It was ten years ago today, on May 31, 2015, that I went to a Rangers game and saw the home team beat the Boston Red Sox on Josh Hamilton's two-run double in the bottom of the ninth, turning a 2-3 deficit into a 4-3 victory. This play that ends a game in a victory for the home team is known colloquially as a "walk-off" as it allows the home team to walk off the field in triumph (and the opposing team to walk off the field in agonizing defeat). While a walk-off happens dozens of times a season, the exhilaration it provides makes it one of the most exciting plays in all of baseball, even if it was something as mundane or a bases loaded error on a throw to the catcher or a bases loaded hit by pitch.
Anyways, after the Hamilton walk-off I began wondering about the games I attended that ended in walk-offs. Looking back through the Excel spreadsheet tracking every game I went to, I identified five that ended in walk-off fashion, and wrote a lengthy post detailing each game, while also taking note of how much win probability each walk-off added. The concept of win probability derives from research from baseball analyst Tom Tango who broke down the win expectancy of every team based on inning, runners on base, and number of outs. The win expectancy for each team rises and falls with every play until it ends with the winning team at 100% and the loser at 0%. The win probability added (WPA) statistic basically tracks the win expectancy right before the play that ultimately ends with the team at 100%. The WPA of the five that I saw ranged from a measly 7% (on a bases loaded error with no outs in a tie game on April 14, 2012) to a whopping 80% (on Hamilton's two-out double with runners on the corner and his team down by one).
In the ensuing six years I wrote additional posts on the seven other walk-offs I had seen in person, from Tommy Joseph's single on May 27, 2017 to send the Philadelphia Phillies over the Cincinnati Reds to Adolis Garcia's single on May 23, 2021 to help the Rangers defeat their rival Houston Astros. After that last walk-off I rewrote and expanded upon each of the walk-off games, posting it onto this blog. I then thought about what to do with any additional walk-offs I see. I decided I could edit the post and add any additional walk-off games. However, that post included 12 walk-offs and the next game to end in a walk-off would be my 13th. I have a bit of triskaidekaphobia in me and wanted to wait until there were two more walk-off games before editing the post. Then it turned out of the 17 games I saw in 2022, only one was a walk-off. So I decided to wait for the 14th. Then the first walk-off of 2023 - the 14th walk-off game - was a major bummer and I didn't feel like writing about it. And that followed up with one of the most unbelievable experiences that I ever had at a Major League Baseball game and didn't know where to start writing about it, so I put it off. 2024 came and went and two more walk-off games were added to the list. I finally decided that I should just stop procrastinating and write about the five additional walk-offs in a separate post. And what better way to do so on the 10th anniversary of the game that started my fascination with walk-offs?
June 25, 2022
Texas Rangers 3, Washington Nationals 2
Globe Life Field, Arlington, TX
WPA: .37
The new additions didn't seem to help much as the Rangers got off to a rotten start in 2022, but the pieces began to click when the calendar turned to May as they went 17-10, the most wins in a calendar month since the team won 18 in June 2019. By the time the Washington Nationals rolled into town for a weekend interleague series, Texas was within striking distance of .500, sitting at 33-35 and second place in the division. The Nationals had struggled mightily since winning the World Series in 2019, and seemed to hit their nadir, with their 25-47 record one of the worst in baseball and the worst in the franchise after 72 games since the 2009 team that lost to Randy Johnson and his 300th win on their way to 22-50. So naturally, the Nats won the first game in the series after their young stud Juan Soto scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning. So the Rangers needed to win the middle game to have a chance to take the series.
I thought that I had forsaken the Rangers during the depths of their 2021 campaign, especially since I was not a fan of their new stadium, Globe Life Field. The air conditioning was nice but it lacked the charm and the aesthetics as the Ballpark where they had played for 26 seasons, including the 12 after I moved to Texas. However, I found that I couldn't shake the bond that I had built with the team, the one that developed in not just 80 home games but also almost 20 on the road. It also helps that the Rangers were celebrating 50 years in Texas in 2022, and had some nifty 50th anniversary giveaways, and the team was handing out a special 50th anniversary Nolan Ryan bobblehead. I had nothing better to do, so I made my way to the stadium and decided to stay for the game.
The Nationals were sending to the mound one of their promising young starters in Josiah Gray. Gray had made his Major League debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers the year before, but he was one of the promising young prospects that Washington acquired in their trade for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner the year before, alongside catcher Keibert Ruiz. He struggled to finish out the 2021 season and scuffled to open 2022, but seemed to have found his footing as he was in the midst of a 16.2-inning scoreless streak, dropping his ERA below 4.00. Meanwhile the Rangers were making use of relatively recent innovation and starting an Opener. The Opener was popularized by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018 and featured a reliever starting a game before bringing in a primary pitcher, frequently a younger player that struggles to open ballgames. Texas certainly had one of those types of pitchers lining up to get the start in Taylor Hearn. Hearn had come over in the Keone Kela trade and had a decent 2021 season as a long reliever and spot starter. He was transitioned to full-time starter for 2022, but he got off to an awful start as he was knocked around in several short outings. It culminated in him getting clobbered for eight runs in 3.2 innings against the hapless Detroit Tigers in his previous start. So to ease him into the role, Rangers manager Chris Woodward decided to use lefty Brett Martin as an Opener.
Martin struggled somewhat to open the game, allowing a leadoff single and walking two, but a Soto double play helped him get out of the inning with no damage on the scoreboard. Hearn similarly struggled in his first inning of work, also walking two but keeping the game scoreless. Meanwhile, the Rangers got to Gray to draw first blood. After an easy one-two-three inning in the first, Gray walked veteran Mitch Garver to bring up first baseman Nathaniel Lowe. Lowe was obtained in a trade following the 2020 season. He was one of the lone bright spots in 2021 as he hit .264/.357/.415 with 18 home runs. He was off to an even better start in 2022, going .275/.323/.433 and already with nine home runs. He made it an even ten when he blasted a sinking fastball to deep center field with room to spare, and Texas was up 2-0. The early offense seemed to be a mirage as both Hearn and Gray settled down, retiring the next 19 hitters before back to back singles in the fifth that still didn't amount to anything.
Hearn had pitched well after his early struggles in the second, but with the Washington lineup turning over and the dangerous Soto leading off, manager Woodward decided that Hearn's day was done after four hitless innings. He brought in another lefty in Brock Burke to face Soto, but Soto greeted the new pitcher with a ringing double to the base of the wall. Burke retired the next batter, but came face to face with a player that became a legend in the Ballpark across the street: Nelson Cruz. Cruz had been a popular slugger for the Rangers during their 2010-11 heyday, even winning the ALCS MVP in the latter year. However, some fans never forgave him for not being able to catch David Freese fly ball that could have won that year's World Series, and others blamed him for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal that got him suspended for the pennant race in 2013, which the Rangers lost in a tiebreak game to the Rays. The team let him walk as he became a free agent after that season, and he established himself as one of the premiere sluggers, blasting 37 home runs six years in a row including four where he hit 40. He signed with the Nationals after a 32-homer campaign for the Minnesota Twins and the Rays in 2021, and rediscovered his stroke following a slow start. He was only five days away from turning 42, but you'd never know it when he turned on a fastball and drove it into the left field seats for his 457th career home run. The game was now tied.
Burke allowed another double before getting out of the inning with the tied score intact. The game soldiered on, as both teams had opportunities but could not convert. Matt Moore came into the seventh and allowed a single and a walk, but a double play kept the Nationals from scoring. Meanwhile in the bottom of the inning youngster Josh Smith, acquired in the Gallo trade, singled and stole second, but Gray struck out the side. Both teams had a single to lead off their half of the eighth, but both baserunners were erased in a double play. When Joe Barlow retired Washington in order to end the top of the ninth, the game entered the territory where the Rangers can only win in a walk-off. Leading off the bottom of the ninth was the hero in the Astros walk-off the year before, Adolis Garcia. Adolis, nicknamed "El Bombi" more for the shape of his head resembling a bombilla (light bulb in Spanish) than the bombs he would hit in the Majors, had cooled down following his heroics in May 2021. He was striking out a ton and seeing his home runs dissipate, and ended the season with a pitiful .286 on-base percentage to go with his .243 batting average and .454 slugging, although his outfield defense was strong enough to help him finish fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting. He struggled in the first two months of 2022, but seemed to rediscover his stroke in June, hitting .321/.356/.583 in June while clobbering six home runs, including one the day before to account for the Rangers' only run. He had gone 0 for 3 in his first three plate appearances including two strikeouts, but it only takes one swing to become a hero.
If Adolis was to become a hero, he would have to do it against the Nationals' Kyle Finnegan, who had overcame some struggles early in the season to become a trusted setup man for closer Tanner Rainey. Finnegan had faced Adolis the day before and got the Cuban slugger to strike out on a 99-mph fastball. Having seen Garcia the day before, Finnegan started out with a pair of fastballs that went for a ball and was fouled off. He then decided to show Adolis the slider, which Garcia swung through. After Adolis spit on a slider outside, he spoiled a 97-mph fastball by hitting it foul. Finnegan decided to go back to the slider, hoping to induce another swing and a miss. With catcher Ruiz setting up outside, Finnegan threw his third slider of the at-bat, but it hung in the heart of the plate, and Adolis did not miss, sending the ball shooting towards the Nationals bullpen in left center field at 108.3 mph. It bounced against the far wall of the bullpen, traveling an estimated 449 feet, the third longest hit in Globe Life Field to that point in the season, and the longest by a Rangers hitter. And naturally it was the home run that won the game for Texas in walk-off fashion. It was the second walk-off home run in the career of Adolis Garcia, but it certainly won't be his last.
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August 30, 2023
New York Mets 6, Texas Rangers 5
Citi Field, Queens, New York
WPA: .06
As I mentioned in my post about visiting every Major League Baseball stadium, I had been to Citi Field during my efforts to hit up east coast ballparks in May 2017. It was the third stadium in three days, and after attending games at the decent but set-apart Citizens Bank Park and the corporate and expensive Yankee Stadium, I instantly fell in love with the homely charms and convenient location of Citi Field, even if I was mostly indifferent about its tenants. It was easy to access, sitting right outside the Mets-Willets Point MTA station, and it had a more welcoming field. It was no wonder that I chose to go back when I visited friends in New York. Similarly, when I went back to New York in April of 2023, I took my new friend to her first baseball game at Citi Field. She was not impressed, Nevertheless, we continued our correspondence.
My new friend is extremely enamored with Europe, having been several times. The topic of travel came up in our conversations numerous times, and she was aghast to hear that I had never been to Europe, and the only countries outside of North America I had been to were the Republic of China and People's Republic of China. She began looking up itineraries for potential European trips and soon came across one that intrigued me. It was mostly a tour Croatia, but included stops to and from Paris where the tour would start and finish. It included stops in Salzburg, the home of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Stuttgart, not too far from where the German pony convention Galacon would be happening. It was decided that we would be taking this trip.
Since this would be my first trip to Europe, I thought it would be best for me to fly to New York and so we can fly to Paris and back to the United States together. Since I'd be spending some time in New York I decided to look at the Mets schedule to see if there would be any home games. Then I saw that at the end of August, a little more than a week before we were due to fly out, the Mets would be hosting none other than the Texas Rangers. As I had mentioned my connections with the Rangers ran deep, as not only had I been to more Rangers home games than that of any other team, I had seen them on the road more than any other team. During my trip around the Major League ballparks, there were several where I specifically planned for when they were playing the Rangers. It got to the point where I had seen Texas play in ten different road stadiums. This was a wonderful opportunity to make it 11. Furthermore, I was in the midst of my efforts to get autographs on the cards I collected of the pitchers that lost to Randy Johnson, and the last active Randy Johnson Losing Pitcher was traded to the Rangers at the 2023 Trade Deadline. It is virtually impossible to get autographs from players at Globe Life Field, but I had some success in my previous visits to Citi Field, so I figured this was as good as any to get the autograph. So I decided to fly out early enough to go to see the Rangers play the Mets. To maximize my chances of getting autographs, I got tickets to all three games, even if I could only attend the latter two.
The Rangers stumbled hard after the walk-off against the Nationals the year before. Despite putting up a decent run differential, they could not find a way to win one-run games, and ended up with 94 losses, just an eight game improvement over their disastrous 2021 season. The team ended up firing manager Chris Woodward and longtime general manager Jon Daniels as they prepared for a new beginning in 2023. After spending almost half a billion dollars on free agents the previous offseason, the Rangers continued to open up the checkbooks for some other top free agents, namely pitchers Nathan Eovaldi, and former Mets ace Jacob deGrom, whose Major League debut in Citi Field I had driven by nine years earlier. And after using third base coach Tony Beasley as interim manager to finish the season, they hired a future Hall of Famer in Bruce Bochy to lead the team for 2023. The prognosticators began predicting good things for the Rangers, and even Joe Posnanski expected them to be competitive. I was highly skeptical, even after the Texas seasons opened with a sweep of the defending National League champion Phillies. Yet after a pair of series losses, the Rangers began winning and sat in first place at 17-12 by the end of the month. They were even better in May where they went 18-9.
June and July were a bit rougher for the Rangers as they went a combined 25-26, but still maintained first place in the division, although it was becoming much more tenuous. New general manager Chris Young decided to make some big swings at the Trade Deadline, with the biggest being Max Scherzer from the faltering Mets, but also Jordan Montgomery and Chris Stratton from the St. Louis Cardinals and defensive catcher Austin Hedges. Texas came roaring out of the gate following the Deadline, winning eight in a row and 12 of 14. Then just as abruptly they couldn't stop losing, stumbling to an eight game losing streak and dropping eight of ten going to the Mets series, finally falling behind the Seattle Mariners and tied with the suddenly surging Astros. They stemmed the bleeding by capturing the first two games on the series, the former with their first ninth inning comeback of the season and the latter after new closer Aroldis Chapman allowed a Huge* two-out solo home run but still secured the save.
*As I mentioned in some of my previous posts, the Huge run refers to a run that brings a team within one. It is a reference to the Nintendo 64 game Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey where when a team scores to pull within one, the announcer would cry out "A huge goal!" I just took it that same concept and applied it in a baseball setting, but it hasn't really caught on.
The Rangers now had a chance to go for the sweep. I was at the game along with the father of my friend Adam, with whom I went to most of the baseball games. I failed to get Scherzer's autograph as he did not come out before any of the games. But I was still hopeful that Texas can defeat a Mets team that had fallen into last place in the NL East. They were entrusting their hopes for a sweep on the arms of Dane Dunning, one of their promising young starters. He had come over from the White Sox in the trade for Lance Lynn after the 2020 season. He had struggled in their first two seasons but seemed to take the next step forward in 2023. His nine wins were tied for second on the team and had an impressive 3.36 ERA. He had struck out 11 in a win over his old team earlier in the month, then followed it up with 12 strikeouts against the San Francisco Giants. He had struggled in taking losses in the two starts since, but the Rangers were hoping he could turn things around. Meanwhile the Mets had called up young starter Denyi Reyes from AAA Syracuse to make this start.
The game started out rather uneventfully. Nathaniel Lowe singled with two outs in the first, but he was erased on an Adolis Garcia groundout while Dunning had a one-two-three inning. However, things quickly went downhill for Dunning in the second. He got 2019 NL Rookie of the Year winner Pete Alonso out on a flyout to lead off the second, but then allowed back to back home runs against a pair of longtime American Leaguers in Daniel Vogelbach and DJ Stewart. Things went from bad to worse for Dunning when after a lineout, a single and a walk put runners on first and second. Brandon Nimmo followed with a ringing line drive that bounced untouched over the center field wall. It drove in a run, and would have driven in a second, but thankfully for the Rangers the umpires ruled it a ground rule double. The trailing runner had to stop a third. He was stranded there but the Mets still had a 3-0 lead. This wouldn't have been much of an issue, but Reyes was carving up the Rangers hitters. He did allow a home run to Corey Seager to lead off the fourth, but that was the only damage Texas was able to do until the sixth.
Leody Taveras led off the sixth inning with a single. That turned the Rangers lineup over for the third time. The right-handed Reyes was allowed to face the right-handed Marcus Semien, whom he retired on a popup, but with lefty Seager coming up Mets manager Buck Showalter decided to go to the bullpen. He brought in Sean Reid-Foley, who hadn't allowed a run since being recalled from AAA Syracuse the week before. However, he had struggles finding the strike zone as he walked the next three batters, forcing in Taveras with the Huge run. Yet just when it seemed like the Rangers had a chance to take control of the game, Reid-Foley rediscovered the strike zone and struck out the next two batters, extinguishing the threat. Martin Perez had come into the game the inning before. He also got into some trouble with a single and a ground-rule double, but got out of it with an intentional walk and a double play. He then threw two more scoreless innings to bring the game to the eighth.
Brooks Raley came in to pitch the eighth. I had seen him record his first Major League win 11 years earlier when I went to watch the Chicago Cubs defeat the Cincinnati Reds in the Great American Ballpark. He struggled with the Cubs, and soon had to pitch in Korea to continue his baseball career. He did well enough through five seasons that he was signed by the team he beat for his first win. He since found success as a lefty reliever, even pitching in the World Series for the 2021 Astros, and landed with the Mets where he was having a strong season. However, he did not have it on this night, as he allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases. Out went Raley and in came Adam Ottavino, He was the Mets' best reliever in 2022 yet struggled for much of 2023 before finding more success after the All-Star break. Yet Raley left him in a real pickle with the bases loaded and no outs. He promptly hit Adolis to force in the tying run. He followed with a 1-2-3 double play and it seemed the Mets could get out of the inning with the score still tied. However, there were two runners in scoring position, and they both scored when Jonah Heim singled, giving the Rangers a 5-3 lead.
With a lead to protect, manager Bochy turned to the reliever who had become the pitcher entrusted with the late innings: Jose Leclerc. Leclerc had become the longest tenured Ranger, having signed with the team all the way back in 2010 and been in the Majors since 2016. He had electric stuff and was fantastic in 2018, but he often struggled with his control, leading to some mediocre seasons as well. He was decent in 2022 and pitched well in April of 2023 before struggling in May. He was sent to the Injured List in June after an ankle sprain, but was great upon his return. His job now was to maintain this two-run lead, although Alonso greeted him with a single to right field. Leclerc struck out the next batter before coming face to face with DJ Stewart, the former Orioles outfielder who had become red hot since the middle of August and had already homered once this game. Leclerc tried sneaking a fastball away past Stewart, but missed up and over the plate. Stewart did not miss, sending a high fly ball over the right field wall, just to the left of where he had hit it six innings earlier. The game was now tied.
Will Smith came in and retired the next two batters, sending the game into the ninth. Both teams managed to get runners into scoring position, but neither could get the go-ahead run home as the game went into extra innings. As in 2021, both teams got to start with a runner in second position in an effort to eliminate marathon games. For the Rangers this runner was Lowe. Adolis led off the inning with an infield single off of reliever Jeff Brigham, but Lowe had to stay at second. It didn't matter as Mitch Garver walked, creating another bases loaded, no out situation. However, Heim hit a liner to short, and Travis Jankowski hit into a 3-2-4 double play to end the threat. Now the Mets had the chance to walk it off. The Rangers brought in Chapman, the closer they had acquired in June from the Kansas City Royals in a trade for fading pitching prospect Cole Ragans. Chapman made his fame throwing 105-mph fastballs, but he had also developed a reputation for being somewhat spotty in pressure situations, which had continued in Texas. He got the job done the day before, and Bochy was hoping he could do it again. He ordered an intentional walk to Alonso to set up the double play, but Chapman then walked the next batter in Francisco Alvarez to load the bases. Up stepped DJ Stewart, who already hit two homers. Catcher Heim called for an outside fastball, but it ended up sailing inside, so far inside that Stewart had no chance of getting out of the way. With that, the Mets captured the game 6-5 to avoid the sweep, thrusting a dagger into my Rangers fan heart.
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October 27, 2023
Texas Rangers 6, Arizona Diamondbacks 5
World Series Game 1
Globe Life Field, Arlington, TX
WPA: .42
The Rangers were in the driver's seat going into the final four-game series in Seattle, sitting in first place in the AL West with a 2.5 game lead over the Astros and four game lead over the Mariners. Toronto sat lurking two games behind. With the even-more-expanded playoff system put in place the year before, any tiebreak games were eliminated, and in the event that two or more teams finished with the same record the head-to-head record between the teams would serve as the first tiebreaker. Texas held a dominating 8-1 lead in the season series against Seattle going into the final four games, but they were 4-9 against the Astros. The Rangers would come out ahead if they finished tied with only the Mariners, but be behind if they end up tied with only the Astros. And in the event the three teams ended up tied, which would only happen if Texas were swept and Houston won two of three against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the tiebreak becomes combined record against the other two teams. The Rangers' 12-14 record that would result from the sweep would be behind the 13-13 for the Astros and 14-12 for the Mariners. And even though Texas held the tiebreak over the Blue Jays on the basis of a superior record against teams in their own division, the Rangers could miss the playoffs entirely in a sweep if Toronto were to win more than three of their final four games.
The first order of business for the Rangers was obviously to avoid the sweep, as just one win can clinch the playoff berth. It seemed possible in the series opener as Texas held a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the ninth. However, Chapman had another one of his patented flameouts, as he loaded the bases on two singles and a walk. In came Jonathan Hernandez, a once-promising flamethrower whose inconsistencies led him to spend more time with AAA Round Rock. He almost got out of the jam with two breathtaking outs, but then surrendered a walk-off against J.P. Crawford. The Rangers never had a chance in Game 2 as they were shut out by Mariners pitching. With the Astros winning their series opener in Arizona and the Blue Jays taking two straight, the Texas Nightmare loomed large. Yet the Rangers finally put all doubts to bed in Game 3 when they clobbered Seattle starter Luis Castillo for four runs in the third on their way to a 6-1 win. Texas was finally going back to the postseason! The team celebrated, then went out to drop the season finale 0-1 the next day. Meanwhile, Houston completed the sweep of the Diamondbacks. With both Texas teams finishing at 90-72, the Astros won the division on the tiebreak, and all of a sudden the Rangers found themselves as the second Wild Card team and forced to fly all the way to St. Petersburg to open the playoffs in the new Wild Card series against the first Wild Card team in the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays in 2023 got off to a blazing hot start, winning 13 in a row and holding onto first place in the AL East through the All-Star break. They came back down to Earth and struggled mightily in July, going 8-16, but managed to right the ship and finished at 99-63, better than every other American League team except for the surprise Baltimore Orioles who had won 101. Having been the top Wild Card team Tampa Bay got to host the series, with all potential games happening in their decrepit old home field Tropicana Field. It sure seemed like a mismatch, as not only were the Rays nine games better than the Rangers, they also had the best home record in the American League, while Texas was below .500 at 40-41. Nevertheless, the Rangers won both games handily, as Tampa Bay's five errors aided an already potent Texas attack, while free agent signing Nathan Eovaldi and trade target Jordan Montgomery shut down the powerful Rays offense. It was onto Baltimore for the Division Series where the 101-win Orioles waited. Baltimore had lost over 108 games three times in four seasons between 2018-2021, but that allowed them to acquire enough young talent to transform the team into the best in the American League. Yet the Rangers won a nail-biter in Game 1 and a blowout in Game 2 punctuated by a grand slam off the bat of Mitch Garver. The series shifted back to Texas, and in their first home game in over two weeks, the Rangers treated their faithful an even bigger blowout to go to their first American League Championship Series since 2011.
Awaiting them in the ALCS is their intrastate rivals, the defending World Series champion Houston Astros. Like the Orioles, the Astros had a bye in the Wild Card series, but unlike Baltimore they had brushed off their opponents in the Division Series. The 4-9 regular season record against Houston and the terrible sweep in early September loomed large in the minds of Rangers fans. Yet some eagle-eyed observers noticed the Astros had a losing record in their home ballpark at 39-42, by far the worst among all playoff teams. Houston's troubles became all too apparent when Texas captured the first two games, the first when Montgomery outdueled future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander in a game the hot young rookie outfielder Evan Carter doubled off the diminutive Jose Altuve when Altuve failed to retouch second after Carter made a fine grab, and the second when the Rangers battered Astros starter Framber Valdez for five runs in the first two innings, and the Texas pitchers held on against a Houston comeback. The Rangers and their fans felt good about their 2-0 series lead going back home, but the good feelings disappeared immediately when the Astros won the next two games in blowout fashion, setting up for a crucial Game 5.
Game 5 of the 2023 ALCS was a rematch of the Game 1 starters in Montgomery and Verlander. The two teams traded runs early on with solo homers by Alex Bregman of the Astros and Nathaniel Lowe of the Rangers. Houston took a 2-1 lead on a single by former MVP Jose Abreu, but then Adolis Garcia responded with a monster three-run homer, which he celebrated by spiking his bat into the turf. The lead held into the bottom of the eighth, when with a man on first Adolis was plunked by reliever Bryan Abreu. This led to a lengthy delay where both benches cleared. Several players ended up ejected, along with Astros manager Dusty Baker who refused to leave the dugout for several minutes after the ejection. When finally play resumed Texas threatened but couldn't score. Nevertheless the game went to the ninth with Jose Leclerc on the mound to protect a two-run lead. Leclerc had shaken off the disastrous blown save in August to post a strong September where he took over closing duties and was all but untouchable in the playoffs. Yet he had gotten the final out in the eighth, and had to watch the fracas that developed following the hit by pitch. He allowed a single and a walk, then served up a back-breaking go-ahead home run to Altuve. The Rangers threatened in the bottom of the ninth, but there was no walk-off magic. The Astros were one win away from their third straight World Series berth, and they had two chances to solve their home woes once and for all. Houston played valiantly in Game 6 and were only down 2-3 going into the eighth, but Texas pulled away after that, with Adolis providing the knockout punch with a grand slam in the ninth. Game 7 was a laugher as the Rangers scored eight runs in the first four innings. They ultimately came out on top 11-4 as Texas pulled out a win in only the second seven-game postseason series where the road team won every game. They were heading back to the World Series.
The Rangers had been to the World Series before, having been there in back to back seasons in 2010 and 2011. Yet both series ended in defeats, as Texas found themselves virtually shut out against a superior San Francisco Giants team led by their current manager Bochy in 2010, and being upset by a clearly inferior St. Louis Cardinals team in 2011 after coming within one strike of winning the title on two separate occasions. They appeared well equipped for another run to the World Series in 2012, but collapsed in late September to find themselves in the Wild Card Series, and couldn't even make it out of a tiebreak game in 2013. Then they fell back into the pattern of mediocrity that had defined their franchise dating back to 1961 when they were the expansion Washington Senators, designed as a replacement for the original Senators that fled to Minnesota to become the Twins. Yet only two years after losing 102 games, the Rangers built a contending team out of a collection of young players and expensive free agent veterans, and were back for another shot at the promised land. Opposing them in this quest was another team that had lost over 100 games in 2021 in the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks showed tremendous grit and tenacity as the third Wild Card team in the National League as they scored a pair of come-from-behind wins against the Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild Card series, took advantage of a depleted Los Angeles Dodgers rotation in the Division Series, and upset the superior firepower of the defending NL champion Phillies in the ALCS. They were back in the World Series for the first time since they had toppled the New York Yankees dynasty in 2001 behind the pitching of Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson.
I had been to the World Series when it was held in Globe Life Field in 2020, then traveled down to Houston to watch a World Series game in 2021 and 2022. With the Rangers back in the World Series for the first time in 2011, I knew I had to splurge to get a pair of tickets for Game 1, especially since it was happening in an off day for me and my friend Adam. It was also happening on the 12th anniversary of the darkest day in Texas Rangers history, the day of Game 6 of the 2011 World Series; the day the Rangers had two opportunities to clinch the World Series against the Cardinals yet failed both times, ultimately losing the game and the Series. A win would go a long way towards exorcising those demons, and Texas looked to Nathan Eovaldi to serve as the exorcist. Eovaldi had an up and down season in 2023, his first with the Rangers. He was hit hard in April, but then dominated in the next three months before going on in the Injured List with a right forearm strain. He made his return in September but was hit hard, posting a 9.30 ERA in his final six starts. Nevertheless, Texas acquired him due to his reputation as a playoff warrior, having thrown six extra innings in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series but was saddled with the touch-luck loss. He was as advertised in the 2023 postseason, going 4-0 in his four starts with a 2.42 ERA. Opposing him in the quest was Zac Gallen, clearly the top dog in the Diamondbacks rotation, winning 17 games and throwing 210 innings, just six innings away from the Major League lead. He hadn't been quite as dominant in the post-season, going 2-2 with a 5.24 ERA as he won his starts in the Wild Card and Division Series, but losing both of them in the NLCS. Everybody in the stadium knew we should be in for a good time. We had no idea how good it would be.
The night started out well for the home team. Eovaldi tossed a one-two-three inning to lead off the game, then Seager walked in the bottom of the first. Up next came Evan Carter, the Rangers' young savior. Carter was drafted in obscurity out of Elizabethton, Tennessee in the second round of the COVID-shortened 2020 season. He was an unknown entity for most of the draft prognosticators, but he quickly rose up the minor league system and the top prospects list, showing off decent power and an uncanny batting eye. He received a call-up and made his Major League debut a little more than a week after the walk-off loss versus the Mets, and quickly tore up Major League pitchers, helping Texas to the pair of six-game winning streaks that rescued the season. He continued his production into the postseason with timely hits and sparkling left field defense. He came through in his first World Series at-bat with a double into the gap, scoring Seager for the first run of the Series. Next up was Adolis Garcia, who was a one-man wrecking crew against the Astros in the ALCS, walloping five homers and driving in 15 runs to secure the ALCS MVP award. His 20 RBIs to that point was just one behind David Freese in 2011 (it's always David Freese) for most in a single postseason, and he pulled into a tie with a single into left field to score Carter and gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead. The next batter hit into a double play, but the two-run lead felt good, especially after Eovaldi struck out the side in the second.
Things weren't quite so smooth for Eovaldi in the third. He allowed a pair of singles to lead off the inning, first on a Baltimore chop that the runner beat out, and the second on a ground ball through the hole that resulted from the first baseman holding the runner. The next batter bunted both runners into scoring position, bringing up the Diamondbacks' most dangerous hitter, Rookie of the Year-to-be Corbin Carroll. The half-Taiwanese outfielder was a top prospect since be drafted in the first round in 2019, and he came through with a tremendous rookie season, blasting 25 home runs and stealing over 50 bases. He also led the National League with ten triples, and added his first in the postseason as he hit a liner that got by Texas center fielder Taveras, who took a bad route to the ball. Both runners scored easily to tie the game, and with his triple Carroll was just 90 feet from home plate representing the go-ahead run. Next up was Ketel Marte, who had a hit in all 16 postseason games he had played dating back to Arizona's 2017 playoff run. It was one behind Hank Bauer and Derek Jeter for the longest postseason hit streak. He hoped to get a hit with a hard grounder, but it was gloved by first baseman Lowe, who threw home to try to nab Carroll running on the play. Catcher Heim received the ball positioned on the far side of the plate, having learned the hard way not to obstruct the plate as the Rangers had lost a game in June against the Chicago White Sox after a runner he tagged out was ruled safe on replay due to obstruction. On this play he lunged to try to tag the runner, but Carroll slid in past the tag and the Diamondbacks had the lead. An embittered Eovaldi struck out the next two batters, but the damage had been done.
Gallen had pitched well in the second after allowing the two runs in the first, retiring Texas in order, and he started out hot in the third with a pair of strikeouts. Yet he lost the strike zone against Seager, walking Ranger on five pitches. He worked carefully to Carter, but the youngster bounced a ball the other way into left field, allowing him to go to second with his second double of the game while Seager stopped at third. Gallen then walked Adolis to load the bases, and came to face Mitch Garver, the longtime Twins catcher turned designated hitter who already had a grand slam in the postseason. Garver battled him to a full count and fouled off two fastballs. Then he watched a changeup low and took the bases loaded walk to tie the game. Yet the game wouldn't stay tied for long. Gallen got out of the jam with a fly ball, and Trade Deadline acquisition Tommy Pham led off the fourth with a monstrous home run into left field to give Arizona another lead. Things went from bad to worse in the fifth, when Geraldo Perdomo led off the inning with a single. Eovaldi struck out Carroll for his eighth of the day, but that brought up Marte, who was still looking to extend the hitting streak, as his grounder in the third was ruled a fielder's choice. There was no doubt this time, as he lifted a towering fly ball that struck the base of the right-center field wall, giving him the record-tying double and driving home Perdomo to make it 5-3 Arizona.
Eovaldi's night ended two batters later, as Dane Dunning had to come in to complete the inning. Soon Gallen left as well after a clean frame in the bottom of the inning. The fate of the game would lie in the arms of the bullpen. The matchup seemed to favor the Diamondbacks, as their relievers were instrumental in helping nail down whatever leads the starters handed them all postseason. Meanwhile the Rangers bullpen was seen as the team's weak point. They were the only playoff team to blown more saves than they completed, and had relied on a strategy of building up leads too large for the relievers to blow, yet as Game 5 of the ALCS proved it was still possible to blow them. Dunning allowed a single in the sixth before giving way to rookie Cody Bradford who completed the inning. Texas recorded a walk and a single against Ryan Thompson, but couldn't bring a run home. Bradford got two outs in the seventh before ceding way to Jon Gray, who struck out the side in the eighth. Joe Mantiply pitched a perfect seventh, but things got a little dicey for Kevin Ginkel in the bottom of the eighth. Adolis led off with a single and went to second on a wild pitch before Heim walked with one out. The speedy Josh Smith came in to run for Heim, but Ginkel got out of the inning with no damage.
After Gray and Will Smith took care of Arizona in the top of the ninth, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo brought in closer Paul Sewald to nail down the save. Arizona acquired Sewald from the Mariners at the trade deadline, and he had been lights out in the postseason, accruing six saves without even allowing a single run. Things looked dim for Texas, but Leody Taveras provided some hope for the home fans by working a walk. However, the hope quickly faded when Sewald struck out Marcus Semien. That brought up Corey Seager. Seager was the centerpiece free agent signing in the Texas spending spree prior to the 2022 season. He was a Rookie of the Year winner for the Dodgers and even won World Series MVP in Globe Life Field in the 2020 season. He scuffled in his first season with the Rangers, although still blasted 33 home runs. He repeated the home run totals in 2023 even after missing some time due to injuries. and was a beast through the postseason. He had faced Sewald several times in his career dating back to when he was on the Dodgers and Sewald was on the Mets. Sewald tried to get ahead in the count with a fastball in, but it caught too much of the plate and Seager pounced, walloping a prodigious blast deep into right field. Everybody in the park knew it was gone instantly, prompting broadcaster Joe Davis to proclaim "It's tied" before the ball even landed. Seager skipped his way to first before completing his home run trot. It was a whole new ballgame.
The game was only tied, yet the Rangers were eager to try to finish it. Carter struck out for the second out to bring up Adolis. Up in my seats along the third base side, I mentioned when the inning started that Adolis had the potential walk it off if he came to bat. It was not to be as Sewald drilled him with a fastball inside. There was no commotion on the field as Adolis quickly took his base, then stole second. With first base unoccupied, Lovullo called for an intentional walk to Garver. Ordinarily that would bring up Jonah Heim, a decent hitter, but with Heim being lifted for a pinch-runner in the eighth that brought to the plate the new catcher, Austin Hedges. Hedges was a brilliant defensive catcher and had proven to be a popular teammate in the clubhouse, as the tales of him writing the number of wins remaining on his buttocks came out into the public. Of course, he was also hapless at the plate, as he recorded a Mathis (OPS+ below 60 in over 200 plate appearances) four straight years. He had no chance as he flailed weakly at three straight sliders to strike out. For the first time all postseason, a game would be going into extra innings.
The much despised rule of having a runner start on second base that exist in the regular season was nullified for the playoffs, meaning both teams would have to scratch out a run from zero. The Diamondbacks had already burned through their high leverage relievers, while Texas still had their top relievers at the ready. Manager Bochy turned to Jose Leclerc who still had the team's trust in spite of his flameout in the ALCS. He was up to the task, pitching a scoreless top of the tenth. Arizona went with Kyle Nelson, the southpaw who was brilliant in 2022 but had been shaky in 2023. He was shaky in the bottom of the tenth, walking two and allowing a single to Semien, but induced a double play between the walks, and retired Seager on a groundout. That brought the game into the 11th. Leclerc came out and tossed another perfect inning. Nelson started the bottom of the 11th and retired Carter on a fly ball. With Adolis coming up, manager Lovullo went back to the bullpen and called in Miguel Castro, the longtime Oriole who spent time with both New York teams before signing with the Diamondbacks. His 75 appearances not only led the team but the National League as a whole, yet his production was somewhat shaky, and that had continued into the postseason. He worked carefully to Adolis, throwing two pitches out of the strike zone before getting Garcia to bite on a change-up. He missed badly on another change-up to set up a 3-1 count. With the ultimate hitter's count, Castro tried changing things up with a slider, but it caught too much of the plate. Adolis hit it the other way, and the entire stadium watched as it sailed into the right field stands with a devastating walk-off home run. The Texas Rangers had taken Game 1 of the 2023 World Series.
Up in the stands, the Rangers fans were wildly celebrating the exciting and somewhat unexpected victory. I gave a massive hug to the lady sitting to my right. We had never met each other before and would never see each other again, but for one moment we got to share in the jubilation of a walk-off victory. Adolis's walk-off home run was the first in a Game 1 of the World Series since Kirk Gibson's impossible blast in 1988, one of the most famous walk-off hits of all time. It wasn't quite as dramatic, as Garcia was not hurt like Gibson was, and Texas was not losing like the Dodgers were. It was still incredible for the Rangers to win a game where they were losing 3-5 in the bottom of the ninth. The importance of the win loomed even larger the very next day, when the Diamondbacks bounced back to win a blowout in Game 2 by a score of 9-1. At least with the Game 1 victory the team would be heading to Arizona with a split, rather than being down 0-2 had Sewald nailed down the save. Being down 0-2 following two home games would certainly not be the end of the Rangers' World Series hopes, especially as the 1985 Royals, 1986 Mets and 1996 Yankees all won a World Series after dropping the first two games at home, but heading on the road with a split would certainly be better, especially since the Rangers have been a perfect 8-0 on the road in the postseason going into the World Series.
Texas continued their road domination, as they won a nailbiter for Game 3 by a score of 3-1, with all three runs coming in the third inning, two of them on another two-run home run by Seager. Adolis had saved a run with his arm the inning before, as he threw out Christian Walker after the Arizona first baseman ran through a stop sign following a single. However, Garcia had to exit the game a few innings later, after straining an oblique while swinging the bat on a fly ball. This was a seriously blow for the Rangers, especially after they had lost Max Scherzer due to back spasms earlier in the game. Yet he stayed with the team and gave a stirring clubhouse speech, and Texas responded with five runs each in the second and third innings, with Adolis's replacement Jankowski contributing with two runs and two RBIs. The ten runs were more than enough to help the team survive a late Diamondbacks rally as they captured Game 4 by a score of 11-7, putting them within one win of a World Series titles they had been chasing since their birth as the expansion Washington Senators back in 1961.
Game 5 would be a rematch of Game 1 in Eovaldi vs. Gallen. Gallen was virtually untouchable, retiring the first 14 Rangers before a walk in the fifth, and taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Meanwhile Eovaldi dealt with runners in scoring position almost the entire night, scattering four hits and walking five. Yet each time he escaped without allowing a run to score. Seager finally ended the no-hitter with a single to led off the seventh, and Carter followed with a double, his record-breaking ninth in the postseason. Seager had to hold at third, but he trotted home on Garver's single. Texas couldn't bring in any more runs, but they had a 1-0 lead. Bochy went with Chapman in the bottom of the inning, but he walked Marte, and was removed as soon as he faced the three batter minimum. Bochy turned to Josh Sborz, the University of Virginia alumnus who had a miserable regular season but had become the most dominant reliever in the Rangers bullpen once the postseason rolled around. He retired Walker to end the seventh, then pitched around a Walker single to keep Arizona scoreless in the bottom of the eighth. Texas threatened earlier in the inning, loaded the bases with one out, but couldn't capitalize and the score remained 1-0. That would change in the ninth, as the first three Rangers hitters all singled, and Diamondbacks center fielder Alek Thomas's error fielding the third single led to two critical insurance runs coming home. Then after two outs, Semien blasted a two-run home run that would serve as the proverbial nail in the coffin for Arizona's World Series hopes. To the surprise of all, Sborz came out with a chance to nail down the three most important outs in Texas Rangers history. Neftali Feliz, Darren Oliver, and Scott Feldman had all attempted this task 12 years earlier but they all failed spectacularly. Sborz had no such difficulty. He struck out Perdomo and got Carroll to hit a harmless foul pop-up that catcher Heim had no difficulty corralling.
The last man standing for the Diamondbacks is Ketel Marte. Marte had extended his postseason hitting streak to 20, but while he had walked three times he remained hitless. A hit to extend his streak would certainly go a long way in keeping Arizona's season alive. Sborz started with a low fastball, but it was a little too low as it was called a ball. Sborz threw another fastball, and Marte could only foul it against the mask of home plate umpire Brian Knight. Knight appeared nonplussed by the contact, as he gave a few encouraging pats on Heim's chest protector. He had no trouble seeing Sborz's curveball as it dipped right into the strike zone as Marte could only watch helplessly. Withe the Rangers just one strike away once again, Sborz tried a fastball inside, but it sailed too far inside and the count was evened at 2-2. Heim decided to call for a pitch that had become a deadly weapon for Sborz, the curveball. Sborz delivered a moving curveball that dropped in at the top of the strike zone. Knight called it a strike and rang up Marte. The Texas Rangers were World Series Champions.
On the grand scheme of things, Game 1 was worth no more than Game 3, 4, or 5 in helping the Rangers get to the mountaintop. Each team needs four wins in order to win a World Series, and the three wins in Arizona were just as important as the walk-off victory. Yet if one considers each baseball game as a story each with their own individual ebbs and flows, it's hard not to see the dramatics of Game 1 and consider it the most important win. There is a stat similar to WPA that measures not the probability a team has to winning a game, but of winning a World Series. It was called championship Win Probability Added, or cWPA. There were only three plays in the entire 2023 postseason that contributed more than 10% cWPA, and two of them were in Game 1 of the 2023 World Series. (The third was Jose Altuve's go ahead three-run home run in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the ALCS). Adolis Garcia's walk-off home run was worth 13.03% cWPA (and 42% of your run of the mill WPA). However, the biggest single cWPA from the 2023 postseason was Corey Seager's game-tying home run, worth 14.79% cWPA (and 47% regular WPA). On the whole, 14.79% cWPA isn't all that impressive. It isn't even the highest cWPA in Rangers history (that would go to Josh Hamilton's 10th inning two-run home run in the infamous Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, worth 23.04% cWPA). There's really only so much cWPA that one can accrue in Game 1 of a World Series. Yet it will still be a game that no Rangers fan will ever forget.
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September 3, 2024
Texas Rangers 7, New York Yankees 4
Globe Life Field, Arlington, TX
WPA: .47
Winning the World Series was life-changing for Rangers fans around the world, and certainly for the players as well. They were feted to parades and celebrations, but the fact of the matter was the team would never be exactly the same as it was when they won. The off-season will come around and there will be departures and new arrivals as Texas prepared for their first ever title defense. In the offseason the team bid farewell to Austin Hedges and Will Smith but brought in veteran bullpen arms such as David Robertson and Kirby Yates. When spring training rolled around they also invited a few non-roster players, one of whom was top prospect Wyatt Langford. The Rangers actually held the fourth overall pick in 2023, thanks to their pitiful 94-loss 2022 season and some lottery luck. When a pair of Louisiana State University teammates and a high school outfielder went in the first three picks, Texas was more than happy to select Langford, an outfielder from the University of Florida that many analysts had predicted would go first overall. He signed quickly and tore up the minors from rookie ball to AAA Round Rock. He impressed in spring training as well and it was soon announced that he would be making the Opening Day roster as the Rangers embarked on their first ever title defense.
No team has won consecutive World Series titles since the Yankees won their three in a row between 1998-2000. There was some quiet optimism that Texas can buck the trend. Things started out well, as the Rangers won on Opening Night thanks to a game-tying home run in the ninth (by Travis Jankowski) and a walk-off hit by pitch, the first since Aroldis Chapman plunked DJ Stewart in New York the previous August. When the Rangers split a doubleheader in Oakland in May, they were sitting in first at 22-17, and their offense seemed just as potent as it was the year before with five games of double digit runs already. And then just as quickly things fell apart. Texas lost the next five games in a row and 12 of 14, and all of a sudden they were five games below .500 at 24-29 and in third place behind the Mariners with the Astros hot on their tails. Things would never really get better throughout the summer, as any short win streaks would be nullified by multi-game losing streaks. By the time the New York Yankees rolled into town for a series in early September, the Rangers were down to 65-72 and had a double digit deficit against Houston.
Texas have had a long rivalry with the Yankees dating back to the mid-1990s. The Rangers had finally made the playoffs by winning the AL West in 1996 after 35 years of futility. They went into New York for the first game in the Division Series and won it on a three-run homer by Juan Gonzalez. Texas held leads in the next three games, mostly behind the continued dominance of Juan Gone, but their bullpen couldn't hold strong against the Yankees who stormed back to win all three games and captured the series on their way to their first World Series in 15 years. The Rangers won two more division titles in 1998 and 1999 and were eager to get revenge on New York, but the Yankees steamrolled them for six straight wins. Texas only managed a grand total of two runs in those six games. The two straight annihilations sent the Rangers into a freefall and an identity crisis where they spent all of the 2000s being mostly mediocre. It wasn't until 2010 that Texas had rebuilt their core enough to capture another Division title. After getting past the Rays for their first ever postseason series win, they came face to face with none other than the Yankees for the ALCS. Game 1 brought back memories of 1996 when the Rangers blew a 5-0 lead in the last three innings to lose 5-6. Yet the sturdier Texas team proved it was only an aberration, as they won four of the next five games, punctuating the series win with a strikeout of former Ranger turned Yankee Alex Rodriguez.
The two teams never met again in the postseason, but New York continued to bully their little brothers. Going into the series the Yankees had gone 405-287 against Texas dating back to 1961. Back in 2022 one of their superstars even made history deep in the heart of Texas when Aaron Judge set a new American League record for homers in a season with 62. And as usual New York took the opening game of the series with an 8-4 win behind the arm of their Cy Young to be Gerrit Cole. That put some more importance for the Rangers to win the middle game of the series, which I decided to go because I had nothing better to do. They put their hopes in Andrew Heaney, the lefthander who got the win in Game 4 of the 2023 World Series. He had a 4-13 record going into the start, but that belied how well he had pitched this season. His 3.95 ERA was above average, and his 133 strikeouts were second only to staff ace Eovaldi. Of course, facing off was the Yankees' star southpaw Carlos Rodon, the onetime star pitching prospect that had tremendous seasons in 2021 and 2022 with the White Sox and San Francisco Giants respectively leading to a massive contract with New York. He was abysmal in an injury-marred 2023 season, but bounced back with a strong 2024 season.
Both pitchers were strong at the onset. Heaney allowed only a walk and a double in his first four innings of work, while striking out seven, including striking out the side in just ten pitches in the fourth. Rodon was slightly better, carrying a no-hitter into the bottom of the inning during which he only walked two while whiffing four of his own. Josh Jung ended all thoughts of no-hit history when he pounced on Rodon's first pitch in the fourth and drove it over the left field wall to give the Rangers an early lead. However, Rodon proceeded to strike out the side as well. Armed with the lead, Heaney got through a scoreless fifth despite allowing two singles, but Texas couldn't solve Rodon in the bottom of the inning either, striking out two more times. Heaney's day ended in the sixth after hitting Juan Soto with a pitch. Jose Leclerc came in and recorded a pair of strikeouts, the latter of which also included catcher Heim catching Soto trying to steal second for an inning ending double play. Leclerc wasn't so fortunate in the seventh. He allowed back to back singles to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe, then balked the runners to second and third. That allowed his former catcher Jose Trevino to tie the game with a slow grounder to short. Bochy went back to the bullpen and turned to Andrew Chafin, the grizzled veteran acquired from the Detroit Tigers at the Trade Deadline. Chafin fared no better as he allowed a go-ahead single to the beleaguered Alex Verdugo. Armed with a lead, Yankees manager Aaron Boone could now turn to his high leverage relievers. Tommy Kahnle came in and disposed of the Rangers in the bottom of the seventh, allowing only a harmless two-out single. Meanwhile his hitters added a few insurance runs when a walk and two singles loaded the bases for Volpe, batting with two outs. He battled the new Texas reliever Grant Anderson to a full count, then grounded a single up the middle just past the diving shortstop Jonathan Ornelas. Two runs scampered home, and New York now had a 4-1 lead.
That should have been the end of it, but the Rangers proved they still had some life in them in the bottom of the inning. Josh Smith came in as a pinch-hitter for Ornelas, and chopped a ball down the first base line. Yankees first baseman DJ LeMahieu tried gloving it, but it glanced off his glove. Kahnle bent down to field the ball, but Smith leapt over the New York pitcher and was safe at first. It was a play reminiscent of Billy Spiers trying to jump over Brad Arnsberg during Nolan Ryan's 300th win, but with far more success. Boone took out Kahnle and brought in Jake Cousins, but Semien hit a broken bat dribbler that turned into an infield single. That brought up Langford with a chance to tie the game. Langford has had an up and down rookie campaign. He started out hot, but then went into a prolonged slump through April into May before being forced onto the Injured List with a hamstring strain. His hitting had improved upon his return, and even hit for the cycle on June 30. After a dismal month of July and August, he was off to a decent start in September, recording three hits in the first two games. He had been hitless so far this game, but had a definite chance to do some damage with runners on first and second and nobody out. Instead, he struck out. Jung picked up the slack with a single up the middle to drive in Smith and sending Semien to third. A stolen base and a walk later, and the bases were loaded with one out. Out went Cousins and in came the sidearming southpaw Tim Hill to face the lefthanded Lowe. Lowe had no trouble lifting a fly ball to deep center field, more than enough for Semien to score the Huge run. Heim came in to pinch hit, but he could not bring in the tying run.
A pair of Rangers relievers worked through a walk and a single to keep the score at 4-3. And that led to a move that brought fear to the hearts of Yankees fans everywhere: Clay Holmes was coming in to get the save. Holmes had been a marvelous reliever since coming to New York in the middle of the 2021 season. He established himself as the closer in 2022, and recorded 44 saves between 2022 and 2023. He started out well in 2024, not recording an earned run through his first 20 appearances during which he recorded 13 saves (although one of his appearances came when he allowed three runs in ten innings, none of which were earned and was credited with a blown save). However, after a disastrous outing during which he allowed four runs to the Mariners, he seemed to be shaky, blowing five more games before the All-Star break, although he had made the team on the strength of his 21 successful saves. Things went from bad to worse after play resumed, as he blew four more saves to reach a grand total of ten. He did come in and finish the game the night before, although he did allow a runner he inherited from Hill to score. Yankees fans were able to breathe a sigh of relief as Holmes retired the first batter on a groundout. That relief was short-lived as the next batter Carson Kelly lined a single up the middle. Then Taveras came in as a pinch-runner and stole second to put into scoring position. Afterwards Holmes lost all semblance of the strike zone, walking Smith and Semien to load the bases. That brought up Langford who had a chance to atone for his failure the inning before. Holmes worked carefully, getting two very generous called strikes from home plate umpire Mark Wegner. Yet he also threw three uncompetitive pitches, and the count was full. Langford finally swung the bat for the first time when he fouled a slider away. Holmes tried another slider, but it hung right over the middle of the plate, and Langford did not miss this one. He crushed it into the upper deck seats along left field for a stunning walk-off grand slam. The Yankees fans all around me were cursing the name of Clay Holmes. The Rangers would end up below .500 at 78-84 while New York would go to the World Series. Yet for one night the little brothers triumphed.
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September 14, 2024
Chicago White Sox 7, Oakland Athletics 6
Guaranteed Rate Field, Chicago, IL
WPA .37
As mediocre as the Rangers were in 2024, they were far from being the worst team in Major League Baseball that season. That dubious honor would have to go to the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox were a playoff team as recently as 2021, when they won the AL Central with 93 games and with Hall of Fame manager Tony LaRussa behind the helm. Sure, they got destroyed by the Astros in the Division Series, but they had enough of a young core that most writers thought they'd be back. Of course, LaRussa was a controversial hire that many felt was orchestrated by Chicago owner Jerry Reinsdorf. And when the team got off to a slow start in 2022 much of the blame fell on the shoulders of the 77-year-old, who ultimately had to step away from the team due to some health problems in late August, leading Miguel Cairo, the last out in Roger Clemens's 300th win, to complete the season with a record right at 81-81. Longtime White Sox general manager went out and hired Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol and fans were hoping for a return to glory in 2023. Instead, Chicago was even worse than the year before, prompting a legendary rant from a fan to a radio show. By the end of the season, executive vice president Kenny Williams, the general manager behind the White Sox World Series title in 2005, and GM Rick Hahn had been relieved of their duties. The team collapsed to 101 losses, the most since the 1970 team that set a franchise record with 106. Fans thought things couldn't possibly get any worse, but they had no idea how wrong they would be.
The record for most losses in a single season was held by the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who went 20-134 after their owners bought up the St. Louis Browns and transferred all of the quality players to their new team. Of course, baseball was very different in 1899, and so when people cite the loss record they turn to the team with the modern loss record, which had belonged to the 1962 Mets. The Mets were an expansion team that year and although they were helmed by Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel, were stocked with castoffs from other National League teams. Their ineptitude became the stuff of legends, as they toppled the modern record of 117 held by the 1916 Athletics and finished at 40-120-1 (with one rainout that was never made up.) For over 60 years, there have been awful teams, yet they managed to win just enough to escape 120-loss villainy. The closest any team had come to breaking the Mets' record was the 2003 Tigers, who went into the final week of the season at 38-117, yet won five of their last six games to finish at 43-119. Since then there seemed to be a team that would get off to a rotten start every year. In just the past two seasons, the 2022 Reds began their season 3-22, while the 2023 Athletics were at 12-50 through the end of May. Nevertheless like most other teams these teams eventually won enough to avoid history.
The White Sox started out awful, as their 3-22 record after 25 games matched that of Cincinnati two years prior. But then they pulled off a sweep of the Rays, who won 99 games the year before. Ten days later they pulled off a four-game win streak, and all of a sudden they looked like a team that would be bad, but wouldn't challenge the Mets. Then things would get worse...much worse. After a win over the Blue Jays put Chicago at 15-34, they proceeded to lose 14 games in a row. The losing streak mercifully ended and they went 12-19 over the next month, but then the team went "I'll fuckin' do it again" and lost 21 games in a row to tie the American League record. The modern record of 23 losses were in sight, but then managed a fairly easy win over partners in pain Athletics. Even then the team didn't have any time to celebrate, as just two days following the streak-busting win Grifol was handed his pink slip, with former Indians All-Star Grady Sizemore coming in as interim. Things didn't get much better under the new regime, and Chicago found themselves mired in a third double-digit losing streak, a 12-gamer during which they suffered their 100th loss of the season on August 25. By the time that last losing streak ended the day after Wyatt Langford's walk-off grand slam, the White Sox were 32-109. With 21 games left in the season, they needed to win ten of them in order to avoid the record. Which may not seem like much, but they had won only ten games since June 27, a period during which they went 10-32.
The White Sox were bad in every facet of the game. They couldn't hit, as they put up the worst batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage in the game. All that led to them scoring the fewest runs per game for any team in the Majors. They couldn't field, as while they didn't have the worst fielding percentage in the game, the Total Zone estimate of plays that should have been made put their fielding as worth the most runs below average in the game. And they couldn't pitch, as their ERA and runs allowed per game were behind only two National League that play in extreme hitter's parks. Their starters were only moderately bad with two above-average starters in Garrett Crochet and Erick Fedde (the latter of whom was traded at the Trade Deadline), but their bullpen was horrendous. Not only did they have by far the fewest saves in the Majors, but they were challenging the all-time record of most blown saves in a season, held by the 2021 Washington Nationals. They had 31 by September 4, but they've been so bad they haven't had a potential save to blow since August 26. There had been other bad teams, including eight that lost 110 games between 2003 and 2023, yet none of them besides the 2003 Tigers had put up the sustained losing that would make them challengers for the modern era loss record.
I was watching this horror show with morbid curiosity from afar along with a brony friend with whom we went to a couple of games. By the middle of the 12-game losing streak we decided that things were so dire that we would regret it forever if we didn't go out to Chicago to watch a game. We checked the White Sox schedule and saw that there would be a weekend series against the A's from September 13-15 that could potentially work for us. We settled on the Saturday game and made plans, even buying tickets for a special Oktoberfest event that would allow us to get into Rate Field early. My friend even made signs, one of which cheered on Chicago's starter Chris Flexen, who spent three miserable years with the Mets before going to Korea and coming out an above average starter with Seattle. He was 2-14 with a 5.26 ERA, but led the team in innings, especially since staff ace Crochet saw his innings count drop dramatically since blocking a trade at the Trade Deadline. He definitely had more of a track record than Oakland's starter J.T. Ginn, a former Mets draft pick who was making only his fourth Major League start after debuting just three weeks prior.
As my friend and I settled into our seats with the delectable Campfire Milkshakes, we watched as both teams traded baserunners in the first. Lawrence Butler led off the game with a single and stole second, but Flexen struck out the side. The White Sox hit a trio of singles, but a caught stealing led to a scoreless inning. After two Athletics singles led nowhere in the second, Chicago drew first blood in the bottom of the inning. Lenyn Sosa hit a broken-bat single with one out, and after a second out Chuckie Robinson hit a Baltimore chop up the middle that eluded all infielders. Sosa made the daring decision to go to third. Oakland center fielder JJ Bleday threw to third, but the throw bounced off Sosa's back, and Robinson made it to second on the throw as well. With two runners in scoring position and two outs, the inning could go either way, but Nicky Lopez made sure the home fans were happen with a single up the middle to drive in two runs. After a double play helped Flexen keep the A's in check in the third, Gavin Sheets led off the bottom of the inning with a home run and all of a sudden the White Sox were up 3-0.
For most teams, a 3-0 lead would probably be safe, but these are the 2024 White Sox and no lead ever feels safe. Oakland got runners into scoring position in the fourth and the fifth against Flexen, but he managed to escape those innings with the lead intact. It was a valiant effort, especially as Ginn and reliever Kyle Muller kept Chicago scoreless in the bottom of the innings. Yet Flexen was already at 99 pitches, and interim manager Sizemore was forced to turn to the bullpen. He started out with former Pirates starter Chad Kuhl, who hadn't had a blown save since early in the 21-game losing streak on July 14. Things started out fairly smoothly for the grizzled veteran, as he struck out the leadoff batter. Although he walked the next batter, that batter was quickly erased in a forceout 3-6 that could have been a double play had White Sox first baseman Sheets not thrown wildly. There was still two outs and a runner on first, and there was hopes that Kuhl could get out of the sixth with the three-run lead intact. Yet rookie Max Schuemann sliced a double into right field. It wasn't enough to score Tyler Soderstrom, but Kuhl lost all semblance of control, hitting Jacob Wilson and walking Butler with the bases loaded to drive in a run. Then Oakland's top hitter Brent Rooker hit a ground ball that just eluded first baseman Sheets, and two runs scampered home. The game was now tied, and the White Sox had their first blown save since August 26, their 32nd of the season.
Enyel De Los Santos came in and got out of the inning, and the game remained tied into the seventh. Muller had pitched well since coming in the fifth, retiring seven straight batters, but allowed back to back singles to Lopez and Luis Robert Jr. with one out, putting runners and the corner and spelling the end of his night. In came Scott Alexander, the A's top setup man, to face Andrew Benintendi. Benintendi was a first round draft pick with the Boston Red Sox, with whom he helped to a World Series title in 2018, but he had a miserable COVID-shortened 2020 season after which he was traded to the Royals in a massive three team trade. He built his trade value back up and was sent to the Yankees, where he performed well enough that the White Sox gave him the biggest ever free agent deal in team history prior to the 2023 season. He was mediocre in 2023, putting up a decent enough average, but power stroke had almost completely disappeared. His power had recovered in 2024, with 16 home runs, but his on-base percentage had completely crated. Nevertheless, he came through this time, grounding a single to right allowing Lopez to score the go-ahead run and Robert Jr. to go from first to third. That extra base proved to be helpful as Sheets followed with a sacrifice fly to make it a 5-3 game. Alexander limited the damage there, but after a scoreless top of the eighth, Chicago continued their offensive assault against rookie Grant Holman. A walk and a single put two runners on, but when Holman retired the next two batters it seemed the lead would stay at two, but Lopez blooped a single for this third hit of the day, and the White Sox once again had a three-run lead.
A three run lead meant that it was still a save situation. And Sizemore decided to bring him one of his more trusted bullpen arms in right-hander Justin Anderson to go for his first Major League save. Anderson had worked his way back from Tommy John surgery and several years in the minors to make the Majors for the first time since 2019, and had even dropped his ERA below 4.00 with a strong showing the day before. There was no such success this time around, as he walked two with a Rooker single in between. The next batter Shea Langeliers hit a sharp grounder that deflected off the glove of Chicago third baseman Sosa and into shallow left field. Two runs scored by the time shortstop Jacob Amaya chased it down, and it was ruled a fielder's choice and an error on Sosa. A chastened Sizemore took out Anderson and brought in Augustus "Gus" Varland, but things didn't get any better. A single by Seth Brown loaded the bases, and another by Zack Gelof led to a second blown save of the game. A's third base coach Eric Martins was looking to take the lead by aggressively sending Langeliers, but White Sox catcher Robinson caught a high throw and tagged out the runner. Oakland manager Mark Kotsay challenged the play as he thought Robinson may have blocked the plate without the ball, but the call was upheld upon review. Varland retired the next two batters and the game went into the bottom of the ninth tied at six.
The game turned out to be a real barn-burner as we got to see the White Sox bullpen in all its save-blowing glory. But it was a whole new ballgame, as Kotsay went back to the bullpen to bring out Hogan Harris. Harris had done well as a starter with the A's earlier in the season, but he was optioned back to AAA Las Vegas due to a returning Paul Blackburn, but he had come back in a relief role a month later and had continued to do well. His first batter would be Benintendi. Harris missed with a fastball, but came back with another fastball and a slider to get two called strikes. Harris went for another slider outside to go for the strikeout, but it missed badly and hung in the middle of the plate. Benintendi put a mighty swing on it and sent the ball flying towards right field. It clanked off the foul pole making the walk-off victory official. The White Sox had their first walk-off win since April 27, and their first home win since August 12, a miserable home losing streak that hit 16 games. While my friend and I were hoping to see the White Sox continue their march for history, we were still excited at being able to watch one of the most exciting plays in baseball: a walk-off home run. Besides, even though the win sent Chicago to a 34-115 record, and even though the White Sox duplicated the feat of the 2003 Tigers and won five of their last seven games, they still lost number 121 on game 160, finally knocking the 1962 Mets off.
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Well, I definitely wrote a lot more than I was hoping for, but thankfully I gave myself a couple of days to work on this post. So with these five walk-offs that would give me 17. Who knows what I'd do if I watch another walk-off. Maybe I'll edit and post it in this post, since I don't have to worry about the stigma of 13 walk-offs. Or maybe I'll wait until I get five more and make a new post. Either way you never can tell with baseball.
Here are the walk-off rankings by WPA, from lowest to highest
08/30/2023: .06
04/14/2012: .07
05/19/2019: .16
05/23/2021: .16
06/01/2007: .18
05/27/2017: .19
05/26/2018: .35
10/14/2017: .37
06/25/2022: .37
09/14/2024: .37
10/27/2024: .42
05/17/2007: .46
08/03/2019: .46
08/09/2019: .46
09/03/2024: .47
06/18/2006: .79
05/31/2015: .80
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