The Greatest Game 7s in Baseball History

A Game 7 is baseball at its most concentrated: everything built over six months, then 162 games, then three rounds of playoffs, riding on one more game. These are the nights that delivered.

Not every Game 7 is great. Some are blowouts. Some are decided early and spent in slow agony. But the ones that end in extra innings with the tying run on base, or a pitcher refusing to come out after nine, or a fly ball falling in shallow left to score the winning run — those games become permanent fixtures in the sport's memory. You know the ones. Here they are.

11991 World Series, Game 7 — Twins 1, Braves 0 (10 innings)

The debate about the greatest Game 7 ever played usually starts and ends here. Jack Morris pitched ten innings of shutout baseball. Ten innings. Tom Kelly came to the mound after the ninth — 1–0 game, the entire World Series on the line — and Morris told him he wasn't done. Kelly walked back to the dugout. Morris finished what he'd started.

Dan Gladden broke his bat on a ball that dropped into left-center and legged it into a double. Gene Larkin, pinch hitting, lined a single that scored Gladden. Final score: 1–0. It was the seventh game of a Series that had four games decided in the final at-bat, three that went extra innings, six decided by one run. No World Series before or since has matched it for sustained drama.

The Twins went worst-to-first: last place in 1990, champions in 1991. The Braves did the same. Two last-place teams played the greatest World Series ever, and the right team won in the tenth inning of the seventh game by exactly one run. See the scorecard →

21960 World Series, Game 7 — Pirates 10, Yankees 9

Bill Mazeroski. Bottom of the ninth, tied 9–9, Mazeroski leading off against Ralph Terry. The Pirates second baseman drove the ball over the ivy-covered brick wall in left-center at Forbes Field for the first walk-off home run in World Series Game 7 history. He rounded the bases waving his cap over his head, the hat going around and around, the Pirate fans pouring out of the stands to chase him home.

The Yankees had outscored Pittsburgh 55–27 over seven games. They had more talent, more runs, more of everything. But the scorecard only shows the final line, and the final line said Pittsburgh 10, New York 9. Mazeroski hit one over the fence and none of it mattered.

32001 World Series, Game 7 — Diamondbacks 3, Yankees 2

Mariano Rivera had blown a save only once in his postseason career when he walked to the mound in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7, holding a 2–1 lead. He was the most dominant closer in baseball history, and the Diamondbacks were down to their last three outs against him.

Tony Womack tied it. A bases-loaded Luis Gonzalez blooper dropped in shallow left on a walk-off single. Rivera stood on the mound and watched it land. A team built in 1998 had beaten the Yankees in a World Series four months after September 11th in a game that felt, to the people of Arizona, like something that was supposed to happen. See the scorecard →

42016 World Series, Game 7 — Cubs 8, Indians 7 (10 innings)

Nobody who watched the 2016 World Series Game 7 will agree on which inning was the worst. The Cubs led 6–3 going into the eighth. Rajai Davis hit a two-run home run off Aroldis Chapman that made it 6–5. David Ross hit a solo shot in the ninth. Then came the rain delay before the tenth.

During the delay, Jason Heyward called a team meeting in the dugout tunnel. What he said, exactly, is known only to the people in that tunnel. The Cubs went back out and scored two runs in the top of the tenth. Davis singled in a run in the bottom half. Kris Bryant fielded a slow roller and threw it across the diamond to Anthony Rizzo, who squeezed it, and 108 years ended.

Fowler had led off the game with a home run. There's a scorecard that shows all of it. See the scorecard →

52014 World Series, Game 7 — Giants 3, Royals 2

Madison Bumgarner had already thrown 117 pitches in Game 5. When the Giants fell behind in the fifth inning of Game 7, he walked out of the bullpen and didn't leave. Five innings. One run allowed. The tying run stood at third base with two outs in the ninth — Bumgarner with a 3–2 count on Salvador Perez, the game on a fulcrum — and Perez popped it up. The Giants had their third ring in five years.

The scorecard from that night shows the split: Bumgarner's line, inning by inning, through the back half of a Game 7. It's the most famous relief performance in World Series history. See the scorecard →

61997 World Series, Game 7 — Marlins 3, Indians 2 (11 innings)

The Cleveland Indians were three outs away from their first title since 1948. Charles Nagy on the mound in the ninth, holding a 2–1 lead. Moises Alou led off with a walk. Bobby Bonilla singled. Craig Counsell hit a sacrifice fly that tied it. Indians manager Mike Hargrove had Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome coming up, but the inning was over and it was tied.

Edgar Rentería hit a soft single up the middle in the 11th. Livan Hernandez was the MVP. A team that didn't exist until 1993 had beaten Cleveland by scoring two runs in the final two innings. See the scorecard →

72019 World Series, Game 7 — Nationals 6, Astros 2

The road team won every game of the 2019 World Series. Every single one. The Nationals went to Houston and lost the first two games, went home and won three straight, went back to Houston and lost Game 6, then won Game 7. The visiting team went 7-for-7 in that Series. It remains the only World Series in history where the road team won every game.

In the seventh inning of Game 7, the Nationals were down 2–0. Anthony Rendon homered. Howie Kendrick hit a grand slam off Will Harris. In Houston, in a stadium that had been the loudest building in baseball three nights before, 43,000 people sat in silence. See the scorecard →

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