On October 29, 2017, the World Series was tied at two games apiece. After dropping Game Four, a young Astros team needed a win in its last home game of the year to take control of the series.

The city would have been devastated to see the Astros fall after enduring Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall in Texas on August 17. Instead of hitting the San Antonio and Corpus Christi areas as meteorologists had predicted, it slammed into the center of an unprepared Houston. The streaking Astros had given Houston residents a World Series title chase to distract themselves from what had happened to the place they called home.

USA Today’s article about the game joked, “Before the game, former Presidents George H.W. Bush and son George W. Bush were on the field for the first-pitch ceremony. By the end of the night, most everyone was bushed.”1 The excitement fans felt about having two former presidents in attendance was nothing compared to what the upcoming game had in store.

Dallas Keuchel was ready to go. In the top of the first, Keuchel worked Chris Taylor to a 2-and-1 count when Taylor grounded up the middle for a single. Shortstop Corey Seager struck out, but after that, the problems began. Keuchel walked Justin Turner and Enrique “Kike” Hernandez, loading the bases. Cody Bellinger struck out, but Logan Forsythe lined a single into left field, bringing in two runs. The Dodgers weren’t done. With Yasiel Puig at bat with two outs, Forsythe attempted to steal second. Keuchel zipped a throw to first and caught him in a rundown. It looked as though the Astros were going to make the play at second, but a wide throw from first baseman Yuli Gurriel allowed Forsythe to make it to second and Hernandez to score the third run of the inning for the Dodgers. Keuchel finally ended the top of the first with a groundball from Puig.

Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, who dominated the Astros in Game One, picked up where he had ended that game by silencing the Astro bats until the fourth inning. All went quiet for the Dodgers as well.

In the fourth inning, Keuchel struck out Bellinger, but Forsythe doubled to center, putting another man in scoring position for the Dodgers. Keuchel struck out Puig before Austin Barnes lined one into left field, and the Dodgers tacked another run onto their lead. Then Charlie Culberson’s single ended Keuchel’s day. Reliever Luke Gregerson recorded the third out, striking out Taylor.

When Kershaw returned to the mound, he had a 4-0 lead and was shutting down the Astros’ bats until George Springer walked. After Alex Bregman flied out to left field, Jose Altuve singled to left, advancing Springer to second base. On the third pitch, Carlos Correa lined a double past third baseman Turner, scoring Altuve and sending Springer to third. Gurriel, with one out and both runners in scoring position, hammered the first pitch he saw to the left-field Crawford Boxes, and in the words of TV announcer Joe Buck, “Gurriel … has tied it, WOW! 4-4.”2 Kershaw retired the next two batters to end the inning, but what was more important was that the Astros were level with the Dodgers.

The home run left the Dodgers stunned, but they were prepared to strike back in the top of the fifth. With Turner and Hernandez both on base as a result of walks and Collin McHugh on the mound for the Astros, Bellinger drove one of McHugh’s pitches into the Astros bullpen, giving the Dodgers a 7-4 lead. In the bottom of the fifth, the Dodgers still had Kershaw on the mound. He retired two before walking two, putting Altuve at the plate. Kenta Maeda replaced Kershaw, but Altuve still hammered a three-run homer to deep left-center, tying the game, 7-7.

With the game still tied in the seventh, Brad Peacock took the mound for the Astros to face Turner. Turner battled Peacock for nine pitches, lining a double to center. After a fielder’s choice from Hernandez erased Turner at third base, Bellinger, who had homered in his last at-bat, tripled to the opposite field, giving the Dodgers a one-run lead, 8-7.

The Dodgers were nine outs away from a 3-games-to-2 lead in the series. Reliever Brandon Morrow entered for the Dodgers to face the top of the order. On the first pitch, George Springer went yard, tying the game with a bomb to left-center, and the Astros weren’t done. Bregman singled into center field on the first pitch, which put Jose Altuve at the plate with no outs and a man on first. He doubled into left, scoring Bregman to give the Astros the lead, 9-8, and bringing Correa to the plate. A wild pitch let Altuve go to third, and on the second pitch, Correa sent a deep fly ball to left that fell into the Crawford Boxes for a home run, making it 11-8. Tony Cingrani relieved Morrow and recorded three outs to end the inning.

Peacock remained in the game for the eighth and with one out gave up a long double to pinch-hitter Joc Pederson. After hitting Taylor, Peacock was replaced by Will Harris, but nothing changed. Seager doubled into left field, scoring Pederson, to make it 11-9. Chris Devenski relieved Harris and stopped the bleeding by getting Andre Ethier to ground out to first base. Dodgers pitcher Cingrani went out for his second inning of work in the bottom of the eighth and started well, but Astros catcher Brian McCann hit a monster home run to right field to make it 12-9.

In the top of the ninth, Devenski returned to close out the game and put the Astros one win away from a World Series title. He started by walking Cody Bellinger before retiring Forsythe. What happened next was the Astros’ worst nightmare: Puig lined one into the Crawford Boxes for a home run, reducing the lead to one. The Dodgers had something brewing. Catcher Barnes doubled to center. The Astros, holding on by a string, recorded the second out; however, Taylor, the last hope for the Dodgers, hit a comebacker up the middle with a 2-and-2 count for a huge base hit to tie the game.

With the momentum, the Dodgers called on closer Kenley Jansen to work the ninth. He secured the first two outs but gave up a two-out double to Gurriel. Facing another high-intensity situation, the Astros’ bats fell silent to finish the ninth.

If there was anything else this game needed, it was extra innings. The Astros went to the bullpen and pulled out Joe Musgrove, who worked a scoreless inning. Jansen was out to work the bottom of the 10th. The Astros were determined to change what had happened in the ninth. It did not start well for them as Jansen retired the first two batters, bringing the number-nine hitter, McCann, to the plate. He battled, and on the fifth pitch of the at-bat, he hit one into the right-field corner that would have ended the game, but it fell just foul. That pitch seemed to take Jansen off his game as he hit McCann on the next pitch. Since the Astros were playing for the win, after Springer walked, putting McCann in scoring position, Derek Fischer ran for McCann.

To the plate came Alex Bregman, the young phenom at third base. On the first pitch, he lined one into left field. Fischer instantly took off from second as left fielder Ethier scooped up the ball. Fischer was waved around third, and Ethier’s throw was late. Fischer scored, and “more than five unforgettable hours after the first pitch, a frantic Carlos Correa sprinted toward his Houston Astros teammates in the middle of the diamond.”3 After the game, Bregman said, “It’s an unbelievable moment. … You dream about it as a little kid. To be living a dream, one win away from the World Series, is really special.”4

The Astros now led the World Series 3 games to 2 and would go on to win their first World Series championship in Game Seven in Los Angeles. It was a historic day for the city of Houston, and was also only the second time the Dodgers lost a game when giving Kershaw at least four runs of support.5 Game Five will go down as one of the craziest games in World Series history.

Sources

baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU201710290.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2017/B10290HOU2017.htm

Notes

1 “Astros Blast by Dodgers 13-12 in 10th, Lead World Series 3-2,” USA Today, October 30, 2017.
usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/10/30/astros-blast-by-dodgers-13-12-in-10th-lead-world-series-3-2/107159514/.

2 “WS2017 Gm5: Yuli Gurriel Ties Game 5 with a Three-Run Homer in the 2017 World Series,” Major League Baseball YouTube video, October 30, 2017, https://youtube.com/watch?v=JXXXKroiqh4.

3 “Astros Blast by Dodgers.”

4 Brian McTaggart and Ken Gurnick, “Astros Beat Dodgers in a Game 5 for the Ages,” MLB News, October 29, 2017. mlb.com/news/astros-beat-dodgers-in-a-game-5-for-the-ages-c260033600.

5 Mike Axisa, “Dodgers-Astros Game 5: What to Know About Maybe the Best World Series Game Ever,” CBS Sports.com, October 30, 2017. cbssports.com/mlb/news/dodgers-astros-game-5-what-to-know-about-maybe-the-best-world-series-game-ever/.

Game Two wasn’t going to be any easier for Montreal. The Dodgers had their ace, Fernando Valenzuela, on the hill. The 20-year-old phenom started the season by going 8-0 with a minuscule 0.50 ERA in his first eight starts, leading to an outbreak of “Fernandomania.” Eleven of Valenzuela’s 12 home starts were sellouts during the regular season, and his road appearances drew thousands of additional fans.2 The left-handed screwball artist continued to dominate in the National League West mini-series by posting a 1.06 ERA in his two starts against the Astros.3

Montreal handed the ball to 31-year-old journeyman Ray Burris, who was coming off a poor outing against the Phillies in the NL East mini-series. Burris had been quietly signed by the Expos to a modest one-year contract just days before spring training opened in a move to add depth to the back end of their young rotation. He had spent most of his first eight years in the big leagues toiling with some terrible teams. Aside from an outstanding 1976 season with the Cubs, Burris’s career had been unspectacular up to that point, as indicated by 63-76 record and a mediocre 4.26 ERA. After struggling in the month of May, Burris had one of his starts skipped in the rotation. The managerial decision did not sit well with the veteran hurler, and Burris responded with one of the best stretches of his career, going 7-3 with a 2.64 ERA for the remainder of the regular season.

Fortunately for the Expos, Valenzuela lacked his usual pinpoint control in Game Two. He failed to throw a first-pitch strike to the first seven Montreal batters, forcing him to work from behind in the count. Singles by Larry Parrish and Jerry White had runners at first and second with one out in the top of the second inning. First baseman Warren Cromartie followed with a double into the right-field corner to score Parrish with the game’s first run. After a walk to Chris Speier loaded the bases, Burris struck out for out number two, bringing 22-year-old Tim Raines to the plate. The future Hall of Famer sliced an opposite-field single into right field that scored White, although Cromartie was thrown out at the plate by Pedro Guerrero to end the inning.

Burris, relying heavily on his slider, curveball and changeup, breezed through the first five innings. He scattered two singles and a walk across the five frames, and not a single Dodger advanced beyond first base.

After Cromartie was thrown out to end the second inning, Valenzuela settled down and retired the next 10 Montreal batters in order. The streak was broken when a struggling Andre Dawson stroked a line-drive single into right field with one out in the sixth inning. Gary Carter followed with a groundball single that eluded a diving Ron Cey, sending Dawson to third. When Carter took a wide turn at first base, left fielder Dusty Baker made a wild throw to second that rolled into foul territory, allowing Dawson to trot home easily and extend Montreal’s lead to 3-0.

Burris ran into his first bit of trouble in the bottom of sixth when a one-out walk to Ken Landreaux and Baker’s single put runners on the corners. He escaped the jam by inducing Steve Garvey to hit into a 5-4-3 double play that was deftly turned by second baseman Rodney Scott, who had to avoid a hard takeout slide by Baker.4

The Dodgers could muster only a single by Bill Russell against Burris in the seventh and eighth innings. With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Garvey smacked a single up the middle. Cey followed with a hard groundball that looked like a tailor-made double play, but the ball took a tough hop that Speier was unable to come up with. The untimely error put runners at first and second with the potential tying run coming to the plate. On a 2-and-0 count, Guerrero hit a line drive to Speier’s right, and the Montreal shortstop redeemed himself by making a nifty shoestring catch. Garvey, thinking the ball was headed into left field, was easily doubled off at second base to end the game.

Burris had carried the Expos to a highly improbable victory. He did it in convincing fashion, scattering five singles and allowing only two Dodgers to reach second base. The win was Montreal’s first at Dodger Stadium since July 21, 1979, and it was the veteran right-hander’s first nine-inning, complete-game shutout in over 4½ years.5 “Tonight I mixed my offspeed pitches,” Burris explained. “Earlier this year I went with mostly the hard stuff and they clobbered me.”6 Garvey gave full credit to Burris. “That’s the best stuff I’ve ever seen him have,” the Dodgers first baseman said. “He changed speeds really well and kept us off balance.”7

The Expos were in a precarious position coming into Game Two. Suddenly, they were heading back to Montreal for the final three games of the series with all the momentum. The Expos boasted the best home record in the National League dating back to the start of the 1979 season, and they had their staff ace, Steve Rogers, pitching next.

True to form, Rogers pitched a strong Game Three, and the Expos won a thriller on a three-run home run by Jerry White, moving the expansion team to within one game of its first World Series appearance. The Dodgers avoided elimination in Game Four thanks to a clutch eighth-inning home run by Garvey and solid pitching from Burt Hooton, setting up a winner-take-all contest.

Game Five was a rematch between Burris and Valenzuela on a cold, dreary Monday afternoon. Burris was every bit as good as the Dodgers’ ace that day, giving up only a single run on five hits over eight innings. In a controversial move, Expos manager Jim Fanning lifted Burris for a pinch-hitter with one out and nobody on base in the bottom of the eighth inning with the score tied 1-1. Burris had thrown only 104 pitches, and he wasn’t thrilled about the decision. “I was actually getting stronger,” he said. “I was disappointed (to be) coming out.”8 The pinch-hitter, 24-year-old Tim Wallach, grounded out weakly to Valenzuela on the first pitch. In the top of the ninth inning, Rick Monday stunned the Expos with a two-out, solo home run to clinch the series. The soul-crushing game, known to Expos fans as Blue Monday, is generally regarded as the beginning of the end for the Expos in Montreal.

Hooton, who tossed 14⅔ scoreless innings against the Expos, was named series MVP. The Dodgers went on to beat the Yankees in six games for their fifth World Series championship in the 98-year history of the franchise. A few weeks later, Valenzuela became the first player in baseball history to win the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards in the same season. As of 2019, the feat had not been duplicated.

Burris had outpitched one of the best pitchers in baseball in two crucial playoff games, holding the powerful Dodgers to only one run and 10 hits over 17 innings. Yet years later, his efforts in the 1981 NLCS have largely been forgotten. At the conclusion of the first two playoff rounds that year, no player in baseball had done more to help his team’s chances of winning the World Series than Burris, as measured by Championship Win Probability Added (cWPA).9 Despite a subpar performance against the Phillies in the mini-series, Burris still posted an impressive 21.3 percent cWPA.10 Had an Expo hit a solo home run late in Game Five of the NLCS instead of Monday, then the history of the Montreal franchise would have been very different — and the unheralded Burris would likely have been named series MVP instead.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN198110140.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1981/B10140LAN1981.htm

Notes

1 Considering the Expos finished a mere two games out of first place in 1979 and only one game short in 1980, their inability to beat the Dodgers on the road may have cost Montreal two Eastern Division titles. The Expos went 1-5 at Dodger Stadium in 1979 and 0-6 in 1980.

2 Vic Wilson, “Fernandomania,” The National Pastime, 2011, sabr.org/research/fernandomania, accessed January 31, 2020.

3 The seven-week player strike in 1981 resulted in an extra round of playoffs, a best-of-five playoff series between the first- and second-half winners of each division. At the time, each series in this round was hastily named a “mini-series,” although it became known as the Division Series (or League Division Series) when wild-card spots were introduced in 1994.

4 Video highlights of Game Two, including the double play in the bottom of the sixth inning, are available at youtube.com/watch?v=Yaz5gY6heHQ. Game Three highlights are also included in the same video.

5 Ray Burris’s previous complete-game shutout was on May 3, 1977, against the Houston Astros. He was pitching for the Chicago Cubs at the time.

6 Rich Tosches (United Press International), “The Montreal Expos Knew That Losing the First Two …,” upi.com/Archives/1981/10/15/The-Montreal-Expos-knew-that-losing-the-first-two/3348371966400/, accessed February 3, 2020.

7 Aurelio Rojas (United Press International), “Fernando Valenzuela Has Become Such a Mythological Figure That …,” upi.com/Archives/1981/10/15/Fernando-Valenzuela-has-become-such-a-mythological-figure-that/5306371966400/, accessed February 3, 2020.

8 Danny Gallagher and Bill Young, “The Curse of Blue Monday Series: Remembering the Montreal Expos,” National Post, April 4, 2006: A-18.

9 According to the Baseball Gauge website, Championship Win Probability Added (cWPA) takes individual playoff game Win Probability Added (WPA) and increases the scope from winning a game to winning the World Series. A player’s WPA is the number of percentage points he increased or decreased his team’s probability of winning a single game, while his cWPA is the number of percentage points the player increased or decreased his team’s chances of winning the World Series.

10 With the Dodgers trailing two games to none in the 1981 World Series, Fernando Valenzuela pitched a complete-game victory in Game Three. He finished the playoffs with a 23.0 percent cWPA, the highest such figure that year. Ray Burris finished second with a 21.3 percent cWPA even though the Expos failed to make the World Series. For a list of the 1981 cWPA leaders, see this page on the Baseball Gauge website.

Game Three took place on Friday, October 10, 2003, at Pro Player Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Cubs sent right-hander Kerry Wood to the mound. In 2003, Wood led the majors in strikeouts with 266. In his two NLDS appearances against the Atlanta Braves, he won both, including the Game Five clincher in Atlanta when he struck out seven and walked two in eight innings to give the Cubs their first postseason series win since the 1908 World Series. The Marlins answered with lefty Mark Redman who finished the 2003 campaign with a 14-9 record and a 3.59 ERA. In his only postseason appearance, he pitched six innings and struck out four in a 4-3 Marlins victory over the San Francisco Giants in Game Three of their NLDS battle.

In the top of the first, the road team jumped on the board when Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa drove Kenny Lofton home with a single. It was the fourth straight postseason game in which the Cubs scored first. Sosa’s RBI single was his fifth in five at-bats after being mired in a 3-for-20 slump. Marlins starter Redman was stunned briefly after taking an elbow on the chin from Lofton while to tag him out at first. The Cubs scored another run in the top of the second when Redman gave up a single to first baseman Eric Karros, followed by two walks and a Wood sacrifice fly to center that scored Karros, giving Chicago a 2-0 advantage.

The Marlins cut the Cubs’ lead to 2-1 in their half of the second when Wood gave up singles to rookie Miguel Cabrera and Jeff Conine. With two outs and runners on first and second, Marlins shortstop Álex González doubled to left, scoring Cabrera and sending Conine to third. Through the middle frames, both Wood and Redman held their ground. The Cubs flamethrower was masterful while Redman stood strong. The Cubs ace didn’t face significant trouble until the fifth, when he walked the pitcher with two outs, gave up a single to Juan Pierre, and walked Luis Castillo. Wood appeared to be losing control for the first time in the postseason. With the Cubs’ lead hanging by a thread and runners on second and third, Marlins catcher Iván Rodríguez struck out on a changeup to end the threat.

In the top of the seventh, Redman showed signs of struggle as he gave up singles to Sosa and Moises Alou with two outs. He was replaced by Chad Fox, who walked Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramírez to load the bases. But Fox held firm by striking out Karros to end the inning. In the bottom of the seventh, the Marlins finally had an answer for Wood. González led the frame with a single, then Mike Lowell walked. Pierre sacrificed the runners to second and third. González scored on a Castillo groundout and Rodríguez gave the Marlins a 3-2 lead with a line drive to right that scored Lowell.

However, the lead didn’t last long. The Cubs jumped right back in front in the top of the eighth when first baseman Randall Simon followed up Tom Goodwin’s triple with a two-run blast to center off Marlins reliever Fox to give the road team a 4-3 edge. The Marlins squandered an opportunity to end the game with the bases loaded in the ninth. And just like the first game at Wrigley Field, this game went into extra innings.

In the 11th, Lofton slapped an opposite-field single with one out. Lofton took off for second and Doug Glanville lined a 2-and-1 pitch off Braden Looper to center for a triple that scored Lofton and gave the Cubs a 5-4 lead. Cubs manager Dusty Baker was confident in Glanville’s chances against the Marlins right-hander. “I thought Dougie had a good chance of getting a hit,” Baker said. “Our odds were good he wouldn’t hit into a double play to end the inning.”1

“My goal was just to make contact, and if I could, get it into the gap, which is what happened,” Glanville said. “I knew Lofton could do the rest.”2

The drama continued into the bottom of the 11th, when the Cubs sent left-handed reliever Mike Remlinger to the mound to shut the door on the Marlins. Remlinger struck out Castillo for the second out but the pitch passed catcher Paul Bako and Castillo reached first. Ramírez bobbled Derrek Lee’s grounder but was lucky to catch Castillo in a rundown in which he was called out for running out of the baseline. That ended the game and gave the Cubs a 5-4 win and a 2-1 lead in the series. After the game Castillo offered no regrets for his game-ending decision. “No, because in that situation, I don’t have to run hard because if he catches the ball, he’d tag me,” Castillo said. “The only thing I wanted him to do was throw to first. If he makes a bad throw, I’m going to score. That’s a tough play. He dropped it and that’s why I thought I could go to third.”3

Marlins reliever Fox was painfully honest about surrendering a 3-2 lead in the eighth. “That was a tough one to lose,” he said.” It’s tough for me to swallow.”4 Fox had relieved starter Mark Redman, who had held his own against the league’s strikeout king.

The Cubs got solid pitching from Wood. The bullpen hung tough and Lofton (three hits) scored two of the Cubs’ five runs. But the heroics of Glanville and Simon catapulted the team to victory. “It seems like this whole series guys who weren’t hitting (at all) against certain (pitchers) are getting big hits off those guys,” Dusty Baker said. “The whole game boiled down to pinch-hitters.”5 The victory was a huge one for the visiting club. It ensured that at least one more game would be played at Wrigley Field. With an emotional victory in an essential game, momentum was on the side of the Cubs. “I guess we’ll have to find out,” Glanville said. “Certainly the first game on the road is a great thing for momentum. Now we know we’re going to take the series, at worst, back to Chicago. I think it’s big, and now we feel good about our chances.”6

The Marlins now found themselves two losses from elimination. However, the confidence level of the club was still high. They were playing for the ultimate prize in baseball due to their ability to come back from big losses.

“It’s going to be a dogfight to the end, we’re not going to give up. You look around, we’re not happy we got beat. That’s the way it goes. I’m ready to get right back out there and we’ll see what happens,” said pitcher Chad Fox.7

“I thought this was a seven-game series,” Marlins manager Jack McKeon said. “We had lots of opportunities and didn’t score. I didn’t think we were intimidated by any means and I don’t think because you’re down 2-1. … We were down 1-0 to the Giants and came back. It’s possible to win three in a row. We’ve done it before.”8

The Cubs and Marlins split the next two games, sending the series back to Chicago with the Cubs leading the series three games to two. But they lost the two home games, ending their season. The Marlins won the World Series, beating the Yankees in six games.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the notes, the author consulted Baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/FLO/FLO200310100.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2003/B10100FLO2003.htm

Notes

1 Paul Sullivan, “Glanville Delivers in Pinch,” Chicago Tribune, October 11, 2003: Section 3.

2 Sullivan.

3 Greg Bedard, “Castillo Defends Game-Ending Decision,” Palm Beach Post, October 11, 2003: 3CC.

4 Alan Tays, “Fox Shoulders Blamefor Loss,” Palm Beach Post, October 11, 2003: 3CC.

5 Barry Rozner, “Cubs Scratch, Claw, Finally Get Win They Needed to Drown Fish,” Daily Herald (Chicago), October 11, 2003: 1.

6 Bruce Miles, “After Losing Late Lead, Cubs Put Pedal to Metal to Win Game 3,” Daily Herald, October 11, 2003: 1.

7 Tays.

8 Joe Capozzi, “Cubs Win in 11th on Glanville’s Hit,” Palm Beach Post, October 11, 2003: 1CC.

The 2004 Cardinals won 105 games, the second-most in the club’s history, after being projected to finish third in the division.1 The team could hit, pitch, and field. Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, and Scott Rolen would each finish in the top five of MVP voting. The team even boosted its lineup in August by trading for Larry Walker. The staff’s 3.75 ERA was the second lowest in the NL. And three Cardinals — Edmonds, Rolen, and Mike Matheny — won Gold Gloves.

The 2004 Astros struggled to a 44-44 midseason line and fired manager Jimy Williams at the All-Star break. Phil Garner took over, but the team struggled over the next month and was 56-60 on August 14. Yet Houston stormed back, going 36-10 over the remainder of the season to win the NL wild card, then beat the Braves in the NL Division Series. The team featured a fearsome duo of pitchers in Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt, while midseason acquisition Carlos Beltrán came into game seven having one of the best postseasons ever. The team also featured the Killer B’s of Craig Biggio, Lance Berkman, and Jeff Bagwell.

Houston finished 13 games behind St. Louis in the regular season, but in the winner-take-all game, Houston had a clear advantage on the mound. Clemens started for Houston, while Jeff Suppan took the ball for St. Louis. Clemens would win the 2004 NL Cy Young Award, while Suppan had not made the Red Sox postseason roster the previous season. But Suppan did put together a solid 2004 campaign, posting a 4.16 ERA with 16 wins.

The Cardinals made a change to their starting lineup, putting Edgar Rentería in the leadoff spot for the first time since August 3, 2001. Tony Womack, the regular leadoff hitter, was dealing with an injury and moved down to seventh. Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa wanted Womack lower in the lineup in case he had to replace him. The Astros also made a change from their game six lineup, inserting Morgan Ensberg at third base in place of Mike Lamb.

After Cardinals legend Red Schoendienst threw out the first pitch, it was time for Suppan to take the mound. On the fourth pitch of the game, Biggio hit a changeup over the left-field fence for a home run. Houston led 1-0. After the hit, Biggio, who had dreamed of going to the World Series since he was a kid, wondered whether he was actually going to get there.2 Suppan got the next three men in order. Clemens took the mound and retired the Cardinals in order.

In the top of the second, Suppan got into trouble. He issued a leadoff walk to Jeff Kent and, one out later, José Vizcaíno singled to left, putting Astros on first and second. In stepped light-hitting catcher Brad Ausmus. Ausmus hit a line drive to deep left-center field that seemed ticketed for a double that would give Houston a 3-0 lead. When it was hit, Garner thought there was no way the ball would be caught.3 Playing shallow, Edmonds sprinted back and dived headfirst to make a sensational full-extension catch. This catch was the play of the game. LaRussa felt that if Edmonds did not make the catch, St. Louis would have lost the game.4 The Astros felt the same way, viewing the catch as a momentum-shifting play.5 With two men now out, Suppan struck Clemens out looking to end the inning, sending a roar through the crowd of 52,140. Clemens again retired the Cardinals in order.

In the top of the third, Suppan walked Beltrán with one out. Beltrán stole second and advanced to third on Bagwell’s fly to Edmonds. Trying to get Beltrán at third, Edmonds overthrew Rolen and the ball rolled into the dugout. Beltrán came home to give Houston a 2-0 lead.

Womack led off the third with a double to left and advanced to third on Matheny’s groundout to first. With Suppan batting, LaRussa called for a suicide squeeze. Suppan executed it perfectly and Womack came home with the Cardinals’ first run.

The Astros had another scoring chance in the top of the fourth. Kent was hit by a pitch and Ensberg singled to left, giving the Astros men on first and second with no outs. After a visit from pitching coach Dave Duncan, Suppan got Vizcaino to ground into a force out at second as Kent advanced to third. Ausmus again was up in a crucial situation. Suppan fell behind 3-and-0 but came back to strike out Ausmus. Next up was Clemens, who struck out looking as the Astros stranded two more men on base.

Clemens retired the side in order in the fourth. Suppan, facing the top of the Astros’ lineup for the third time, did the same in the fifth. Edmonds and Womack singled off Clemens in the bottom of the fifth, giving St. Louis men at first and second with one out. But Womack was picked off on a throw to first by Ausmus and Matheny flied out to end the scoring threat. With his spot due up first in the bottom half, LaRussa sent Suppan out for one final inning, in which he retired the Astros in order.

Suppan’s day was over. Roger Cedeño pinch-hit for him and hit a single through the infield, giving Cedeño his 11th hit in 25 career at-bats against Clemens. Rentería and Walker moved Cedeño over to third. With two outs and a runner on third, Albert Pujols stepped in to face Clemens. Pujols was the Cardinals’ best hitter in the series, hitting .500 with four home runs. With two strikes, Pujols delivered, lining a double into the left-field corner to tie the game, 2-2.

Next up was Scott Rolen. While waiting on deck, Rolen hoped Clemens would stay in the game because he felt he had just missed a couple pitches earlier.6 Clemens threw Rolen a first-pitch fastball that Rolen pounced on. The ball carried over the left-field wall to give St. Louis a 4-2 lead. Busch Stadium was electric. As Pujols crossed home with the go-ahead run, he was pumping his fist, while Rolen circled the bases with his head down. Clemens got Edmonds for the final out of the inning. As he walked off the mound, the Fox broadcast wondered whether Clemens had just thrown his final major-league pitch.7

Nine outs away from the World Series, LaRussa handed the ball to Kiko Calero for the seventh. Calero needed only one pitch to get the first out, then struck out Ausmus. Orlando Palmeiro, who played for St. Louis the previous season, pinch-hit for Clemens and was hit by a Calero offering, bringing up the tying run. With Beltrán looming on deck, it was imperative for Calero to get Biggio. And he did, on a groundout to Rentería. Roy Oswalt, the National League’s only 20-game winner in 2004, came in for Houston and retired the Cardinals in order.

Julián Tavárez had the eighth. He would have to go through the heart of the Houston lineup: Beltrán, Bagwell, and Berkman. He had no trouble with the trio, retiring them in order. In the bottom half, Marlon Anderson doubled to lead off the inning. Rentería sacrificed Anderson to third, and Walker drove him in to give St. Louis a 5-2 lead.

Jason Isringhausen, the Cardinals’ closer, was summoned to close out the series. He retired the first two batters on two pitches. Down to their last out, the Astros brought Vizcaíno to the plate. Isringhausen got ahead 0-and-2 before inducing a soft groundball to Womack, who fired to Pujols at first. The players poured onto the field, mobbing Pujols and Isringhausen. In the dugout, LaRussa hugged GM Walt Jocketty. The Cardinals had won the pennant for the first time since 1987. Albert Pujols was named NLCS MVP, saying: “It’s every little boy’s dream. I’m glad to have won the MVP, but that trophy is going to stay right in this room because everybody here is MVP.”8 The players could celebrate the victory late into the night, but they had to get back to work in the morning. St. Louis was going to Boston for the World Series.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Fox game broadcast, the Baseball-Reference.com, Baseball-Almanac.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for box-score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other pertinent material.

https://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2004/B10210SLN2004.htm 

https://baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN200410210.shtml

Notes

1 The 1943 and 1945 Cardinals also won 105 games, and the 1942 Cardinals won 106 games.

2 Alyson Footer, “2004 NLCS: Recalling a Forgotten Classic,” www.mlb.com/news/2004-nlcs-between-cardinals-astros-among-best-c297093408 . Accessed January 8, 2020.

3 Footer.

4 Footer.

5 Footer.

6 Footer.

7 He hadn’t. He pitched for three more years.

8 “Rolen’s Homer Off Rocket Helps Cards Win Game 7,” www.espn.com/mlb/recap?gameId=241021124 Retrieved January 8, 2020.

Resilience. A contemporary baseball dictionary might define the word as the toughness to overcome a 19-31 record through April and part of May in order to be playing baseball in October. Examples abound from the Washington Nationals’ regular season to capture the meaning. For sheer toughness in June, Max Scherzer broke his nose in batting practice, but returned to the mound the following night, black eye and all, to beat the Phillies 2-0 — seven innings, four hits, 10 strikeouts.2 For notable achievements in July, Stephen Strasburg is named NL pitcher of the month3 and Trea Turner hits for the cycle against Colorado, essentially gripping the bat with nine fingers after fracturing his right index finger earlier in the season.4 For unexpected drama in September, the Nationals scored seven runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, capped by Kurt Suzuki’s walk-off home run, to stun the Mets 11-10.5 We could go on.

A single-game playoff, the wild-card game, was added to each league’s postseason play in 2012 and both teams were making first-time appearances.6 For the Nationals it was another challenge to follow the mantra of their manager: “We have to go 1-0 tomorrow.”7 Were the Brewers still remembering their Game Seven loss at home to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2018 NLCS? Both teams relished the win-or-go-home opportunity. A berth in the National League Division Series against the Dodgers awaited the winner. 

Both teams were ready, having finished their regular seasons strongly. The Nationals swept their final eight games against the Phillies and Indians at Nationals Park to gain the home-field advantage. The Brewers finished with a September record of 20-7 despite losing NL MVP Christian Yelich earlier in the month to a knee injury and being swept by the Rockies in their final three games of the season.

The pitching strategies for both teams became apparent when the regular season ended. Bullpen performance was a significant weakness for the Nationals throughout the season but a strength for the Brewers. Max Scherzer (11-7, 2.92 ERA) was named the starter for the Nationals, but both Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin would be available as a bridge to the back end of the bullpen, Sean Doolittle and Daniel Hudson. The Brewers would start Brandon Woodruff (11-3, 3.62 ERA) and use other relievers before giving the ball to Josh Hader with the lead in the eighth inning. After all, Hader was the winner of the 2018 Trevor Hoffman Reliever of the Year Award.8

Entering through the center-field gate, the intensity of the early-arriving, towel-waving crowd, 42,993 fans, was palpable. Fans understood that a wild-card game is like no other. Every pitch, every play is magnified in importance beyond what has been experienced at any other time in the season. There is an added sense of urgency beginning at the first pitch, and what happens on the field can sometimes be cruel.

Things didn’t start well for Scherzer. He walked Trent Grisham to start the game and then grooved a first-pitch fastball to Yasmani Grandal, who parked it in the Nationals bullpen. And surprisingly, given Grandal’s record against Scherzer in regular-season matchups, 1-for-13 with seven strikeouts.9 The score was 2-0, Brewers, as some were just settling into their seats.

Scherzer opened the second inning with a 1-and-0 curve to Eric Thames, drilled over the scoreboard in right-center for a 3-0 Brewers lead. Perhaps some in Nationals Park may have just heard the whispering of the ghosts of Octobers past, “Here we go again!” Maybe they were whispering that Strasburg’s 1.76 ERA over his last eight starts versus Scherzer’s 6.11 ERA over his last three starts should have earned Strasburg the start. Regardless, Scherzer toughed out five innings without giving up another run. He had thrown 26 of his 77 pitches in the fifth while walking two more batters.

Meanwhile, Woodruff retired the Nationals in order in the first and yielded a harmless single to Howie Kendrick in the second inning. Finally, in the third inning Trea Turner hit Woodruff’s 2-and-2, 98-mph fastball for his first postseason home run and the crowd sensed that their team was back in the ballgame, down 3-1.

As the game reached its halfway point, the bottom of the fifth inning, it was now going to be a bullpen game for both teams. Woodruff pitched four solid innings, then was replaced by Brent Suter. With two outs, Victor Robles singled to left field and Brian Dozier, pinch-hitting for Scherzer, reached base on Mike Moustakas’s throwing error. But Turner flied out and the score remained 3-1 after five innings.

Now it was Stephen Strasburg’s turn and he delivered with three shutout innings, striking out four and yielding only two hits. Drew Pomeranz was even better. He retired the side in order in the sixth inning, including consecutive strikeouts of Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto, and got three consecutive groundball outs in the seventh inning.

As Brewers manager Craig Counsell made the call to the bullpen for Josh Hader to pitch the bottom of the eighth, he had every confidence in the move. “If you could have told me we’d hand the ball with six outs to go to Josh,” Counsell said, “that would have fit our script really, really well.”10 For good reason. After all, Hader had 15 saves of more than one inning during the regular season, and no reliever had done that in 15 years.11

Hader struck out Victor Robles on a full count to open the eighth inning. Michael A. Taylor batted for Strasburg and was hit by a pitch on another full count. Counsell challenged the ruling, arguing that the ball first hit the knob of Taylor’s bat, but umpire Mike Everitt’s call was upheld.12 Hader got Turner to swing at a third strike for the second out. Certainly those two strikeouts were not surprising since Hader averaged 16.4K/9IP during the season, but his pitch count was mounting. Ryan Zimmerman, pinch-hitting for Adam Eaton, shattered his bat on a bloop single to center. Taylor advanced to third and Andrew Stevenson ran for Zimmerman as the tying run. Anthony Rendon walked on another full count and Hader’s 27th pitch of the inning.

The bases were loaded for Juan Soto, whose evening already consisted of two swinging strikeouts and a foul popfly out. On Hader’s 30th pitch, Soto lined a single to right field, easily scoring two runs. As Trent Grisham charged one way, the ball skipped the other way under his glove, allowing Rendon to score the third run, giving the Nationals a 4-3 lead.13 It mattered little that Soto was tagged out between second and third on the play.

What happened in right field? Grisham charged the ball and never appeared to square up to field and throw. “I was getting ready to throw to home, and I came in a little off balance. It kind of took a funky little hop on me,” Grisham said. “It’s going to hurt, and I expect it to hurt.”14

It was left for Daniel Hudson to pitch the ninth inning and watch Victor Robles catch a fly ball on the center-field warning track for the final out. No need for another inning from Josh Hader. The demons of elimination games past were washed away as pandemonium erupted and the celebration began.

To suggest that this October had started well for the Nationals and their fans would be an understatement most assuredly. Even if we didn’t know it already, we would learn in four weeks that the Nationals’ 15th season in the National League was different, just as Dave Martinez said after winning the World Series.

As the calendar turned to November, Thomas Boswell captured our sentiment perfectly: “The whole month of October still has an aura of ‘How the hell did that happen?’”15 As the calendar approached Christmas Day, Sean Doolittle reminded us of this very night in October. “We caught a huge break in the wild-card game where a ball took a real funny hop … and from then on, it kind of felt like the baseball gods, they finally might have our back.”16 Indeed!

Author’s note

The euphoria spreading throughout Nationals Park on this night reminded the author of another October night, Game Four of the 2012 National League Division Series against the St, Louis Cardinals. That NLDS was the Nationals’ first trip to the postseason and the game was their first-ever postseason elimination game. “If the postseason serves to measure baseball success, then Jayson Werth’s walk-off home run is the first mark in Nationals history. He had won the epic battle of batter versus pitcher [on Lance Lynn’s 13th pitch of the at-bat].”17 Let’s call the 2019 NL Wild Card Game the second mark with more to come.

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information (baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS201910010.shtml) and other data, as well as Retrosheet.org (retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2019/B10010WAS2019.htm) and Baseball Almanac (baseball-almanac.com/wild_card/MLB_Wild_Card_Game.shtml).

Notes

1 “World Series Game 7, October 30, 2019,” Nation’s Finest, November 2019: 142.

2 Jesse Dougherty, “Winning, by a nose,” Washington Post, June 20, 2019: D1.

3 Strasburg pitched five games to a 5-0 record, yielding only four earned runs (1.14 ERA) while striking out 44 batters.

4 Steven C. Weiner, “July 23, 2019: Trea Turner Hits for the Cycle Again,” SABR Baseball Games Project.

5 Steven C. Weiner, “September 3, 2019: Down by Six in Ninth Inning, Kurt Suzuki’s Walk-Off Homer Caps Nationals Comeback,” SABR Baseball Games Project.

6 The two teams in each league with the best records, other than the three division winners, meet in the Wild Card Game and the winner advances to face the first-seeded team in each league’s Division Series.

7 Jesse Dougherty, “Why Nationals Manager Dave Martinez Never Panicked,” WashingtonPost.com, October 17, 2019, washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/10/17/why-nationals-manager-dave-martinez-never-panicked/.

8 Josh Hader was subsequently named winner of the 2019 Trevor Hoffman Reliever of the Year Award on October 26, 2019. Ironically, the award was presented during Game Four of the World Series on the field at Nationals Park.

9 “Soto’s Clutch Hit Propels Washington to the NLDS,” Lindy’s Sports Collection Edition World Champions, November 2019: 30.

10 Howard Fendrich (Associated Press), “Hader, Grisham Combine to Give Away NL Wild-Card Game,” Yahoo.com, October 2, 2019, sports.yahoo.com/hader-grisham-combine-away-nl-wild-card-game-052059416–mlb.html.

11 Sam Miller, “How Will the 2019 Washington Nationals Be Remembered? As Giant Slayers,” ESPN.com, October 31, 2019, espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27973116/how-2019-washington-nationals-remembered-giant-slayers.

12 Joe Trezza, “HBP Changes Trajectory of NL Wild Card Game,” MLB.com, October 3, 2019, accessed January 18, 2020, mlb.com/brewers/news/hit-by-pitch-leads-to-nationals-key-rally.

13  “Juan Soto’s Single Lifts Nationals Over Brewers in NL Wild Card Game,” YouTube.com, accessed November 20, 2019, youtube.com/watch?v=AD0h62dGeII&feature=youtu.be.

14 Roman Stubbs, “Brewers Rookie Trent Grisham Says Costly Error in Wild-Card Loss Will Sting for a Long Time,” WashingtonPost.com, October 2, 2019, accessed November 22, 2019, washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/10/02/brewers-rookie-trent-grisham-says-costly-error-wild-card-loss-will-sting-long-time/.

15 Thomas Boswell, “Fight to the Finish” (Chicago: Triumph Books/Washington Post, 2019), 7.

16 Scott Allen, “Doolittle Talks Nats on NPR Quiz Show,” Washington Post, December 18, 2019: D2.

17 Steven C. Weiner, “October 11, 2012: Jayson Werth Walk-Off HR Beats Cardinals in NLDS Game 4,” SABR Baseball Games Project.

The departures of longtime manager Tony La Russa and three-time MVP Albert Pujols presented a substantial challenge for St. Louis. Yet the Cards snuck into the 2012 postseason via the newly introduced second wild-card spot with 88 wins, then defeated the favored Atlanta Braves in the first National League wild-card game. The contest would come to be known as the “infield fly rule game” because of umpire Sam Holbrook’s controversial call in the eighth inning that gave the Cardinals their biggest break of the season.1 St. Louis advanced to face an upstart Nationals squad that was taking the first steps into building what many considered the decade’s most dominant franchise. 

With a productive lineup and a pitching staff that boasted the NL’s best ERA (3.33),2 the NL East champions finished with 98 wins, the best record in the major leagues.3 But as much as rookie sensation and team catalyst Bryce Harper had to work to prove his legitimacy, the team as a whole had to make it apparent that its regular-season dominance would carry over in its first postseason appearance.

The Cardinals translated their postseason experience into a two-games-to-one series advantage heading into Game Four, but they were given a taste of their own flair for the dramatic when Jayson Werth won a 13-pitch battle against Lance Lynn and extended the series to the limit with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth.4

Entering the series finale, both teams sent out their aces in hopes that they would keep what had become an inconsistent pair of offenses at bay for one more game. For the Cardinals, it was Adam Wainwright, who was still steadily rebounding after Tommy John surgery had shifted his position from the team’s best pitcher to its loudest cheerleader in their 2011 championship run.5

Opposing Wainwright was Washington’s biggest offseason acquisition: Gio Gonzalez, a southpaw who led the league with 21 victories and would finish third in the Cy Young Award voting.6 What Gonzalez lacked was the postseason experience that his opposite had. Wainwright played an essential role as a rookie closer during the Cardinals’ 2006 World Series triumph. Games like this were seemingly tailor-made for the veteran righty, who was never a stranger to the big moment in his career. 

Despite that, the Nationals wasted no time attacking Wainwright’s pitches. The top of the lineup rattled off a double, triple, and home run in consecutive fashion by Werth, Harper, and Ryan Zimmerman before Wainwright could record an out. Even as he escaped the inning giving up just those three runs, his offense was silenced by Gonzalez’s early dominance, striking out four and allowing only two hits through the third inning.

The Nationals’ barrage resumed as the top of the lineup came up again in the bottom of the third, with Harper and Michael Morse going deep and ending Wainwright’s night. No team had ever come back from such a deficit in a winner-take-all affair. 

But as had been the case so often during the past two seasons, the Cardinals began to rally. Matt Holliday’s double brought in their first run of the game in the fourth, and once Gonzalez escaped that inning, it was up to the St. Louis bullpen to settle in if there was to be any chance. 

With a group of young fireballers who finished under the league average in runs allowed in relief despite limited experience,7 the Cardinals bullpen held the Nationals scoreless until the eighth.

Gonzalez was chased in the fifth, and the Nationals bullpen did little to stop the Cardinals, who had turned the 6-0 score into a 6-5 nail-biter. The aura of excitement just a few innings earlier at Nationals Park had turned to one of fear and anxiety. 

Washington’s bats finally broke through the Cardinals’ bullpen in the bottom of the eighth. Kurt Suzuki capped a series of singles with one of his own against Jason Motte to provide an insurance run, headed to the ninth. St. Louis was three outs away from seeing its championship defense end at the hands of a team that had finished over .500 for the first time. 

Washington sent out its rookie closer Drew Storen to end the series. Through three appearances in the series thus far, he had been untouchable, allowing one baserunner via a walk in three hitless frames.8 But the Cardinals were leading off with possibly the best man they could, the productive postseason slugger Carlos Beltran. He immediately lit the fire with a double. Despite having the tying run at the plate, all St. Louis could muster was moving Beltran to third on Holiday’s groundout. Storen sent Allen Craig down swinging to bring his club an out away from its first series victory. 

Storen came inches from doing so in two straight opportunities. Both Yadier Molina and David Freese saw the count reach two strikes, putting St. Louis a strike away from  elimination. But just as the Cardinals had overcome this same scenario twice in the 2011 World Series, they did so again. Storen walked both batters to load the bases for Daniel Descalso, who jumped on the first pitch to him for a ground single that barely escaped the glove of shortstop Ian Desmond, tying the game, 7-7.

Completing the biggest comeback in a winner-take-all game in postseason history, shortstop Pete Kozma’s two-run single, following Descalso’s, put the Cardinals up 9-7. 

The Nationals were set down in order by the rejuvenated Motte in the bottom of the inning, completing a record comeback and sending St. Louis on to the NLCS.

There, the Cardinals led three games to one before losing the NL title in seven games to the San Francisco Giants, the team that would go on to win the 2012 World Series.

Sources

Box scores/play-by-play information were accessed via Baseball-Reference.com (baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS201210120.shtml) and Retrosheet.org (retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2012/B10120WAS2012.htm).

Notes

1 Holbrook, umpiring on the left-field line, called the infield-fly rule on a pop fly that landed between two fielders 90 feet beyond the infield. If he had not invoked the rule, the Braves, trailing 6-3, would have had the bases loaded with one out.

2 Sports Reference LLC, “2012 MLB Team Statistics.” Baseball-Reference.com, baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2012.shtml, accessed November 29, 2019

3 Sports Reference LLC, “2012 Washington Nationals Statistics.” Baseball-Reference.com, baseball-reference.com/teams/WSN/2012.shtml, accessed November 29, 2019.

4 Sports Reference LLC, “2012 NL Division Series, St. Louis Cardinals over Washington Nationals (3-2).” Baseball-Reference.com, baseball-reference.com/postseason/2012_NLDS1.shtml, accessed November 30, 2019.

5 Ken Rosenthal, “Wainwright Excelled in Cheerleader Role,” Foxsports.com, February 27, 2012, foxsports.com/mlb/story/st-louis-cardinals-adam-wainwright-relished-role-as-team-cheerleader-in-year-off-due-to-injury-022712.

6 Sports Reference LLC, “Gio Gonzalez Statistics.” Baseball-Reference.com, baseball-reference.com/players/g/gonzagi01.shtml, accessed November 30, 2019.

7 Sports Reference LLC, “2012 MLB Relief Pitching.” Baseball-Reference.com, baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2012-reliever-pitching.shtml, accessed November 30, 2019.

8 Series overview, baseball-reference.com/postseason/2012_NLDS1.shtml.

The two teams were led by their “Cinderella managers.” The 63-year old Burt Shotton wasn’t even managing in 1946 and now he was on the cusp of taking the Dodgers to their first championship. The Yankees Bucky Harris had been in the World Series once before as the “boy manager” of the Senators in 1924. But he told reporters that it was “so long ago that he scarcely remembers it.”2

New York started 24-year old right-hander Frank “Spec” Shea from Naugatuck, Connecticut. Shea finished with a 14-5 record paired with a 3.07 ERA in his inaugural season.

Shea allowed the Dodgers to grab the lead in the first. Shea walked Jackie Robinson with one out. Before the series, Yankee catcher Yogi Berra had boasted that Robinson had not stolen a base against him when they played each other in the International League. “The nimble [Robinson made] Yogi eat those words promptly by stealing second as Berra’s belated throw bounced into the dirt.”3

Pete Reiser then hit a “ground ball to Shea that hung up [Robinson] long enough between second and third to allow Reiser to reach second”4 before Robinson was tagged. A single by “Flatbush’s seeming ageless idol, Dixie Walker, put the [Dodgers] a run in front when Johnny Lindell had trouble following the ball due to the windy gusts blowing through the stadium.”5

Shea held the Dodgers in check through the next four innings. The Dodgers had a chance to score again in the third when Shea walked Robinson again. This time Robinson reached second on a balk but he was stranded there when Reiser flied out. Walker had his second single in the fourth but it went for naught when Gene Hermanski hit into a double play.

Shotton gave the starting assignment to Ralph Branca. Branca, who hailed from Mt. Vernon, New York, led the Dodgers in wins (21) and ERA (2.67). He wore number 13 on his back “for a most peculiar reason. He is one of a family of 13 children, having seven sisters and five brothers.”6

Branca pitched perfectly through the first four innings. The Yankees managed to hit just three balls out of the infield, all of them easily caught by the Dodger outfielders. Branca also struck out five of the twelve batters that he faced during that stretch. “The tall right-hander’s fastball was singing a sweet song, his curve was a jagged blur and [the press corps] started asking whether anyone had ever pitched a no-hitter in a World Series.”7

Then Joe DiMaggio led off with a single when Pee Wee Reese’s throw was late to first base. Branca walked George McQuinn and hit Billy Johnson. Suddenly the bases were loaded. Lindell doubled into the left field corner and two runners scored. When asked about the pitch that he hit, Lindell said “An inside curve. But don’t tell anybody or they won’t give me another one.”8

Branca still couldn’t find the plate and walked Phil Rizzuto to fill the bases again. At this point, Yankee manager made a gamble. He sent lefthander Bobby Brown to the bat for Shea who had been pitching well. Branca pitched hard but couldn’t find the plate. When his first two pitches were ball, Shotton finally replaced Branca with Hank Behrman. Behrman struggled to get the ball over the plate and walked Brown to send Johnson home with the third Yankee run.

Snuffy Stirnweiss then hit a ground ball to Robinson at first who quickly threw home to get the force on Lindell. “Heinrich, Tommy-the-Clutch, was up [next] and he cleaved the space between Spider] Jorgensen and Reese with a hard ground single. Rizzuto and Brown crossed the plate to add two more runs to the Yankees total. Behrman finally got out of the inning when Berra and DiMaggio both flied out but the Yankees had grabbed a 5-1 lead with just three hits.

Harris later said that “[Shea] had a lot of stuff, was strong and was pitching all right. I just wanted to get as many runs as possible when the chance presented itself. I held back on sending Brown as a pinch hitter because I didn’t want them to pull Branca too soon.”9

Shotton told reporters “It was a one-pitch ball game. If Branca had got that curve ball outside instead of inside we’d still be going at it out there.” A dejected Branca, for his part, said “I guess that I was just bearing down too hard and couldn’t get the ball where I wanted.”10

One of his teammates tried to console Branca in the locker room after the game saying “You didn’t have a hard game. You’ll be back in a couple of days.” Branca snapped at him, “You don’t think I was scared out there, do you?” Eddie Stanky also came to Branca’s defense. “I’ve seen the same thing happen in the World Series to better pitchers and earlier in the game and nobody ever questioned their guts.”11

Shea was asked if he was disappointed with Harris pulling him for a pinch hitter. “Jeepers, sure I wanted to stay in there. No, there’s nothing the matter with my arm. Just wish that I had come to bat in the fourth inning. I probably would have stuck it through, although I did find it a little difficult to get warmed up. It was could out there.”12

Harris had said that he wouldn’t hesitate to use Joe Page in every game if necessary and the Yankee made his first appearance when he took over for Shea to start the sixth. Stanky led off with a single to center. He was forced out at second on a groundout by Robinson. Robinson reached second when Reiser beat out an infield hit and the first baseman barely missed tagging him. Pinch hitter Carl Furillo singled with two outs to bring Robinson home with the second Dodger run.

After Reese singled with one out in the seventh, Eddie Miksis batted for Behrman. Miksis struck out but Reese managed to steal second during the at-bat. With Stanky at the plate, “Page made the granddaddy of all wild pitches. It flew past the startled Yogi and back to the screen. Berra chased it and fell flat on his face. Reese churned around third and kept going. He easily beat the catcher’s wide throw. Yogi looked like a battered rag doll.”13 It would be the last run that the Dodgers scored “and the highlight of the Dodgers attack for the day.”14

Hugh Casey pitched the final two innings and limited the Yankees to just one single. Fans thought that the Yankees added to their lead in the eighth when DiMaggio hit a long fly ball to center. Unfortunately it was hit against the wind and Furillo was able to grab as he raced toward the 415-foot mark in center.

Page recovered from his wildness in the seventh to shut down the Dodgers in the final two innings. He walked Furillo to start the ninth but quickly got out the next three batters to earn a save and give the Yankees victory in the first game.

Page gave credit to the wind for helping him in the ninth. “That wind came to my rescue in the ninth. I had thrown two balls to Reese. Fast ones. I threw two more fast ones too. And both were going outside, but the wind took’em right over the plate and made strikes for me. Then I came in with a curve and Reese hit it right back to me. The wind was mighty nice to me in that spot.”15

The Yankees needed just four hits to grab the lead in the subway series, leaving Brooklyn fans disappointed in their team’s start. But Shotton told reporters, “Sure I think that we’re going to win. They didn’t show me much.”16

Tommy Holmes of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle summed up the game, saying “As the last few thousands left Yankee Stadium, everyone was saying it was a lousy ballgame indeed. Before the largest World Series crowd (73,365) in history, the Dodgers outplayed the Yanks in eight out of nine innings yet wound up behind the eight ball.”17

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, I also used the Baseball-Reference.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for box score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other material pertinent to this game account.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA194709300.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1947/B09300NYA1947.htm

Notes

1 Tommy Holmes, “Dodgers Score Run on Single by Walker, “Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 30, 1947:1.

2 John Drebinger, “Yanks’ 5 In Fifth Beat Dodgers, 5-3, In Series Opener,” New York Times, October 1, 1947: 1.

3 Drebinger.

4 Harold Burr, “Failure to Locate Dish Ruins Branca,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 1, 1947: 17.

5 Drebinger.

6 John Drebinger, “Young Mound Aces Slated for Action,” New York Times, September 30, 1947: 28.

7 Tommy Holmes, “Clinical Notes on the First Game, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 1, 1947: 17.

8 Jim McCulley, “Dodgers Unawed By Yankee Might,” New York Daily News, October 1, 1947: 76.

9 James Dawson, “Four Hits Enough to Down Dodgers,” New York Times, October 1, 1947: 34.

10 Dick Young, “Dodgers Unawed by Yankee Might,” New York Daily News, October 1, 1947: 76.

11 Young.

12 McCulley.

13 Joe Trimble, “Yanks Trim Dodgers in Opener, 5-3,” New York Daily News, October 1, 1947: 74.

14 Drebinger, “Yanks’ 5 in Fifth.”

15 McCulley.

16 Young.

17 Holmes, “Clinical Notes.”

A year after rallying to beat Cleveland for their first World Series title since 1908, the 2017 Chicago Cubs used a second-half push to win their second straight National League Central title. They advanced to the National League Championship Series for the third consecutive season and second straight time against the West Division champion Los Angeles Dodgers. The Cubs became just the second team in the last 15 seasons to capture a division title the year after winning the World Series (the other was the 2009 Phillies). However, they would not move on, as this year’s Cubs fell to the Dodgers in five games.

A frenzied sellout crowd of 42,735 packed Wrigley Field to root on their Cubbies. After three innings, none of the home team’s fans were making any noise. Enrique Hernandez’s hat trick of home runs in Game 5 gave Los Angeles seven runs of support, quieted the crowd, and put an exclamation point on the series.

Los Angeles handily won the first three games of the NLCS. After the Game 4 loss to the Cubs, Dave Roberts, LA’s manager, said, “I think we’re in a pretty good spot. We have our number-one pitcher going.”1 That starter was seven-time All Star and three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw. He had not pitched at Wrigley Field since Game 6 of the 2016 NLCS, when the Cubs got to him for five runs and clinched the pennant. Despite missing five weeks of the season, Kershaw won 18 games (tops in the majors2) and posted a league-best 2.31 ERA. Interestingly, Kershaw was born in 1988, the same year the Dodgers last made the trip into the fall classic. Chicago countered with Jose Quintana, who was appearing in just his fourth postseason game and making his third postseason start. His 2017 numbers with the Cubs amounted to a record of 7-3, with an earned-run average of 3.74. (For the season, he was 11-11 with a mark of 4.15.)

Chris Taylor led off the game with a walk. After Quintana struck out Justin Turner, rookie Cody Bellinger stroked a double down the right-field line, driving in Taylor, and the Dodgers had a quick 1-0 lead. On the first pitch of the second inning, Hernandez met Quintana’s fastball and sent it 399 feet over the center-field fence. This was his first postseason home run (in 17 games).

In the third inning, the first four Dodgers got hits to raise the lead to 3-0. Taylor doubled and scored on Turner’s single. Bellinger and Yasiel Puig both singled to load the bases. Cubs skipper Joe Maddon strolled to the mound to replace Quintana with right-hander Hector Rondon. Rondon struck out Logan Forsythe on three pitches. Hernandez came up and swung at Rondon’s first offering, blasting the 87-mph slider over the right-center wall for a grand slam. The ball landed 390 from home plate into the netting above the wall. With the Cubs now facing a seven-run deficit, Hernandez’s smash “drained Wrigley Field of any energy.”3

Meanwhile, Kershaw faced one above the minimum in the first three frames, only walking Kyle Schwarber in the first. John Lackey entered the game in the top of the fouirth as the third Cubs pitcher. Taylor greeted him with a single, reaching base for the third consecutive plate appearance. Turner struck out and Bellinger singled (his third hit). Lackey tossed a wild pitch, moving both runners up a base. Puig hit a grounder to third and Kris Bryant fired home to catcher Willson Contreras, who tagged Taylor out. Next up, Forsythe swung at an 0-and-1 offering, pulling the ball down the left-field line and plating both Bellinger and Puig. It was now 9-0 in favor of the visitors. After another wild pitch, on which Forsythe scampered to third, Lackey retired the hot Hernandez on a popout to short.

Schwarber worked a full count to lead off the bottom of the fourth before striking out. Bryant then jumped on Kershaw’s first pitch and blasted it down the left-field line for a home run. Contreras also singled, but Kershaw retired the side without allowing any more runs. He had faced five batters in the fourth, the most he would face in any of the six innings he pitched. The Dodgers used Kenta Maeda, Brandon Morrow, and Kenley Jansen in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings respectively, and the trio combined for five strikeouts and no walks. Morrow allowed a weak single up the middle to Ian Happ in between his three strikeouts, for the only Chicago baserunner against the trio.

With a 9-1 lead, the Dodgers had one more scoring opportunity. With Mike Montgomery on the mound, Bellinger struck out to lead off the ninth inning. Puig singled and Forsythe flied out to deep right field. Hernandez stepped into the batter’s box. This time he took two pitches (both balls) before launching his third home run of the game, to left-center. The Dodgers now led 11-1, and that would be the final score. When the final out of the game was made, Los Angeles play-by-play announcer Charley Steiner described the scene: “The Dodgers win! It’s been 29 years! The wait is over! The Dodgers are going back to the World Series!”4

Hernandez put himself in some rare company, becoming just the 10th batter to hit three home runs in a postseason game (and the first Dodgers player to do so5) and the very first batter to drive in seven runs in a League Championship Series game. He was at a loss for words after the game, telling reporters, “It’s unbelievable. It’s amazing. The third one, I don’t even know what happened. I honestly don’t know what happened.”6

Dodgers manager Roberts praised Hernandez, saying, “For Kike to have a huge night, three homers, just providing so much energy for us and we fed off that.”7 On the radio, Steiner told his listeners, “Hernandez had the offensive night of his life and one of the great postseason offensive nights of anybody as the Dodgers win it, 11 to 1.”8

Kershaw also had a major part to play, never allowing the Cubs to get into a rhythm. He stifled the Cubs’ offense in this final game of the year at Wrigley Field, allowing only three hits, a walk, and the solo home run by Bryant. After the game, amid the celebration, Kershaw said, “Up there with getting married and having kids, it’s right up there with one of the best days of my life. Winning the World Series is really all that we play this game for. All the individual stuff is great, but at the end of the day, I just want to win a World Series.”9 He added, “When you’re a little kid, you want to go play in the World Series. That’s all you ever dream about. I’m going to play in the World Series.”10

The Cubs hit only .156 and averaged 1.6 runs per game (despite hitting seven home runs) in the 2017 NLCS against the Dodgers, while the Chicago pitching staff allowed 28 runs and issued 28 walks in the five-game series.

In making it to the postseason, the Dodgers had won 104 games in 2017, one better than the 2016 Cubs and 12 more than Chicago’s 2017 squad. The Dodgers earned home-field advantage in the World Series, which for the first time was determined by overall record. Maddon tipped his cap to the NLCS champs, saying, “The better team won over the course of these five games. They kind of out-pitched us and everything else. So give them credit. I just want to say, ‘Congratulations.’ [We] know what it feels like coming off of last year — we were celebrating versus them in this exact same spot. So they’ve had themselves a spectacular year, and I want to wish them all well in the World Series.”11

This article appears in “Wrigley Field: The Friendly Confines at Clark and Addison” (SABR, 2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the notes, the author consulted baseball-reference.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN201710190.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2017/B10190CHN2017.htm

Notes

1 Dylan Hernandez, “Game 5 Should Be a Fitting Moment for Clayton Kershaw,” Los Angeles Times, October 18, 2017, found online at https://latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dodgers-hernandez-20171018-story.html. Accessed October 2017.

2 Kershaw’s 18 victories led the National League and tied three pitchers in the American League: Cleveland’s Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco and Kansas City’s Jason Vargas.

3 Chris Kuc, “NLCS Game 5 Turning Point: Enrique Hernandez’s Third-Inning Grand Slam,” Chicago Tribune, October 19, 2017, found online at https://chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-turning-point-spt-1020-20171019-story.html. Accessed October 2017.

4 Phil Rosenthal, “End of Game 5 Sounded Different in Chicago, L.A. and Across the Country,” Chicago Tribune, October 20, 2017, found online at https://chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-dodgers-broadcast-rosenthal-spt-1021-20171020-story.html. Accessed October 2017.

5 Carrie Muskat and Ken Gurnick, “Hollywood & Vines: LA Wins NLCS at Wrigley!” mlb.com, October 20, 2017, found online at https://m.mlb.com/news/article/259108988/dodgers-rout-cubs-win-nlcs-make-world-series/. Accessed October 2017.

6 Anthony Castrovince, “Trio Grand! Hernandez Has 3-HR, 7-RBI Clincher,” mlb.com, October 20, 2017, found online at https://m.mlb.com/news/article/259105534/enrique-hernandez-has-monster-game-5-in-nlcs/?game_pk=526508. Accessed October 2017.

7 Kuc.

8 Rosenthal.

9 Muskat and Gurnick.

10 Andy McCullough, “Dodgers Crush Cubs in Game 5 to Advance to the World Series for First Time Since 1988,” Los Angeles Times, October 19, 2017, found online at https://latimes.com/sports/la-dodgers-cubs-game-5-live-updates-dodgers-crush-cubs-in-game-5-to-advance-1508470354-htmlstory.html. Accessed October 2017.

11 Muskat and Gurnick.

The Cubs were playing mostly for pride in Game Four of the 2017 NLCS, the pride of defending world champions not wanting to surrender the pennant without a fight. But they were also playing for plausibility: to nudge the idea of a series comeback back into the realm of the possible. A win would leave them down three games to one — still in a hole, but the same kind of hole they climbed out of last year in the World Series to win it all.

All series, the meekly hitting Cubs had been waiting to string some big hits together to ignite their offense and their confidence. They got two strong strokes in the second inning of Game Four. With the game still scoreless, Willson Contreras crushed a shot to left field off Dodgers starter Alex Wood that crashed off the video scoreboard. It was measured at 491 feet. Contreras paused in the batter’s box and then strode out slowly in admiration of his blast, letting the statement settle in. He was, the Chicago Tribune said, “a man with a message. Notice us. We are still the champions.”1

Two batters later, Javier Báez slammed a deep shot of his own, 437 feet down the left-field line, out of the park and over Waveland. It was his first hit after suffering an 0-for-20 showing in the postseason. After rounding the bases, Báez stomped on home plate, as if to announce that the Cubs would not go quietly in this series.

“It felt like the real Cubs had arrived at Clark and Addison for the NLCS, finally,” wrote the Tribune.2

The Dodgers got one back in the top of the third, a Cody Bellinger solo home run down the right-field line off Cubs starter Jake Arrieta. But Arrieta, in what fans knew could be his last appearance as a Cub at Wrigley Field before becoming a free agent, shut down the Dodgers after that, holding them hitless the rest of the third and then all of the fourth and fifth innings.

Báez came back up to bat with the Cubs still leading 2-1. Few players had dazzled and puzzled Cubs fans in recent years as much as Báez. He was a magician in the field and at times a titan with the bat, but he was also prone to strikeouts and slumps. Now, in the fifth inning, Báez fully regained the form that earned him NLCS co-MVP last year, and sent his second home run of the night into the left-field seats. He became just the 15th player in postseason history to hit two home runs in an elimination game. “That guy, he’s fun to watch,” Kyle Schwarber said of Báez after the game. “He’s an electric player.”3

The Dodgers got a leadoff single by Justin Turner but nothing more off Arrieta in the sixth inning. Arrieta exited with two outs in the seventh, having surrendered just three hits and one run while striking out nine. The crowd, knowing this could be Arrieta’s farewell, rose to its feet, and Arrieta tipped his cap to the ovation.

“Hopefully it’s not a good-bye,” Arrieta said afterward. “It’s a thank you, obviously.”4 Arrieta added that he savored every moment of his start, knowing it could be the end of an unforgettable era that included a career resurgence, a historically dominant 2015 season, and a world championship. “I took a little bit [of] extra time in between pitches just to look around,” he said. “Just to kind of relish it and take it in.”5      

Brian Duensing came and retired Bellinger and the Dodgers. In the bottom of the seventh, Báez was back, lifting a fly ball to deep center, this time no farther than the warning track, where Curtis Granderson made the catch. Further heroics denied, the Cubs’ lead remained 3-1.  

Cubs manager Joe Maddon turned to Wade Davis in the eighth, asking for six outs from his closer, and it quickly looked like a lot to ask. The first batter was Turner, and he hit “a towering home run hit far enough to register on radar at O’Hare,” as the Tribune put it.6 The crowd clenched its teeth as the Cubs’ lead was cut to 3-2. All of the game’s runs had been scored on solo home runs.

Two batters later Davis struck out Granderson, only to have the umpires convene and concur that Granderson had stayed alive on a foul tip. A furious Maddon came out to complain and got ejected. The inning risked unraveling for the Cubs. But Davis struck out Granderson on the next pitch, and, after walking Yasmani Grandal, struck out Chase Utley to escape the inning with the lead.

The Cubs had Kris Bryant at bat with two runners on in the bottom of the eighth, but Bryant’s bat stayed quiet for the series and he grounded out to end the inning. Davis went back out to try to give the Cubs their elusive first win of the series, and his ninth inning proved as uneventful as the eighth was unnerving. He struck out Austin Barnes, and then after walking Chris Taylor, got Bellinger to hit into a game-ending double play.

The Cubs had hung on to win 3-2, with Contreras and Báez rejuvenating the offense, setting the tone, and calming their team’s nerves, at least for one night.      

“The Dodgers still have every reason to believe they are headed for their first World Series since 1988,” the Tribune wrote. “But for a desperate Cubs team facing a daunting challenge, it was a start.”7

The Cubs’ reward for extending the series would be to face Clayton Kershaw in Game Five. But after losing the first three games, they knew there would be no shortcuts back to the pennant. Still, they could look to their team president, Theo Epstein, who saw his Boston Red Sox come back from a 3-0 Championship Series deficit in 2004. So what did that team do that this year’s Cubs could do too?

“You’ve got to find a way to get the team that’s been up 3-0 on a plane back home, failing to close out a series twice in a row,” Epstein said after Game Four. “If you can do that, I think the momentum completely changes, and the pressure changes.”8  

This article appears in “Wrigley Field: The Friendly Confines at Clark and Addison” (SABR, 2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. To read more stories from this book online, click here.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN201710180.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2017/B10180CHN2017.htm

Notes

1 David Haugh, “Contreras, Baez Reclaim Some Swagger,” Chicago Tribune, October 19, 2017: 34.

2 Ibid.

3 Lauren Comitor, “Make Sure to Update Your Clocks Because It’s Finally Javy Time,” The Athletic, October 19, 2017. Accessed at https://theathletic.com/131615/2017/10/19/make-sure-to-update-your-clocks-because-its-finally-javy-time.

4 Sahadev Sharma, “Jake Arrieta Tipped His Cap to the Fans, But He Isn’t Ready to Leave the Cubs,” The Athletic, October 19, 2017. Accessed at https://theathletic.com/131809/2017/10/19/jake-arrieta-tipped-his-cap-to-the-fans-but-he-isnt-ready-to-leave-the-cubs.

5 Ibid.

6 Haugh, “Contreras, Baez Reclaim Some Swagger.”

7 Ibid.

8 Jon Greenberg, “As the Cubs Fight for Their Playoff Lives, Theo Epstein Reflects on 2004 Memories, a Leaky Bullpen and More,” The Athletic, October 19, 2017. Accessed at https://theathletic.com/132704/2017/10/19/as-the-cubs-fight-for-their-playoff-lives-theo-epstein-reflects-on-2004-memories-the-cubs-bullpen-and-more.

“We’ve got to win this next one, find a way, any way possible, just to grind out a win,” said Anthony Rizzo. “This game is the biggest game for us.”1

Kyle Schwarber struck the right note in the bottom of the first inning, smashing the first pitch he saw from Dodgers starter Yu Darvish into the left-field seats. The early 1-0 lead brought some joy and much relief to the anxious home crowd.

But Andre Ethier led off the second inning with a solo shot in response, a line drive off Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks. The ball struck Ethier’s name on the right-field scoreboard behind the ivy,2 landing like “a pin to the balloon of enthusiasm in the ballpark,” wrote the Chicago Tribune.3

Chris Taylor soon struck dual blows for the Dodgers. In the top of the third, he launched a 444-foot home run to center that put the Dodgers up 2-1.4 In the fifth, after Joc Pederson doubled, Taylor lashed a triple that struck the chalk of the left-field line and bounded all the way to the ivy, extending Los Angeles’ lead to 3-1.

In the top of the sixth inning, the Cubs stumbled at a crucial moment. After Yasiel Puig reached on an error and Ethier singled, Cubs manager Joe Maddon brought in Carl Edwards Jr., who retired Chase Utley but walked Austin Barnes to load the bases. After Pederson hit a pop fly to right, Darvish’s spot in the lineup came up. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sent pinch-hitter Curtis Granderson to the on-deck circle, then pulled him back and let Darvish bat for himself.5 The move seemed to concede the out and the inning. Instead, Edwards walked Darvish on four pitches, forcing in a run and giving the Dodgers a 4-1 lead. Boos rumbled at Wrigley Field.6

Hendricks and Edwards had been two of the most reliable hurlers for the Cubs down the stretch of the 2016 postseason; now they had combined for a feeble inning that seemed to sum up the Cubs’ 2017 playoff woes.

Darvish cruised through four more Cubs batters before exiting in the seventh, having scattered six hits, thrown 59 strikes on 81 pitches, and allowed only two runners to reach scoring position after Schwarber’s home run.7

The Dodgers put the game all but out of reach in the eighth. With Logan Forsythe and Barnes aboard and Charlie Culberson at the plate, Cubs pitcher Mike Montgomery unleashed a wild pitch that advanced the runners, followed by a passed ball that scored Forsythe. (Culberson swung at the pitch for strike three but made it safely to first base.) A pinch-hit sacrifice fly to center field by Kyle Farmer brought home Barnes to make it 6-1.

The Cubs finally found some offense in the bottom of the ninth, against Dodgers reliever Ross Stripling. Alex Avila led off with a single and Albert Almora hit a ground-rule double that lodged in the ivy in left and put runners at second and third with no one out, giving the Cubs a flicker of hope. But in came Kenley Jansen, as automatic as any reliever in baseball in 2017. Jansen got Addison Russell to pop up to first base and then struck out the next two batters to end the game.

The Dodgers had won, 6-1, taking a seemingly unshakable grip on the NLCS with a 3-0 series lead.

“Tuesday was never a must-win, it just felt that way,” wrote The Athletic. “Now every game the Cubs have left against the Dodgers this year will be win or go home.”8

“A defending World Series champion getting beaten in the playoffs is one thing. Getting embarrassed is quite another,” wrote the Chicago Tribune, adding that the Game Three loss “carried the feeling of finality.”9

Granted, last year’s team of destiny overcame a 2-1 series deficit to the Dodgers, winning two games on the road to regain the NLCS lead. And even more improbably, those Cubs came back from a three-games-to-one deficit in the World Series to win its elusive championship.

But that team had persevered with an uncanny concoction of optimism, confidence, clutch plays, and benevolent breaks — the kind of alchemy it takes to win any championship, let alone end a century-long curse. This year’s club, by contrast, now appeared deflated and outmatched.

“The Cubs may have thought they could turn it on again in the postseason and magically bounce back from the brink, as they did so memorably last year,” wrote the Tribune. “But the mojo was missing, and no one was exactly sure where it went.”10

With their team’s elimination imminent both mathematically and psychologically, Cubs fans had to come to terms with a new kind of losing: ordinary, pedestrian losing, unlike the tortured, fateful losing they’d known for generations, when postseason droughts and disasters became larger than life and futility defined Cubs fandom. One of the gifts the 2016 Cubs gave their fans by winning the World Series and purging the demons was that future losing would never haunt them in the same way. Losing would hurt, but it wouldn’t cause existential angst.

So what did losing feel like now, in 2017? Mostly, it was just emptiness — the silence of fans sitting on their hands at a muted Wrigley Field, wondering where their team’s bats and pitching had disappeared to, as the Dodgers relentlessly piled up runs and pushed all the right buttons. There was some retrospective relief that last year’s team had broken the curse so that this loss wasn’t part of it, mixed with confusion about how to process the threat of another NLCS sweep after suffering the same fate against the Mets in 2015. Two NLCS blowouts in three seasons would have been unbearable, if not for that euphoric interlude between them.

This article appears in “Wrigley Field: The Friendly Confines at Clark and Addison” (SABR, 2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. To read more stories from this book online, click here.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN201710170.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2017/B10170CHN2017.htm

Notes

1 Rick Morrissey, “Risky to Count Out Struggling Cubs, Their Befuddled Manager,” Chicago Sun-Times, October 16, 2017. Accessed at https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/morrissey-risky-to-count-out-struggling-cubs-their-befuddled-manager.

2 Some descriptive details are based on viewing video highlights of this game at MLB.com, accessed at https://mlb.com/gameday/dodgers-vs-cubs/2017/10/17/526506#game_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=526506.

3 David Haugh, “Winter Is Coming,” Chicago Tribune, October 18, 2017: 33.

4 Paul Sullivan, “Mired in Discomfort Zone,” Chicago Tribune, October 18, 2017: 37.

5 Rick Morrissey, “Cubs’ Response to World Series Hopes? Walk Yu,” Chicago Sun-Times, October 18, 2017. Accessed at https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/morrissey-cubs-go-all-retro-in-an-embarrassing-loss-to-the-dodgers.

6 Ibid.

7 Mark Gonzales, “Pushed to the Edge,” Chicago Tribune, October 18, 2017: 35.

8 Sahadev Sharma, “The Better Team Is Winning the NLCS and It’s Not the Cubs,” The Athletic, October 18, 2017. Accessed at https://theathletic.com/130795/2017/10/18/sharma-the-better-team-is-winning-the-nlcs-and-its-not-the-cubs.

9 Haugh, “Winter Is Coming.”

10 Sullivan, “Mired in Discomfort zone.”