This Day In Postseason History: October 31, 2001: Mr. November

October 31st, 2001

World Series, Game 4

Arizona Diamondbacks at New York Yankees

Yankee Stadium, New York

            The 2001 World Series was played in the shadow of the tragic events that happened on September 11. The city of New York, and all of the United States for that matter, was trying to recover from the devastation that was wrought on them. The attempt of the New York Yankees to win the World Series for the fourth year was a diversion for the citizens of New York from the reality that their world had been shattered with the attack on the World Trade Centre Twin Towers.

            The Arizona Diamondbacks were in the World Series and merely expected to be the bit players in the World Series as it was expected the Yankees would do New York proud and win another Championship.

            But the D-Backs weren’t just happy to be in the Fall Classic; they wanted to win it. After a 9-1 victory in Game 1 and a 4-0 win in Game 2, Arizona took a two games to none lead to the Bronx. After the Yankees squeaked out a 2-1 win in the third game, the stage was set for a Halloween showdown at Yankee Stadium. Curt Schilling would get the ball for the D-Backs while the Yanks would go with “El Duque,” Orlando Hernandez.

            After the first two innings went by without a run, the Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the third, when outfielder Shane Spencer led off the inning with a home run. It would be the last run Schilling would allow this game. And the Diamondbacks quickly tied it in the top of the fourth when first baseman Mark Grace hit a solo home run with two out.

            No runs scored in the fifth, sixth or seventh. Mike Stanton had replaced El Duque in the seventh, and the lefthander came out to pitch the eighth. But with one out and a runner on, Stanton would surrender double to Erubiel Durozo that scored the go-ahead run. A ground ball out would score another run and Arizona now had a 3-1 lead.

            Surprisingly, Arizona manager Bob Brenly decided not to let Schilling pitch the bottom of the eighth, despite the fact the Yankee batters couldn’t touch him. Instead, Brenly brought in his closer, Byung-Hyun Kim, to finish the job and get a six-out save. Kim struck out the side to send the game to the ninth and after Yankee reliever Ramiro Mendoza got the D-backs in order in the top half of the inning, the game moved into the bottom half, with Arizona needing only three outs to take a commanding three games to one lead in the Series.

            With one out, right fielder Paul O’Neill singled to left field. After Kim struck out Bernie Williams, the Diamondbacks were only one out away from taking a commanding three games to one lead in the Series. But Yankee first baseman, Tino Martinez, brought the Yankee Stadium crowd to its feet when he belted the first pitch he saw from Kim over the wall in right-centre field to tie the game at three.

            The Yankees then put the next two batters on and had a chance to win the game, but Kim struck out Spencer to send the game into extra innings.

            New York’s closer, Mariano Rivera, pitched a one-two-three top of the tenth and Kim came back out to pitch the bottom half. He got third baseman Scott Brosius and second baseman Alfonso Soriano to fly out, bringing short stop Derek Jeter to the plate with two out.

            As Jeter came to the plate, the clock struck midnight, meaning October had officially ended and, for the first time in history, the World Series was being played in the month of November.

            The first pitch was fouled off and after Jeter swung and missed at the second pitch, Kim was ahead 0-2. After a pitch low and away was ball one, Jeter fouled off two more pitches before taking two pitches outside to run the count full, then fouled off another pitch.

            On the ninth pitch of the at bat, Jeter took Kim’s pitch the opposite way and deep. Arizona right fielder Reggie Sanders raced back but it was pointless. The ball sailed over the wall for the dramatic, game-winning walk-off home run. The Yankees had evened the Series and Jeter was the hero.

            Who else but the Yankee shortstop could have the honour of being “Mr. November”?

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This Day In Postseason History: October 30, 2013: Sweet Caroline!!!

October 30^th, 2013

World Series, Game 6

St. Louis Cardinals at Boston Red Sox

Fenway Park, Boston

            In the 2013 World Series, both the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox were trying to become the first team to win three Fall Classics in the new millennium. After Boston had ended an 86-year drought in 2004, they won another championship in 2007. But this Red Sox team was vastly different from the 2004 team, with only several players still on board from 2007. The mainstay, of course, was David Ortiz. If Boston won, he would be the only player to have been a member of all three championship teams.

            The Cardinals, meanwhile, had won it all in 2006 and 2011. Their roster in 2013 was vastly different from the 2006 team as well, with catcher Yadier Molina and pitcher Adam Wainwright being the only holdovers.

            Boston took the first game at Fenway Park rather easily, with the final score being 8-1. But the Cards came back and took Game 2, 4-2, and then took Game 3 in St. Louis, 5-4, on a controversial interference call in the bottom of the ninth.  With runners on second and third, Molina was thrown out on a plate on a ground ball to second baseman Dustin Pedroia. But Boston catcher, Jarrod Saltalamacchia threw wide of third, trying to throw out Cardinal runner Alan Craig. Boston third baseman, Will Middlebrooks’ legs got tangled with Craig’s and umpire John Joyce immediately called obstruction, meaning Craig automatically scored. Boston protested but the call was correct. Even though the contact initiated by Middlebrooks was accidentally, it was still interference.

            However, Boston rebounded to take Games 4 and 5 by scores of 4-2 and 3-1 to take a three games to two lead back to Fenway. Incidentally, Game 4 also ended with a bit of controversy. In the bottom of the ninth, with two out, Boston closer Koji Uehara picked Cardinal base runner Kolten Wong off of first base. St. Louis claimed Uehara balked, but replays (again) confirmed the correct call was made.

            For Game 6, with Boston trying to win the World Series at Fenway for the first time since 1918, John Lackey would get the start on the mound for the Sox while Michael Wacha would get the ball for St. Louis.

            The game was scoreless until the bottom of the third when outfielder Shane Victorino came to the plate with the bases loaded and two out. On the fourth pitch of the at bat, Victorino doubled off the Green Monster, clearing the bases and giving Boston a 3-0 lead.

            They would add three more in the bottom of the fourth. A lead off home run by Stephen Drew made it 4-0. RBI singles by Mike Napoli and Ortiz would make it 6-0. Meanwhile, Lackey was cruising along, shutting out the Cardinals until the top of the seventh. An RBI single by Carlos Beltran would score the only run of the game by St. Louis.

            Boston didn’t score again, but they didn’t need to. Uehara pitched a one-two-three top of the ninth, striking out Matt Carpenter for the final out and giving Boston their third World Championship in the last ten years.

            David Ortiz would earn MVP honours by batting .688 in the Series, with two homers, six RBIS, 11 hits, eight walks and seven runs scored.

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This Day In Postseason History: October 29, 2014: Bumgarner's Magnificent Performance

October 29^th, 2014

World Series, Game 7

San Francisco Giants at Kansas City Royals

Kaufman Stadium, Kansas City

            In their first postseason appearance since winning the World Series in 1985, the Royals qualified as a wild card, came from behind to defeat Oakland in the Wild Card Game, swept the Los Angeles Angels in the Division Series, then swept the Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS. The Royals were led by catcher Salvador Perez, outfielder Lorenzo Cain and first baseman Eric Hosmer.

            The San Francisco Giants were looking to capture their third World Series in five years, having won the championship in 2010 and 2012. Their offense was led by Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Brandon Belt and Gregor Blanco. And they had All-Star pitcher Madison Bumgarner, who was in the middle of one of the best postseason pitching performances ever.

            In the National League Wild Card Game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bumgarner pitched a four-hit shutout while striking out ten as the Giants won 8-0. He lost his only start in the NLDS against Washington, giving up two earned runs in seven innings, but the Giants won the series in four games. Then in the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals, he pitched seven shutout innings in the first game, a 3-0 San Fran win, then he got a no-decision in the clinching Game 5, which the Giants won in the bottom of the ninth.

            Now it was on to the World Series. The first two games in Kansas City were split with the Giants taking the first game 7-1—behind Bumgarner’s seven innings giving up just one run—while the Royals took Game 2, 7-2. In AT & T Park in San Francisco, KC won Game 3, 3-2, while the Giants took the fourth Game, 11-4.

            Bumgarner pitched a complete game shutout in Game 5 (5-0 was the final score) while the Royals thrashed the Giants 10-0 to set up Game 7. The pitching matchup would be Tim Hudson for San Francisco and Jeremy Guthrie for Kansas City.

            The Giants scored two runs in the top of the second, both on sacrifice flies. The first came off the bat of Michael Morse, while Brandon Crawford was responsible for the second. The Royals tied the game in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI double by Alex Gordon and a sac fly by Omar Infante.

            The Giants regained the lead in the top of the fourth on Morse’s RBI single and San Francisco manager, Bruce Bochy, called on Bumgarner in the fifth inning. The left-hander continued his amazing World Series run as time and time again he frustrated the Royals’ batters. But the Giants couldn’t add to their lead and thus took the 3-2 lead to the bottom of the ninth. Bochy left Bumgarner on the mound to finish the job.

            After getting the first two batters out rather easily, Bumgarner faced Alex Gordon, the Royals’ last hope. Gordon singled to left-centre, but left-fielder, Juan Perez, mis-played the ball and it got by him and rolled all the way to the wall. If Gordon had been blessed with a little more speed he may have scored the game-tying run, but instead he only made it to third.

            That brought Salvador Perez to the plate with the game-tying run only 90 feet away. On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Bumgarner got Perez to hit a high pop up in foul territory on the third base side. Sandoval squeezed the ball for the final out and the Giants were World Champions again.

            For the series, Bumgarner pitched 21 innings over three games, allowed only one run for a 0.43 ERA, surrendered only nine hits and one walk and struck out 17 batters while picking up two wins and one save. He was the obvious choice for the World Series MVP Award.

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