1912 - New York Giants 2 at Boston 3 - A legendary game and series that I wrote about at enormous length many years ago. This one went to extras - the Giants took a 2-1 lead in the top of the tenth when Fred Merkle singled home Red Murray. But a series of Giants miscues in the bottom half - Snodgrass dropped Engle's routine fly, Christy Mathewson - the best control pitcher in the game - walked number 8 hitter Yerkes on four pitches, and three Giants fielders, each of whom was able to make the play, let Speaker's harmless foul pop land untouched led to disaster. Speaker singled home Engle with the tying run. Yerkes took third on the play and scored the winning run on Gardner's sac fly.

1924 - New York Giants 3 at Washington 4. - Another legendary game, another one that required extra innings - and there are actually video highlights! The Senators had made Bucky Harris, their 27 year old second baseman, a player-manager this year. In the deciding game of the World Series, Harris used RH Curly Ogden as an Opener (in 1924!), then switched to LH George Mogridge after two batters. In the ninth, with the game tied 3-3, he summoned his ace starter, the great Walter Johnson from the bullpen. Johnson held the fort, with four innings of scoreless relief until Earl McNeely doubled home Muddy Ruel in the bottom of the twelfth. Between the lines, Harris had hit a solo homer to provide Washington's first run of the game, and it was his two run single in the bottom of the eighth that sent the game to extras in the first place. The Boy Wonder indeed.

1925 - Washington 7 at Pittsburgh 9 - Harris and the Senators were back the following year, and once more it went to a seventh game. Walter Johnson was 37 years old, and not quite the overwhelming force he'd been ten years earlier. He was still pretty good (20-7, 3.07) and he opened the series by fanning 10 Pirates in a 4-1 victory. Four days later, Johnson tossed a six-hit shut out, and Washington led 3 games to one. But the Pirates won twice to force a seventh game, and when it came Johnson had nothing left. The game was played in pouring rain that turned the infield into a muddy quagmire. Staked to an instant 4-0 lead, he allowed four hits and three runs in the third. Washington stretched the lead back up to 6-3, but the Pirates got one run back in the fifth and tied the game with two more off Johnson in the seventh. The Senators went ahead yet again with a run in the eighth inning, and Harris stuck with his ancient ace. With two outs the Pirates suddenly rallied for three runs on a walk and three doubles. Washington went down in order in the top of the ninth. 

1926 - St.Louis 3 at New York Yankees 2 - Another legendary game! This was the first Game 7 for the teams that would make more Game 7 appearances than anyone. The series went back to Yankee Stadium with New York up three games to two, but the Cardinals tied the series with a 10-2 rout behind 39 year old Pete Alexander, whom they had acquired on a waiver claim in mid-season. In the finale, the Cardinals took a 3-2 lead into the seventh when the Yankees loaded the bases with two out. Alexander came out of the bullpen to strike out Tony Lazzeri to end the threat. In the ninth, Alexander walked Babe Ruth with two out, but the Babe was caught stealing to end the game. The Yankees would play in eleven Game Sevens over the years, more than any other team; the Cardinals would play in ten. But St. Louis would win seven of their ten, more than anyone else.

1931 - Philadelphia A's 2 at St.Louis 4 - This series saw one outstanding performance by a starting pitcher after another. Lefty Grove beat the Cardinals twice, Bill Hallahan beat the A's twice. George Earnshaw, who had tossed a two-hitter to win the fourth game for Philadelphia, matched up with Burleigh Grimes, who had out-pitched the great Grove himself in the third game. The Cardinals scored four early runs, and when Grimes tired in the ninth and the A's mounted a rally, Hallahan came out of the pen to get the final out.

1934 - St.Louis 11 at Detroit 0 - The Tigers came back to Detroit just one win away from their first championship ever but the Dean brothers had other ideas. Paul Dean beat them 4-3 in the sixth game; Dizzy won a laugher in the finale. The Cardinals broke it open with seven runs in the third inning. In the sixth, Medwick tripled and slid hard into third base, prompting something close to a brawl on the field. When he tried to take his defensive position next inning, frustrated Detroit fans pelted him with garbage - mostly fruit and bottles - until Commissioner Landis personally ejected Medwick fom the game simply so everyone else could get on with the final three innings.

1940 - Detroit 1 at Cincinnati 2 - Once again, the Tigers went up three games to two and once again they were unable to close the deal. They were shut out by Bucky Walters in the sixth game; The finale was a very fine pitcher's duel, as Paul Derringer scattered seven hits to beat Bobo Newsom in the finale.

1945 - Detroit 9 at Chicago Cubs 3 - The Tigers finally won a Game 7 (after their failures in 1909, 1934, and 1940.) They jumped all over Hank Borowy and Paul Derringer for five runs in the first inning and Hal Newhouser cruised from there. Fun fact - the first three Tigers singled, putting runners on first and second with a run in and no one out. Cleanup hitter Hank Greenberg, one of the greatest sluggers of his time, was up next. He dropped down a sac bunt. It was 1945, kids. A different time.

1946 - St.Louis 4 at Boston 3 - Here's one of the legendary ones, if only because frustrated Boston fans wouldn't shut up about it for the next 60 years. The Cardinals took a 3-1 lead into the eight inning, but Russell's single and Metkovich 's double put runners on second and third. Harry Brecheen, who had already won games two and six, came on to relieve Murray Dickson. He got two outs, but a Dom DiMaggio double cashed both runners to tie the game. And then, in the bottom half - Slaughter led off with a single and was still on first when Harry Walker came up with two outs. Slaughter was off with the pitch and scored on Walker's double to left-centre. They have dissected that play in New England from that moment since, or at least once Brecheen escaped yet another jam in the ninth.

1947 - Brooklyn 2 at New York Yankees 5 - This was a pretty weird series, mainly because the Dodgers had nothing even remotely resembling a competent starting pitcher. They did have relief ace Hugh Casey, who kept them alive almost single-handedly. The Yankees had a relief ace, too. His name was Joe Page, and he came out of the bullpen in the fifth inning of the finale with the Yankees having just taken a 3-2 lead.Page shut out the Dodgers the rest of the way, allowing just a ninth inning single, which was followed by a game ending double play.

1952 - NY Yankees 4 at Brooklyn 2 - The Dodgers came home to Ebbets Field with a 3-2 lead in the series. The Bombers won 3-2 in the sixth game; in the finale Mickey Mantle broke up a 2-2 with a solo homer in the sixth, and he singled in an insurance run an inning later.

1955 - Brooklyn 2 at New York Yankees 0 - Dodgers-Yankees yet again, and the Dodgers finally won a championship. Johnny Podres scattered eight hits to become the first official World Series MVP. Man, the 1950s were the most boring era... I know New York sportswriters absolutely loved it - it was the Yankees against the Dodgers or Giants year after year - but the game basically sucked.

1956 - NY Yankees 9 at Brooklyn 0 - Yes, it's Dodgers-Yankees yet again! This one ended with three consecutive shutouts. Don Larsen's perfect game gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead, but the Dodgers tied it up again as Clem Labine shut out the Yankees for ten innings until Jackie Robinson drove home Jim Gilliam with the game's only run in bottom half. But the finale was a snoozer. Yogi Berra tagged  Don Newcombe for a pair of two-run homers and chased him after three innings. Johnny Kucks tossed a three hitter.

1957 - Milwaukee 5 at New York Yankees 0 - The Yankees were back yet again, but this time the opposition came from Milwaukee. Variety, 1950s style! The Braves had taken a 3-2 lead when Lew Burdette got his secpnd win of the series, beating Whitey Ford 1-0. The Yankees forced a seventh game, so Burdette came back on two days rest and tossed another shutout.

1958 - New York Yankees 6 at Milwaukee 2 - The Yankees had won the rematch a year after the Dodgers beat them in 1955. This being the 1950s, they did the same thing when they got a rematch with the Braves after losing to them a year earlier.  The Braves won three of the first four games, but the Bombers rallied to take the last three, getting some special revenge by beating Lew Burdette in the finale. The game was tied 2-2 going to the eighth, but Elston Howard singled home Berra to break the tie and Bill Skowron followed with a three run homer.

1960 - New York Yankees 9 at Pittsburgh 10 - A famous series, a famous finale. The Yankees won by scores of 16-3, 10-0, and 12-0. But they lost the other three games 6-4, 3-2, and 5-2 to make the finale necessary. It was a humdringer folks, and you can watch it all on YouTube (something I highly recommend!) The Pirates jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead, but the Yankees got one back in the fifth and took the lead with four runs in the sixth. They increased that lead to 7-4 in the seventh, but tiny LH Bobby Shantz ran out of gas in his fifth inning of relief work. Jim Coates relieved Shantz and gave up an RBI single to Clemente and a three run homer to Smith. The Pirates were back on top 9-7 heading for the ninth. But Mantle singled in one run and miraculously avoided being doubled up on Berra's grounder, thereby allowing McDougald to score the tying run. Which took us all to the bottom of the ninth. Ralph Terry came in to pitch to Bill Mazeroski. You know the rest.

1962 - New York Yankees 1 at San Francisco 0 - A rainout in New York and a couple of days of rain in San Francisco dragged this series on and on and on. The sixth game was played eleven days after the opener, and the Giants beat Whitey Ford to force the seventh game. This one is remembered for its ending. With the Yankees clinging to a 1-0 lead, Matty Alou led off with a bunt single. Terry struck out the next two hitters, but Willie Mays doubled into the right field corner and only a superb play by Maris kept the tying run at third. Willie McCovey, still a platoon player at this stage of his career was up - he had hit a triple off Terry in his previous at bat. The tying run was on third, the winning run was on second, first base was open, a RH batter was on deck. And they pitched to him anyway. McCovey lashed a line drive straight into Bobby Richardson's glove. Game over.

1964 - New York Yankees 5 at St.Louis 7 - Mel Stottlemyre, the Yankees 22 year old rookie, and the great Bob Gibson matched up three times in this series (which also featured the Boyer brothers, Ken and Clete, at third base for the two teams.) Stottlemyre won Game 2 and pitched Gibson to a draw in the fifth game - the Cardinals won by scoring three times against the New York bullpen. They both came back on two days for the finale, but the kid was out of gas The Cardinals led 6-0 after five; Gibson himself ran out of gas near the end, but this was never in doubt.

1965 - Los Angeles Dodgers 2 at Minnesota 0 - Sandy Koufax tossed a four hit shutout with 10 KS in the fifth game, putting the Dodgers ahead 3 games to two. But the Twins forced a seventh game, so Koufax came back on two days rest for the finale. He discovered right away that he couldn't throw his curve ball for strikes. So he scrapped his curve and just threw fastballs the rest of the way. He shut out the Twins on three hits, striking out ten. Hey, he was Sandy Freaking Koufax.

1967 - St.Louis 7 at Boston 2 - Bob Gibson had blown away the Red Sox in Games 1 and 4; Boston ace Jim Lonborg had done the same to St. Louis in Games 2 and 5. But this meant Lonborg started the finale on just two days rest and the Cardinals got to him for seven runs in six innings. Giving Bob Gibson a six run lead - that's like giving a grizzly bear the first whack.

1968 - Detroit 4 at St.Louis 1 - The Tigers dropped three of the first four - Bob Gibson blew them away twice, beating 31 game winner Denny McLain both times. The Tigers took the fifth game as Mickey Lolich won for the second time and the series shifted to St.Louis. The Tigers won the sixth game in a blowout, and took on Gibson again in the finale. He and Lolich traded zeroes into the seventh, when the Tigers put up a stunning three spot, the big blow being Northrup's two run triple that somehow got past Curt Flood.

1971 - Pittsburgh 2 at Baltimore 1 - The Orioles were the defending champs; the Pirates were making their first appearance in the Series since their 1960 win. This was a tight pitcher's duel - Roberto Clemente hit a solo homer off Mike Cuellar in the fourth, and a Jose Pagan double scored Willie Stargell in the eighth. Steve Blass survived a bit of trouble in the eighth and notched his second CG win of the series.

1972 - Oakland 3 at Cincinnati 2- The A's didn't score much in this series, but they didn't give up much either; they won three games by a score of 3-2 and once by 2-1. Blue Moon Odom and Jack Billingham were the starters in the finale, but both managers went to the bullpen very early in this one, and it blew up on the Reds. Pedro Borbon relieved Billingham in a 1-1 tie, and Gene Tenace's breakout continued. His double broke up the tie, the A's scored another, and Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers closed it out.

1973 - New York Mets 2 at Oakland 5 - The Mets, with their 82-79 record, looked like the least impressive Series participants ever. But the two teams split the first four games and the Mets took the series lead behind Jerry Koosman's Game 5 shutout. But the A's went home and Catfish Hunter beat Tom Seaver, thanks to a pair of run scoring doubles by Reggie Jackson. In the finale, the A's jumped on Jon Matlack early, two run homers by Bert Campaneris and Jackson doing the damage.
 
1975 - Cincinnati 4 at Boston 3 - This series was much more famous for its epic Game Six - you know, Carbo's pinch hit homer, Evans' great catch, Fisk's game winning homer in extras. A tough act to follow. The finale was quite the game anyway. The Red Sox took an early 3-0 lead but Spaceman Bill Lee got a little too cute and tried to fool Tony Perez with something in between a slow curve and an eephus pitch. Perez turned it into a two run homer. The Reds tied the game in the seventh and Joe Morgan's single plated Ken Griffey with the winning run in the ninth.

1979 - Pittsburgh 4 at Baltimore 1 - The Orioles took three of the first four, but the We-Are-Fam-a-lee Pirates fought back to force the finale. They shut down the Baltimore bats more or less completely, holding the Orioles to a total of two runs in the final three games. Willie Stargell's two run homer off Scott McGregor in the sixth put them ahead for the rest of the season.

1982 - Milwaukee 3 at St.Louis 6 - The Cardinlas trailed three games to two, but they came home and blew out the Brewers 13-1 to force the seventh game. They were trailing 3-1 in the sixth when they rallied with a couple of hits against Pete Vuckovich. LH reliever Bob McClure came in and gave up a two run single to Keith Hernandez that tied the game and another single to George Hendrick that put the Cardinals ahead. 

1985 - St. Louis 0 at Kansas City 11 - The Royals had trailed the Blue Jays three games to one in the ALCS and come back to win; they trailed the Cardinals three games to one in the series and did likewise. The finale was a snoozer, memorable mostly for the Cardinals' complete meltdown in the fifth inning, when the Royals saw five St. Louis pitchers, scored six times, and saw Whitey Herzog and Joaquin Andujar ejected from the premises.

1986 - Boston 5 at New York Mets 8-  Just like Boston's previous appearance in the series (1975), it was Game 6 (the Bill Buckner game) that was by the most memorable. Just as in the 1975 finale, Boston took an early 3-0 lead. Once again, it didn't matter. The Mets tied it with three in the sixth, went ahead with three more in the seventh, and Bostonians cursed the evil fate that had ever made them cheer for the Red Sox.

1987 - St.Louis 2 at Minnesota 4 - The home team won all seven games in this series, which somehow took away some of the drama. The Twins struggled on the artificial turf and distant fences in St.Louis; the Cardinals couldn't cope with the noise and general weirdness of the Metrodome. Two fine pitchers who would end their careers in Toronto matched up in the finale, with Frank Viola beating Danny Cox.

1991 - Atlanta 0 at Minnesota 1 - A famous game, one of the greatest games on this list. Both teams had finished dead last in 1990, which added to the wonder of it all. Jack Morris and John Smoltz were both brilliant, pitching out of trouble, allowing nothing. The Twins put two men on in the second, but Smoltz retired Pagliarulo. The Braves got two on with one out in the third, and again in the fifth. Morris worked out of both jams. In the top of the eighth, Smith singled and Pendleton doubled - Smith probably would have scored but a superb deke by rookie second baseman Chuck Knoblauch caused Smith to hesitate long enough to force him to stop at third base. Second and third, no one out. Morris worked out of that jam, too. In the bottom of the inning, Smoltz allowed a couple of hits - Mike Stanton came out of the pen, loaded the bases, and then got the inning ending double play. In the ninth, the Twins got two singles to begin the inning - Alejandro Pena came out of the pen and got a double play and a strikeout to end that threat. Morris just kept on throwing. Finally, in the bottom of the tenth, Gladden led off with a double and was bunted to third base. After a couple of intentional walks, Larkin singled to left-centre and the great ball game was over.

1997 - Cleveland 2 at Florida 3 - Four years earlier, Tony Fernandez and Al Leiter had helped the Blue Jays win their second title. Now Fernandez was playing second base for Cleveland, while Leiter was starting Game 7 for Florida. Tony struck first, delivering a two run single in the top of the third. Leiter held firm from that point, and the Marlins got one run back in the seventh on Bobby Bonilla's homer. But the Indians went to the ninth three outs away from their first championship in 49 years with their closer, Jose Mesa, coming out of the pen. Moises Alou, who had a monster Series, led off with a single. He took third on Charles Johnson's single and scored the tying run on Craig Counsell's sac fly. And off to extras we went. In the eleventh, Bonilla led off with a single and with one out, Counsell hit a routine grounder to the right side. Somehow, it went under Fernandez's glove. Bonilla took third and scored the winning run when Edgar Renteria grounded a single up the middle. Cleveland is still waiting.

2001 - New York Yankees 2 at Arizona 3 - A great series, with a worthy finale. Arizona won the first two at home easily enough behind Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, who were clearly the two best pitchers on the planet that year. But the series went back to New York and the Yankees took three straight one-run games. Twice they tied the game with two-run homers in the bottom of the ninth against Arizona closer Byung-Hun Kim and went on to win in extras. Unbelievable stuff. But back in the desert, Arizona forced the finale with a 15-2 beatdown. The Game 7 matchup was merely Roger Clemens vs Curt Schilling. Mercy! Arizona got one in the sixth; the Yankees got it back in the seventh and went ahead on Alfonso Soriano's eight inning homer. And Mariano Rivera - Mariano Rivera! - couldn't close it. Tony Womack and Luis Gonzalez had the big hits at the end - Mark Grace's leadoff single and Rivera's own error were pretty huge as well.

2002 - San Francisco 1 at Anaheim 4 - This is another one best remembered for its Game 6, when Dusty Baker's slightly quick hook for starter Russ Ortiz, with a 5-0 lead in the seventh, blew up all over the Bay area and forced a seventh game. But it was a bit of a snoozer - the Angels chased Livan Hernandez in the third, the big blow being Garret Anderson's three run double, and cruised to victory.

2011 - Texas 2 at St.Louis 6 - Another series best remembered for its epic Game 6 (the David Freese Game - a two run triple in the ninth to tie the game, a walkoff homer in the eleventh to win it). The finale couldn't match that, although it started out with a lot of action - Texas scored twice off Chris Carpenter to begin the game, the Cardinals came back with two in their half of the first to tie it. But Carpenter settled in, and the Cardinals pulled away - one in the third, two in the fifth, one in the seventh. And they won their seventh Game 7.

2014 - San Francisco 3 at Kansas City 2 - A pair of second place teams shockingly dispatched all the 90 win teams ahead of them in the preliminary rounds (the Royals went undefeated in the AL; the Giants lost once in the NLDS and once in the NLCS). The series was a bit of a snoozer - only one of the first six games was close. The story was Madison Bumgarner building his legend as one of the greatest post-season pitchers who has ever lived. And that's what the finale was about as well. After both teams put up a pair of runs in the second inning, the Giants scored again in the fourth and in the fifth they summoned Bumgarner from the bullpen. And once they did, the game was over. He allowed a single to the first man he faced, and retired the next 14 batters in a row. With two out in the ninth, he allowed another single to Alex Gordon, who just kept running as Gregor Blanco whiffed on the ball in centre and Juan Perez kicked it around at the wall. But Gordon stopped at third, and Bumgarner got Sal Perez to pop out to end it.

2016 - Chicago Cubs 8 at Cleveland 7 - By now it had been 68 years since Cleveland won a championship - they'd lost all three trips to the Series since then. Generations of disappointment. But it had been 108 years since the Cubs last won. That was the great Tinker-Evers-Chance team, who were possibly the most dominant team in the game's long history. (They just weren't quite as good at winning the last game of the year as Casey's Yankees. Or McCarthy's.) Theo Epstein and Terry Francona had teamed up in 2004 to end the Red Sox 86 year drought. Now Epstein was running the Cubs and Francona was managing the Indians. Something had to give. Cleveland won twice at ancient Wrigley Field to go ahead three games to one. The Cubs rallied behind Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta to force the seventh game, and it was a doozy. The Cubs scored six runs, mostly on three homers, against Cleveland aces Corey Kluber and Andrew Miller. They took a 6-3 lead to the eighth, but after Jon Lester - pitching in relief for the first time since 2007 - allowed an infield single, Joe Maddon called on closer Aroldis Chapman. Chapman had pitched in both the previous two games, throwing 42 pitches in one of them, making this the most Joe Maddon-like move imaginable. Cleveland instantly tied the game on a Brandon Guyer double and a Rajai Davis homer. The ninth was scoreless, and before we could get to extra innings, we had to sit through a 17 minute rain delay. It was worth the wait. The Cubs quickly scored twice in the top of the tenth. Cleveland tried to mount a two out rally in the bottom half - Guyer walked and scored on a Davis single, but the Cubs hung on for the win.
 
2017 - Houston 5 at Los Angeles Dodgers 1 - The title is tainted somewhat by the memory of those trash cans banging away. The Astros did win two of three at Enron Memorial (although they were actually out-scored 21-20 in the three games played in Houston.) The finale was played in Dodger Stadium and it was over pretty fast. Yu Darvish didn't have it. George Springer led off the game with a double, as the Astros scored twice in the first; an inning later, Springer chased Darvish from the game with a two-run homer. Lance McCullers and four relievers, led by Charlie Morton, held the Dodgers to one run on six hits.

2019 - Washington 6 at Houston 2 - This was the Road Warrior series. Washington won the first two games in Houston behind Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. The Astros roared back with three wins in DC, outscoring the Nats 19-3 in the three games. Back to Houston we went, and Strasburg beat Justin Verlander to set up the finale, in which they made it a clean sweep for whoever was the visiting team. It was Scherzer against Zack Greinke, and Greinke was just a bit better. The Astros took a 2-0 lead into the seventh. But after an Anthony Rendon homer and walk to Juan Soto, A.J. Hinch went to his bullpen. Howie Kendricks hit the second pitch thrown by Will Harris for a two run homer. The Nats added another run in the righth against Roberto Osuna, and Daniel Hudson - who had spent the first half of the season with the frightful 2019 Blue Jays - picked up his fourth save of the post-season.


So play ball, already!

Matchup

Ohtani (1-1, 2.87) vs Scherzer (5-5, 5.19)