounding playoff baseball this time of year, lots of people are talking about our favorite game. If your Twitter feed is like mine, then you’re seeing a lot of talk about what is going on in these games, but also a lot of criticism of the narratives promulgated by the mainstream media. Today, I’d like to explore one of the most popular narratives that comes up during playoff time: the notion that “good pitching beats good hitting in the playoffs.”

This argument was particularly germane to this year’s American League Championship Series, which pitted the offensively-challenged Kansas City Royals against the slugging Baltimore Orioles. As has been noted by many, the Royals ranked last in the AL in home runs this year, while the Orioles ranked first. Even by more sabermetric standards, the Orioles (4th in OPS+) were clearly a superior offensive team to…