World Series Game 6: The 10 most decisive moments in MLB history

What was the most thrilling game in World Series history? For sheer momentum-shifting twists and turns, there are really only two choices.

The Bill Mazeroski Game 7 walk-off of 1960 would be the obvious pick of a lot of folks. And it’s an excellent choice. But an equally strong case can be made for a game that did not literally decide the champion, Game 6 of the 2011 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers.

No fewer than three moments from that astonishing Sixth Game rank among the 10 most pivotal Game 6 moments of all time. It is the only game in World Series history with three such top-ten moments.

The standard of measurement is Win Probability Added, a relatively new statistic that calculates the extent to which the play in question influenced the game’s outcome.

One famous Game 6 not included on this list is the 1975 Carlton Fisk game. Fisk’s 12th-inning home run certainly was dramatic, and not merely for the video clip moment. But it ranks only 16th all time for reasons beyond Fisk’s control.

Fisk hit his home run leading off the 12th inning of a tie game. Because Fisk’s Red Sox had last at bats, and because there were none out, the odds of a Red Sox victory (eventually if not then) were already 64 percent when Fisk stepped up the plate. The most he could swing the outcome was 36 percent, which of course he did.

That’s a big deal, but when emotion is removed it’s not a big enough deal to crack the Game 6 top 10. In fact Fisk’s home run wasn’t even the biggest swing point of that evening. More on that momentarily.

You can keep an eye open for installments looking at the 10 most decisive moments from World Series Game 7.

Here are the 10 most decisive moments of Games 6 of the World Series in MLB history

10. Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers, 2011. The story of this extraordinary game, won by St. Louis 10-9 in 11 innings, unfolds in three parts. The first of those involves the most frustration for Ranger fans, because it touches upon the fleeting instant when it appeared for all the world that Texas had won the Series.

The Rangers led three-games-to-two and were tied 7-7 when Hamilton, their best offensive threat, came up with one out and Elvis Andrus at first base in the top of the 10th at Busch Memorial Stadium.  At that stage, Hamilton was a star, the reigning MVP coming off a 25-homer, 94 RBI season in which he had slugged .536.

Cardinal reliever Jason Motte missed over the heart of the plate with a first pitch fastball, and Hamilton shot that mistake into the second row of the stands in deep right-center field. His two-run home run gave Texas a 9-7 lead and left the Rangers just three outs from that coveted first World Series title. Hamilton Win Probability Added: 43 percent.

t-8. Stan Hack, Chicago Cubs, 1945. Game 6 was do or die time for the Chicago Cubs. They trailed the Detroit Tigers three games to two, and had blown a 7-3 lead allowing the Tigers to take the xixth game into extra innings. That left the Tigers one run away from a clinching victory.

In the bottom of the 12th, Cubs star third baseman Stan Hack ensured that his team would have at least one more championship opportunity. With two out and Bill Schuster at first base, Hack sent a double into left field, allowing Schuster to race home with the game-ending run in an 8-7 Cubs victory.

Sadly for Cubs fans, Hack’s winning hit only delayed the outcome. One day later, the Tigers breezed to a 9-3 Series clinching victory. Hack Win Probability Added: 44 percent.

t-8, Bernie Carbo, Boston Red Sox, 1975. Fisk’s iconic Game 6 home run may not have made the top 10 list, but the game itself is represented. Several innings before Fisk became famous in Boston, his teammate, Carbo, delivered another home run that shifted the odds even more than Fisk’s blast.

Facing a must-win situation in Game 6, the Red Sox entered the bottom of the eighth inning tailing 6-3. Two outs and two baseurnners later, Sox manager Darrell Johnson summoned Carbo to pinch hit for pitcher Roger Moret in a situation where a home run was almost the only thing useful to the Sox.

It had already been a magical Series for Carbo, with a pinch hit RBI single in Game 2 and a home run in Game 3. Now Reds reliever Rawly Eastwick worked the count to 2-2 only to see Carbo send a fastball into Fenway’s center field seats for a game-tying three run homer.

His hit tied the game at 6-6 and set the stage for Fisk four innings later. Carbo Win Probability Added: 44 percent.

7. Dave Winfield, 1992 Toronto Blue Jays. Five of the 10 most pivotal moments in Game 6 history took place in just two games. The famous 2011 Rangers-Cardinals game, with an unprecedented three entries, has already been alluded to. In 1992, the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 4-3 in 11 innings to win their first World Series in a game that contained a pair of pivotal moments.

The second of those chronologically, and the one that clinched the championship, is actually the lesser moment from a standpoint of pivotal impact. In the top of the 11th at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium, Braves reliever Charlie Leibrandt retired the first batter, but hit Devon White and gave up a base hit to Roberto Alomar before retiring Joe Carter on a fly out to center field.

Winfield was due up next. With the go-ahead run in scoring position in the person of the speedy White, Winfield needed only a base hit, but he went one better. On a 3-2 pitch he grounded Leibrandt’s pitch over the bag at third, the ball rolling into the corner and then eluding left fielder Ron Gant as White and Alomar both scored.

As it turned out, the Jays needed both runs.  In the bottom of the 11th, Atlanta got one of those runs back before Mike Timlin nailed down the Series clinching final out. Winfield Win Probability Added: 45 percent.

t-5. Otis Nixon, 1992 Atlanta Braves. The Jays would have won that Sixth Game in regulation time except for Nixon’s ninth inning heroics. Trying to keep their Series chances alive in front of the home crowd, the Braves trailed 2-1 entering the bottom of the ninth and faced Jays closer Tom Henke, with 34 regular season saves to his credit.

Henke allowed a Jeff Blauser single leading off the ninth, but retired two of the next three batters he faced, leaving Blauser at second and Lonnie Smith, who had walked, at first for Nixon. A prototype leadoff hitter, Nixon had no power – he had hit just two home runs in 502 plate appearances that season – but reliable contact skills.

When Henke fired two strikes, Nixon did what he often did; he shortened up and relied on his bat-to-ball skills. Nixon met Henke’s third pitch and grounded it perfectly between the third baseman and shortstop for the hit that allowed Blauser to score the tying run and, for the moment anyway, delay the Series conclusion. Nixon Win Probability Added: 47 percent.   

t-5. Dane Iorg, 1985 Kansas City Royals. The bottom of the ninth inning of the sixth game of the 1985 World Series between the Royals and Cardinals is notorious in St. Louis for umpire Don Denkinger’s missed call. Denkinger ruled the inning’s first hitter, Jorge Orta, safe on what should have been the first out as St. Louis tried to close out a Series win.

The Cardinals took a1-0 lead into that ninth thanks to the dominant pitching of Danny Cox. Ken Dayley the kept the Royals off the board in the eighth, then turned the issue over to rookie Todd Worrell, an August callup whose blazing fastball had won him the closer’s job.

A hit, a walk, a passed ball and an intentional walk followed Denkinger’s blunder, setting the stage for the real drama. Iorg pinch hit for Dan Quisenberry with the bases loaded and Worrell still two outs short of victory.

Worrell’s first pitch missed, then Iorg looped a soft liner over the head of second baseman Tom Herr into short right field. With two out, the tying run scored easily, and Jeff Sundberg slid home ahead of catcher Darrell Porter’s tag with the winning run.

One night later, the Royals routed the stunned Cardinals 11-0 to claim Kansas City’s first World Series title. Iorg Win Probability Added: 46 percent.

4. Lance Berkman, 2011 St. Louis Cardinals. Hamilton’s previously mentioned home run appeared to give Texas the decisive two-run extra inning advantage heading in  to the bottom of the 11th. But appearances can be deceiving, especially when the Cardinals are involved.

In the bottom of that same inning, Texas sent Darren Oliver out in search of those final three outs. But Daniel Descalso and Jon Jay singled, and a sacrifice bunt later Oliver was removed in favor of Scott Feldman.

Ryan Theriot managed only a ground out, but it was enough to get Descalso across and draw St. Louis one run closer. With slugger Albert Pujols due next, Rangers manager Ron Washington ordered an intentional walk, opting to face veteran Lance Berkman rather than Pujols.

From a Ranger standpoint, the veteran switch hitter was not much of an improvement on Pujols, coming off a .301 season that included 31 home runs and 94 RBIs. Berkman worked the count to 2-2, then lined a base hit into center field that scored Jay with the tying run.  Berkman Win Probability Added: 47 percent.

3. Bob Meusel, 1923 New York Yankees. The two-time defending World Series champion New York Giants faced their cross-town rivals the Yankees, with survival on their minds. The Yanks needed just one more win to dethrone the Giants and pick up their first World Series title in franchise history.

Seven innings into the game at the Polo Grounds, the Giants led 4-1, keeping their hope of a three-peat alive and well. But that hope evaporated in a few minutes, the heart of the Yankee offense being responsible.

Wally Schang and Everett Scott set the stage with one-out singles off Giant ace Art Nehf. A walk loaded the bases for Yankee pinch hitter Joe Bush, who also walked, forcing home a run and knocking Nehf off the mound in favor of Rosy Ryan.

Then a third straight walk, this one to Joe Dugan, made it 4-3. Ryan recovered with a strikeout of Babe Ruth, leaving him one out away from escaping the bases loaded mess as Yankee cleanup hitter Bob Meusel came to the plate.

Meusel was a slashing hitter coming of a .313 regular season as he stood in. He took a strike, then slapped a ground ball past Ryan and on into center field, scoring the tying and go-ahead runs, and adding an insurance run when Giant center fielder Bill Cunningham threw wildly to third base.

Two failed Giant at bats later the Yanks walked off as 6-4 winners and Series champions. Meusel Win Probability Added: 54 percent.