Pennant-Winning Home Runs by the Visiting Team
On Monday we looked at the six pennant-winning home runs hit in the 100 League Championship Series and five pre-divisional tiebreakers. Those hits were immortal, special, and rare. There are five other home runs, however, that are just as immortal and special. People often overlook these, however, since they weren’t walk-offs. These are go-ahead home runs hit by the visiting team that turned out to be pennant-winning home runs.
With walk-offs, the player hits the homer, the fans go nuts, the player runs the bases, and everyone goes home. These home runs are different. After the visiting player hits the home run, the home fans typically gasp and then fall silent before trying in desperation to rally their team to victory. The home team must regroup, get out of the inning, and then try to come back in their final at-bat. All five times that a visitor hit a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning or later of a deciding game of the LCS, the home team did not even score in the bottom half, let alone come back. These hits were daggers.
Inclusion Criteria
All home runs on this list meet the following criteria:
- Hit by a player from the visiting team in the deciding game of the ALCS or NLCS
- Hit in the ninth inning or later
- The home run drove in the go-ahead run
- The visiting team did not relinquish the lead in the bottom of the inning
Without further ado, here are the five “pennant-winning” home runs hit by a visiting player.
Rick Monday, Right Fielder, Los Angeles Dodgers
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, Blue Monday, to quote Fats Domino. The 1981 National League Championship Series was a classic between the Dodgers and the Montreal Expos. Game Five – the winner-take-all game – was originally supposed to happen on Sunday, October 18 in Olympic Stadium. However, since the roof was not finished yet, a winter storm postponed the game to Monday afternoon. Instead of there being 54,000 fans in attendance, there were 36,491, making crowd noise less of a factor. It was cold – temperature in the low 40s – and, although there was no rain falling, the field was damp.
Dodgers left-hander Fernando Valenzuela and Expos right-hander Ray Burriss pitched a dandy of a game. It entered the ninth as a 1-1 tie. The Expos brought in Steve Rogers – typically a starter – to pitch the ninth. Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey hit a popup to second for the first out, then third baseman Ron Cey ripped a drive down the left field line. What initially looked like a sure home run died, however, and Tim Raines caught it in front of the warning track for a loud second out.
Blue Monday
That brought up Monday. On a 3-1 count, he swung, hitting a towering fly ball to center. Monday, who had pulled his helmet visor down low due to the cold, lost sight of the ball as soon as he hit it. He had to watch center fielder Andre Dawson’s path to the ball to determine whether to keep running. Dawson drifted to the warning track, then the 12-foot-high wall, and ran out of room. The ball carried over the fence for a home run.
Monday picked up the ball just soon enough to see it go over the wall. He jumped and pumped his fist, nearly slipping as he landed. As he ran the bases, Olympic Stadium went deathly quiet except for the celebrations of the Dodgers. In the bottom of the inning, the Expos got the tying and winning runs on second and first, respectively, with two out. However, Bob Welch came into the game and got Expos right fielder Jerry White to ground to second for the pennant-winning final out. This game has been known as Blue Monday (or, in French, Lundi Bleu) ever since.
Tito Landrum, Right Fielder, Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles led the Chicago White Sox, two games to one, heading into Game Four in Comiskey Park. White Sox starting pitcher Britt Burns scattered five hits across nine innings while not allowing any runs. However, Orioles starter Storm Davis and reliever Tippy Martinez, who relieved Davis in the seventh, matched him zero for zero. With one out in the top of the tenth, Burns faced Landrum, who sent an 0-1 pitch into the second deck in left field for a back-breaking home run.
It took three White Sox relievers to get out of the inning. In the process, the Orioles plated two more runs, giving Martinez a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the 10th. Martinez first retired catcher Carlton Fisk on a fly to left for the first out. After right fielder Harold Baines singled to left, Martinez struck out designated hitter Greg Luzinski for the second out. He then struck out left fielder Tom Paciorek on a dropped third strike. When Orioles catcher Rick Dempsey threw to first baseman Eddie Murray in time, the Orioles won the pennant.
Jack Clark, First Baseman, St. Louis Cardinals
Do not bring up this game to a Dodger fan. This came in Game Six of the 1985 National League Championship Series. 1985 was the first season that the League Championship Series was best of seven – before then, it was best of five. Game Five in St. Louis ended in the cruelest fashion for the Dodgers. In the bottom of the ninth, with the score tied at two, Dodgers closer Tom Niedenfuer faced light-hitting shortstop Ozzie Smith with one out and nobody on. Smith was a switch hitter who was batting left-handed against the right-handed Niedenfuer.
On a 1-2 count, Smith hit a deep drive to right that squeaked over the fence for an unlikely walk-off home run. This is the home run that led to Jack Buck’s famous “Go crazy, folks!” call. To rub salt in the wound for the Dodgers, Smith had hit six home runs that year. None, however, came while batting left-handed.
Fast forward to Game Six. The Dodgers led 5-4 in the top of the ninth. Niedenfuer, who had entered the game in the seventh, took the mound to close out the game. He struck out pinch hitter Cesar Cedeño for the first out. Center fielder Willie McGee then lined a single to left and stole second on the second pitch to Smith, who ultimately walked. That brought up second baseman Tom Herr. On an 0-1 count, Herr ripped a one-hopper to third baseman Dave Anderson, who straddled the bag as he fielded it. He stepped on the bag and fired to first, getting the fans excited, but the ball was foul. Two pitches later, Herr hit a slow grounder to first baseman Greg Brock, who flipped to Niedenfuer covering for the second out.
The Dodgers Pitch to Clark
With the runners on second and third, Clark, a feared slugger, stepped to the plate. With first base open and two out, many managers would have walked Clark to face the on-deck hitter. Not Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda, however. He had Niedenfuer pitch to Clark. Big mistake.
Clark belted the first pitch halfway to Burbank. The deep fly landed more than halfway up the left field bleachers for a three-run homer, giving the Cardinals a 7-5 lead. The stunned crowd could hardly believe what they were seeing. Niedenfuer retired the on-deck hitter – center fielder Andy Van Slyke – on a popup to the catcher, angering Dodger fans even further.
Cardinals reliever Ken Dayley pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth. When Dodgers left fielder Pedro Guerrero’s fly ball settled in Van Slyke’s glove, the Cardinals won the pennant.
Tony Fernandez, Shortstop, Cleveland Indians
This home run is one example of how cruel a game baseball can be. The Indians faced the Baltimore Orioles in Game Six of the 1997 ALCS. Orioles starter Mike Mussina pitched eight innings of one-hit ball, striking out 10 while only walking two. However, the Orioles, despite racking up nine hits off Charles Nagy, Paul Assenmacher, and Michael Jackson, could not score, so the game went to extra innings.
In the top of the 11th, Orioles reliever Armando Benitez struck out the first hitter, center fielder Marquis Grissom. Shortstop Omar Vizquel then tried to bunt his way on but failed, making two out in the inning. That brought up Fernandez, who smoked the first pitch over the high right field wall for a home run. Benitez then struck out right fielder Manny Ramirez for the third out.
Jose Mesa took the mound in the bottom of the inning to close the game. He gave up a two-out single to right by center fielder Brady Anderson, bringing up second baseman Roberto Alomar as the winning run. However, Mesa struck Alomar out on a called third strike to give the Indians the pennant despite them only getting three hits.
Yadier Molina, Catcher, St. Louis Cardinals
The 2006 National League Championship Series featured the 97-win New York Mets and the 83-win Cardinals. In Game Seven, a single in the bottom of the first by Mets third baseman David Wright drove in the first run of the game. The Cardinals tied it in the top of the second on a squeeze play by second baseman Ronnie Belliard.
It remained 1-1 into the top of the sixth, when a one-out walk by Cardinals center fielder Jim Edmonds brought up third baseman Scott Rolen. On the first pitch, Rolen sent a deep drive to left. It cleared the wall, but Mets left fielder Endy Chavez jumped high into the air and snatched the ball out of home run territory. He then made a perfect throw to the relay man, second baseman Jose Valentin, who fired the ball to first baseman Carlos Delgado in time to double up Edmonds.
The Ninth
(Mets fans might want to skip to the next section now.) The score remained 1-1 into the top of the ninth. A one-out single to left by Rolen off Aaron Heilman brought up Molina, who hit the first pitch into the seats in left for a stadium-silencing home run. Heilman then retired Belliard on a grounder to short for the second out. Pinch hitter John Rodriguez followed with a groundout to first with the pitcher covering, sending the 3-1 game into the bottom of the ninth.
Adam Wainwright entered the game to pitch the ninth for the Cardinals. He gave up consecutive singles to Valentin and Chavez to start the inning. Cliff Floyd then pinch hit for Heilman and struck out looking. Shortstop Jose Reyes followed with a lineout to center, bringing up catcher Paul Lo Duca as the Mets’ last hope. He walked, loading the bases for center fielder Carlos Beltran. On 0-2, a breaking ball fooled Beltran. He watched it float over the heart of the plate for a called third strike, giving the Cardinals the pennant.
Oddities
Of the five pennant-winning home runs by the visiting team, only the one by Clark came with his team behind. With pennant-winning walk-off home runs, only one of the five hit before this season came from a team that ultimately won the World Series. However, with the home runs listed in this writing, three of the five came from a team who ultimately won the Series – Monday, Landrum, and Molina. The home runs by Monday, Landrum, and Molina also came in the final postseason games played in those stadiums.
Pennant-winning home runs go down in memory because they’re the last play of the game. These home runs by the visitors, while not pennant-winners by pure definition, are just as memorable. Even if they didn’t end the game immediately, they still put each player’s team onto the greatest baseball stage of them all – the World Series.
Main Photo
Embed from Getty Images
