Pitchers Fielding Last Out In Post-Season Series Winner
Posted by Steve Lombardi on February 9, 2011
How many times has a pitcher been involved in fielding the last out of a series-winning post-season game?
Just nine times - and here's the list:
| Cr# | Gm# | Date | Series | Gm# | Pitcher | Tm | Opp | Batter | Score | Inn | RoB | Out | Pit(cnt) | R | WPA | RE24 | Play Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1938-10-09 | WS | 4 | Red Ruffing | NYY | CHC | Billy Herman | ahead 8-3 | t9 | 1-- | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.27 | .07 | *ENDED GAME*:Groundout: P-1B | |
| 2 | 1 | 1974-10-17 | WS | 5 | Rollie Fingers | OAK | LAD | Von Joshua | ahead 3-2 | t9 | --- | 2 | 1 (0-0) | 0 | 0.03 | 0.09 | 1.30 | *ENDED GAME*:Groundout: P-1B |
| 3 | 1 | 1977-10-18 | WS | 6 | Mike Torrez | NYY | LAD | Lee Lacy | ahead 8-4 | t9 | 12- | 2 | 3 (1-1) | 0 | 0.01 | 0.44 | .42 | *ENDED GAME*:Bunt Popfly: P |
| 4 | 1 | 1987-10-12 | ALCS | 5 | Jeff Reardon | MIN | @DET | Matt Nokes | ahead 9-5 | b9 | 12- | 2 | 5 (2-2) | 0 | 0.02 | 0.45 | .56 | *ENDED GAME*:Groundout: P-1B |
| 5 | 1 | 1992-10-24 | WS | 6 | Mike Timlin | TOR | @ATL | Otis Nixon | ahead 4-3 | b11 | --3 | 2 | 2 (0-1) | 0 | 0.15 | 0.34 | 5.78 | *ENDED GAME*:Bunt Groundout: P-1B (Front of Home) |
| 6 | 1 | 1998-10-13 | ALCS | 6 | Mariano Rivera | NYY | CLE | Omar Vizquel | ahead 9-5 | t9 | --- | 2 | 3 (1-1) | 0 | 0.00 | 0.12 | .06 | *ENDED GAME*:Groundout: P-1B (P's Right) |
| 7 | 1 | 2003-10-25 | WS | 6 | Josh Beckett | FLA | @NYY | Jorge Posada | ahead 2-0 | b9 | --- | 2 | 3 (1-1) | 0 | 0.02 | 0.11 | .60 | *ENDED GAME*:Groundout: P unassisted (Short 1B Line) |
| 8 | 1 | 2004-10-27 | WS | 4 | Keith Foulke | BOS | @STL | Edgar Renteria | ahead 3-0 | b9 | -2- | 2 | 2 (1-0) | 0 | 0.02 | 0.33 | .58 | *ENDED GAME*:Groundout: P-1B |
| 9 | 1 | 2005-10-08 | NLDS | 3 | Jason Isringhausen | STL | @SDP | Ryan Klesko | ahead 7-4 | b9 | 12- | 2 | 3 (1-1) | 0 | 0.04 | 0.42 | 1.57 | *ENDED GAME*:Groundout: P-1B |
.
Beckett and Torrez are the only ones to do it all by themselves. Now, there's a trivia question for you.
February 9th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
didn't bobby jenks do it as well?
February 9th, 2011 at 7:33 pm
I see that none of these occurred in the final game of a series that went the maximum number of games. By 1987, the League Championship Series were 7 games. But three of them capped off sweeps (1, 8, and 9).
February 9th, 2011 at 7:35 pm
What I remember about Mike Timlin and '92 WS was how Cito Gaston handled his first baseman. A young John Olerud was the regular Jays 1B that year but was the odd man out when the Jays were facing a southpaw without the DH (in Games 1 and 6). Instead, outfielder Joe Carter moved to first base for those games, despite playing that position only 4 times during the season.
Anyway, my memory of game 6 was thinking that Cito had to bring in Olerud for defense in the bottom of the 9th with the Jays ahead. But, Carter stayed in the game. As it happened, Henke blew the save, the game went to extras, and the Jays took the lead in the 11th. So, again, I thought, he's got to bring in Olerud for defense. And, again, Gaston didn't do it.
A small thing perhaps, and, of course, it had no bearing on the game result, but it's always kind of bugged how a big league manager could fail to make an obvious (and, in my view, necessary) move like that, not once but twice.
February 9th, 2011 at 7:46 pm
The other thing about the '92 WS clincher was the play of Otis Nixon.
Bottom of the 9th, Braves down a run, two outs, runner on 3rd (and 2nd), Nixon singles through the left-side hole to drive in the tying run.
Bottom of the 11th, Braves down a run, two outs, runner on 3rd, and Nixon ..... bunts. Yeah, bunts? A comebacker to the mound. Never understood that one.
February 9th, 2011 at 8:18 pm
I saw the title and immediately thought of Foulke! WHEW!
February 9th, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Funny how stats and chance work sometimes ... 3 years in a row in the middle of the '00s when it had never even happened back-to-back before.
February 9th, 2011 at 8:33 pm
@4 Doug,
Good point, seriously What was Otis Nixon thinking with that attempted bunt single with the tying run at third?
February 9th, 2011 at 9:18 pm
@ #4
I remember watching that game and thinking; there will never be a worse ending to a series, then finding out Babe Ruth made the final out of the World Series getting caught stealing second.
That makes a two out bunt seem genius.
What do you tell the manager on the way back to the dugout?
February 9th, 2011 at 9:28 pm
@4
Yeah, it was game 7 of the 1926 WS. Cards up 3-2 in the 9th. With 2 outs Ruth walks, bringing up Meusel. Ruth gets thrown out. Game over. Series over. Season over.
After Meusel was Gehrig then Lazzeri.
Ruth had homered and walked 4 times that game.
February 9th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
As a Blue Jays fan since 1977, I couldn't possibly have cared less how Nixon made the final out of the game. Just so long as the Jays got him out.
I still can't believe I picked that night to go out on a date. (Wasn't much of a date, either.) I did watch Game 6 of the following year's Series. (-;þ
February 9th, 2011 at 9:46 pm
5 of the 9 pitchers and 2 of the hitters played for Boston at one time or another
February 9th, 2011 at 9:49 pm
my bad, it was 6 of the 9 played for the Red Sox
February 9th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Apropos of nothing in particular, but I noticed a bit if a chain happening with players being involved in consecutive games on this list, even though the gamnes were 5 or 6 years apart.
Reardon was in #4 and in the Braves bullpen in #5.
David Justice played in both #5 and #6.
Rivera, Posada and others were in #6 and #7.
February 9th, 2011 at 10:54 pm
Only two starters...
Ruffing, which makes sense given that it was back in the '30s, and Beckett.
February 9th, 2011 at 11:07 pm
Futher to 13.
If we fudge things just a bit, the chain goes all the way from #2 to #7.
The fudge is between #3 and #4. Dave Bergman was on the '87 Tigers team and played in the ALCS against the Twins. He was also a September call-up on the '77 Yanks getting into 6 games. I don't know for sure, but I highly doubt he was on the Yankees post-season roster that year.
I might have missed someone, but looks like the chain breaks after #7.
February 10th, 2011 at 12:54 am
@8
You tell him whatever the hell you feel like telling him, because you are Babe Ruth.
February 10th, 2011 at 8:16 am
Ruth was the tying run in a game seven!! Doesn't get any worse than that.
February 10th, 2011 at 9:48 am
I don't think the Nixon play was bad. A bunt single would have tied the game. He wasn't going to get any more than a single.
About the Ruth game. Was this the game where they had him sacrificing a couple of innings earlier. If I am not mistaken Ruth sacrificed leading to Gehrig being intentionally walked. I could easily be mixing up a couple of games.
February 10th, 2011 at 10:09 am
@ 16 Justin
I guess your right. He already had 4 BB and 1 HR He probably had a cigar lit before he crossed the first base line.
@ 17 Panrell
Tying run, with two outs, with 3 of the best hitters in the league to follow.
@ 18 Cook
Yeah, I agree that Nixon had about equal chance via a bunt or swing, just such an odd way to see a series end.
But no about the Ruth sac. Gehrig was hitting 5th that day. And Ruth was walked 4 times with a HR to boot.
February 10th, 2011 at 10:45 am
About Otis Nixon bunting into the last out:
We can't judge the strategy without knowing where the corner infielders were playing.
But ... consider that, in the years for which data are available, Nixon's career BA on bunts was .368 (and that's counting all sac bunts as AB), wheras his BA on non-bunts was .257.
BTW, in game 1 of the 2003 ALDS, in the bottom of the 12th inning, with 2 out and the bases loaded, Oakland catcher Ramon Hernandez dropped a bunt up the 3B line in front of Boston's Bill Mueller and beat it out to drive in the winning run. Hernandez had hit 21 HRs that year.
February 10th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
@21 John Autin,
It took me a while to figure out why you included the sac bunts in with the AB's when calculating Nixon's "Bunting Average", because, of course, sac bunts are typically not counted as AB's. But in the given situation you needed to figure out how the % of total bunts nixon has had that would have NOT resulted in an out. Nice, I never would have thought of that.
Using that number of .368 you would think it would be wise to bunt all the time, but the element of surprise counts somewhat in the success rate. And with the given situation (2 outs / tying run on 3rd), the surprise level may not have been too high. I just can't decide if it was a good play or bad play to bunt there. But if I had to choose, the bunt is probably the best way for him to get a ball in play on the ground...and any mishandle or poor throw and he will beat it out with that speed. I would say it was a good play for him to force the action there. I think his non-bunt AVG would have been higher if he were adept at putting the ball in play (on the ground) by swinging away, so the bunt was probably a good choice there.
February 10th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Wow, that LI for Nixon was amazing. I knew it was tense at the time, but that's high.
February 10th, 2011 at 9:30 pm
@ 6
Very true, although having the extra round helps the odds from 1995-onward
@16 It may seem like that now, but maybe not at the time. While Babe did have downright nutty stats by the end of 1926, he still wasn't known as much of a winner in a "big series." That was his 4th with the Yankees, and despite winning three with the Red Sox as a pitcher, he was just 1-3 with the Yankees. If you search newspaper articles from around that time (esp after the back-to-back losses in 1921-1922) you'll find many sportswriters saying he can't get it done when it counts.
Stupid sportswriters. Some things never change, eh?
February 11th, 2011 at 9:48 am
1. Ruth said "Well, I wasn't doing any good standing there on first base."
2. Nixon's bunt was right back to the pitcher. I'm sure that was by accident, but still. Blech.
February 11th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Rich @23 -- Good points about Ruth's first 4 WS with the Yanks.
But to be precise: He was 1-2 in Yankee WS when he took off for 2nd base in game 7 of '26. He fell to 1-3 after he was tagged out.
BTW ... John McGraw was a leader of the "Ruth is overrated" camp; his Giants of course prevailed in the 1921-22 WS matchups, and McGraw consistently disdained Ruth. Before game 2 of the '23 Series, with the Giants off to a 1-0 start, McGraw famously proclaimed: "Why shouldn't we pitch to Ruth? I've said before, and I'll say it again, we pitch to better hitters than Ruth in the National League."
Ruth slugged 2 HRs that game to even the Series; more tellingly, the Giants walked him 8 times over the last 5 games, and he scored 8 runs in the Series, as the Yankees finally came out on top, 4 games to 2. After game 2, the great Heywood Broun wrote what has become perhaps the most famous opening line in the history of sportswriting:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug02/yeung/baberuth/broun.html
February 11th, 2011 at 12:34 pm
Didn't McGraw pass on Lou Gehrig because he didn't like his footwork at first base or something.
February 22nd, 2011 at 8:26 am
Dennis Eckersley definitely recorded the putout at first base for the last out of the 1989 World Series...yet it's not listed here.