The 10 Greatest MLB World Series Games in the Last 10 Years
There's an actual Fall Classic going on right now, but that doesn't make this a bad time for a stroll down Memory Lane to recall the 10 best World Series games of the last 10 years.
The window here starts with the 2014 World Series and ends with what the 2023 World Series has given us so far, including a doozy of a game that obviously has a place on this list. Otherwise, only one game per series was allowed for the sake of keeping things from getting repetitive.
As for what went into picking and ranking the games that made the cut, the drama within the game, any history it made and general memorability were factors. You know, all the usual hallmarks of a proper classic.
Let's start with some honorable mentions and then count down the top 10.
Honorable Mentions
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Game 5, 2014 World Series
Final Score: San Francisco Giants 5, Kansas City Royals 0
On the topic of now-extinct World Series pitching performances, this is the one in which Madison Bumgarner tossed a complete-game shutout. It was the 91st shutout in World Series history, but there hasn't been one since.
Game 3, 2016 World Series
Final Score: Cleveland 1, Chicago Cubs 0
Only 25 World Series games have ever ended by a 1-0 final, including just two this century. This is the more recent of those, and the drama was high indeed. The Cubs actually took more at-bats than Cleveland with runners in scoring position, but went 0-for-7.
Game 2, 2017 World Series
Final Score: Houston Astros 7, Los Angeles Dodgers 6 in 11 innings
"Wasn't that the best game ever!?" declared Alex Bregman after this one was over. Little did he know it wouldn't even prove to be his our Houston's best game of the series, but it was indeed a good one that featured a World Series-record eight home runs.
Game 1, 2022 World Series
Final Score: Philadelphia Phillies 6, Houston Astros 5 in 10 innings
Even if this wasn't the most historic game of last year's World Series, it was certainly the most dramatic. The Phillies came back from an early 5-0 deficit, with J.T. Realmuto driving in their last three runs with a two-run double in the fifth and a solo homer in the 10th.
10. Game 4, 2021 World Series
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Final Score: Atlanta 3, Houston Astros 2
Save for maybe Atlanta fans, it's doubtful that anyone would call the 2021 World Series a classic.
In fact, the drama of the series is quantifiable by way of the leverage index, which captures the possible changes in win probability for a given moment. An LI of 1.0 denotes average pressure, and the average LI for the entire 2021 World Series was a mere 0.85.
The one and only one-run game of the series, however, was what sophisticated people refer to as "Pretty Danged Cool."
Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, Atlanta got one solo homer from Dansby Swanson to tie the game and then another a few pitches later from Jorge Soler to grab the lead for good.
Back-to-back home runs in a World Series game isn't totally uncommon, but Swanson and Soler are only the third pair of teammates to produce them in tying and go-ahead fashion. One of the others is Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, because of course it is.
9. Game 4, 2022 World Series
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Final Score: Houston Astros 5, Philadelphia Phillies 0
Game 3 of the 2022 World Series saw the Phillies utterly manhandle the Astros and Lance McCullers Jr., specifically. He gave up all five of the home runs the Phillies hit in a 7-0 rout.
Judging from how the Astros reacted, not since Michael Jordan had anyone taken anything so personally.
Cristian Javier, Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly came out and pitched a no-hitter in Game 4. Literally a no-hitter in literally the World Series. It had only been done once before, and not since Don Larsen's perfect game in 1956.
If there's an argument against this game's inclusion on this list, it's that the drama was entirely one-sided. The Phillies weren't much more than a bystander while the Astros were making history, and whether it was fun to watch depended where you fell on the rooting spectrum.
But, well, do I need to sit here and repeat the phrase "World Series no-hitter" all day? Because I will.
8. Game 7, 2019 World Series
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Final Score: Washington Nationals 6, Houston Astros 2
The Astros should have won the 2019 World Series.
That's not sour grapes. It's probabilistic analysis. At its highest point after Jake Marisnick singled leading off the bottom of the sixth as the Astros had a 2-0 lead, their win probability in Game 7 was 84 percent.
A strikeout and a double play got the Nationals out of that jam, however, and it was immediately after in the top of the seventh that the game turned on two swings by Anthony Rendon and Howie Kendrick.
Rendon's solo homer off Zack Greinke cut Houston's lead in half, and then Kendricks' two-run poke off the foul pole against Will Harris gave Washington a lead it wouldn't relinquish. The end result was the franchise's first-ever championship.
Lest his contribution be forgotten, the unsung hero for the Nationals in this Game 7 was Patrick Corbin. In between Max Scherzer's start and Daniel Hudson's save, the lefty pitched three scoreless innings on two hits with three strikeouts.
7. Game 1, 2023 World Series
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Final Score: Texas Rangers 6, Arizona Diamondbacks 5 in 11 innings
"Instant classic" is not a term to be thrown around lightly but, screw it, Game 1 of this year's World Series is just that.
The drama was hot right of the gate, as the Rangers grabbed to a 2-0 lead in the first only to lose it when the Diamondbacks rallied for three in the third. The Rangers promptly tied it in their half, but fell behind again just as promptly after the Snakes scored in the fourth and fifth.
The game eventually found itself in the hands of heretofore automatic closer Paul Sewald, who began the ninth for Arizona with a 0.00 ERA for the playoffs.
So much for that. Corey Seager set 'em up with a two-run homer in the ninth and Adolis García knocked 'em down with a walk-off shot in the 11th.
The World Series has seen plenty of game-tying and walk-off homers, but only once before had it seen one of the former in the ninth and one of the latter in extras. That was by the New York Yankees in Game 4 of the 2001 World Series...which was also against Arizona.
6. Game 1, 2015 World Series
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Final Score: Kansas City Royals 5, New York Mets 4 in 14 innings
Game 1 of the 2015 World Series isn't just better than you probably remember. It's possibly the single most pressure-packed World Series game of the last decade.
The average leverage index ended up at 1.81. That's the highest of any World Series game between 2014 and 2023, and it tracks with how A) it was a one-run game that B) lasted 14 innings and C) featured 29 plate appearances with runners in scoring position.
And goodness, was there drama. Alcides Escobar led off with an inside-the-park home run, for Pete's sake, yet the Royals eventually faced deficits of 3-1 after six and 4-3 after eight.
The latter was erased in loud fashion in the bottom of the ninth by Alex Gordon, who sent a Jeurys Familia fastball 438 feet to center field for a game-tying homer.
The winning run scored on an Eric Hosmer sacrifice fly that drew a surprisingly good throw from Curtis Granderson for a surprising close play at home. Yet when Escobar scored safely, it had been five hours and nine minutes since first pitch.
5. Game 4, 2020 World Series
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Final Score: Tampa Bay Rays 8, Los Angeles Dodgers 7
The Rays had to have Game 4 of the 2020 World Series. If they lost, they'd be facing near-certain death in the form of a 3-1 deficit. So, they played like their lives depended on it.
But so did the Dodgers.
They drew first blood with runs in the first and third, and then things got truly out of hand. At least one run scored in eight straight half-innings between the bottom of the fourth and the top of the eighth, in which time the lead changed hands three times.
The lead was in the Dodgers' hands when Kenley Jansen faced Brett Phillips with two outs and runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth. It had been a month since Phillips' last hit, yet he came through...with a little help from the Dodgers' defense for a game-ending play that must be seen to be believed:
No matter how it happened, Jayson Stark of The Athletic uncovered that it was only the third time in the history of the World Series that a team had turned a deficit with two outs in the ninth into a win on its final swing.
4. Game 5, 2017 World Series
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Final Score: Houston Astros 13, Los Angeles Dodgers 12 in 10 innings
Remember when Alex Bregman referred to Game 2 of the 2017 World Series as "the best game ever?"
He clearly didn't foresee Game 5, though that's not a knock on him. Nobody could have foreseen a game in which both teams top 12 runs for only the second time in World Series history, and then there's how it happened.
There were 20 half-innings in the game, and at least one run scored in 11 of them. Six were innings of at least three runs, including the Dodgers' game-tying rally that marked the third time in the game that a three-run lead had gone "poof."
The scoring briefly stopped after that, but picked up again one last time when Bregman walked it off with an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th.
Another fun fact about this game is that seven different players combined to hit seven home runs. Another is that it was started by two Cy Young Award winners in Clayton Kershaw and Dallas Keuchel. It was, in technical terms, a real humdinger.
3. Game 3, 2018 World Series
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Final Score: Los Angeles Dodgers 3, Boston Red Sox 2 in 18 innings
Game 3 of the 2018 World Series is the longest World Series game ever played, and it isn't close.
At 18 innings, it lasted four innings longer than any other Fall Classic game. And at 7 hours and 20 minutes, its runtime is 99 minutes longer than the next-closest game.
Time alone does not an epic make, but this was anything but a boring game. There were a total of 63 plate appearances in high-leverage spots, and that doesn't even include Jackie Bradley Jr.'s game-tying homer off Kenley Jansen in the eighth.
The next run didn't score until the top of the 13th, but the Dodgers answered immediately in the bottom half thanks to an ill-timed error by Ian Kinsler. Five innings later, Max Muncy sent the Dodger faithful home happy with a walk-off solo homer.
Even today, though, the guy who served up that homer is remembered as just as much of a hero as the guy who hit it. It was the 97th pitch that Nathan Eovaldi threw in six innings in relief, which Rick Porcello called "most incredible pitching performance I've ever seen."
2. Game 7, 2014 World Series
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Final Score: San Francisco Giants 3, Kansas City Royals 2
The 2014 World Series had actually been kind of boring through the first six games, for which the average margin of victory was 5.6 runs.
Well, go figure that a whole series' worth of drama unfolded in Game 7.
For Giants fans, this was the Madison Bumgarner Game. Already with two shutouts and a 1.13 ERA for six appearances to that point in the playoffs, the ace left-hander became the first relief pitcher in 30 years to toss at least five scoreless innings in a World Series game.
Royals fans, on the other hand, might remember this as the Alex Gordon Game, with the accompanying question of whether he could have scored on that wild play with two outs in the bottom of the ninth:
Per all the available data, chances are Gordon would have been toast at home plate. And yet, the risk was arguably worth the reward of a tie game. Either way, it's an all-time World Series "What if?" at the end of an all-time World Series game.
1. Game 7, 2016 World Series
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Final Score: Chicago Cubs 8, Cleveland 7 in 10 innings
There have only ever been four World Series Game 7s that have gone into extra innings, and only one of those saw a team win its first championship in 108 years.
Game 7 of the 2016 World Series deserves to be on this list just on that account, but let's back up and remember that the Cubs were on the butt end of the game's biggest moment.
Heck, the two-run homer that Rajai Davis hit off Aroldis Chapman in the bottom of the eighth wasn't merely the biggest play of the game. By championship win probability added, it's the fourth-most impactful hit in baseball history.
Far from a death blow, however, the Cubs overcame both Davis' home run and a rain delay to take the lead back with a pair of runs in the 10th. Ben Zobrist's RBI double probably clinched him the World Series MVP, but it was Miguel Montero's RBI single that proved to be the difference after, who else, Davis drove in another run in the bottom half of the inning.
Whatever the case, the Cubs held on, clinching only the sixth comeback from a 3-1 deficit in World Series history.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.
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