‘67 Cards take 3 of 4 from ‘65 Dodgers to stay alive in pennant race.

9/26-9/27 - Busch Memorial Stadium
GAME 1 - Cardinals 4, Dodgers 1
The Dodgers entered this series fighting hard not to have the worst record in baseball.  Their opponents, St. Louis, were fighting even harder to keep pace with Cincinnati for the top spot in the division.  The fans were treated to a classic matchup between the two greatest pitchers of the 1960's.  Sandy Koufax (3-5, 2.23) would toe the rubber for LA, while Bob Gibson (4-1, 2.05) would oppose him and represent the Gateway city.  With the score tied at 1 the Cards would take the lead in the 5th as the most unlikely of characters, Dal Maxvill, would take the great Koufax deep.  Koufax would respond by fanning the rest of the side, which included 5 of the next 6 batters he would face.  In total, Koufax would fan 10 on the day, but it would not be enough as Maxvill would once again defy logic and the odds to his another solo homer in the 7th.  Julian Javier would single home Lou Brock, who tripled with 2 outs to provide an additional run as Gibson would have an easy day at the office vs the worst hitting team (.218) in the league.

GAME 2 - Cardinals 9, Dodgers 3
Don Drysdale, who hoped to use this stage as a chance to claim his second consecutive Cy Young award was rocked for 9 runs in 8 innings.  Lefty Steve Carlton (2-2, 3.16) gave up just 1 unearned run over 5 and let the pen take it the rest of the way.  Orlando Cepeda hit his league leading 12th round tripper in a 2 for 3 afternoon.  Curt Flood went 1 for 2 with 2 walks to increase his BA to .397, 10 points more than Cepeda who is trying desperately to win the NL's Triple Crown.

9/28-9/29 - Dodgers Stadium
GAME 3 - Cardinals 2, Dodgers 1
The pressure was now really starting to mount on the Cardinals.  They took 2 games from the Dodgers so far, as planned, but they couldn't get out of the shadow of the Reds, who were having their way with the Pirates.  Larry Jaster and Claude Osteen both went 7 innings and both sported identical linescores allowed with the game knotted at 1.  Extra innings loomed and in the top of the 10th Tim McCarver came off the bench and delivered a clutch 2 out double to score Roger Maris.  LA's Bob Miller (0-5, 4.86) had thrown 2 scoreless innings in relief up until that point, but couldn't get the final out.  Hal Woodeshick set the Dodgers down in order in the bottom of the 10th for his 2nd save as Joe Hoerner (2-0, 0.68) posted the win in relief.

GAME 4 - Dodgers 4, Cardinals 2
Dick Hughes (5-2, 2.88) and Johnny Podres (0-6, 5.40) hooked up in another nail biter.  Neither hurler would be involved in the decision.  Nelson Briles (0-2, 4.18) would replace Hughes in the 8th with the score tied at 2.  “Sweet” Lou Johnson would lead off with a single and steal second.  Briles would get Ron Fairly to pop out weakly to Javier at second before Jim Lefebvre would launch one to deep right that Roger Maris would make a sensational catch on.  Johnson would tag up and go to third then score as Maris' throw would sail over Mike Shannon's head at third.  Maris would be charged with a costly throwing error.  Wes Parker would double with 2 out and Willie "3-Dog" Davis would single him home to give LA a 2 run lead.  Ron Perranoski, who got the final out in the 8th stayed aboard to close out the 9th to get the win and even his record to 2-2.  St. Louis would now have to sit back and see if they would win the division or have to play a play in game with the Reds.

‘07 Bosox take 3 of 4 from ‘70 O’s to clinch final WC slot. Congrats to Boston’s rookie manager Eric Stouber.

9/26-9/27 - Memorial Stadium
GAME 1 - Orioles 5, Red Sox 0
Needing to get at least 3 wins to keep their post season hopes alive the O's got a clutch 4 hit shutout performance from Mike Cuellar (2-5, 5.07), who has had a rocky season.  Curt Schilling, who usually picks these moments to come up big, did not have any condiments or his "A" game today.  Cuellar helped his own cause with a solo shot to lead off the 3rd, which mad it 3-0 at the time.  Ellie Hendricks' two run shot the inning before broke the ice.  A two run double by Brooks Robinson in the 6th provided the final margin for victory.

GAME 2 - Red Sox 6, Orioles 0
Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (5-1, 3.35) answered Cuellar's opening salvo with a gem of his own.  Wake allowed just 4 hits from the O's big bats and fanned 7 as the knuckler was dancing all night.  Baltimore was relying on Cy Young candidate Jim Palmer (6-2, 3.33) to carry them to victory, but the New York City native was not up to the task.  Boston broke a scoreless tie with 3 huge runs in the top of the 4th when JD Drew hit his first of two round trippers on the day.  Drew's 3 run shot in the 4th would be all the scoring Wake would need, but for good measure he hit a 2 run shot in the 9th to put it out of reach.  Jonathon Papelbon pitched a scoreless 9th in a non save situation to put the O's 1 game away from elimination.

9/28-9/29 - Fenway Park
GAME 3 - Red Sox 3, Orioles 0
Josh Beckett (3-5, 3.41) is known for coming up big in big games and did exactly what was expected of him.  Beckett, who has struggled at times with his control this season as well as with his lack of offensive support plowed through the O's lineup for 8 scoreless innings.  Papelbon for the second day in a row threw a scoreless 9th.  This time he was on board in a save situation as he posted his 9th on the season.  Boston got to O's starter Dave McNally (2-6, 4.95) in the 2nd for 2 runs as the struggling Manny Ramirez hit a 2 run shot.  Manny has not been Manny all season, but that hasn't stopped the Bosox from achieving success.  The enigmatic left fielder is hitting just .238.  Dustin Pedroia hit a solo shot in the 6th to provide a key insurance run as the Bosox locked down the final wild card spot.

GAME 4 - Red Sox 9, Orioles 2
Tom Phoebus (3-3, 4.68) was pitching as if he was double parked.  Baltimore's 4th starter gave up 9 runs in less than 4 innings of work in an effort that could kindly be put as "mailing it in".  Dice-K Matsuzaka (4-2, 2.16) went 6 1/3 for the win and Big Papi, David Ortiz hit his 11th homer of the season in this meaningless contest.

‘95 Braves take 3 of 4 from ‘69 Amazin’s to eliminate New York from post season considerations.

The Amazin’s, fresh off their sweep of the Big Red Machine, were only 1 game out of 1st and needed some big performances from their squad of over achievers.  Game 1 featured the normal drama that those Amazin’ Mets seem to stumble into.  Young fireballer Gary Gentry was mowing down the Braves and looking better than future HOF’er John Smoltz when umpire Doug Harvey call a borderline pitch a ball.   Gentry, who had fanned 4 batters in his 4 innings of work lost his cool and said the “magic word” to the veteran Harvey and was shown the door.  Most teams would have crumbled, but Gentry leaving games early had become commonplace all season for the Mets and so did having Nolan Ryan ready to take his place.  If Gentry is a fireballer, Ryan is a flamethrower without peer.  The young right hander from Alvin Texas came on to throw 3 scoreless innings to notch the win and improve his season record to 5-1 (3.00).  Lefties Jack DiLauro and Tug McGraw combined to shutout the Braves over the final 5 outs.  New York made the most of their 5 hits and some questionable fielding by the Braves in this win.  Game 2 was just as tense as game 1.  With the score knotted at 4 all thanks to a Tommie Agee homer in the 7th the Braves were able to get to reliever Cal Koonce in the 8th when David Justice singled home Fred “Crime Dog” McGriff with 2 outs.  Art Shamsky, who went 4 for 5 in the game with a homer singled with 2 outs, but Mark Wohlers was able to fan Duffy Dyer, who had 2 hits that day, for the final out of the game.  Game 3 saw the Mets season come to and end as the 1969 Cy Young Award winner, Tom “Terrific” Seaver was anything but terrific.  Seaver (2-5, 2.53) gave up 7 runs on 6 hits over 8 innings worth of work, while his opponent Greg Maddux (6-3, 1.69) put in a Cy Young performance of his own.  Maddux fanned 6 as he went the distance and allowed just 6 hits.  A pair of 3 run homers (David Justice & Ryan Klesko) would be the big hits that Seaver could not recover from.   The finale saw a pair of lefties (Jerry Koosman & Tom Glavine) battle pitch for pitch until the 8th when the Braves would score 2 key insurance runs off of Kooz to put the game away.  Glavine (3-1, 3.55) has made a career of killing the Met franchise as an opponent and as a member took great delight in officially eliminating the Amazin’s from post season consideration.  Chipper Jones, who also takes great delight in torturing New York went 3 for 4.  New York finished the season with a .231 team batting average, which explains fully why Koosman’s record was 2-6, even though he had a 2.38 ERA.

Shea Stadium
GAME 1 – Mets 3, Braves 1 
GAME 2 – Braves 5, Mets 4

Fulton County Stadium 
GAME 3 – Braves 7, Mets 1
GAME 4 – Braves 3, Mets 0

‘20 Tribe wins first 2, then drops final 2 to ‘93 Jays to drop out of contention

Cleveland realistically needed to take at least 3 if not all 4 games in order to catch the Bosox for the final wild card slot.  Instead the Tribe was only able to manage a split with the lowly Jays and had to settle for a .500 season.  Game 1 was a good start for Cleveland as Stan Coveleski (4-4, 2.39) went the distance and allowed just 3 earned runs as his offense recorded 13 hits, which included 3 by Tris Speaker, who increased his average to .391.  Game 2 was a tense 2-1 pitcher’s duel that went Cleveland’s way and gave hope to their fans that they could possibly catch Boston.  Guy Morton (2-1, 3.21) was able to go the distance and protect the 2 runs that he was afforded in the bottom of the 1st off of Jay starter Dave Stewart (0-3, 4.30).  The Tribe scored 3 runs in the top of the 5th to cut Toronto’s 6-2 lead to 1, but they would never get closer as the Jays got 2 runs in the bottom of the inning thanks to some shoddy defense by the Tribe.  With the Indian’s season riding on his shoulders starter Ray Caldwell could not come through.  Toronto’s Juan Guzman (4-2, 2.11) took a comfortable 4-0 lead into the 8th when the Tribe offense finally awoke.  Cleveland  would score solo runs in each of the final 2 innings, but that would not be enough as Mike Timlin came on to post his 9th save of the season to preserve the win and eliminate the Tribe from contention.  Tris Speaker would go 2 for 4 for the Tribe to finish the season with a .388 average.  Pat Borders would go 2 for 4 along with his 3rd homer of the season and 3 RBI’s to ensure the series split for the woeful Jays.

League Park
GAME 1 – Indians 7, Blue Jays 4
GAME 2 – Indians 2, Blue Jays 1

Skydome
GAME 3 – Blue Jays 8, Indians 5
GAME 4 – Blue Jays 5, Indians 2

‘03 Marlins and ‘54 Giants split final series

Two team mired just below mediocrity got together for an entertaining series.  Carl “I actually stayed healthy” Pavano outdueled Ruben “hardluck” Gomez in the opener.  Todd Hollandsworth’s 2 run double in the second would hold up to be the difference maker.  Wes Westrum struck out with runners on the corners in the top of the 6th to end NY’s last chance at tying it.  Game 2 would see Hoyt Wilhem (5-1, 0.84) give up just 1 unearned run in the 12th, but hang on to win this high scoring extra innings affair.  Game 3 shifted venues, but still needed extra innings to decide a winner, when Davey Williams doubled home Alvin Dark with nobody out in the bottom of the 10th off of Marlin reliever Ugeth Urbina.  Brad Penny (2-1, 2.55) would go 6 1/3 innings then hand it off to the pen to notch the win.  Dark would homer in a losing cause.  Juan Pierre would steal his league leading 29th base after going 2 for 4 and finishing the season with an incredible .379 BA.

Pro Player Stadium
GAME 1 – Marlins 2, Giants 1
GAME 2 – Giants 8, Marlins 6 (12 inn)

Polo Grounds
GAME 3 – Giants 8, Marlins 7 (10 inn)
GAME 4 – Marlins 5, Giants 2

‘91 Twins Sweep ‘85 Royals

Both teams were hopelessly out of the running, but the Twins were able to extract some level of pride by sweeping the series to finish 2 games under .500 and finish in 2nd place in their division.  Jack Morris (4-3, 2.14) was able to overcome shoddy defense to win the opener.  Morris gave up only 1 unearned run.  Dan Gladden, who hit an abysmal .110 on the season went 3 for 4 to pace the offense.  A walk off single by Kirby Puckett gave the Twinkes a 5-4 win in the second game.  Dan Gladden came alive again in game 3 to hit a solo shot in the 12th to put the Twins ahead 2-1.  He increased his BA to .122 while Rick Aguilera notched his 6th save to close it out.  Danny Jackson was victimized by poor defense and even poorer pitching as the Twins bombarded the Royals 17-6 in a getaway game that seemed to have as much intensity as a horseshoe tossing contest at a family reunion.  George Brett, who hit a homer the day before went 1-4 for the Royals to finish the season at .328 as the only  Royal regular to bat over .300.

HHH Metrodome
GAME 1 - Twins 8, Royals 4
GAME 2 - Twins 5, Royals 4

Royals Stadium
GAME 3 - Twins 2, Royals 1 (12 inn)
GAME 4 - Twins 17, Royals 6

‘78 Bombers split with ‘04 Chisox in series where road team wins every game

9/26-9/27 - US Cellular Field
GAME 1 - Yankees 12, White Sox 8
A 7 run 8th inning put the Bombers ahead for good as Ken Clay (1-0, 1.96) notched the win. Sweet Lou Piniella went 4 for 6 with 3 RBI's and Graig Nettles hit his 11th homer of the season.

GAME 2 - Yankees 7, White Sox 4
Jim Beattie (1-3, 6.30) stuggled to defend a 5-1  lead and by the 6th inning it was only a 1 run lead.  Thankfully for New York Sparky Lyle finally reverted back to the Cy Young form he had the previous season (1977) as he went 3 1/3 innings in relief and allowed just 1 hit to get his 3rd save of the season.  Once again Piniella was the hitting start (4 for 5 & 2RBI), but he ws overshadowed by the fact that Graig Nettles hit his 12th & 13th homers of the season.

9/28-9/29 - Yankee Stadium
GAME 3 - White Sox 7, Yankees 5
Mark Buehrle (2-5, 7.53) gave up only 2 unearned runs in almost 8 innings of fine work.  His opposing number, Ron Guidry (4-5, 4.26) was played like a fiddle by the Chisox to the tune of 7 runs over 7 innings.  New York didn't quit and scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th to make it interesting.  Frank Thomas went 2 for 5 with a homer to inch his season average closer to .200 in what can only be characterized as a very disappointing campaign for the "Big Hurt".  Nettles once again went deep to post his 14th round tripper, while going 3 for 5 in a losing cause.

GAME 4 - White Sox 12, Yankees 0
Freddy Garcia made his run for the AL Cy Young award by scattering 7 hits and shutting the Bombers out on this getaway day game.  Ed Figueroa was matching him pitch for pitch when he came up lame in the 2nd inning and had to be replaced by Ken Holtzman who "took one for the team" by giving up 9 runs in just under 4 innings of work.  Joe Crede went 4 for 5 for the Chisox offense that posted 20 hits.  Every Pale Hose starter had at least 1 hit in this one side season finale.