John Lackey -- October's human trivia answer

— -- ST. LOUIS -- I ask a lot of trivia questions in my line of work. So here's today's question: Can you identify the following player, a Mr. October kind of guy for many years now?

He has pitched in more different postseasons (eight) than any active pitcher. He has made more postseason starts (19) than any active pitcher. And he's the only active pitcher whose teams have won a Game 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 he's started. So who is he? Nope, not CC Sabathia. Nah, not Justin Verlander. Sorry, not Cole Hamels. Uh-uh, not Adam Wainwright or Madison Bumgarner, either.

OK, here's a hint: He started Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Busch Stadium on Friday.

Wait. What was that you said? Ooh. Good guess. But no, it's not Jon Lester, either.

So by now, perhaps you've stumbled into the answer. Yessir, that would be Mr. John Lackey, ladies and gentlemen - the best kept October secret in America. He did that October thing he does once again Friday. Took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. Spun 7 1/3 spectacular innings of two-hit, zero-run October baseball against a team that had won nine games in a row. Allowed just two "hard-hit balls" all night (both outs), according to Inside Edge.

And of course, his team won. That's been happening a lot lately when John Lackey pitches this time of year.

It was St. Louis Cardinals 4, Chicago Cubs 0 in Game 1 of a potentially epic NLDS. And by the time it was over, Lackey had added his name to another amazing list.

Four times in history now, the Cubs have been shut out in a postseason game. Here are the winning pitchers in those games:

Josh Beckett (2003), Babe Ruth (1918), Big Ed Walsh (1908) ... and John Lackey. Cool.

But you shouldn't be surprised to learn that it wasn't his place in the October trivia annals that lit John Lackey's fire Friday night. It was the allure of where October can take him and his baseball team. Asked afterward what makes these nights special for him, Lackey laughed out loud.

"What makes them special? Playoffs, man," he said. "This is what you play for. I've been playing awhile, and this is pretty much the only reason I'm still going. I'm trying to win rings, and trying to be part of something special as a team."

Well, it's only Game 1 of the Cardinals' postseason journey. So even though they became the first home team to win a Game 1 in this entire playoff field, we can't forecast yet where they're going. But we know how they got here.

And let's just say that wouldn't have been possible if Lackey hadn't had one of the best seasons of his career, at age 36.

His 2.77 ERA was his best ever, in 13 big league seasons. His 142 Adjusted ERA-Plus was his second-best ever. His 1.21 WHIP was his third-best. And his 5.6 Wins Above Replacement equaled his total for his previous five seasons combined.

But you would need more than a calculator to measure what Lackey has meant to this particular Cardinals team. Until someone comes up with a Leadership Contributions Above Replacement stat, all we can go by is what his manager and teammates say about him. And for some reason, they seem pretty happy with him.

"Since the beginning, since spring training, there has been just a different level," said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. "And it's been impressive to watch. ... With Adam Wainwright going down, we needed his presence. We needed his experience. We needed so many things that he brings to the table naturally. And it's just been exactly what our club was looking for, especially for our young pitchers and their development -- and for big situations like this, for him to lead the way."

"When you look at what happened this year with Wainwright going down," said his rotation-mate, Lance Lynn, "the year that John had is special. He pretty much put us on his back. We've got a lot of young guys in the rotation, and he did his thing, went out there every five days and showed us how to do things. And games like tonight, this is what he lives for."

Lynn likes to remind his hero that he's been watching these memorable postseason performances of his for so long that he was in high school the first time he saw Lackey try out his Mr. October act for the 2002 Angels. Asked if Lackey found that talk pretty enjoyable, Lynn shook his head.

"No," he said, with a grin about as big as Disneyland. "He doesn't enjoy that at all. But we have a good time with it. And he's somebody that I did watch growing up. I always liked the way he competed and wanted to win. And it's something that he and I have in common."

But a funny thing happened to Lackey after 2002. For a long time afterward, that October magic wasn't up his sleeve anymore. Between 2005 and 2008, he started six postseason games for the Angels -- and his team lost five of them.

Since then, however, he's 6-2 with a 2.45 ERA, in 10 postseason starts and one relief appearance. And this one was up there with the best of them all.

He didn't allow a hit until Addison Russell stroked a soft single up the middle to lead off the sixth inning. The only other hit was a bunt single by Kyle Schwarber to start the seventh. And inning after inning, Lackey filled up the strike zone on a night when he threw more fastballs (82.6 percent of his pitches) than he had in any start all season. Asked why he'd suddenly become so fastball-heavy, he quipped, "Because it worked, mostly."

"We had a plan going in for sure," he said. "They're an aggressive team, and I knew they would be swinging."

And when the Cubs didn't swing, plate ump Phil Cuzzi was ringing them up for six called strikeouts, which created a minor brouhaha in the other clubhouse afterward. But someday, when we look up John Lackey's exploits in the October history books, it won't be a time to nitpick about anybody's strike zone.

Instead, it will be a time to ask: Is John Lackey the most underappreciated postseason pitcher of modern times?

"Nooooo, not in the game, with the players," Lynn said. "Everyone knows what he's about, and especially this time of year. We know he's going to show up, and he's going to do his thing.

"Maybe in the public eye, he might not have the name that he should," said Lance Lynn. "But in the game of baseball, he's as big a name as there is in the postseason. That's for sure."