This one is not paywalled, so everybody please comment.
How did this World Series 7th game rank with the all time great 7th games like 1960 (10-9 Pirates over Yankees) and 1991 (the Jack Morris Game: Twins 1-0 over Braves in 10 innings)?
A lot of famous World Series have had great 6th games (2011 Cards over Rangers 10-9 in 11) followed by less exciting 7th games (6-2 Cards).
This Series hadn’t been that closely fought other than the epic 18 inning third game. But the sixth game was very close with the Blue Jays, who appeared to be the better team throughout the Series, losing on an unlikely outfielder double play by Enrique Hernandez
Then, this Game 7 might have featured the wildest last 60 or 90 minutes of 7th Game baseball since the Mazeroski Game in 1960. For example, with the score tied 4-4 in Toronto and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, Dodger leftfielder Enrique Hernandez loses track of a long flyball to the leftfield wall, recovers enough to attempt a Willie Mays over-the-head catch,
and gets flattened by replacement centerfielder Andy Pages coming out of nowhere. Hernandez collapses in despair looking like he’s dead because he thinks the Dodgers have lost, only to cheer up when Pages informed he’d made the catch and they are going to extra innings.
Here are the chances of winning by inning, with the 9th through 11th innings being a roller-coaster ride.
Here’s the 18 inning 6-5 Dodger victory last Monday:
The first nine innings were pretty wild but the last nine innings were more nervous than thrilling until Freddie Freeman’s homer ended it.
Here’s a similar chart from Baseball Reference for the 10-9 Mazeroski Game in 1960:
Lots of crazy stuff happened in the 8th and 9th innings of that game, which was the last of baseball’s old order of 16 teams playing 154 game seasons that had lasted since the early 1900s. But the sudden death aspect of extra innings might give yesterday’s Dodger 5-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays the upper hand.
What’s your opinion?
The greatest game 7 in my lifetime, for certain. Miggy Ro's savior catch was amazing. Yamamoto is a sick, sick, insane man and I love him very much for it. A double play like that to end the game, wow. Right before that I saw Kershaw warming up, too.
Hopefully the Yankees will cast Aaron Boone into outer darkness and we can finally be a good team again.
Congratulations all around.
As a long-time Yankee hater, I'd go with the Diamondbacks over the Yanks in 2001. Down 2-1 in the 9th, Arizona scored two runs off Mariano Rivera to win the Series.
There's also the Cubs winning in extra innings in 2016.
But surely Pages's catch will go down as one of the all-time great defensive plays in the ultimate do-or-die situation.
I should've been rooting against the Dodgers and their massive payroll, but it's too hard to root against Shohei Ohtani and his completely unprecedented career.