I didn't think the 2006 L.A. Dodgers could give us streakologists anything more to work with, beyond what they've already done this season! This is the team that, of course, lost 13 of its first 14 games after the All-Star Break, then immediately won 17 of 18, then later settled into a pattern one observer called "Consistent Inconsistency."

However, last night's Dodger miracle really takes the cake! Opening up the bottom of the ninth trailing 9-5 to San Diego, L.A. tied the game in a most unusual way -- solo homers by four straight batters. This particular feat had not been accomplished by any major-league team since 1964! (At the college level, though, we saw a team hit five consecutive homers earlier this year.)

Then, after the Padres took a 10-9 lead in the top of the tenth, the Dodgers won on a two-run homer by Nomar Garciaparra (ESPN.com article, play-by-play sheet).

Magnifying the significance of L.A.'s ninth-inning homer barrage further still, beyond the pressure of it being the ninth inning, the Dodgers and Padres are battling to the wire in the final weeks of the season for the National League West title (San Diego had entered the game 1/2 game up on the Dodgers, but Monday night's win now gives L.A. a 1/2 game lead).

The Dodgers most certainly don't have a Murderers' Row. In fact, they currently rank 15th in home runs out of the 16 National League teams.

To estimate the probability of the Dodgers' home-run burst, I first looked at the four batters who went yard (with their season-long home-run count and total number of official at-bats, which I found earlier today, in parentheses). In the order they batted, they are:

Jeff Kent (14 HR in 371 AB, ratio = .04)

J.D. Drew (17 HR in 460 AB, ratio = .04)

Russell Martin (10 HR in 378 AB, ratio = .03)

Marlon Anderson (9 HR in 244 AB, ratio = .04)

The probability of these four Dodgers putting together a string of four consecutive homers is thus:

.04 X .04 X .03 X .04 = .000002, or 1 in 500,000.

This calculation assumes independence of at-bats, like coin flips. One might argue that, if the same pitcher faced all four batters, he may have engaged in "streak pitching" to the same easy-to-hit part of the strike zone. An independence assumption may not be fully defensible, but it should be noted that the Padres changed pitchers after the first two homers, with relief ace Trevor Hoffman coming in (to no avail). The participation of multiple pitchers, along with multiple hitters, would seem to increase the independence of the events.

Can the Dodgers possibly top this?