Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 11: The Pandemic Classic

Game 4, 2020 World Series: Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Tampa Bay Rays

October 24, 2020, Globe Life Field, Arlington, Texas

Dodgers lead series 2-1

Despite his best efforts, Brett Phillips cannot fly.

If there was an image that could succinctly capture the strangeness and awkwardness that was the pandemic-shortened 2020 Major League season, it was this: Tampa Bay's Randy Arozarena was laying flat on his stomach in the batters' box, slapping his hand on home plate in celebration, while his teammate Brett Phillips was running around in shallow left field with his arms spread out like an airplane's wings, all while Los Angeles catcher Will Smith was futilely chasing after the loose ball behind the plate. And all of this was happening in of a quarter-full stadium of mostly neutral fans more than 900 miles from either team's home park.

The game was chaotic enough even without the ending. The teams traded leads three times between the sixth and eighth innings. They combined to use 13 pitchers; 9 of those pitchers gave up at least one run. The Rays used every position player except their backup catcher. And that was all in just the first 8 innings.

Trailing 7-6 entering the bottom of the 9th, three outs from being down 3-1 in the series, the Rays struggled to start a comeback. Leadoff hitter Yoshi Tsutsugo struck out. After a Kevin Kiermaier broken-bat single - a ball that Kiké Hernandez just missed catching - Joey Wendle flied out to center. That left the Rays with a runner on first with two outs, a 10 percent chance of winning. A walk to Arozarena came next, bringing up former pinch-runner Brett Phillips for only his third at bat of the entire postseason.

And that's when the chaos started.

The single to center was simple enough. That ball, with the speed of Kiermaier at second, would have been enough to tie the game. But shortstop turned centerfielder Chris Taylor bobbled the grounder, so Arozarena kept running. Taylor threw in to first baseman Max Muncy, who turned to throw home, which is right around the time that Arozarena slipped and did a somersault. As Muncy threw home, Arozarena started heading back to third, but Smith didn't see that, so he tried to catch Muncy's throw and tag Arozarena at the same time. Arozarena wasn't there, but the ball wasn't either, bouncing away from Smith toward the Dodgers dugout. Arozarena changed directions again, and before anybody could react he was slapping home plate and Phillips was flying through the outfield.  

More flying.

The best games leave everybody exhausted. The Dodgers trudged out of their dugout in glassy-eyed silence. Phillips ended his attempts at taking flight and bent over with his hands on his knees, so shocked his teammates were genuinely worried about him. Arozarena had a big grin on his face, but only enough energy for a few high-fives. No airplanes for him.

And then we were reminded of what we'd been missing. If you watched the broadcast, it seem loud, but Fox had pumped in fake noise to the television feed all postseason, so in reality it was 11,441 fans in a stadium that held 40,300, cheering for an amazing game between two teams they mostly didn't care about. Picture the noise if the game had been in St. Petersburg: The initial burst when Phillips got the hit, the louder burst when Taylor bobbled the ball, the loudest one when the throw home went awry. They would have torn the roof off of Tropicana Field.

But it was, strangely enough, in Texas. A strange play in a strange location, perfectly fitting for a strange season.

Game 4, 2020 World Series Overall Rank: 11 Top 10 Swing: 254 Top play: Brett Phillips' game-winning single (WPA of 82% for Tampa Bay - the third highest single-play WPA in World Series history) Loser's largest WE: 90 B9, 2 out, runner on first, Los Angeles up 7-6 Average LI: 1.65 Highest leverage moment: 6.72 (Phillips' game-ending at bat)

September 28, 2011: The Final Day

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Where was the best seat in the house for something like this? The final day of the season, four games, four different cities, each with playoff implications. The best place, of course, was your couch at home, where you could take in all the action as it happened - no relying on the scoreboard to show highlights, no peering at the out-of-town scores and wondering if they're up-to-the-minute.

But imagine what it was like in the normally stale Tropicana Field on September 28, 2011, as Rays fans were treated to updates to three games that swung the postseason fortunes of four teams, plus a game happening right in front of them, the first one to start and the last one to end, the one that decided it all.

At 7:10 eastern, the first pitch was thrown in St. Petersburg (Rays vs. Yankees), Atlanta (Braves against Phillies), and Baltimore (Orioles vs. Red Sox). Four hours later, none of those games were over, the two playoff spots available still up for grabs. Their drama easily overshadowed the fourth big game of the night, the Houston-St. Louis tilt that started at 8:10 and was over about 10 minutes later. The Cardinals scored four runs in the first, Chris Carpenter only gave up two hits, and St. Louis beat the hapless Astros 8-0 to clinch a tie for the NL Wild Card spot. After the game, they boarded a plane for St. Louis not knowing if their next game would a one-game playoff at home against Atlanta or Game 1 of the NLDS in Philadelphia.

The Phillies and Braves were deciding that one for themselves down in Dixie, with Atlanta hoping to avert a huge collapse, while Philadelphia was trying to knock their division rival out of the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Rays and Red Sox were tied for the AL Wild Card lead, with the Rays needing to get past the division-champion Yankees at home and the Red Sox forced to deal with the lowly Orioles on the road. The next five hours were a flurry of game- and season-changing swings, shifts of momentum so dramatic it gave viewers whiplash. If you were watching at home and you took too long watching a replay of another dramatic hit, you risked missing watching the next one. It was a baseball night for the ages.

(All Times Eastern)

7:40 - Dustin Pedroia singles for Boston, driving in the first run in Baltimore.
7:54 - Mark Teixiera hits a grand slam for New York, putting the Yankees up 5-0 in the second inning.
8:03 - Dan Uggla homers for Atlanta, putting the Braves up 3-1 in the third.
8:06 - J.J. Hardy hits a two-run home run for Baltimore, putting the Orioles ahead of Boston 2-1.
8:20 - A balk ties the game in Baltimore.
8:35 - Teixiera homers again for New York, making it 6-0. While he's being congratulated in the dugout, Pedroia homers for Boston, and the Red Sox are ahead 3-2.
9:07 - After three scoreless innings in Atlanta, the Braves' Jack Wilson commits an error to reduce the Braves' lead to 3-2.
9:34 - With Boston leading 3-2, the seventh-inning stretch turned into a rain delay. As they walked into their clubhouse, they saw that Tampa Bay was trailing 7-0, and they breathed a sigh of relief. They had gone 7-19 in September to blow a 9-game lead in the wild card, but now it looked like they'd get in anyway. After all, at that exact point, Tampa Bay's win expectancy was 0. Nada. The Red Sox sat back to watch like the rest of the country.

While it was raining in Baltimore ...

9:56 - A Chase Utley sacrifice fly ties the Philadelphia-Atlanta game at 3-3 in the top of the ninth.
10:11 - Wilson strikes out for the final out in the bottom of the ninth. Atlanta and Philadelphia are going to extra innings.
10:17 - Sam Fuld draws a bases-loaded walk for Tampa Bay's first run. It was still 7-1 in the eighth inning in their game, but Fuld's walk was the start of something. Because then Sean Rodriguez was hit by a pitch to score a second run, and a sacrifice fly scored a third run. Then, at
10:23 - Evan Longoria hits a three-run home run to cut the Rays deficit to 7-6.

Here, then, came one of those Baseball Moments, the kind of thing that happens only in America's oldest sport. At 10:47, the Rays were one out from likely elimination. They were trailing 7-6, while the Red Sox were waiting out a rain shower with a 3-2 lead. Coming up to bat for Tampa Bay was Dan Johnson, a .108 hitter who hadn't gotten a hit since April 27. The last hope for Tampa had almost no hope of getting it done. But then,

10:47 - Johnson hits a deep line drive to right field that says fair by about two inches. Home run. Tie game. Bedlam. Chaos. And the night was just getting started.
10:58 - In Baltimore, the Red Sox wander out of the clubhouse in a daze. Their game was continuing, while they had watched their sure playoff berth disappear into the seats in Tampa Bay. They still had the lead in their game, but if this was a boxing match, they were staggering.
11:13 - In Atlanta - remember this game? - Martin Prado grounds out with runners on the corners to end the 12th inning. On to the 13th.
11:18 - Boston's Marco Scutaro is thrown out at home trying to extend Boston's lead. It remains 3-2 entering the ninth.
11:28 - A two-out infield single by Hunter Pence in the 13th inning gives the Phillies the lead for the first time since the top of the first.
11:40 - Phillies 4, Atlanta 3, Final. Atlanta is eliminated. On their flight back home, St. Louis starts to celebrate their playoff berth. Meanwhile, Jonathan Papelbon is in the game to close it out for Boston, with a win giving them no worse than a tie for the Wild Card. He strikes out the first two batters before giving up a first-pitch double to Chris Davis.
11:59 - Nolan Reimold hits a double for Baltimore, tying the game.
12:02 - Robert Andino hits a sinking liner to left. At first, it looks like Carl Crawford is going to catch it, but he just misses it. Reimold scores. Baltimore wins. The Red Sox walk off the field in shock, their collapse complete.



12:05 - In St. Petersburg, with Evan Longoria up in the bottom of the 12th, the sign appears on the scoreboard: BAL 4, BOS 3, F. The crowd goes wild, cheering madly and ringing their cowbells, believing in miracles. The Rays are on the top step of the dugout, pounding the railing in anticipation. Longoria steps out of the batters box because of the cheering, calming himself. He steps back in. He swings. A low liner to left. Hooking. Sinking.

Gone.

2008 World Series: Rain

The Teams
National League: Philadelphia Phillies (92-70) - Fifth World Series (Won in 1980)
American League: Tampa Bay Rays (97-65) - First World Series

What Happened
The Tampa Bay Rays were a great story in 2008. After 10 seasons of utter incompetence, they dropped the "Devil" from their nickname and suddenly became good, surprisingly winning the AL East over the Yankees and defending champion Red Sox and advancing to the World Series.

The Phillies were also a good story in 2008. After seven straight seasons of winning at least 80 games but perpetually being not quite good enough, they finally took the final step to advance to the World Series, winning the National League pennant for only the fifth time in their 125-year history.

The two feel-good stories were overshadowed, though, by the cold and wet weather that greeted them in Philadelphia. The rain was cold and relentless, and it became the dominant storyline of the World Series.

Rain wasn't in the forecast for the first two games in St. Petersburg's domed Tropicana Field as the teams played a pair of games that appeared to be closer than they really were. Philadelphia led all of Game 1 after Chase Utley's 2-run, first-inning home run; Tampa Bay cut a 3-0 deficit to 3-2 in the sixth, but didn't get a hit after that. It was Tampa Bay's turn for a wire-to-wire win in Game 2; they only got seven hits, all singles, but managed to get a 4-0 lead and hold on for a 4-2 win.

Then the series went north to Philadelphia, and things took a turn. Players took the field in Game 3 wearing long sleeves and modified hats with ear flaps. They were playing more against the weather than against each other. The Phillies took a 4-1 lead in the 6th inning of Game 3, only to see Tampa Bay tie it in the 8th. Philadelphia's Eric Bruntlett was hit by a pitch to lead off the ninth, then moved to third on a wild pitch and throwing error. After two intentional walks, Philadelphia catcher Carlos Ruiz hit the first infield single walkoff hit in World Series history to give the Phillies a 2-1 series lead.

After the Phillies battered Tampa Bay for a 10-2 win in Game 4, Commissioner Bud Selig announced before Game 5 that despite official rules stating otherwise, he would not allow a World Series championship to be decided in a rain-shortened game. His words became prophetic when, with Game 5 tied at 2 in the middle of the sixth inning, the skies opened up, forcing the teams to scamper to their dugouts. And then they waited. And waited. And waited. What started as a rain delay turned into a suspension, and then a postponement of the suspended game. After missing the rest of Monday and all of Tuesday, the teams finally reconvened on Wednesday to play what had essentially become a three-inning game. The Phillies scored first after play resumed, then held on for the championship.

Defining Game
Game 5 would have been the defining game of this series no matter how it turned out. It took three days to play the thing, after all. But it was also the best game in terms of quality of play. When the teams resumed play in the bottom of the sixth - two days after the Rays had tied it in the top of the inning - Philadelphia reclaimed the lead after just three batters. In the top of the seventh, the Rays struck again, with Rocco Baldelli tying the game with a one-out home run. Then came the play of the series. With Jason Bartlett on second and two outs, Tampa Bay's Akinori Iwamura grounded one up the middle. Utley was able to track the ball down but had no play at first. Instead, he jumped, faked a throw to first, then fired home to nail a surprised Bartlett, who was trying to surprise the Phillies himself. Inspired by their second baseman, it again took the Phillies only three batters to reclaim the lead, on Pedro Feliz's single to center, and this time the Rays couldn't answer.

Utley's play

MVP
Phillies ace Cole Hamels was named the MVP after winning Game 1 and pitching well in Game 5, but it was an odd choice. He was good, but not overpowering. His award seems like one of those where the voters didn't really know who to pick, so they just went with the ace.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Philadelphia	3	2	5	10	4
Tampa Bay	2	4	4	2	3

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

44. 2008 - Philadelphia (N) def. Tampa Bay (A) 4-1
45. 1933 - New York (N) def. Washington (A) 4-1
46. 1929 - Philadelphia (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-1
47. 1982 - St. Louis (N) def. Milwaukee (A) 4-3
48. 1923 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-2
49. 1944 - St. Louis (N) def. St. Louis (A) 4-2
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

2008 ALCS: Ray of Light

How they got here
There were two things that could always be counted on starting in 1998. The Yankees would always win the AL East, and Tampa Bay would always be bad. Since entering the league in 1998, the Devil Rays had never been good. In fact, they had never even won more than 70 games in a season. Their losing was as reliable as the Yankees winning.

Things changed in 2008. Tampa Bay dropped the Devil from their name, restarted their franchise for the third or fourth time, and started winning. Behind a pitching staff featuring five starters younger than 26, Tampa found themselves fighting for a division title for the first time in franchise history. On June 29, the Rays lept into first place, and they stayed there for all but two days the rest of the year. What made that even more surprising was that it wasn't the Yankees who they passed, but Boston. As the Rays won a tight division race by two games, it was the Red Sox who claimed the runner up spot and grabbed the AL Wild Card, with the Yankees staying home from the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.

It shouldn't have been a surprise that Boston was there in the end. They were the defending World Series champions, their second title in four seasons, and came out determined not to have a World Series hangover the next year. That they lost the division title was seen as a minor inconvenience; that it was Tampa instead of the Yankees ahead of them was merely a nice story.

Boston eased past Anaheim in four games in the ALDS. Tampa also beat Chicago with relative ease in their first-round series, setting up an ALCS between the two East Division foes.

Boston and Tampa split a pair of close games in Florida before the series shifted to Boston. There, the Tampa Bay bats came alive, with the Rays winning blowouts in games 3 and 4 and taking a 7-0 lead into the seventh inning of Game 5. Then, nine outs from a World Series berth, Tampa's normally dominant bullpen fell apart. J.D. Drew's walkoff single completed Boston's comeback as they forced a return trip to Tropicana Field.

Postseason stalwart Josh Beckett picked up the win in Game 6 for Boston, sending the series to a Game 7. There, it looked Boston had all the momentum. After the previous year's comeback from a 3-games-to-1 deficit in the ALCS - this on the heels of their historic comeback against the Yankees in 2004 - Boston was gaining the reputation as comeback specialists. Tampa, meanwhile, had the pressure of the first elimination game in its franchise's brief history.

The Game
It was an unlikely spot for David Price to be in. When the 2008 season started, he was in his first season in A ball, just 22 years old but full of potential. As the season went on, he kept climbing the Rays' minor league ladder, blowing batters away at every level before finally earning a call up in September. Oh, and all this was in his first professional season.

And now here he was, on the mound with the bases loaded in the eighth inning of Game 7, Rays up two with two outs, needing an out. Just one out. At the plate was J.D. Drew, the silent assassin for the Red Sox, the man who came up so big for Boston the previous season. He had another chance. Price threw his first pitch. Drew was taking all the way. Strike one.

Seven Major League games. That was all the experience Price had at this point. Five regular season games, plus two more in the playoffs, added to the roster just for this series to pitch to Boston's powerful lefthanded batters. He hadn't given up a run yet in the series. The crowd was screaming, their cowbells clanging. He fired. Strike two.

It had been a pretty good game to this point. Boston had scored in the first on a home run by Dustin Pedroia, but then Matt Garza had calmed down for Tampa, not giving up anything else. Tampa had eased back into the game - a run in the 4th, another in the fifth, a home run in the 7th to give them an insurance run. And now, they had to hold it. Price was their fifth pitcher of this eighth inning as manager Joe Maddon tried anything to get through the inning. Price was their last hope. Going for the strike out, he tried to get Drew to chase one. No dice. Ball one.

Maybe it was perfect that it was Price in the game. After all, he hadn't been a part of the losing. He had succeeded all his life, didn't have the losing mentality. He expected to win. So forget about his lack of experience. He was the guy they needed.

The 1-2 pitch. A nasty, driving fastball. Drew started to swing, but then thought "maybe that one's outside." It was too late, though. He tried to hold up, couldn't, and Price had his strike out. He screamed as he jumped off his mound, pumped his fist, yelled into his glove. The biggest strike out in Tampa Bay history.

The Rays closed it out in the ninth. After a walk that was almost a strike out, Price got to more punchouts before a grounder ended the series. The team that had never had a winning record was heading to the World Series.

Aftermath
Tampa Bay couldn't keep its dream season going, losing in five games to a very good Philadelphia team in the World Series. But it didn't matter. Price's strikeout became a turning point for the franchise. That one at bat seemed to make them winners. They changed from perennial doormats to perennial winners. They haven't had a losing record since.



What I'm doing.

The list so far:

10. 2008 ALCS: Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1
11. 1984 NLCS: San Diego 6, Chicago 3
12. 2003 NLCS: Florida 9, Chicago 6
13. 2004 NLCS: St. Louis 5, Houston 2
14. 1972 ALCS: Oakland 2, Detroit 1
15. 1973 ALCS: Oakland 3, Baltimore 0
16. 1985 ALCS: Kansas City 6, Toronto 2
17. 2007 ALCS: Boston 11, Cleveland 2
18. 1991 NLCS: Atlanta 4, Pittsburgh 0
19. 1973 NLCS: New York 7, Cincinnati 2
20. 1987 NLCS: St. Louis 6, San Francisco 0
21. 1988 NLCS: Los Angeles 6, New York 0
22. 2004 ALCS: Boston 10, New York 3
23. 1986 ALCS: Boston 8, California 1
24: 1996 NLCS: Atlanta 15, St. Louis 0

Still to come:
1972 NLCS: Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh
1976 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1977 ALCS: Kansas City vs. New York
1980 NLCS: Houston vs. Philadelphia
1981 NLCS: Los Angeles vs. Montreal
1982 ALCS: California vs. Milwaukee
1992 NLCS: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh
2003 ALCS: Boston vs. New York
2006 NLCS: New York vs. St. Louis

2010 ALDS: Switching roles

Pregame
Most people probably didn't predict a Tampa-Texas playoff series at the beginning of the 2010 season, but it wouldn't have been such a stretch to do so. Though they hadn't been to the playoffs in 11 years, the Rangers had been creeping closer to the top of the AL West in recent years, coming off back-to-back second-place finishes. With a strong pitching staff added to their typically strong lineup, the Rangers got over the top in 2010, winning the division by nine games.

Tampa Bay, meanwhile, returned to the playoffs after a year away, holding off the Yankees down the stretch to win the AL East. Featuring many of the same players from their World Series team of 2008, plus the well-respected Joe Madden as manager, the Rays were favorites in the first round against the Rangers.

The Division Series wasn't a good series to be the home team. Hosting the first two games, Tampa Bay was twice blown away by the Rangers, a team that had never won a playoff series. The series then moved to Texas, where the Rangers had never won a home playoff game. That streak stretched to six straight losses when Tampa won games 3 and 4 to send the series back to Tampa for the deciding game.

To pitch in the deciding game, Texas picked Cliff Lee, who they had acquired from Seattle midseason specifically to pitch in games like this. Lee had earned the win in Game 1, giving up only 1 run in 7 innings pitched. Going up against him was Tampa Bay's ace, David Price. Though Price had lost Game 1 to Lee, he had a good postseason pedigree, as it was his clutch relief performances that led Tampa Bay to the 2008 World Series.

The Game
Tampa Bay entered Game 5 as the team with the reputation of doing all the little things it takes to win a game - taking the extra base, timely suicide squeezes, hit-and-runs, nothing was off the table for the Rays. Meanwhile, the Rangers' reputation was one of power, power, and more power.

So it wasn't a surprise when the Rangers scored first; the real surprise was how they did it. After Elvis Andrus led off the game with a single, he stole second base with one out. AL MVP Josh Hamilton grounded out to the right side, but Andrus surprised everybody by flying around third and not slowing down on his way to score the game's first run.

With how improbably they had scored the first run and with their ace on the hill, Texas was flying high. Tampa tied the game in the third, but Texas got another run in the fourth using their legs rather than their power. Nelson Cruz, who had hit a two-out double, surprisingly tried to steal third. The Rays were especially surprised, throwing the ball away, and Cruz trotted home while the ball rolled into left field.

The next surprise came in the sixth. With Ranger runners on first and second and one out, Ian Kinsler hit what should have been an inning-ending double-play grounder, but he beat the throw to first. Meanwhile, Vladimir Guerrero, the Texas designated hitter who was one of the slowest players on the field, followed Andrus' lead and didn't slow down around third, coming home to score the game's third run.

So the Rangers had a 3-1 lead - with two players having scored from second on a routine ground out - and had their ace on the mound. For all intents and purposes, it was over. Lee allowed only one base runner after Guerrero scored the game's third run. Meanwhile, just to remind people how they got this far in the first place, Texas added two more runs on a deep home run by Kinsler in the ninth.

The two runs extra runs were nice, but they were completely unnecessary. Lee cruised through the ninth, and the Rangers had their first win in a postseason series.

Postgame
The Rangers moved on to play their traditional postseason nemesis, the Yankees, in the ALCS. After the Yankees won Game 1, Texas took Game 2, in the process ending their seven game postseason home losing streak. The Rangers then won two of three in New York before finishing off the series in six games. Texas' magic ran out in the World Series, as their powerful lineup was cut down by the sensational pitching of San Francisco.

The Rundown

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)