Crazy World Series between Los Angeles and Houston recalls 1993 Wacky Showdown
Game 5 of the 2017 World Series ended with the most runs scored in the Fall Classic in more than twenty years, a ten-inning affair that also set a record number of home runs. However, in a memorable World Series game, the two pennant winners crossed home plate nearly thirty times, and managed to do so without the extra inning.
In the fall of 1993, Toronto entered Game 4 at Philadelphia having won two of the first three. It would be a competition that makes the 2017 Series, which has been hailed as wacky and eccentric, look pretty sedate.
The Blue Jays set the tone early on, when future Hall of Fame outfielder Rickey Henderson led off the game with a double. He quickly joined the base paths after Devon White walked, and eventual Series MVP Joe Carter singled.
Another future Hall of Famer, designated hitter Paul Molitor, walked with the bases loaded to put the Blue Jays up 1-0. Shortstop Tony Fernandez then hit a two-run single, allowing Toronto right-hander Todd Stottlemeyer to take the mound with a 3-0 lead.
Stottlemeyer then proceeded to walk four batters in the bottom of the first before allowing a 3-pointer to outfielder Milt Thompson, giving the Phillies a 4-3 lead. An inning later, a two-run homer by outfielder Lenny Dykstra extended that margin to 6-3, only for the Blue Jays to mount their first comeback in the third.
Three singles and a pair of walks gave Toronto four runs for a 7-6 lead, which was erased in the fourth on a double by Dykstra and an RBI single by infielder Mariano Duncan. Much like the bottom of the sixth inning of Game 5 in 2017, the two teams were deadlocked in Game 7.
The Phils appeared to have put the game out of their grasp as they put up five runs, including homers by Dykstra and catcher Darren Daulton. Toronto managed to add two of its own in the sixth, cutting the deficit to 12-9.
Those two runs were quickly offset by Philadelphia, which scored one in each successive inning to take the lead back to five. Then ten men went to the plate in Toronto’s eighth, when six Blue Jays runners crossed the plate to take a 15-14 lead.
Closer Duane Ward entered in the eighth and retired all four batters he faced to save Toronto, which was now just one game away from winning its second straight World Series Championship. It was another two games before the Blue Jays finished off the Phillies, who clinched it all on Joe Carter’s historic home run.
That roller-coaster ride in Game 4 highlighted one of the best World Series in the sport, one that would have to satisfy baseball fans come the next season. Unfortunately, there would be no Fall Classic in 1994 due to a breakdown in labor negotiations.