The 2024 Major League Baseball season is nearing its conclusion, and as teams begin their late-season push for the postseason, here is a look at the best postseason pushes teams have made over the years.
1. 2011 Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals entered the final month of the season eight and a half games behind the Atlanta Braves for the National League’s wild-card spot. The Cardinals had their best month of the season, finished September with an 18-8 record, and completed the largest comeback in league history after 130 games. The club went 23-9 over their last 32 games, and the postseason race came down to the final game. In the last game of the season, Chris Carpenter pitched a two-hit complete game shutout for St.Louis in an 8-0 win over the Astros. The team moved into the clubhouse to watch the Phillies complete a comeback against the Braves in the ninth, win the game in the 13th inning, and send the Cardinals to the postseason. The run continued to the World Series, where the Cardinals came back from a 3-2 series deficit, including being one strike away twice during game six, to beat the Rangers in game seven.
2. 2011 Rays
The Rays began September nine and a half games behind the Red Sox in the AL East. Tampa was seen as an afterthought in the division, with the Yankees and Red Sox battling at the top. The Rays went 18-10 in August and 17-10 in September, while Boston lost 20 of 27 to help close the gap. Robert Adino of the Orioles hit an RBI single with two outs to hand the Red Sox a loss in the final game of the season. Evan Longoria hit a game-winning homer in the 12th inning against the Yankees just minutes after Adino’s hit secured the Rays wild card position. The Rays run ended in a 3-1 series loss to the eventual AL champion Rangers.
3. 2007 Rockies
The Rockies fell to four and a half games back of the NL wild card spot with 14 games left after dropping two games at home. With three teams ahead of Colorado, the club seemed unlikely to make the postseason. The Rockies then rattled off 13 wins in the last 14 games and forced the first wild card tiebreaker. Colorado faces the Padres in game 163, in which the Rockies also had to rally to win. The Padres scored two in the top of the 13th before Troy Tulowitzki doubled in a run, Matt Holliday tied it with a triple, and then scored a head-first slide into home off a Jamey Carroll sac fly. The close play at the plate sent the Rockies to the playoffs for the second time in franchise history. The club took their hot streak to the World Series before suffering a sweep by the Red Sox.
4. 2012 Athletics
The A’s lost on a walk-off to the Rangers on September 24, pushing the club to five games behind Texas with nine to play. It seemed likely that Oakland’s only chance of a postseason berth was to win the AL wild-card spot. The A’s got hot and rattled off eight wins in the last nine, including five against the Rangers. The two teams faced off for the final series of the season and the A’s swept the Rangers at home to clinch the AL West division crown in the final game of the season. The A’s fell to the eventual AL Champion Tigers in a five-game series.
5. 1951 Giants
On September 6, the New York Giants trailed the Brooklyn Dodgers by six games. With a week left to play, the Giants trailed by four games. New York got hot and strung together wins in 14 of the last 16 games. The race came down to a three-game series between the two clubs. The Giants won the first but were shut out in the second, and it all came down to the final game. Bobby Thompson’s “shot heard ‘round the world” drove in three runs, helped the Giants win a close game, and sent the club to the World Series. The Yankees took down the Giants in six games to win the title.
Could the 2024 season inspire another historic comeback for baseball fans to look back on for years to come? As the season’s end draws close, the postseason race is sure to heat up.
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WBN MLB: https://worldbaseball.com/league/mlb/
Photo Credit: Evan Longoria #3 of the Tampa Bay Rays rounds the bases after his game-winning walk off home run in the twelfth inning against the New York Yankees during the game at Tropicana Field on September 28, 2011 in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images)
