Trivia Tuesday: More Postseason Walk-Off Trivia

This year the Yankees have celebrated with walk-offs in the postseason and walk-offs in the regular season. One of those "walk-offs" in the regular season was when Luis Castillo dropped the ball to end the game.

In 1914, an error by the pitcher on a bunt attempt gave the Boston Braves the win in the game (and the series) against the Philadelphia Athletics. Since then, only four times have postseason games ended in errors. Can you name them? Put you answers in the comments below and I'll reveal the correct answer later tonight.

*hint* only two franchises since the Boston Braves have benefited from this (so each franchise had two walk-off wins via the error)

The Answers:

Car#  G# Date          Series G Pitcher           Tm   Opp Batter            Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit  R Play Desc.
+-----+---+-------------+------+-+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+--+-------------------------+
   1   1 1914-10-12    WS     3 Joe Bush          PHA @BSN Herbie Moran      tied   4-4  b12 12-   0  -       1 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E1 (throw to 3B)/Sacrifice Bunt; Mann Scores/unER/No RBI; Gilbert to 2B; Moran to 1B 
   2   1 1969-10-15    WS     4 Pete Richert      BAL @NYM J.C. Martin       tied   1-1  b10 12-   0  -       1 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E1 (throw to 1B)/Sacrifice Bunt; Gaspar Scores/unER/No RBI; Weis to 2B; Martin to 1B 
   3   1 1986-10-25    WS     6 Bob Stanley       BOS @NYM Mookie Wilson     tied   5-5  b10 -2-   2 3-2   9  1 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E3 (Ground Ball); Knight Scores/unER 
   4   1 1996-10-02    ALDS   2 Mike Henneman     TEX @NYY Charlie Hayes     tied   4-4  b12 12-   0 0-0   1  1 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E5 (throw to 1B)/Sacrifice Bunt (Bunt to Weak 3B); Jeter Scores/No RBI/unER; Raines to 2B 
   5   1 2009-10-17    ALCS   2 Ervin Santana     LAA @NYY Melky Cabrera     tied   3-3  b13 12-   1 0-0   1  1 *ENDED GAME*:Reached on E4 (throw)/attempted forceout (Ground Ball); Hairston Scores/unER/No RBI; Cano to 2B 

Hopefully the Pies Combat Karma

Buster Olney has a very interesting stat on his blog about "walk-off karma" from Mark Simon of ESPN Stats & Information:

It took until Game 3 of the ALCS, but there's finally a stat that some might call a bad omen for the Yankees. In the past eight postseason series during which the Yankees suffered a walk-off loss, they lost the series.

A quick review:

2007 ALDS: Travis Hafner's walk-off hit in Game 2 (the game when the midges attacked Joba Chamberlain) gave the Indians a 2-0 lead in a series they went on to win 3-1.

2004 ALCS: David Ortiz beat the Yankees with a walk-off home run in Game 4 and a walk-off single in Game 5 as the Red Sox rallied from a 3-0 series deficit to beat the Yankees in seven games.

2003 World Series: Marlins shortstop Alex Gonzalez evened the series at 2 with a walk-off home run off Jeff Weaver in the 12th inning, a series the Marlins later won in six games.

2001 World Series: A season-ender: Luis Gonzalez beat Mariano Rivera with a bases-loaded hit in Game 7, as the Diamondbacks rallied in the ninth to win both the game and the World Series.

1997 ALDS: In Game 4, Sandy Alomar Jr. hit a tying home run against Rivera, and Omar Vizquel got a walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth as the Indians tied their series with the Yankees at 2. They later beat Andy Pettitte to clinch the series in Game 5.

1995 ALDS: Another season-ender: Edgar Martinez's two-run double in the 11th inning of Game 5 gave the Mariners a 6-5 win and series win. Martinez is one of three players to hit a walk-off double against the Yankees. Jeff Mathis and Cookie Lavagetto are the other two.

1976 World Series: "Baseball Tonight" analyst Eduardo Perez's father, Tony, beat Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter with a walk-off hit in Game 2 on the way to a sweep for the Big Red Machine, the last NL team to win consecutive World Series titles.

1960 World Series: A history maker: Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski found his way into baseball immortality with a walk-off home run in Game 7 of the World Series. It was the first series-ending home run in postseason history.

The last time the Yankees won a postseason series in which they lost a game via walk-off was the 1958 World Series, when they beat the Milwaukee Braves in seven games despite losing Game 1 via walk-off.

Wow, that was a painful list! Let's hope the Yankees strike gold every 51 years and the pies are anti-karma.

For Your Morning Enjoyment: Every Yankee Walk-Off

These are only the regular season ones and are missing the all-important pie...but it's still cool to review (H/T @rebecca_glass):



From Ken Rosenthal:

The Angels' bullpen is neither as deep nor as talented as the Yankees'; only the Indians, Royals and Orioles had worse ERAs in the regular season. Scioscia will lean heavily on righty Kevin Jepsen, lefty Darren Oliver and closer Brian Fuentes, just as he did in the Division Series. I can already see Burnett running out of the Yankees' dugout to "pie" some walkoff hero.

Getting excited for tonight!

Trivia Tuesday: Yankees Post-Season Walk-Off Edition

This season has been the one of the walk-off for the Yankees (15 to be exact). A few of those memorable games have ended on walk-off home runs.

The Yankees have 10 walk-off home runs in the history of the playoffs, double the total of any other team (the Red Sox have 5 followed by the Mets at 3) and a quarter of the total of all playoff walk-offs (according to Baseball-Reference, there's only been 40, the first coming in 1949). Tommy Henrich hit one off of Don Newcombe in Game 1 of the 1949 World Series, Mickey Mantle hit one off of Barney Shultze in Game 3 of the 1964 World Series, and then Chris Chambliss hit one off of Mark Littell to end the 1976 ALCS.

Since Chambliss hit that home run (and was subsequently mobbed by fans and teammates in a famous scene at the Old Yankee Stadium), the Yankees have hit 7 postseason walk-off home runs. Can you name all 7 (year, series, pitcher and team against)?

Post your answers in the comments (if you're reading elsewhere, go to http://www.noyoureatowel.net/ to post your answer in the comments) and I'll reveal the answers later tonight.

Update 10:20: well that was over quickly. Ben got all the answers in 17 minutes, a new NYaT record.

New question to answer: Can you name the Red Sox 5 and/or the Mets 3 walk-off postseason home runs?

"Kyle Farnsworth...It Couldn't Have Happened To a Nicer Guy!"

So started my conversation with my dad after the latest Yankees walk-off. This team continues to come back and walk-off, making them a deadly team at home this season where they have 57 wins. The only team with more than 49 wins at home are the Red Sox.

They now have 50 comeback wins and 15 walk-offs. The Yankees are an insane 51-16 at home since May 15 (via PeteAbe). Not too shabby for a team that looked, at the beginning of the season, like they didn't have any fight in them when they went down to the Red Sox 8 straight.

The best part of tonight for me (besides the fact that they did this against Kyle Farnsworth)? The fact Joe Girardi left in guys like Cervelli and Hinske and Miranda to bat and run in the bottom of the 9th when he had Jorge Posada's bat ready and able on the bench. Cervelli and Hinske will probably both be on the ALDS roster (at least I think so). Cervelli may be called on to bat in an extra inning game and Hinske may need to run the bases.

And Juan Miranda? It was awesome watching Melky run after him before he even touched first or Nick Swisher be the first guy out to the outfield. This team feels like a close-knit group. You hope that when times get tough in October, they'll stick together like this.

And let's hope there's many more pies to come in October.

Trivia Tuesday: Mariano Rivera Edition

On Friday night, Ichiro Suzuki joined a very select group of players to hit a regular season walk-off home run off Mariano Rivera. Four others had done so before that. Can you name those four players to walk-off against Mo in the regular season (and bonus points for the year the home runs occurred)?

Put your answer in the comments below. I will post the correct answer tonight. Good luck!

(Side note: Going through Baseball-Reference, I learned that Mariano Rivera has never walked in the winning run in the regular season. And he only has 15 walk-off hits against him in total)

Answers:

2002

Car# Yr# G# Date Tm Opp Batter Score Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit R Play Desc.
+-----+----+---+-------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----------------------+
1 1 1 2002-07-14 NYY @CLE Bill Selby ahead 7-6 b 9 123 2 2-2 6 4 *ENDED GAME*:Home Run; Vizquel Scores; Burks Scores; Thome Scores

2004

Car# Yr# G# Date Tm Opp Batter Score Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit R Play Desc.
+-----+----+---+-------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----------------------+
2 1 1 2004-07-24 NYY @BOS Bill Mueller ahead 10-9 b 9 1-- 1 3-1 5 2 *ENDED GAME*:Home Run (Fly Ball); McCarty Scores

2006

Car# Yr# G# Date Tm Opp Batter Score Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit R Play Desc.
+-----+----+---+-------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----------------------+
3 1 1 2006-07-20 NYY @TOR Vernon Wells tied 4-4 b11 --- 1 1-0 2 1 *ENDED GAME*:Home Run (Fly Ball to LF-CF)

2007

Car# Yr# G# Date Tm Opp Batter Score Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit R Play Desc.
+-----+----+---+-------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----------------------+
4 1 1 2007-04-15 NYY @OAK Marco Scutaro ahead 4-2 b 9 12- 2 0-2 3 3 *ENDED GAME*:Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF Line); Walker Scores; Kendall Scores