Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 16: The Sacrifice Fly of Destiny

2007 National League Wildcard Tiebreaker: San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies

October 1, 2007, Coors Field, Denver, Colorado

This gif shows Matt Holliday not touching the plate 
and Michael Barrett not tagging Holliday.

Matt Holliday never touched the plate, of course. Might as well get that out of the way right now. As a true neutral fan, one who generally doesn't care about the Colorado Rockies or the San Diego Padres, I can say with confidence that Matt Holliday never actually touched home plate in the 13th inning that night. If umpire Tim McClelland had made the correct call, he would have made no call until a few seconds after the slide, when Padres catcher Michael Barrett finally wandered over and tagged a dazed Holliday. The winning run wouldn't have counted, and the game would have continued for at least one more batter, and possibly forever.

Who knows why McClelland missed the call. Maybe he thought Holliday had slipped his hand across the corner of the plate. Maybe he had an extra-long blink after being behind the plate for nearly five hours. Or perhaps McClelland's hesitant "safe" call was a subconscious acknowledgment that this seemed to be a Rockies team of destiny. 

On September 15, the Rockies lost 10-2 to the Marlins. At the end of that day, they were in 4th place in  the division and 4.5 games back in the wild card standings, with only 14 games to play. It isn't unreasonable to make up 4.5 games standings in 14 games, but the Rockies had to catch four teams to make the playoffs. And the only way to leapfrog four teams in that short of a time frame is to win all the rest of your games.

Colorado didn't quite do that, but their 13-1 record to close out the season was enough to put them at the doorstep of the postseason, and when the Padres lost their season-ending game, the two NL West rivals were forced into a Game 163 to decide the Wild Card winner. 

It was easy to see which team was on 13-1 run at the start of the game, as the Rockies jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two innings. Then Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez laughed at that lead and erased it with one swing, a third-inning grand slam to put the Padres up 4-3. The Padres later turned that into a 5-3 lead.

But the Rockies weren't done. They came back with single runs in the 3rd, 5th, and 6th innings to retake the lead. They carried that lead into the 8th, and they were four outs from winning when Brian Giles hit a lazy fly ball to left. But Holliday ran in when he should have ran over, and the ball got behind him, and the game was suddenly tied again.

Holliday surely wanted to atone for his defensive mistake, but he struck out with a runner on in the 8th and again with nobody on in the 11th. Meanwhile, Rockies reliever Matt Herges - their 8th pitcher of the game - kept getting into and then out of trouble, letting runners reach base in each of the 10th, 11th, and 12th innings, but not letting any of the runners cross the plate.

Three innings was enough for Herges, and the Rockies turned to Jorge Julio, who showed everybody why he was in eighth place in Colorado's bullpen hierarchy by quickly giving up a walk and a home run in the top of the 13th. Scott Hairston's home run seemed like it would be back-breaking for the Rockies. Not only were the Padres up by 2, but they had managed to navigate through the first 12 innings without using their ace closer, Trevor Hoffman. And as the bottom of the 13th started, the future hall-of-famer came jogging out of the bullpen. 

Trailing by two to start the bottom of the 13th, the Rockies only had a 10% win expectancy. With Hoffman on the mound, that number was likely much lower. But they had faced a difficult climb before - if they could win 13 out of 14 games to close the season, surely they could score twice in an inning, right?

And so Kazuo Matsui hit a double. Troy Tulowitzki did the same. Then it was Holliday's turn, his third chance to redeem himself. Third time was the charm, I guess. He hit one high off the right-field wall, not quite a home run, but good enough for a game-tying triple. 

After an intentional walk, it was time for Jamey Carroll. The fly ball wasn't hit very far, but it made Brian Giles reach up slightly to catch it, which might have stunted his momentum, causing his throw to have more arc on it than he probably wanted, giving Holliday just enough time to slide into Barrett's foot and slam his face into the turf. He never touched the plate, but the run counted anyway, and the Rockies were off to the postseason. 

The Rockies continued their hot streak, sweeping the both the Phillies and Diamondbacks to extend their season-ending record to 21-1. Then they were promptly steamrolled by the Red Sox in the World Series. 

I guess not all fairy tales have happy endings.

2007 National League Wild Card Tiebreaker Overall Rank: 16 Top 10 Swing: 226 Top play: Matt Holliday's 13th inning triple (WPA of 47% for Colorado) Loser's largest WE: 93 T13, no out, runner on first, San Diego up 8-6 Average LI: 1.73 Highest leverage moment: 4.61 (tied 6-6, T11, runners on 1st and 2nd, 1 out, Khalil Greene up)

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)

Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 27: When You Don't Turn Two

Game 4, 2009 NLDS: Philadelphia Phillies at Colorado Rockies

October 12, 2009, Coors Field, Denver, Colorado

Phillies lead series 2-1.

The 2009 National League Division Series was already a little behind schedule when the Phillies and Rockies met in Game 4. After splitting the first two games in Philadelphia, the teams had to sit through two days off to wait out a blizzard before playing Game 3, which the Phillies won 6-5 with a run in the top of the ninth. 

So the Rockies were facing elimination at home in Game 4, but the extra day off allowed them to start their ace, Ubaldo Jimenez, to try to keep their season alive. Of course, the Phillies also had the extra day off, so their ace, Cliff Lee, also got his second start of the series. 

As might have been expected, the aces did their job, and the game went into the 8th with the Phillies leading 2-1. The Phillies loaded the bases in the 8th on three walks against the Rockies bullpen, but they couldn't score, giving the Rockies some life. But first, the Rockies would have to figure out Lee.

Fowler and Utley somehow avoiding
each other in the 8th inning.

Like so many games when the pressure is high, Game 4 turned more on a couple of plays that weren't made rather on plays that were. The first turning point came in the bottom of the 8th against Lee when, with one out and one on, Todd Helton grounded softly to second. It looked like a sure inning-ending double play, but Rockies baserunner Dexter Fowler, Phillies second baseman Chase Utley, and the ball all converged, a traffic accident waiting to happen. Fowler leaped over Utley as he fielded the ball, somehow avoiding touching him and earning an interference call. Likely distracted, Utley flipped the ball wildly to second, and everybody was safe.

That near-double play knocked Lee out of the game in favor of Ryan Madson. After a fantastic diving catch by left fielder Ben Francisco, pinch-hitter Jason Giambi hit a single to left to tie the game. The next batter, catcher Yorvit Torrealba doubled to deep center to give Colorado a 4-2 lead.

Now only three outs from forcing a Game 5, it was the Rockies' turn to rue a grounder that they couldn't turn into a double play. This time, the double play that could have been would have ended the game, but in all fairness, Shane Victorino's one-out grounder was probably hit too softly to turn two. And unlike the Phillies, the Rockies did get the lead runner, putting them one out from a win. 

That turned into one strike from a win when closer Huston Street got ahead of Utley 0-2. Street lost Utley to a walk, however, then lost the lead when Ryan Howard doubled to deep right. The next batter, Jayson Werth, drove Howard home with a single, and the Phillies were suddenly back in front.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Phillies brought in reliever Scott Eyre instead of normal closer Brad Lidge. It may have been because Lidge had thrown 20 pitches in a frigid Game 3 the night before, or it may have been because there were a couple of good lefties coming up for the Rockies. Either way, it was almost disastrous for the Phillies as the Rockies ended up with two runners on and two outs. Lidge finally came on, facing Troy Tulowitzki in a plate appearance with a leverage index of 6.81. Tulowitzki struck out, and the Phillies won 5-4 to advance to the NLCS.

After falling short in 2009, it took the Rockies eight seasons to make it back to the playoffs. Philadelphia, meanwhile, ended up advancing all the way to their second straight World Series, but they couldn't repeat as champions, losing to Yankees. 

Game 4, 2009 NLDS Overall Rank: 27 Top 10 Swing: 217 Top Play: Howard's 9th inning double (WPA of 38% for Philadelphia) Loser's largest WE: 96 Colorado leading 4-2, B9, 2 out, runner on second, Utley batting. Average LI: 1.62 Highest leverage moment: 6.81 (Troy Tulowitzki strikes out to end the game)

2007 World Series: Idle Time

The Teams
American League: Boston Red Sox (96-66) - 11th World Series (won in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 2004)
National League: Colorado Rockies (90-73) - first World Series

What Happened
It's a Tom Petty song: "The Waiting." See, you probably thought that song was called The Waiting is the Hardest Part, because that's the chorus that everybody knows. It was even included in a Simpsons episode. So everybody knows it.

There's a chance that some Colorado Rockies players were singing that, at least to themselves, in mid-October of 2007. See, the Rockies had finished the season winning 14 of their final 15 games, forcing a one-game playoff for the Wild Card, which they also won. Then they went out and swept the Division Series and the NLCS, seven more wins. They were on a 21-1 run, and they were ready to go for the World Series, ready to have the series start right then and there.

Instead, they waited. And waited. And waited. While the Red Sox and Indians slugged their way through a grueling seven-game ALCS, the Rockies were sitting back in Colorado, just waiting for their chance to play again. It was a nine-day layoff, one that was impossibly long. And it killed all the momentum Colorado had.

The length of the ALCS had no bearing on the layoff, of course. By virtue of their pair of sweeps, the Rockies would have had nine days off regardless of the number of games the ALCS went that year. And while logic would dictate that the Red Sox should have entered the World Series exhausted, nine days off is too many for a baseball team used to only one day off every 10, especially one that was on a 21-1 stretch.

And the fact of the matter is the layoff might not have mattered, anyway. The Red Sox were a great team, having taken care of the business of ending their curse three years earlier and now able to focus solely on building a dynasty. The Rockies were merely a good team, a team that had gotten hot at the right time and snuck into the playoffs by the skin of their teeth.

Once the series started, it was over quick. Boston scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning of Game 1 and had put 13 on the board by the bottom of the fifth. It was just one game, but it was obvious that Colorado's hot streak was over.

The second game looked closer, as the Red Sox won 2-1, but it was an illusion. The Rockies rarely threatened against Curt Schilling - Matt Holliday got four of Colorado's five hits. If the writing wasn't already on the wall when the teams traveled to Denver with Boston up 2-0, everything became crystal clear when Boston put up a six-spot in the third inning of Game 3. When the Rockies dared to make a game of it by cutting it to 6-5, Boston scored four runs in the last two innings to pull away. Game 4 was just confirming the inevitable, as three late Colorado runs wasn't enough to ward off the sweep.

Despite Boston's domination - or maybe because of it - the 2007 postseason is best remembered for what happened before the World Series. Colorado's 21-1 run, including the classic 13-inning win in the Wild Card tiebreaker, was the game of the year, and Boston's stunning comeback against Cleveland in the ALCS was the stuff of legends. Those two events easily overshadowed a pretty anticlimactic World Series.

Defining Game
Game 1. Three runs in the first, one in the second, two in the fourth, seven in the fifth. It was an endless parade of hits and runs for Boston, all coming with former World Series MVP Josh Beckett on the mound. In that game, the Red Sox announced that A) They didn't care about Colorado's 21-1 stretch and B) Now that the Curse was over, they deserved to be viewed as a dynasty. They expressed both messages loud and clear.

MVP
Any one of Boston's hitters could have been named MVP without much argument. As it was, third baseman Mike Lowell got the honors, probably because the voters wanted someone other than David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez to get some of the credit for once.

The Scores
(Home team in Bold)

Colorado	1	1	5	3
Boston	13	2	10	4

---

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

102. 2007 - Boston (A) def. Colorado (N) 4-0
103. 1938 - New York (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-0
104. 1998 - New York (A) def. San Diego (N) 4-0
105. 1989 - Oakland (A) def. San Francisco (N) 4-0
106. 1928 - New York (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
107. 1917 - Cincinnati (N) def. Chicago (A) 5-3

2007 NL Wild Card: Safe or Out?

Pregame
On September 28, 2007, in a battle of the two teams' aces, Brandon Webb led the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 4-2 victory over Jeff Francis and the Colorado Rockies. It was a vitally important win for the Diamondbacks - they virtually clinched the NL West championship with the victory. The game was especially noteworthy, though, because up until then it seemed like the Rockies were incapable of losing.

The Rockies' loss to Arizona was their only loss in their final 15 games of the season. A streak that started when they were 6.5 games behind, the Rockies ended up coming almost all the way back. In the end, that one game the Rockies lost to the Diamondbacks ended up being costly, as they finished one game behind Arizona in the standings.

Meanwhile, the Rockies were also chasing San Diego, whose big moment came the next night. Leading by a run in the ninth, they called for closer Trevor Hoffman, who would eventually become baseball's all-time saves leader. He was as automatic as it came. And he was one strike away from nailing down the save that would clinch the NL Wild Card. Then Tony Gwynn, Jr., the son of jewel of the Padres franchise, ripped a triple down the right field line to tie the game. The Padres lost that game, then lost the season finale, falling into a tie with the Rockies and necessitating a one-game playoff.

The Game
The fly ball seemed deep enough that there wouldn't be a play at the plate, but Brian Giles surprised everybody by unleashing a picture-perfect throw from near the warning track. Perhaps Matt Holliday was caught off-guard, or perhaps he was exhausted from playing 13 of the most intense innings you could ever imagine playing. Whatever the reason, the play at the plate was close. Holliday half slid, half crashed into catcher Michael Barrett, who caught the throw from Giles at the same time Holliday was coming home. Holliday slammed his face on the dirt, Barrett showed the umpire the ball, and for a fleeting moment, nobody knew who had won.

That seemed to be a common theme throughout that Monday night. The deeper into the game the two teams went, the harder the game became to predict.

The unpredictability began right from the start. The Padres were able to start Jake Peavy, their unquestioned ace, for the winner-take-all game, while the Rockies countered with Josh Fogg, who got the ball mostly because he was the only starter they had who wasn't exhausted after the tense pennant race.

So naturally, it was the Rockies, who jumped ahead, taking an early 3-0 lead off Peavy. That lead was quickly erased, though, when Fogg tired in the third, a meltdowd that culminated in Adrian Gonzalez's grand slam. The Padres were up 5-3 by the end of that inning.

But the Rockies had tied the game by the fifth and taken the lead by the sixth. When Giles tied the game with a deep double in the 8th, people watching might have already suspected that they were going to be in for a long night.

And so the innings kept piling up, with no end in site. Most of the time, the game continued through the Padres blowing scoring chances, like when Giles grounded out with two on and two out in the 10th, or when Khalil Greene grounded into an inning-ending double play with two on in the 11th. The Rockies got into the act, with Brian Hawpe striking out with two on in the bottom of the 11th.

Then in the 13th, Scott Hairston decided the Padres should stop waiting around for a clutch single, instead crushing a two-run home run to give the Padres the 8-6 lead. And they had Hoffman ready to come in for the save.

But Colorado wasn't impressed with Hoffman's pedigree. They greeted Hoffman rudely - Kazuo Matsui doubled, Troy Tulowitzki doubled, and Matt Holliday tripled, and the Rockies had tied the game after only three hitters, with the game-winning run on third with nobody out.

The Padres did the logical thing by intentionally walking cleanup hitter Todd Helton. But they did the illogical thing by pitching to Carroll. It's true that Carroll was a bench player, rather than one of Colorado's high-powered regulars, so he didn't seem dangerous. But even if Carroll hit into a double play, Holliday would still come home with the winning run.

That became moot when Carroll lofted the deep fly ball to Giles. Or at least what he thought was a deep fly ball. Giles' throw was strong, and it was on the mark. Holliday ran into Barrett and crashed his chin into the dirt. It didn't look like Barrett ever tagged Holliday, but it didn't look like Holliday ever touched home, either. Home plate umpire Tim McClelland hesitated, then called Holliday safe. While the Rockies celebrated, the Padres walked off the field stunned. In the opinion of most Padres fans - and of many watching who didn't care who won - Holliday still hasn't touched home plate.

Is Matt Holliday's left hand touching home plate?

Postgame
The Rockies continue their hot streak, winning their first seven postseason games in a row to extend their streak to 22 wins in 23 games. And then they had to wait ... and wait ... and wait, as the Red Sox and Indians played a seven-game bloodbath in the ALCS. By the time the World Series had started, the Rockies hadn't played a game in nine games. Their momentum was completely gone, and they needed all the help they could get against the powerful Red Sox. Boston won the World Series in four straight games, taking some of the luster off their magical win over the Padres in Game 163.

The Rundown

4. Colorado 9, San Diego 8 (2007 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
5. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 4 (1978 AL East tiebreaker)
6. San Francisco 6, Los Angeles 4 (1962 National League playoff)
7. Chicago 1, Minnesota 0 (2008 AL Central tiebreaker)
8. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 3 (1949 American League)
9. Arizona 2, St. Louis 1 (2001 NLDS)
10. Chicago 4, New York 2 (1908 National League makeup game)
11. Boston 12, Cleveland 8 (1999 ALDS)
12. Boston 5, Minnesota 3 (1967 American League)
13. Minnesota 5, Oakland 4 (2002 ALDS)
14. Boston 4, Oakland 3 (2003 ALDS)
15. Cleveland 4, N.Y. Yankees 3 (1997 ALDS)
16. L.A. Angels 5, N.Y. Yankees 3 (2005 ALDS)
17. Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1 (2010 ALDS)
18. San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1 (2002 NLDS)
19. N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 3 (2001 ALDS)
20. Seattle 3, Cleveland 1 (2001 ALDS)
21. Chicago 5, San Francisco 3 (1998 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
22. N.Y. Yankees 7, Oakland 5 (2000 ALDS)
23. Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 (1981 NL West Division Series)
24. Montreal 3, Philadelphia 0 (1981 NL East Division Series)
25. N.Y. Yankees 7, Milwaukee 3 (1981 AL East Division Series)
26. Seattle 9, California 1 (1995 AL West tiebreaker)
27. Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 (2003 NLDS)
28. Houston 12, Atlanta 3 (2004 NLDS)
29. N.Y. Mets 5, Cincinnati 0 (1999 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
30. Cleveland 8, Boston 3 (1948 AL tiebreaker)
31. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)