Walk-off home runs to clinch a postseason series
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The Braves are back in the playoffs for the 5th straight season, this time as World Series champions. They will, however, be returning without Freddie Freeman, who hit 5 home runs for the team in the last MLB postseason. Similar to Jeter, Correa has been slightly better in the playoffs than he has in the regular season (128 wRC+). You know, the one where the Astros were below .500 in the regular season, found a way to sneak in because of the expanded playing field, and still reached the ALCS. As we’ll continue to see, George Springer had the benefit of being on the Astros during four of their five consecutive trips to the ALCS, which included two trips to the World Series. Getting deep into the postseason consistently while mostly hitting at the top of a talented lineup is a recipe for success at the plate.
Only 10 players have homered at least seven times in a single postseason, and not surprisingly, all of them have done so in the Wild Card Era , with expanded playoffs allowing for greater opportunity. (The pre-Wild Card Era record was six, set by the Pirates’ Bob Robertson in 1971 and matched by the Phillies’ Lenny Dykstra in 1993). This isn't a list of David Ortiz's best postseason homers, but it could be. Perhaps the greatest playoff performer in the game's history, Ortiz has created more than enough October memories to have his own list.
Most Postseason Home Runs in a Career: The Top 10
MLB Scores Yesterday's MLB Games, Scores from any date in Major League history, MLB Probable Pitchers, Baseball-Reference Stream Finder, ... As we start building out these leaderboards, each article will be hyperlinked to the team name. Even though Bobby Thomson isn't a part of this list, "The Giants win the pennant!" still makes a cameo thanks to Ishikawa as well as announcer Joe Buck. Two Turkish military transport aircraft that had been stranded in Ukraine since the beginning of the war 10 months ago safely returned to Turkey on Tuesday, the defence ministry said.
Cruz’s 18 career postseason homers include six in his first postseason in 2010, and eight in 2011, when he set a record for a single series with six in the ALCS. That performance included a walk-off shot in Game 2, off the Tigers’ Ryan Perry in the bottom of the 11th inning. In 2021, he became the 11th player to hit at least one postseason homer after turning 40, swatting a solo homer off Nick Pivetta of the Red Sox during Game 1 of the ALDS as a member of the Rays. About a week before a future Hall of Famer brought Houston to its knees, an unlikely savior brought Astros fans to their feet. After Houston fought back from a 6-1 deficit in the eighth inning of Game 4 vs. the Braves, the two sides engaged in one of the longest playoff battles ever. Finally, in the 18th inning and after nearly six hours of baseball, Burke stepped into the batter's box.
Division Series Home Run Leaders
Never has a Major League crowd gone from full volume to dead silence so quickly. The Astros were one out from advancing to the World Series before Pujols got every single stitch of a misplaced slider from Brad Lidge and gave St. Louis the lead. The ball likely would have become a celestial object if not for the closed roof at Minute Maid Park. As Houston eventually won this series two days later, this home run could have become nothing more than a footnote. But considering who was at the plate, what was on the line, and the sudden change both on the scoreboard and in the stands, its impact is undeniable.
Chambliss barely made it to third base and decided against going for home. He instead ran, spun, dodged and bowled over fans on his way to the clubhouse. A team leader who, after falling behind in the count, socked a home run off one of the best pitchers in baseball to save victory from the jaws of defeat. There's the shot of a car's brake lights being activated as the ball flies into the stands, leaving at least one early-departing fan in the parking lot with an incalculable amount of regret. There's Gibson fist-pumping as he labors to make it around the bases as well as enduring calls from Jack Buck and Vin Scully.
Team-Specific Postseason Home Run Leaderboards
He sent Wakefield’s first pitch of the 11th out into the night, and the Yanks were headed to their fifth World Series in six years. Before Altuve’s home run in Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS, this was the only postseason series-clinching home run in Astros history. Burke’s line drive into the Crawford Boxes ended an 18-inning marathon against the Braves at Minute Maid Park. Burke had entered the game as a pinch-runner for Lance Berkman in the 10th and had walked and flied out to left prior to coming up in the 18th.
Eleven players have accomplished a three-home run game in the MLB playoffs and only four have done it in the World Series. The Houston Astros second baseman broke a tie with Bernie Williams for second on MLB’s all-time postseason home run list with a dinger against the Atlanta Braves in Game 4 of the 2021 World Series. New arrivals on the scene this year include the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Mets.
He benefitted from an additional best-of-three wild card series prior to the ALDS, and his team played 20 games before falling to the Dodgers in the World Series. Reggie slugged .527 over 11 postseasons and is one of three players -- and the only hitter -- to win multiple World Series MVP Awards, doing so for the 1973 A’s and ‘77 Yankees. In the latter Fall Classic, against the Dodgers, Jackson set a record for a single World Series with five homers (since tied by Chase Utley in 2009 and George Springer in ‘17).
Ortiz, who took MVP honors in the latter series, is the only player to hit multiple walk-off home runs in a single postseason. He later was named World Series MVP in 2013, when he homered twice against the Cardinals shortly before turning 38. Correa only turned 27 shortly before the start of the 2021 postseason, yet he's already rocketing up this list. Correa got things started with a multi-homer effort in Game 4 of the 2015 ALDS and has continued to provide October power in the years since. His six big flies in the 2020 playoffs included a walk-off shot in Game 5 of the ALCS against the Rays, which staved off elimination for Houston and made Correa the third player with multiple postseason walk-offs.
The Astros were down to their final out in the ninth inning when Brad Ausmus launched a game-tying solo homer off Kyle Farnsworth to keep Houston alive another nine innings. This performance was all the more amazing given that in his first three full Major League seasons ( ), the 5-foot-6 second baseman had finished with homer totals of seven, five and seven. Bonds never won a championship ring, but he certainly did all he could in 2002. Despite walking 27 times in 74 plate appearances of those free passes intentional -- Bonds took advantage of his opportunities to do damage. He homered four times in a seven-game World Series loss to the Angels, including an absolutely monstrous blast off Halos closer Troy Percival in the ninth inning of Game 2 in Anaheim. The Yankees won that game, 7-5, and completed a sweep of the Cubs the following day.
Legend has it that the cameraman who was shooting Game 6 of the '75 World Series from inside the Green Monster was frozen stiff in fear by a rat lingering nearby. So, with the score tied in the bottom of the 12th and the camera fixed on Fisk, the Red Sox's catcher belted a pitch from Pat Darcy down the left-field line. At this point, the ball's path is out of Fisk's control, but that doesn't stop him from emphatically waving the ball fair as it travels. That's followed by a leap of triumph as the ball collides with the foul pole, forcing a Game 7 in one of the best World Series ever. The reigning champions entered the ninth inning of Game 6 of the '93 Fall Classic trailing by a run. But after stringing together a walk and a single against Phillies closer Mitch Williams, Carter sent a liner just over the left-field fence, providing only the second World Series-clinching homer in MLB history.
While the Phillies' playoff run did not end with the team winning the World Series, it was still certainly a Red October to remember for Philadelphia. Kyle Schwarber provided heroics all postseason long with his towering home runs. Cruz has only appeared in the playoffs in four seasons but has an incredible 16 home runs in 41 games. One of the top postseason hitters ever, Williams launched 22 home runs in 121 playoff games for the Yankees. This slideshow displays the 24 players with the most home runs in MLB postseason history as of the end of the 2017 MLB season.
But in the Division Series, they wouldn’t even require the maximum five games, clinching in four. After the D-backs took a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth, the Mets came back and tied it on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning. With one out in the bottom of the 10th, Pratt, a backup catcher who had hit three regular-season homers that year, strode to the plate. He knocked a pitch from Matt Mantei over the wall at Shea Stadium, and suddenly the Mets were headed to the NLCS. Arozarena was the breakout star of the 2020 postseason, going from virtual unknown outside the Rays' fanbase to a household name within a matter of weeks. Arozarena extended that record in Game 6, going deep in the top of the first inning for home run No. 10.
His 152 wRC+ in the playoffs is significantly better than the 139 mark he produced prior to the playoffs starting. One of the best pure hitters I’ve seen with my own two eyes, it’s no surprise that Manny RamÃrez holds MLB’s record for most postseason home runs in a career. Between playing in Cleveland during the late-1990s and the Boston Red Sox in the early 2000s, he had the perfect opportunity to rack up lots of homers. Between those two organizations and the Los Angeles Dodgers, ManRam enjoyed October baseball on 11 different occasions. The Mets had required an extra game to make the playoffs -- a Game 163 tiebreaker with the Reds for the National League Wild Card spot.
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