In the last edition of “Baseball History’s 10 Best Games”, we looked at Game Six of the 2011 World Series. With that being a wild ride, and a very good game to boot, it sets the bar pretty high for the rest of the list. Let’s dive into number nine: Game Six of the 1993 World Series.
9. 1993 World Series, Game Six, Joe Carter’s Walk-Off
Most fans of baseball know about this game. The 1993 World Series featured the Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays, two very good lineups going at it in a hard-fought series. Dave Stewart took the mound for the Jays against Terry Mulholland for the Phils. Toronto was up 3-2 in the series and looking to close it out at home.
Off to the Races
After Stewart worked through a scoreless top the of the first inning. Mullholland didn’t get that same luxury. The Jays tagged him for three runs in the bottom half. First, Paul Molitor tripled into the gap to bring in a run, then he was brought in by Joe Carter‘s sacrifice fly. After John Olerud doubled, Roberto Alomar drove him in with a base hit to make it 3-0. It was a nightmare of a start for Philadelphia and a great start for Toronto.
The next three innings warranted no action except for a walk and a base hit, bringing us to the fourth inning. After getting the first two outs of the inning, Stewart surrendered a double to Darren Daulton. Six pitches later, Jim Eisenreich singled to bring in the first Phillies run. In the bottom half of the inning, Alomar doubled to lead it off. After a groundout moved him to third, Ed Sprague drove him in to make it 4-1.
The Comeback
For the next three innings, only one run scored. A Paul Molitor homer had made it 5-1 in the fifth inning. It wasn’t until the seventh inning that things grew interesting. With Stewart still dealing on the mound, he surrendered a walk, a single and a three-run home run to Lenny Dykstra, a real exclamation point on this rally. With Stewart chased from the game, the Phillies started to smell blood in the water. Mariano Duncan singled and stole second en route to being driven in by Dave Hollins to tie the game. While the Phillies caught fire, they totally swung the game’s momentum.
After giving up two more baserunners, Danny Cox was relieved by Al Leiter. He proceeded to immediately give up a run on a sac fly by Pete Incaviglia. The Phillies ended the inning shortly thereafter and had completely turned the game on its head. They now held a 6-5 lead heading into the latter third of the game.
“Touch ’em all Joe! You’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life!”
After the deflating rally by the Phillies in the top of the seventh, the Jays needed to string together some hits. After two more scoreless innings, the Phillies called upon Mitch Williams to come in and pitch the ninth inning. He immediately surrendered a walk to Jays leadoff man Rickey Henderson. After Devon White flied to left, Molitor singled to center. This set the stage. Joe Carter stepped in with Molitor as the winning run on first and the speedy Henderson as the tying run on second. On a 2-2 count, down one, Carter accomplished something we all dream of as kids.
Hitting a walk-off home run in the 1993 World Series clinching game is stuff of legend. The call from Blue Jays radio announcer Tom Cheek was also stuff of legend. Many baseball fans can recite the line, “Touch ’em all Joe! You’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life!” Carter galloped around the bases with the biggest grin on his face, making sure to touch each base, and leaping in the air on his way around the diamond. He had etched his name in history and capped off one of the best games in baseball history.
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