Former Boston Red Sox slugger and current Fox Sports analyst David Ortiz has guessed wrong on the outcome of every World Series game this year.
Few hitters have had more success in the World Series than David Ortiz. The retired slugger won three championships with the Boston Red Sox. He owns a blistering career batting average of .455 in 14 World Series games. He’s been named a World Series MVP. If you had Big Papi’s bat in your lineup on the game’s biggest stage then you had to feel good about your chances to win.
Fans should feel far less confident in Ortiz’ ability to predict the outcome of other teams.
Working in his first year as an analyst for Fox Sports, Ortiz has somehow managed to guess wrong on the outcome of all six World Series games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros.
.@davidortiz is not good at picking winners in the #WorldSeries. https://t.co/v2oGKoBpaF
— Cut4 (@Cut4) November 1, 2017
0-for-6?! When did we ever see Ortiz have a 0-for-6 stretch at the plate during the postseason? It turns out that Papi is finding this analyst gig to be a bit harder than expected.
The Dodgers and Astros appear to be fairly evenly matched opponents. Each team has won three games in the series. They have each won on the road. One game ended in a thrilling extra-innings affair. Five of the six games have been decided by two runs or less.
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The odds of picking a winner in this series has essentially been about the same as a coin toss. Perhaps it’s not quite 50-50, but it’s close, which makes it all the more baffling that Ortiz has gotten it wrong each time.
To be clear, this is no knock on Ortiz’ skills as an analyst. His string of poor predictions is simply bad luck in a crazy series. Who would have thought that Alex Wood and Charlie Morton would be locked in a pitcher’s duel one day, while Clayton Kershaw and Dallas Keuchel would both get lit up the next? Few could have seen how this series would pan out in every game, yet it’s a bit surprising for anyone to get all of them wrong.
Anyone planning to bet on the outcome of Game 7 may be tempted to go all in on whichever team Ortiz predicts will lose. Of course, doing so would be falling for the gambler’s fallacy. Anything can happen in a Game 7 so be prepared to expect the unexpected.
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If we should bet on the unexpected to occur, perhaps the smart money is on siding with Ortiz’ prediction.