Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 1: The Last Burst of Metrodome Magic

2009 American League Central Tiebreaker: Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins

October 6, 2009, Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis, Minnesota

There must have been some magic in that old teflon roof. That's really the only way to explain it. You would walk into the Metrodome on a warm summer night, sit in an uncomfortable seat with bad sightlines in a half-empty dome, and wish the Twins played anywhere but there. But as the weather turned cool in the fall, and the Twins were in contention, the echoes of empty seats in the summer turned into a steady buzz of excitement, and finally the roars from the fans would come and echo and build off each other until nobody could hear anything, and in those moments there was no place the Twins would have rather played. It truly was magical.

The Metrodome was on its last legs in 2009. The Twins were moving to Target Field the next year, leaving behind the stadium that had carried them to two World Championships. And the Twins and their fans couldn't get to their new digs fast enough. After a stretch of four division championship in five seasons, the Twins missed the playoffs in 2007 and 2008 - missing out in the latter after a heartbreaking Game 163 loss to the White Sox - and they seemed to be out of contention as the 2009 season rolled into September. On September 12, the Twins were 70-72, 5.5 games back of Detroit, and the only excitement for fans came from counting down the number of days before they could say goodbye to the Dome for good.

But something stirred in Minnesota. Perhaps it was the old Metrodome Magic waking from its slumber for one final burst of activity. Whatever the reason, the Twins took off, winning 16 of their final 20 games to end the season in a dead heat with the Tigers at the top of the AL Central. The result was a one-game playoff, the second season in a row the Twins played in one. Unlike their 2008 loss, this time they'd be at home. The Metrodome wasn't ready to go away just yet.    

The Metrodome was packed for Game 163, and the fans were at full volume from the beginning, hoping to will the Twins to one more magical win. But they were silenced pretty quickly when Miguel Cabrera (remember him?) blasted a two-run home run to cap a three-run third. The Twins had trailed the Tigers all season long, and now they trailed in Game 163.

The Twins got one back in the bottom of the third, and then the 3-1 score held until the bottom of the sixth, when Jason Kubel visited the upper deck in right to cut the score to 3-2 and knock Tigers starter Rick Porcello out of the game. The Twins then loaded the bases off reliever Zach Miner before Matt Tolbert flew out to center to end the threat.

One thing about the Metrodome, especially in its final decade, was how quickly that home runs seemed to leave the park when hit to left field. It seemed like if the ball was in the air a while, it invariably fell short, but if the ball got out there in a hurry, it cleared the wall rather than caroming off it. Maybe that was just anecdotal. Either way, Orlando Cabrera's home run in the bottom of the 7th with a man on seemed to leave the park in less than a second. The Dome crowd didn't even get to full throttle until the ball was already in the seats. It was out of here just like that, and just like that, the Twins had turned a deficit into a lead.

That phenomenon wasn't limited to Twins batters, either. Magglio Ordoñez proved that by blasting a laser out to left to lead off the top of the 8th for the Tigers. A crowd that had been in full voice was silenced in an instant. 

But they wouldn't stay silent for long. It was apparent now that the Metrodome had something special planned for its swan song.

The first sign that something was up was the top of the ninth, when the Tigers had two runners on and one out against Twins closer Joe Nathan. Nathan got Ordoñez to hit a soft liner to Cabrera at short for the second out, and Cabrera saw Curtis Granderson straying too far off first and threw behind him for the inning-ending double play. 

The Tigers threatened again in the 10th, and this time they didn't come up empty. Brandon Inge hit a two-out double to score pinch-runner Don Kelly and give the Tigers the lead heading into the bottom of the 10th. 

And that's when things got weird.

First was the fly ball Michael Cuddyer hit to left. It was in the air too long, so it wasn't gonna be a home run. But left fielder Ryan Rayburn first went for the catch, then decided to go into a slide to knock it down, and ended up not making contact with the ball at all as it rolled behind him for a triple. After an out and a walk, Tolbert made up for his bases-loaded out earlier in the game with a single to center to tie the game and put the winning run on third with just one out. 

Then things got even weirder. Nick Punto hit a line drive to left that was never going to be a hit, despite what Chip Caray thought. But it did look like it was going to be a game-winning sacrifice fly, until Rayburn threw out Alexi Casilla on a perfect throw home. Even though the throw was good, the ball should have been enough to win the game, except that Casilla didn't go all the way back to third before the catch, so his first step was backwards instead of toward home.

And so the crowd died down again a bit. Time for a breather. Nothing happened in the 11th, which just gave Twins fans more time to rue the flyball that should have ended the game.

Things picked up quickly in the 12th. After one out, the Tigers loaded the bases for Inge, who was temporarily the hero in the 10th. This time, he was hit by the first pitch Bobby Keppel threw to him. Well, technically the ball hit Inge's shirt, not his body, but that still counts as a hit by pitch. Everybody on the field saw it, plain as day - except home plate umpire Randy Marsh, who ignored the pleas from the Tigers players and coaches and said it was simply ball one. Given new life, Keppel got Inge to hit a high-hopper in the infield. Punto flew in from second to field the ball behind the mound and threw on the run to get the force at home. Keppel then worked the count full to Gerald Laird before striking him out. Keppel pumped his fist in celebration, the Metrodome crowd virtually carrying him to the dugout with its noise. 

And the noise never really died down. The Metrodome had woken. The old stadium had one more trick up its sleeve, and the crowd knew it. Carlos Gomez led off the bottom of the 12th with a single and moved to second on a ground out. The fastest player on the Twins was standing on second, needing only a single to win it. The intentional walk to Delmon Young was expected, and it brought up Casilla, giving him a chance to make up for his baserunning blunder. 

Gomez took the lead off second. The crowd was cheering, ready to go. A 1-1 count. 

And then Casilla grounded it to the left side. Young stopped in his tracks to make sure it didn't hit him, then watched it bounce into right field. And there was Gomez, flying around third, his feet barely touching the ground.  And there were the Twins,  streaming out of the dugout, racing him to the plate. There were the fans going crazy, filling the place with a noise that hadn't been heard since 1991. The throw never had a chance. Gomez slid safely, mostly for effect, then jumped up and spiked his helmet. His teammates mobbed him, then mobbed Casilla. Eventually the two groups converged, somewhere near the pitching mound, and they celebrated as if they had just won the World Series.

And the crowd kept cheering. They weren't only cheering for what they just saw, although what they just saw was, quite possibly, the greatest game ever played. They were also cheering as a thank you to the old stadium that they hated so much, but had given them the best memories of their lives as fans. They were cheering as a thank you to one final burst of Metrodome Magic.

2009 American League Central tiebreaker Overall Rank: 1 Top 10 Swing: 317 Top play: Brandon Inge's go-ahead double in the 10th (WPA of 40% for Detroit)* Loser's largest WE: 82 Top of the 10th, immediately after Inge's double. Average LI: 1.93 Highest leverage moment: 7.16 (B10, 1 out, runners on first and third, Detroit up 5-4, Matt Tolbert batting for Minnesota) *Minnesota's top moment was Orlando Cabrera's game-tying home run in the 7th (WPA of 39%)

  

Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 2: One Strike Away

Game 6, 2011 World Series: Texas Rangers at St. Louis Cardinals

October 27, 2011, Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri

Texas leads series 3-2

There were two strikes when David Freese sent the line drive to deep right. That's what probably made it most painful of all for the Rangers. They were literally one strike away from their first championship, in their 40th season in Texas. And instead of getting that last strike, Rangers closer Neftali Feliz gave up a deep line drive to right field that had Nelson Cruz drifting back.

Oh, right, Cruz was back there. Cruz hadn't yet been relegated to full-time DH duty by 2011 - he was only 30 years old, after all - but he had a big enough sample size for people to realize that his future did not lie in the outfield. The Rangers had a chance to take him out, too - Endy Chavez had pinch-hit for the pitcher the previous inning, so it would have been no problem to do a double-switch to keep Chavez's glove in the game. Plus, Chavez had a history of making series-saving catches against the Cardinals. There was really no reason at all for Cruz to still be back there.

But back there he was. He tried to jump for Freese's hit, but barely missed it, and it hit the wall. And then, the real trouble began, because of instead of dying at the wall, the ball bounced back past Cruz and into mid right field. That allowed Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman - neither of whom were going to win a footrace, unless it was against each other - to both score, and it allowed Freese to make it safely to third for the biggest triple of the 21st Century. And the stunned Rangers were left to wonder how they had blown it again.

Because this wasn't the first lead the Rangers had blown in Game 6. They had blown leads in the 1st, 4th, and 6th innings, too. So you had to admire the Cardinals' resiliency. You could knock them down, but they got right back up again.

The top of the 5th was looking especially big right about now. The Rangers scored once to take a 4-3 lead and ended up loading the bases with two outs. That brought up Colby Lewis, their starting pitcher, which brought up a decision. Lewis had been pitching well, but this was a chance for a knock-out blow, a way to put the game to bed early. It must have been tempting to pinch-hit for Lewis and let the bullpen take care of the rest. But manager Ron Washington didn't have anybody warming up, and if the pinch-hitter failed, and quickly, the reliever wouldn't have been ready in time. So he let Lewis hit, and Lewis struck out, and the lead stayed at 1.

We've already established the Cardinals were resilient, and that showed in the bottom of the sixth. They loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth with just one out, knocking Lewis out of the game, and reliver Alexi Ogando promptly walked Yadier Molina to tie the game. Busch Stadium was rocking, and not for the last time of the night, and Ogando couldn't find the strike zone. But his catcher, Mike Napoli, bailed him out by picking Matt Holliday off of third base. (You remember Matt Holliday, right?) Immediately after the pickoff, Ogando threw a wild pitch, which would have scored a run if not for Napoli's throw; after walking Nick Punto (Nick Punto!), Ogando was mercifully removed and Derek Holland helped the Rangers escape the inning.

And then came the 7th inning, which started with back-to-back home runs from Adrian Beltre and Cruz. See, the Rangers had a little bit of resiliency of their own. They added another run for a 7-4 lead, and at that point, if the Rangers themselves weren't counting the outs, you know their fans were.

Allen Craig hit a home run in the bottom of the 8th for the Cardinals, but that was only one of the three runs they needed. After three straight St. Louis singles loaded the bases with two outs, Rafael Furcal grounded out to reliver Mike Adams, and the Rangers were three outs away.

And that brought us to the bottom of the 9th, and a 1-2 count on Freese, and a deep line drive to right. You could knock the Cardinals down, but they got back up again. And they almost ended it on the next batter, when Molina hit a sinking liner to right, but Cruz made a nice running catch to keep the game alive.

And the Rangers kept countering. This time it was Josh Hamilton, batting in the top of the 10th with one on and one out, hitting the first pitch he saw out to deep right for the Rangers' second two-run lead in as many innings. Once again, the Cardinals fought back, only for the Rangers to respond. A pair of heavyweights trading haymakers.

Once again, the Cardinals fought back. The first two batters of the bottom of the 10th singles. Pitcher Kyle Lohse, pinch-hitting, bunted them over. A grounder from Ryan Theriot scored one, but now there were two outs. Again the Rangers were one out from winning, and the Cardinals were on the canvas. Again, one out away turned into one strike away as Scott Feldman got Berkman to a 2-2 count. And again, the Cardinals bounced up off the canvas and delivered a counterpunch, this time with a single to center that tied the game.

The Rangers were in shock. The Cardinals were in raptures. Busch Stadium was shaking. And though it wasn't technically over yet, it might as well have been. The Rangers went down mostly quietly in the top of the 11th. Maybe the fight had been beaten out of them. Leading off the bottom of the 11th was that man again, David Freese. Cruz wasn't in right anymore, finally replaced by Esteban German, a defensive replacement coming two innings too late.

But German, couldn't do anything about the ball Freese hit next. Chavez couldn't have done anything either, for that matter, nor Cruz. Hamilton started back in center, turned his body as the ball drifted, then stopped, took one look at where the ball was headed, then started jogging back to the dugout before it even landed.

Fans scrambled for the ball on the grassy hill beyond center. Joe Buck channeled his father. Fireworks went off beyond the stadium's walls, their light bouncing off the Gateway Arch. The Cardinals leapt out of the dugout in joy. Freese jogged around the bases - you can run a little slower on a home run than on a triple - and then met his teammates at home plate. The Cardinals had thrown the last, decisive punch.

The Rangers were spent. They had twice been one strike away from a championship and let it slip away. And they couldn't put up much of a fight as the Cardinals rode the wave to a comfortable win in Game 7. It was the Cardinals' 11th title, the second-highest total in baseball history. The Rangers are still looking for their first.

Game 6, 2011 World Series Overall Rank: 2 Top 10 Swing: 286 Top play: David Freese's game-tying triple (WPA of 54% for St. Louis) Loser's largest WE: 96 Bottom of the 9th, 1 out, Texas up 7-5, Albert Pujols batting for St. Louis Average LI: 1.71 Highest leverage moment: 6.47 (B10, 2 outs, runners on first and second, Texas up 9-8, Lance Berkman batting for St. Louis)

  

Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 3: The Tragedy of Donnie Moore

Game 5, 1986 ALCS: Boston Red Sox and California Angels

October 12, 1986, Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim, California

California leads series 3-1

What if Donnie Moore hadn't give up that home run? What if, instead of hanging the 2-2 splitter that Dave Henderson hit out for the biggest Red Sox home run in 11 years, Moore instead threw a great splitter, or simply blew Henderson away with a fastball? What if Moore succeeded in the biggest stage of his life? Would that have changed what happened next?

But why stop at Moore?

What if Mike Witt had been able to finish the 9th? After all, it wasn't Moore who started the 9th inning, when the Angels had a 5-2 lead, needing just three outs to reach the promised land. That Witt, the Angels' ace. Witt had completely shut down the Red Sox in a complete game victory in Game 1, and he was doing it again in Game 5, the one that could put the Angels in the World Series. But Witt didn't finish the ninth. Instead, he gave up a one-out home run to Don Baylor that cut the Angels lead to 5-4. 

And while we're at it, what if Angels manager Gene Mauch hadn't stepped out of the dugout one batter later, with the Angels one out from winning? What if Mauch hadn't taken the ball from his ace to set up a lefty-lefty matchup for the final out? Going to Gary Lucas to face Rich Gedman was kind of an odd choice, because he wasn't the Angels closer, having gotten only two saves all year, and he had gotten lit up in Game 2 of the series. But Gedman had homered off Witt earlier in the game, and Mauch didn't want that to happen again. And it so was Lucas who pitched, and it was Lucas who hit Gedman on the first pitch he threw, his first hit batter in four years.

Excitement and exasperation

That was when Mauch turned to Moore, and, well, we saw what happened next. But what if Moore hadn't been pitching through pain all year? He hadn't told anybody, but he had an undiagnosed bone spur near his spine, the pain of which altered his pitching motion, which in turn led to elbow and shoulder pain. So he was getting pain shots for his back, cortisone shots for his shoulder, and was suffering migraines. Moore probably shouldn't have even been out there. But he was, and Henderson hit the home run, and the Angels were toast.

Except they weren't. Because that home run didn't end the game. It just seemed that way at the time. There was still the bottom of the 9th to play, and the Angels rather quickly tied the game again on a ground ball single by Rob Wilfong. And they weren't done, either, as a single and an intentional walk loaded the bases with one out. 

So what if Doug DeCinces' fly ball had been hit a little deeper rather than right at Dwight Evans' glove in right? What if Bobby Grich's two-out line drive had been a foot higher rather than right at pitcher Steve Crawford? The Angels would have been celebrating, that's what. Henderson's home run would have been quickly forgotten.

Moore was still in the game in the top of the 11th, although he absolutely should not have been. That just seemed to be the way things worked back then - if the closer blows the game, he stayed in until the game was over. Just because it happened doesn't mean it was right. An exhausted Moore hit the leadoff batter, then gave up a single. Then Gedman came up to bunt and hit a bad one - in the air toward third - but DeCinces let it drop and threw poorly to first. That wasn't Moore's fault, was it? And then came Henderson - that man again. Instead of having a base open to put him on, Moore had to face him. And Henderson hit a sacrifice fly to give Boston the lead again.

The Angels had another chance, of course. But they went down weakly in the bottom of the 11th. But what if they had shown some fight once the series went back to Boston? Would anybody have remembered Game 5? But as it was, the Angels kept up the weak play. They got crushed in Games 6 and 7, and Boston celebrated. We know how Boston's season ended. But what of Donnie Moore?

Many Angels players had to fail for them to blow a 3-1 series lead and a 5-2 lead in Game 5. But it's convenient to blame the closer when things go wrong. He was the one who gave up the go-ahead home run, after all. It's inconvenient to remember all the other points of failure. So Angels fans placed the blame on Moore for the next few years. And he placed the blame on himself. 

Immediately after Game 5, Moore mentioned the injuries he had been playing through, then quickly dismissed them, as if even suggesting that he was hurt went against baseball's code. So he took the blame, took the verbal abuse from Angels fans, became a symbol of his team's failure. Because he was the one who gave up the home run. (It may also not be a coincidence that of all the people mentioned who failed for the Angels, Moore was the only one who was a black man.)

It's also convenient to blame the home run for what happened next, the quick end to Moore's career, and the sudden, tragic end to his life. It was an easy narrative: Player fails at the worst possible time, then spirals. But Moore had been violent toward his wife their entire marriage, through good times and bad. It's possible his ending had already been written. It's possible that a save in Game 5, and a World Championship a week or so later, would have changed nothing.

But it all happened. It should have been a great moment for the Red Sox, a franchise-defining home run. But because of what happened after - both on and off the field - it instead has become one of the tragic tails in baseball history. 

Game 5, 1986 ALCS Overall Rank: 3 Top 10 Swing: 278 Top play: Dave Henderson's game-tying home run (WPA of 73% for Boston) Loser's largest WE: 97 Entire bottom of the 8th, California up 5-2 Average LI: 1.57 Highest leverage moment: 6.39 (B9, 2 outs, bases loaded, tied 6-6, Bobby Grich batting for California)

  

Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 4: A 97-Year Wait

Game 5, 1980 NLCS: Philadelphia Phillies at Houston Astros

October 12, 1980, Astrodome, Houston, Texas

The 1883 season was the eighth in the history of the National League and the first for the Philadelphia Phillies. Then known as the Quakers, Philadelphia finished 17-81, 46 games behind the first-place Boston Beaneaters and 23 games behind the seventh-place Detroit Wolverines. The next year didn't get much better, or the one after that, or the one after that. In fact, in the first 97 seasons of Philadelphia Quakers/Phillies history, they won the National League pennant exactly twice: In 1915, they were crushed in the World Series by the Red Sox, and in 1950, they were eviscerated by the Yankees. 

Two pennants, and no championships, in 97 seasons is not exactly the definition of success. By this time, 15 of the 16 franchises who existed in 1903, the year of the first World Series, had won it all at least once. The Phillies were the exception. But there were signs of optimism in the 1970s. They won three straight division championships in the mid-70s, and though they failed each time to advance to the World Series, the core of that team was still together in 1980. After another division championship, there was hope that this would finally be the year.

Waiting for the Phillies in the NLCS was the Houston Astros. Houston wasn't nearly as old of a franchise as Philadelphia - the unfortunately named Houston Colt .45s debuted in 1962 - and they weren't quite so bad, either, but 1980 represented their first-ever taste of postseason play. So regardless of who won the 1980 NLCS, somebody's fans were going to celebrate a once-in-a-generation season.

That once-in-a-generation season culminated in a once-in-a-generation series. After a sixth-inning comeback gave the Phillies a Game 1 win, each of the next three games went into extra innings, forcing a deciding Game 5 in Houston. And the fans in a packed Astrodome got to watch a game that was somehow even better than the four that preceded it.

Houston was trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth when Phillies left fielder Greg Luzinski dropped a fly ball to allow Denny Walling to get to second. Two batters later, Alan Ashby hit a single to score Walling, tie the game, and knock Phillies starter Marty Bystrom out of the game. 

And that's when things really got started.

Houston got a leadoff single from Terry Puhl in the bottom of the 7th, then wasted two outs getting him over to second. After an intentional walk, Walling got involved again, hitting a single to give the Astros a 3-2 lead. After a run-scoring wild pitch and a pitching change, Art Howe gave Houston some breathing room with a triple to make it 5-2.

So Houston was up by three and Nolan Ryan was on the mound. In his first year with his hometown Astros after terrorizing the American League for eight years, Ryan actually had a below-average season in 1980 - below average for him, at least. But there was still no one Houston would rather have on the mound to clinch the pennant.

Except Bowa started the 8th with a single to center. Bob Boone then singled off Ryan's glove, and Greg Gross singled when Ryan fielded his sacrifice attempt and found no one to throw the ball to. And so in the span of five pitches, the Phillies loaded the bases with nobody on, and Pete Rose was coming to the plate.

In retrospect, it's really an incredible at bat. At the plate was Rose, baseball's future all-time hits leader. On the mound was Ryan, baseball's future strikeout king. And the bases were loaded in an elimination game. Anticlimactically, Rose drew a walk, though doing so did bring in a run and knock Ryan out of the game. 

Keith Moreland then grounded into a force play to bring home the second run of the inning. Future Hall-of-Famer Mike Schmidt was up next, but he struck out looking, leaving it up to pinch-hitter Del Unser. Unser singled to tie the game, and then Manny Trillo delivered what looked like the fatal blow, a two-run triple that put the Phillies six outs from the pennant.

Closer Tug McGraw came in for the 8th for Philadelphia, and he alternated between giving up singles and getting strike outs for the first four batters. Rafael Landestoy continued the pattern with a single to make it a one-run game, and if the pattern had continued, Jose Cruz would have then struck out. Cruz, though, apparently hates patterns, and he instead singled to tie the game again.

To no one's surprise, the game went into extra innings again. Because with this series, extra innings seemed predestined. And maybe it was destiny that gave the Phillies two 10th-inning doubles, the second by Garry Maddox to give them an 8-7 lead. 

Garry Maddox got the game-winning hit, and he
caught the series-ending out.

Perhaps thinking that Phillies fans had suffered enough, the baseball gods decided to let the Phillies have a clean 1-2-3 bottom of the 10th, with the final two outs ending up in Maddox's glove in center field. For the third time in 97 years, the Phillies were the National League champions.

Nine days later, the 97-year wait was over. The team formerly known as the Quakers had done what had seemed impossible, winning the World Series with a Game 6 win over the Royals. Finally, all 16 original teams had won a title.

Game 5, 1980 NLCS Overall Rank: 4 Top 10 Swing: 243 Top play: Manny Trillo's go-ahead triple in the 8th (WPA of 40% for Philadelphia) Loser's largest WE: 95 End of the 7th, Houston up 5-2 Average LI: 1.88 Highest leverage moment: 5.38 (T8, 0 outs, bases loaded, Houston up 5-3, Keith Moreland up for Philadelphia)

 

Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 5: A 41-Year Wait

Game 1, 1995 ALDS: Boston Red Sox at Cleveland Indians

October 3, 1995, Jacobs Field, Cleveland, Ohio 

The first pitch came at 8:44 at night, a late start in Cleveland because of a rain shower that passed over Jacobs Field. That didn't matter much to the sellout crowd, though; it had been 41 years and one day since postseason baseball had been played in Cleveland. Fans that had been waiting that long could surely wait another hour or so.

Before the 1995 season, the last postseason baseball game played Cleveland had been Game 4 of the 1954 World Series, when the New York Giants completed a stunning World Series sweep at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. In the years that followed, not only did Cleveland never get back to the playoffs, but they never came particularly close. After spending most of the 1950s as the American League team most likely to challenge the Yankees, Cleveland eventually became synonymous with losing. They were so bad in the 70s and 80s that they became the "stars" of a movie about a bad baseball team that miraculously became good. 

There was nothing miraculous about Cleveland in 1995, though. They were simply dominant. They were robbed of a postseason berth the previous year, sitting in the Wild Card spot when the postseason was cancelled. But the young stars of 1994 were a year more experienced in 1995, and the American League didn't have a chance. Cleveland won 100 games in a shortened season, their first time winning 100 games since the aforementioned 1954 team won 111. They were the best hitting team in baseball, one of the best pitching teams, and they, quite simply, seemed unstoppable.

So a little rain wasn't going to dampen the fans' mood. Forty-one years is a long time to wait, and the fans were already buzzing when Dennis Martinez's first pitch was delivered at 8:44. 

But Cleveland fans were decidedly less quiet after John Valentin homered off Martinez in the top of the 3rd to give Boston a 2-0 lead. And they stayed quiet as Red Sox ace Roger Clemens shut down the Cleveland lineup through five innings. (It's a testament to Clemens' longevity that he pitched in two other games in this countdown, one in 1986 and one in 2005.) The Cleveland fans certainly didn't wait 41 years just to watch their team get shut out.

Clemens started the top of the 6th with two quick outs before walking Omar Vizquel. Sensing their opportunity, Cleveland pounced. Carlos Baerga made contact on a hit-and-run play, and his hit bled through the hole vacated by the shortstop going to cover the steal attempt. Now Cleveland had runners on the corners, and Albert Belle walked to the plate. 

Belle probably should have won MVP in 1995 after his 50-homer, 52-double season, but he likely lost some voters because of his corked bat incident the previous season, and he ended up losing the race by one vote to Boston's Mo Vaughn. As he stepped into the box with two outs in the 6th, though, the people watching yet didn't know the results of the MVP vote and assumed Belle would win. He reinforced that belief with a towering double to left that scored both runners, the second one scoring when Boston catcher Mike Macfarlane dropped the throw. Before Cleveland fans had a chance to come down from their delirium, Eddie Murray singled on the next pitch to drive in Belle and give Cleveland the lead. 

It was the first time Cleveland had the lead in a home playoff game since 1948. The fans were ecstatic. It was just like Major League, including Bob Uecker in the broadcast booth. They finally had a winning team.

The party ended in the top of the 8th, when  Luis Alicea lead off the inning with a game-tying home run. Now instead of a celebration, the game turned into the kind of endless tension that's unique to baseball, where every pitch has the potential to be world-changing, every baserunner bringing hope or dispair, depending on which jersey he was wearing. Cleveland hadn't seen much in the way of joy in the previous 41 years, but this might have been more than the fans had bargained for.

The clock changed to midnight, then blew past it. The innings charged along, each team threatening to score then seeing the rallies fizzle out. But then Tim Naehring swung at a bad 0-2 curveball in the op of the 11th and knocked it over the big wall in left, and suddenly the Red Sox had the lead. 

If Cleveland fans were nervous, they didn't show it when the bottom of the inning rolled around. After all, the heart of the order was due up, starting with Belle. Belle's double in the 6th had hit off the very top of the left field wall; his blast in the bottom of the 11th was hit just a little bit higher. Tie game. Again. This time, remembering his suspension from the previous year, the Red Sox asked the umpires to confiscate his bat. There was no real reason to do it, since there was no way the bat could be checked in time to annul the home run. All it really did was fire up Cleveland and its fans; two more runners reached base in the bottom of the 11th before the inning finally ended, and Cleveland's offense continued to hum in the 12th. With two runners on and one out, Boston intentionally walked Belle - they weren't going to let him hit anymore. Eddie Murray then hit a weak grounder to third that Naehring had to make a good play on to get the runner at home. Jim Thome then grounded to first, and the inning was over.

The clock edged past 1:00 and started approaching 2:00. Bob Uecker and Bob Costas joked that instead of tuning in to Game 2 later that day, viewers might be still watching this one. They entered that stage of broadcast delirium where they kept talking but nothing made sense anymore. In the bottom of the 13th, in the middle of a monologue about emergency catchers, Cleveland's backup catcher Tony Pena worked the count to 3-0. Bob Costas made yet another joke about Uecker's playing career. Uecker was about to deliver the punchline.  

Then came a grooved fastball, an explosive swing, an emphatic bat flip. Then came Bob Costas yelling "Oh man, oh man!" Then came Pena running around the bases, both arms in the air, a big grin on his face. Then came the fireworks going off in centerfield, the crowd jumping and screaming. Then came the beginning of a celebration that would last the rest of the night.

A celebration 41 years in the making.

 

Game 1, 1995 American League Division Series Overall Rank: 5 Top 10 Swing: 276 Top play: Pena's winning home run (WPA of 46% for Cleveland) Loser's largest WE: 80 Top of the 11th, 1 out, right after Naehring's home run Average LI: 1.94 Highest leverage moment: 6.39 (B12, 2 outs, bases loaded, tied 4-4, Jim Thome batting for Cleveland)

Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 6: I'll Tell a Story

Game 4, 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets

October 9, 1988, Shea Stadium, Queens, New York

Mets lead 2-1 

As Game 4 of the NLCS was finally over and everybody watching was finally able to let out their breath, Al Michaels asked "When you write the story of this game, where do you begin?" But unlike his slightly more famous question, Michaels didn't answer this one for his viewers.

So where do you begin to tell the story of Game 4?

Maybe you begin with Orel Hershiser, the Dodgers ace who ended the 1988 season with a Major League record 59 consecutive scoreless innings. He pitched six times in September and didn't give up a run, five complete games and one 10-inning game where he finally had to be pulled to rest for the playoffs. Riding a record-breaking hot streak, Hershiser shut out the Mets through 8 innings of Game 1. But Hershiser then gave up his first run since August on a ninth-inning double by Darryl Strawberry, then he watched from the bench as the Dodgers bullpen blew the rest of the game to give the Mets a 1-0 series lead.

Or perhaps you begin to tell the story by talking about a key member of that Dodgers bullpen. Jay Howell was the Dodgers' closer in 1988, the anchor of what was (during the regular season at least) a very good group of relievers. A rainout pushed Game 3 back a day and allowed Hershiser to start again, and while a probably tired Hershiser wasn't nearly as sharp, he pitched well enough to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead entering the 8th. Howell came in to relieve at that point, threw five pitches, then watched as Mets manager Davey Johnson walked toward home plate umpire Joe West. Johnson asked West to check Howell's glove; West did exactly that, discovered the secret stash of pine tar Howell had on the inside of his glove, then tossed Howell from the game. The Dodgers melted down and lost the game, then lost Howell for the next three games as his automatic suspension took effect.

I was going to write something else about Gibson
here, but I just noticed this - does he have two
batting gloves in his hands and one in his pocket? 
Or am I crazy?

Or I suppose you begin to tell the story by talking about Kirk Gibson. After a decade as the Tigers' physical and emotional leader, Gibson joined the Dodgers as a free agent in 1988. His signing paid immediate dividends, as he won the National League MVP award by being essentially the only Dodger who could hit. But Gibson stopped hitting in the NLCS, going 1-for-11 in the first three games as he was fighting a leg injury. If the Dodgers were going to come from behind in the series, Gibson would have to turn things around.

Or maybe you begin to tell the story in the 12th inning, when all those storylines converged.

But to tell about the 12th inning, you have to get through the first 11 first.

In 1988, Doc Gooden had taken a step back from his career peak - cocaine suspensions will do that to you - but he was still a feared pitcher as he took the mound in Game 4 for his second start of the series. It was a little surprising when the Dodgers scored two runs off Gooden in the first, but then Gooden bared down, as aces tend to do, and started shutting down the Dodgers. The Mets scored three in the 4th and one in the 6th, and Gooden did the rest. The Mets took a 4-2 lead entering the 9th, and the Dodgers looked cooked: They were trailing 2-1 in the series, Hershiser had been used twice already, their closer was suspended, and their best hitter wasn't hitting. It looked like the series was about to be 3-1.

So now you can start to tell the story.

Maybe Gooden was tired to start the 9th. He had already thrown more than 120 pitches, just four days after throwing 101 in Game 1. Or maybe he was a bit too relaxed, knowing a two-run lead was probably enough. Whatever the reason, he walked centerfielder John Shelby to lead off the 9th. And right as the announcers were trying to figure out the best way to talk about the dangers of walking the leadoff batter, Mike Scioscia drilled the first pitch over the wall in right to tie the game.

Now it was a battle of the bullpens, and the Dodgers were missing one of the key parts of theirs. So they handed the ball to Alejandro Pena and said "good luck." Pena gave them three shutout innings; he walked two in the bottom of the 11th, but escaped without giving up the winning run. 

So it was on to the 12th. After two quick outs, Gibson came up. Now 1-for-16 in the series and noticeably struggling to walk, this was his chance to atone for his bad series and show the Dodgers why they signed him. And after one strike, he delivered, hitting his biggest home run as a Dodger - to that point, anyway.

The Dodgers, improbably, had the lead. But now they had to deal with the minor problem: their closer was in a hotel room, suspended, and they were almost out of pitchers. 

They first tried Tim Leary as a closer. Leary was normally a starter, but lost his turn to start when Game 3 got delayed, so he was making his first appearance of the series. And maybe because he wasn't normally a reliever, he allowed the first two Mets to reach base. Leary got a break when Gregg Jefferies tried to bunt, failed, and flied to left instead.

So there was one out, and two lefties coming up, so the Dodgers turned to Jesse Orosco. Two years earlier, Orosco had been on the mound to close out the 1986 World Series for the Mets. Now he was essentially a lefty specialist, so this should have been in his wheelhouse. But he walked lefty Keith Hernandez to load the bases, then threw a first-pitch ball to the lefty Darryl Strawberry. At this point, Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda jumped out of the dugout, jogged to the mound, asked Orosco what the hell he was doing, then walked back to the dugout. Orosco must have said something like "I'm just setting Strawberry up so I can get him to pop out to second," because that's what he did.

So now there were two outs, but a righty was up next, and Lasorda didn't want Orosco to face a righty. He was out of relievers. His closer was in a hotel room. But if you looked again, you saw there was one man in the Dodgers bullpen.

Hershiser certainly didn't expect to pitch in Game 4 after starting Game 3. He absolutely wasn't in condition to - even the best pitchers need some rest. But there he came, jogging in from the bullpen to try to get the final out. Any hit by Kevin McReynolds wins the game for the Mets and essentially puts the series to bed. Any out wins the game for the Dodgers and ties the series.

Hershiser jammed McReynolds. McReynolds hit a soft fly ball to center, shallow enough that Shelby was running in and the infielders were running out. Then Shelby got there, closing his glove on the ball, and Al Michaels was asking questions.

...................

Howell came back to the active roster for Game 7, but he wasn't needed. Hershiser found his late-season groove again and threw a complete game shutout to send the Dodgers to the World Series. 

Gibson got (even more) hurt running the bases in Game 7 and had to leave early. He only had one more at bat in 1988. You may have heard of it.

Howell finally got to pitch again in Game 3 of the World Series, when he gave up a walk-off home run to Mark McGwire. He recovered to get the save in Game 4, though.

So it was Gibson giving them the win in Game 1, Howell saving Game 4. The other two games belonged to Hershiser, who threw complete games in Games 2 and 5 to give the Dodgers the title.

 

Game 4, 1988 National League Championship Series Overall Rank: 6 Top 10 Swing: 245 Top play: Gibson's winning home run (WPA of 43% for Los Angeles) Loser's largest WE: 95 Middle of the 8th, Mets up 4-2 Average LI: 1.74 Highest leverage moment: 10.73 (B12, 2 outs, bases loaded, Los Angeles up 5-4, Kevin McReynolds batting for New York)

Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 7: Two Games for the Price of One

Game 4, 2005 NLDS: Atlanta Braves at Houston Astros

October 9, 2005, Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas

Astros lead 2-1 

The first surprise was that Brad Ausmus was batting here. Two outs in the ninth, Houston trailing 6-5 - it seemed like a perfect time to go pinch hit for the catcher who was only 2-for-15 in his career against this reliever. And right there on the bench, sitting right behind his manager and holding a bat, was Jeff Bagwell. You can find a picture of Bagwell now hanging on the wall in Cooperstown. So why couldn't we find him in the batters' box in a situation where a home run would tie the game? 

The second surprise was that Kyle Farnsworth was still in the game. Atlanta's bullpen was running on fumes, sure, but Farnsworth had pitched the entire 8th inning, a frame that included a grand slam by Lance Berkman that turned a Braves runaway into a nail biter. Surly a fresh reliever was a better option. Or maybe manager Bobby Cox knew Farnsworth's past success against Ausmus and figured he was as good a choice as anybody.

When it came down to it, with all the numbers examined and players considered, both managers chose to trust the guy they had. Houston's Phil Garner ended up being right. Ausmus hit a fly ball that hit the wall right at the corner of the yellow home run line on Minute Maid Park's left field wall and caromed into play. At first the Braves outfielders scrambled after it, hoping they could keep the slow-running catcher to a double. But there was the second-base umpire making the home run signal, and there was Ausmus jogging around the bases, and there was Cox in the dugout, now probably out of relievers he trusted, thinking "now what?"    

If he only knew. Ausmus' home run rescued Houston from defeat and temporarily delayed their travel plans to Atlanta for Game 5. As impossible as it might have seemed entering the bottom of the eighth - when Atlanta held a 6-1 lead thanks in large part to a third-inning grand slam from Adam LaRoche - this game was going into extra innings. And extra, and extra, and extra...

This should have been quick for Houston. Their bullpen had already proven itself in this series, while Atlanta's had been a disaster. But it was the playoffs, and nothing was supposed to be easy in the playoffs. 

Houston could have scored in the bottom of the 10th, when they had two men on with two outs and finally played their Bagwell card. But Bagwell got jammed, and his fly ball to left hung in the air just long enough for Ryan Langerhans to run underneath it.

Atlanta could have scored in the top of the 11th, with two men on with two outs, but Julio Franco grounded out. They also could have scored in the top of the 14th, when they loaded the bases with one out, but Dan Wheeler struck out Brian McCann and got Pete Orr to ground to third. And so they played on.

Wheeler was Houston's last available reliever, so Game 2 starter Roger Clemens eventually wandered out to the bullpen to warm up. And as both teams kept failing to score, Clemens had to come in - as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 15th with a runner on first. Clemens only had to bunt, of course, and he moved the runner over. But the Astros again didn't score, the threat ending on a double play, and so they played on.

Clemens was pitching because the Astros were out of relievers, but they were also out of position players. So as he shut down the Braves, all the way to the 18th inning - the first postseason game to ever enter the 18th inning, two games for the price of one - Clemens' spot in the batting order came up again. And since there was nobody left on the bench to pinch hit for him - and nobody in the bullpen to come in to replace the pinch hitter. Clemens had to bat. And he did what any pitcher would do when batting in the 18th inning of a playoff game - he swung as hard as he could, struck out swinging, and walked back to the bench to hope for a run.

It was finally over.

And the run finally came. Chris Burke hadn't started the game; he came in as a pinch runner for Berkman in the 10th. He had played center, and then left, as Garner moved the Astros around the field to accommodate pinch-hitters and double switches. So when he came to the plate with one out in the 18th, he had played almost an entire game despite entering the game in extra innings. He had already flied out to left once in extra innings. For his second time up, he hit one just a little bit farther. 

Burke's series-ending home run - only the 8th in Major League history at that point - sent the Astros to the NLCS, where they finally got past the Cardinals and into the World Series. And we've seen what happened in that series.

 

Game 4, 2005 National League Division Series Overall Rank: 7 Top 10 Swing: 235 Top play: Brad Ausmus' game-tying home run in the 9th (WPA of 49% for Houston) Loser's largest WE: 98 T8, entire inning after Atlanta takes a 6-1 lead. Average LI: 1.69 Highest leverage moment: 6.88 (T14, 2 outs, bases loaded, game tied 6-6, Pete Orr batting for Atlanta)