francisco lindor CLEVELAND, OH – OCTOBER 14: Francisco Lindor #12 of the Cleveland Indians celebrates after hitting a two run home run to right field against Marco Estrada #25 of the Toronto Blue Jays in the sixth inning during game one of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field on October 14, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

With apologies to Andrew Miller, Francisco Lindor has been the best player in the ALCS so far. Cleveland’s all-star shortstop is 4-for-8 with a home run and has driven in three of the his team’s four runs, including the deciding run in both of the series’ first two games.

You might think that the secret to Lindor’s success is his smooth swing or freakish athleticism, but nope. It’s actually a lucky penny.

Here’s the lead to the always-excellent Jeff Passan’s story from ALCS Game 2 on Saturday.

CLEVELAND – About 70 miles southeast of Progressive Field sits a village called McDonald, Ohio. About 3,000 people live there. It’s not even two miles square. McDonald is so small it doesn’t even have a McDonald’s.

Earlier this week, a letter arrived at the stadium from Roosevelt Elementary in McDonald. It was addressed to Francisco Lindor, the Cleveland Indians’ transcendent young shortstop. Lindor’s mail slot inside the Indians’ clubhouse is empty, one of the few not overflowing with unanswered letters. He tries to read them as best he can, and before the American League Championship Series started, he tore into the letter from McDonald. Inside was a penny and a note from a young girl.

“Put it in your pocket,” it read. 

So Lindor slipped the penny into the pocket of his baseball pants, and Cleveland won Game 1. He kept it with him again a day later, and his team won again.

Cleveland has now won all five games it has played in the playoffs, sweeping the favored Rangers and now jumping ahead of the Blue Jays, 2-0. This winning streak comes only a few weeks after just about everyone left Terry Francona’s squad for dead following injuries to star pitchers Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar.

With the Cavaliers having just won the NBA Finals, it’s a good time to be a Cleveland sports fan. But just think, without that lucky penny, maybe Lindor doesn’t have three RBIs in the ALCS and maybe his team is down two games instead of up to games.

Hmm it seems lucky pennies could be the new market inefficiency.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.