MLB ALCS 2011: Ranking the 5 Greatest Deciding Games in ALCS History

In 1969, when baseball reorganized and split the American and National Leagues each into two divisions, the American and National League Championship Series were born.

The added round of playoff baseball has provided additional opportunity for added playoff drama. 

This year's ALCS has already provided some drama, with the Texas Rangers Nelson Cruz hitting a Game 2 walk-off grand slam.

Now, with an injured but scrappy Detroit Tigers team gutting out a tough Game 5 win, the series heads back to Texas, where the Rangers have a clear advantage.

Even with that being the case, should the Tigers find a way to claw their way to a Game 6 win it would set up a decisive winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday Night. History has shown these games can provide the backdrops for great baseball drama. 

1986 Game 7: Red Sox Complete Comeback over Angels

Sometimes Game 7s provide the seminal moment in a series, and sometimes they serve as the cherry that tops off previous drama. 

In 1986, the Boston Red Sox entered the postseason on the heels of a spectacular regular season. The Red Sox were led by Roger Clemens, who had just wrapped up a season in which he would eventually be named both American League Cy Young and MVP winner. 

In the postseason though, the Red Sox ran into a tough and determined California Angels team that would take a daunting 3-1 series lead. The Angels were only one strike from finishing off the Red Sox until Dave Henderson hit a dramatic ninth-inning home run in Game 5 that sparked a Red Sox comeback. 

The comeback was completed in a Game 7 route at home in Boston, when Sox ace Clemens, who had been out-pitched in Game 1 by Angel's ace Mike Witt, turned the tables and led the Sox to an 8-1 victory. 

The Red Sox went on the World Series, where they would meet the New York Mets and another very unfortunate destiny, but the Angels would head home defeated. The series MVP went to Red Sox second baseman Marty Barrett, but it was Dave Henderson, a midseason trade acquisition from the Seattle Mariners, who provided the series' most memorable moment. 

1985 Game 7: Royals Complete Comeback Against Blue Jays

MLB expanded the ALCS to seven games in 1985. Previously, it had been a best-of-five affair.

The Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals took little time offering up a series that would validate the decision of MLB to expand the series to a possible seventh game. 

The Blue Jays entered the series as favorites, having won an American League-best 99 games in the regular season. The Jays had home-field advantage and performed as expected, jumping out to a 3-1 series lead.

One year earlier, of course, that would have meant a Toronto trip to the World Series, but 1985 brought with it the need to win a decisive fourth game, and that proved to be a daunting task for the Blue Jays.

Kansas City reeled off three consecutive wins, including the final two on the road in Toronto. George Brett lived up to his billing as future Hall of Famer by going 8 for 23 in the series with three home runs and five runs batted in, assuring him the series MVP and leading the Royals to the World Series, where they continued their run and became the 1985 World Champs.  

2004 Game 7: Red Sox Ultimate Revenge

The 2004 ALCS may have been the most dramatic ALCS ever played, but Game 7 was arguably the least suspenseful  of the final three epic showdowns between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.

The hype was absolutely unmatched. It may have been the most heavily hyped game in baseball history, and that includes World Series games.

As someone who has lived in New York since 2000, I can't remember anything even coming close to the electricity in the streets of New York on Wednesday, October 20, 2004. I've talked to plenty of lifelong New Yorkers, and even though they clearly hate the memories of that series, they will begrudgingly admit that the atmosphere in the city during the series was a unique experience. 

The game itself may not have quite lived up the hype. After three bona fide nail-biters in Games 4, 5, and 6, the Red Sox jumped out to a 2-0 lead at the end of the first inning. In the second inning, the Red Sox continued to batter maligned starter Kevin Brown, who recorded one out and then gave up a single and back-to-back walks before Yankees manager Joe Torre removed him.

Torre brought in Javier Vasquez to face Sox leadoff hitter, Johnny Damon, and Damon absolutely crushed the first pitch he saw deep into the upper deck of right field. The grand slam gave the Red Sox a commanding 6-0 lead. It was one they would not relinquish, eventually winning the game 10-3.

As most of us know, the Red Sox would not lose another game that season, moving on to sweep the National League Champion Cardinals 4-0 in the World Series for their first title in 86 years.  

1976 Game 5: Chris Chambliss Walks off into Mayhem

The ALCS was originally just a best-of-five series. There had only been an ALCS for seven years when the Royals and Yankees squared off in 1976. 

Both teams were young and talented, with a seemingly endless array of characters who would be deemed unacceptable by today's standards of creating athletes in the image of who we wish they were, as opposed to merely accepting them for who they are. 

The two teams went back and forth. The Yanks took Games 1 and 3. The Royals took Games 2 and 4. That set up a decisive Game 5 in the Bronx on Thursday, October 14—exactly 35 years ago today. 

The Yanks jumped out to a 6-3 lead entering the eighth inning, and it seemed like the Yankees would head to the World Series, but the Royals mounted an improbable eighth-inning comeback and scored three runs on a George Brett three-run homer off of relief pitcher Grant Jackson to tie the game at six runs a piece. 

The ninth would provide the historical conclusion, as Yankee first baseman Chris Chambliss hit Royals relief pitcher Mark Littell's first pitch over the right-center field wall for a walk-off solo home run. 

The pictures that many fans see today of raucous baseball celebrations that appear grainy and old and yet chaotic and spontaneous all at once are often taken from this incident. Chambliss had to be escorted back onto the field to touch home long after the play had been finished. He had been mobbed by thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of Yankee fans who had stormed the field in celebration when Chambliss hit the game and series winner.

Chambliss had never actually touched home because it was covered in a sea of celebrating New Yorkers. The Bronx was Burning and would continue to do so for the next several years. 

2003 Game 7: Aaron Boone Ends an Epic Series with One Swing

In order for the 2004 ALCS to have the drama that it would elicit, there needed to be a spark. The 2003 ALCS provided an inferno.

While legions of Red Sox and Yankee fans follow every Yankees-Red Sox matchup as if it was a life-and-death affair, the zenith of baseball's greatest rivalry was the period from 2003 through the conclusion of the 2004 season. 

For Sox fans, 2004 was the highlight, but for Yankee fans the peak was unquestionably October 16, 2003. That was the night of Game 7 of the ALCS, and it featured a showdown between two great teams led by two of baseball's best pitchers. The Yankees sent Roger Clemens to the mound, while the Red Sox countered with Pedro Martinez. 

It was supposed to be a showdown of two great pitchers, but only one showed up that night. Clemens was anything but impressive, departing in the fourth inning down 4-0 with two runners on base and no one out.

In stepped starting pitcher Mike Mussina who had pitched in Game 4 on Monday night. Mussina on short rest was a risky move, especially considering it was his first career relief appearance. It paid off, though, with Mussina getting out of the fourth and then piloting the Yanks through three scoreless innings of relief.

Meanwhile, Jason Giambi would launch two solo home runs, and as the game entered the bottom of the eighth, the Red Sox led 5-2.

It was then that the tide began to turn. Martinez, who had pitched very well, was approaching his pitch limit. His slight build meant he could tire late in games, and the Red Sox had employed a fairly successful strategy by limiting his pitches. After Martinez got the first out of the eighth inning Derek Jeter smacked a double to right. Bernie Williams followed with an RBI single, and it was 5-3 Red Sox.

At this point, Red Sox manager Grady Little made a trip to the mound. Almost every Yankee and Red Sox fan assumed Little would remove a clearly gassed Pedro. Instead, he inexplicably left Pedro in.

Hideki Matsui then hit a ground-rule double, advancing Williams to third. With only one out and runners on second and third, in stepped Jorge Posada. Posada looped a ball to shallow center that fell in and plated both runners. Posada ended up on second base celebrating; the lead was gone, and it was now 5-5.

The game remained tied through two tense innings, and then in the bottom of the eleventh Grady Little brought in Tim Wakefield. Aaron Boone, who had been acquired right before the August 1 trade deadline, led off and promptly sent the first pitch he saw into the left field stands for a walk-off to the World Series.

The home run concluded one of baseball's most memorable postseason series, as well as the greatest Game 7 in ALCS history (unless you're a Red Sox fan).