Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 22: Thrice Loaded

Game 1, 1995 NLDS: Atlanta Braves at Colorado Rockies

October 3, 1995, Coors Field, Denver, Colorado

Congratulations were in order to Colorado in 1995. In just their third season as a team, they earned the first-ever National League Wild Card spot. And because Major League Baseball wasn't quite sure what to do with the Wild Card spot yet, the Rockies' first playoff game was actually a home game. But that's where the good news ended. The Rockies' first-round opponents were the Atlanta Braves, owners of the National League's best record for the third time in four years. And the Braves' game 1 pitcher was none other than Greg Maddux.

The 1995 version of Greg Maddux was easily the best. He led the NL in wins (with a 19-2 record that still causes a double-take when you look at it), earned run average (1.63, when the league average was 4.18), WHIP, and strikeout to walk ratio. And although he was good all season, Maddux was especially good coming down the stretch, giving up only one run in four September starts.

So naturally the Rockies led 3-1 after 5 innings.

But the Braves came back, as they so often did in the 90s. Rookie Chipper Jones, playing in his first postseason game, started the comeback with a leadoff home run in the top of the 6th, and the Braves tied it later in the inning on a one-out ground ball that was hit too slowly for the Rockies to turn a double play. 

The next threat was in the bottom of the seventh, when the Rockies loaded the bases with one out. That's when Maddux did what he did best. Even at his best, Maddux wasn't an overpowering strikeout pitcher. Instead, he'd beat you by forcing bad contact, getting soft ground balls at opportune moments. When he got that soft ground ball, he became his team's fifth infielder, and his 18 career Gold Gloves showed he knew what to do when the ball was hit.

And so he got out of his bases loaded jam in the 7th in the best way he knew how: by getting pinch-hitter John Vander Wal to ground right back to the mound, starting a 1-2-3 double play to end the threat. 

The Braves reclaimed the lead in the top of the 8th on a Dwight Smith pinch-hit single, only for the Rockies to tie the game again in the bottom of the 8th on an Ellis Burks double. After Burks' double, the Rockies loaded the bases for the second straight inning, only for pinch runner/defensive replacement Jason Bates to softly fly out to end the inning.

Once again, probably annoyed that they had to keep doing this, the Braves took the lead in the next inning, with Jones hitting his second home run of the game, this time with two outs. 

For the third straight inning, the Rockies loaded the bases in the ninth. This time, they did so with only one out, so even a deep flyball would tie the game, and a single would probably win it. But for the third straight inning, the Rockies came up empty; Braves closer Mark Wohlers, who had gotten himself into this mess, got himself out of it with two straight strike outs, and the Braves survived with a 5-4 Game 1 win.

The Rockies did get one game from Atlanta in the NLDS, but they were no match for the juggernaut Braves. Atlanta won the NLDS, swept the NLCS, then beat Cleveland for their first World Championship. Somehow, despite leading the NL in wins seven times in the decade, that 1995 championship was Atlanta's only title of the 90s.

 

Game 1, 1995 NLDS Overall Rank: 22 Top 10 Swing: 242 Top play: Jones' 9th-inning home run (WPA of 39% for Atlanta) Loser's largest WE: 79 Middle of the 5th inning, Colorado up 3-1 Average LI: 1.90 Highest leverage moment: 11.01 (The final out, bases loaded, B9, Atlanta up 5-4)