BRONX, N.Y. (Oct. 31, 2024) – Former ETSU baseball standout and Johnson City native Landon Knack achieved a dream of all baseball players on Wednesday as the Los Angeles Dodgers overcame a five-run deficit to defeat the New York Yankees by a score 7-6 to win the World Series. Knack is the second former ETSU player to be a part of a World Series-winning team joining Jim Mooney, who was a member of the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals that swept the Detroit Tigers.
In game four on Tuesday, Knack came out of the bullpen for the Dodgers. He was the first Buc to appear in a World Series game since 1989 when Atlee Hammaker pitched for the San Francisco Giants against the Oakland A's. Knack, who entered the game in the fourth inning with Los Angeles trailing 5-2, pitched four innings and allowed one run on two hits. The Johnson City native also picked up a pair of strikeouts in his outing against perennial All-Stars Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton.
Knack split his 2024 season between Los Angeles and Triple-A Oklahoma City. During the regular season, Knack pitched in 15 games (12 starts) for the Dodgers and posted a 3-5 record with a 3.65 ERA in 69 innings pitched. Knack also made a pair of relief appearances for Los Angeles earlier in the postseason that included a scoreless inning against the San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series.
As a Buccaneer, Knack owns the school record for career ERA among players with at least 60 innings, finishing with a career mark of 2.29. In his debut season at ETSU, Knack served as the Saturday starter in 2019 and boasted a 2.60 ERA over 97.0 innings with a team-best 94 strikeouts.
In a shortened 2020 season, Knack made four starts as the staff ace and had a team-low 1.08 ERA with a team-high 25.0 innings pitched. Knack broke the school record for single game strikeouts in the final start of his collegiate career, fanning 16 batters in six innings of work during a 13-1 win over Wagner at home. He won all four of his starts and led all NCAA pitchers in strikeouts and strikeout-to-walk ratio with 51 strikeouts and just one walk.
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