Top Regular-Season Moment for Each Playoff Team

For all the hope and optimism that each of baseball's 30 teams had entering the regular season, only 10 remain standing at the end with the dream of being called world champions still very much alive.

A six-month journey to reach this point is undoubtedly going to be full of ups and downs and trials and tribulations that not only test a team physically, but mentally as well. It's not necessarily about having the most talent—though that certainly helps. It's about resolve. It's about being able to dust yourself off after getting knocked down and finding success in spite of the obstacles in front of you.

While it's true that some teams had to traverse far more difficult paths than others to reach this point, each team can point to a singular moment, a series or a stretch of the regular season that stood out above the rest.

Let's take a look back at what those moments were.

Los Angeles Dodgers: Mid-June Swagger

When the Dodgers returned to Los Angeles on June 13, they trailed the first-place San Francisco Giants by eight games in the NL West. With the Giants not on the team's schedule until late July, making up significant ground in the standings seemed to be nothing more than a dream.

But someone forgot to wake the Dodgers from that dream.

The team rattled off series win after series win, finishing the month on a 14-4 roll—highlighted by Clayton Kershaw's first career no-hitter against Colorado on June 18—and found itself tied with San Francisco for first place in the division by June 30.

Pittsburgh Pirates: 10 Days in August

After losing seven games in a row from Aug. 13 to Aug. 19—nine out of 11 dating back to Aug. 9—the Pittsburgh Pirates were reeling.

The team's best player, Andrew McCutchen, was on the disabled list with a fractured rib, and Gerrit Cole, arguably the team's best pitcher, joined him on the sidelines, out since early July with a sore right lat. The Pirates, who had become "America's Team" in 2013 after ending a 20-year absence from the playoffs, had gone from within 1.5 games of the NL Central lead to seven games back.

A return trip to the playoffs was looking iffy at best.

But then they started to get healthy. McCutchen was activated Aug. 19, Cole a day later. Suddenly, the Pirates began to roll.

Pittsburgh won seven of its next 10 games, including two of three from the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, and found itself right back in the thick of the division race, only two games back when games were completed on Aug. 31.

Were it not for that 10-game stretch, there's no telling whether the Pirates would be heading for the NL Wild Card Game for a second consecutive season.

San Francisco Giants: Bumgarner and Buster Make History

While San Francisco wasn't able to hold on to its early-season lead in the NL West, the playoffs were never really in doubt for the club at any point. It wasn't until the last week of the season that the Giants fell more than 5.5 games behind Los Angeles in the division, and a wild-card berth seemed like a lock for months.

Without a specific game or slate of games that put the team over the top in the playoff picture, we can focus on an individual game that, while largely unimportant in the grand scheme of things, provided Giants fans with one of the highlights of their season.

Facing a putrid Arizona Diamondbacks club in mid-July, catcher Buster Posey and starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner both hit grand slams, becoming the first battery in baseball history to accomplish the feat in the same game, doing so in consecutive innings (Posey in the bottom of the fifth, Bumgarner in the bottom of the sixth).

Per Steve Kroner of the San Francisco Chronicle, it was the third time in franchise history that two players hit a grand slam in the same game—with all three taking place in San Francisco.

St. Louis Cardinals: A Crucial 10-Game Stretch

Five games out in the NL Central on July 6, St. Louis was struggling to put runs on the board and was heading into a crucial 10-game stretch that would see the Cardinals take on a trio of contenders in division foes Pittsburgh and Milwaukee as well as an always dangerous Los Angeles squad.

St. Louis would take three of four from the Pirates in spectacular fashion, courtesy of walk-off home runs by Matt Adams and Kollten Wong on back-to-back nights, and by the time the 10-game set was over, the Cardinals had emerged victorious in seven games and sat tied with the Brewers for the division lead.

While they'd lose their grip on the division lead and not get it back until Aug. 31, the Cardinals never fell more than three games back, keeping their playoff hopes alive as injured stars like Yadier Molina and Michael Wacha returned to health in time for the stretch run.

Washington Nationals: The 10-Game Winning Streak

After dropping its second game in three days to the division-rival Atlanta Braves on Aug. 10, Washington found itself sitting 10 games above .500 (53-43) and with only a 3.5-game lead over the Braves in the NL East.

It looked as if the Nationals were going to be battling for division supremacy for the rest of the regular season.

Except they had other plans, going on a 10-game winning streak from Aug. 12 to Aug. 21, with five of their last six victories coming via walk-off hits. By the time the streak was over, the Nationals sat 20 games above .500 (63-43) and with a seven-game lead in the division that the team would never relinquish.

Baltimore Orioles: Post-All-Star Break Test

As the season prepared to resume after taking a break for the All-Star Game, Baltimore sat 10 games above .500 (52-42) and with a four-game lead in the AL East.

But a quick look at the team's upcoming schedule—with 31 consecutive games against contending teams—was enough to make even the most optimistic Orioles fan question just how long the team could hold on to that lead.

A month later, as the team prepared to head to Chicago for a meeting with the White Sox, Baltimore sat 18 games above .500 (70-52) and nearly eight games up in the division. Despite the level of competition, Baltimore had gone 21-10, including a 6-3 record against AL East opponents.

Four of those wins came against the hated New York Yankees, with perhaps the seminal moment coming Aug. 13 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles were playing without their starting left side of the infield, as third baseman Manny Machado had just been placed on the disabled list, while shortstop J.J. Hardy was out for his third consecutive day due to a sprained thumb. Heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Yankees held a 2-1 lead and had limited the Orioles to only three hits on the day.

With New York's record-setting rookie reliever, Dellin Betances, on the mound, it looked as if the game was over. But Orioles rookie second baseman Jonathan Schoop hit a solo home run with one out off of Betances to tie things at two, chasing him from the game.

Four batters later, with runners on first and second and two out, Adam Jones sent the first pitch he saw from veteran reliever Shawn Kelley deep to left-center field, over the outfield wall for a three-run shot that would ultimately stand as the game-winning hit.

After the game, Jones explained to reporters that the Orioles never believe they are out of a game, via The Associated Press (h/t Fox Sports): "When we're down by one we always feel we're just one pitch away. So that happened, and once we tie the game all the marbles are up. First one to score one wins."

From that point on, Baltimore's lead in the division never shrunk to less than six games.

Detroit Tigers: The Tag-Up That Never Was

In what proved to be a terrific job by baseball's schedule-makers, the Detroit Tigers' final road trip of the regular season took them to Kansas City, where they'd do battle with the Royals, a team the Tigers held a one-game lead on in the AL Central.

Clearly, that three-game series was going to go a long way toward deciding division supremacy.

After trouncing the home team 10-1 on Friday, Sept. 19, the Tigers returned to Kauffman Stadium the following day to watch a pair of aces do battle—their own Max Scherzer against Kansas City's James Shields.

With the game tied at one in the bottom of the sixth inning, Scherzer found himself in trouble.

The Royals had men at second and third with only one out in a 1-1 game when they appeared to score the go-ahead run on a throwing error by second baseman Ian Kinsler, who had snagged a line drive from Omar Infante for the inning's second out but watched helplessly as shortstop Eugenio Suarez whiffed on his throw to try and nail Eric Hosmer at second base.

Hosmer advanced to third on the throw, while Salvador Perez, 90 feet from home plate, scored what looked to be the go-ahead run.

Except that Perez never tagged up. While he retreated back toward third base on Kinsler's catch, he never touched the bag. The Tigers appealed, the play went to video replay and Perez was ruled out, ending the inning.

Detroit would go on to win the game 3-2, opening up a three-game lead over Kansas City in the division. While the Royals would fight their way back to get within a game of the Tigers, they were unable to stop Detroit from winning its fourth consecutive division crown.

Had Perez taken that extra step against Scherzer and touched third base, things could have worked out much differently than they did—for both teams.

Kansas City Royals: The Final Stretch

After Salvador Perez's baserunning gaffe against Detroit, it would have been easy for Kansas City to take on a "woe is me" attitude and give up on the season.

Instead, the team showed its resilience, banding together to win five of its next six games, none bigger than a 3-1 victory over Chicago on Sept. 26. With that victory, Perez's mistake—and 29 years of futility (as outlined by Bleacher Report's Jason Catania)—disappeared.

For the first time since 1985, the Royals were a playoff team.

Hall of Famer and Kansas City lifer George Brett, a member of the franchise's world championship club in 1985, was in attendance and celebrated in his seat as the team's celebration began on the field. In the clubhouse after the game, Brett told reporters how happy he was for the current batch of Royals, via Jeffrey Flanagan of Fox Sports.

"These are the guys that everyone wrote off when they were seven or eight games back, and then came back, and fell behind again, and then everyone gave up on them again. They are the ones that deserve (the champagne)," he said.

Los Angeles Angels: Sweeping the A's Under the Rug

While the Los Angeles Angels wouldn't clinch their first division title since 2009 until Sept. 18, it was a four-game sweep of the Oakland A's at the end of August that served as the club's seminal moment.

Entering their second week of action without ace Garrett Richards, who had been lost for the season with a torn knee tendon, the Angels played host to the Oakland Athletics—a team that they held a slim one-game lead over in the AL West—for a four-game series beginning Aug. 28.

By the time the series was over Aug. 31, the Angels had outscored the A's 18-3, tossed a pair of shutouts and sat with a five-game lead in the division that they'd never surrender.

Oakland Athletics: Delivering in the Clutch

There's no way to sugarcoat Oakland's second-half collapse, but when it was all said and done, the A's stood tall when their backs were against the wall.

In the final game of the regular season, facing a "win and you're in" scenario, Oakland did just that, besting the Texas Rangers 4-0 behind a complete-game shutout by Sonny Gray.

“For a 24-year-old kid who looks like he’s 14 and pitches like he’s 30, we've asked so much of him over the last couple of years, and for him to step up today...he kind of gave me an inkling that he might be the only guy we needed,” manager Bob Melvin told the San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser after the game.

Gray went the distance for only the second time this season—five months to the day of his first complete game, a two-hit shutout against...you guessed it, the Rangers back on April 28, before that team's season fell apart.

“I would like to tell our fans we appreciate them,” Melvin said. “We know what they’ve been feeling. We’ve been feeling it, too. They live and die with us, and it’s been particularly hard. It’s been hard on us, too. But we finally get there, so hopefully they’re celebrating in Oakland today.”

The way Josh Reddick sees things, this was the best-case scenario for the A's.

“I've been saying it for months: Two division titles, out Game 5. Get in with the wild card, win the whole thing,” he said.

Unless otherwise linked/noted, all statistics and standings history courtesy of Baseball-Reference.

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