Making an attempt to come back again from a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven postseason sequence is a frightening job. Actually, most comeback makes an attempt finish with out a lot drama.
Living proof: In AL/NL historical past, we’ve seen 40 groups go up three video games to none in a best-of-seven sequence. Most of those golf equipment have completed the job shortly, with 31 ending issues with a sweep — together with the 2022 Astros in opposition to the Yankees within the ALCS — and one other 5 in 5 video games.
A handful of groups have put collectively valiant comeback efforts — 4 have gained two straight to drive a Recreation 6 after falling behind three video games to none, and two of those groups pushed the sequence to Recreation 7. However just one, the 2004 Boston Purple Sox, has accomplished the comeback.
In mild of the Boston Celtics seeking to change into the primary NBA workforce to ever come again from a 3-0 deficit, right here’s a take a look at the MLB groups that made the most effective comeback makes an attempt from a three-games-to-none deficit within the postseason.
2004 ALCS: Purple Sox over Yankees, 4-3
Then-Purple Sox proprietor Harry Frazee’s choice to promote Babe Ruth to the Yankees after the 1919 season led to a long time of unprecedented prosperity for the Bronx Bombers, whereas the Purple Sox discovered largely frustration, anguish and despair, with many attributing Boston’s misfortune to the “Curse of the Bambino.”
This felt like a cosmic correction. Like one thing out of a storybook, the Purple Sox not solely ended their 86-year World Collection title drought, they did it after forging a comeback from a 3-0 sequence deficit in opposition to the Yankees.
One yr prior, Boston was dealt yet one more heartbreaking defeat by the hands of its archrival in ALCS Recreation 7, blowing a 5-2 lead within the eighth inning earlier than Aaron Boone hit a walk-off homer off Tim Wakefield within the backside of the eleventh to cap a traditional sequence. For 3 full video games and most of a fourth in 2004, it didn’t appear to be the rematch could be as shut.
The Yanks had been on the verge of a four-game sweep, with future Corridor of Famer Mariano Rivera on the mound to guard a one-run lead within the ninth inning of Recreation 4. However after Kevin Millar drew a leadoff stroll, pinch-runner Dave Roberts stole second (a swipe now often called “The Steal” due to what got here subsequent) and Invoice Mueller singled up the center, the sport was tied.
Three innings later, David Ortiz walked it off with a two-run homer off Paul Quantrill. The subsequent evening was déjà vu, as Boston notched one other come-from-behind, extra-inning win on an Ortiz walk-off, sending the sequence again to the Bronx.
In Recreation 6, the Purple Sox gave the ball to a hobbled Curt Schilling, who tore the tendon sheath in his proper ankle throughout the ALDS in opposition to the Angels. Previous to his begin at Yankee Stadium, Schilling underwent a surgical process to stabilize the tendons in his ankle, permitting him to take the mound. Regardless of the harm, which prompted his white sock to change into visibly bloodied throughout the recreation, Schilling threw seven innings of one-run ball in a 4-2 Purple Sox win.
With historical past at their fingertips, the Purple Sox took down the Yankees in Recreation 7 as effectively, as Ortiz went deep within the first inning earlier than Johnny Damon clubbed a grand slam within the prime of the second, one in every of two homers the middle fielder hit on the evening.
After ending off the Yankees, the Purple Sox swept the Cardinals within the World Collection to win their first championship since 1918, thus placing the curse to relaxation for good.
2020 ALCS: Rays over Astros, 4-3
After profitable the AL East with a 40-20 file throughout the shortened 2020 season, the Rays swept the Blue Jays in two video games within the AL Wild Card Collection and edged the Yankees in 5 video games within the ALDS to arrange an ALCS showdown with the Astros. Though Houston limped into the postseason with a 29-31 file, the seasoned membership discovered its groove in October, defeating the AL Central-champion Twins and AL West-champion A’s within the first two rounds.
With the complete sequence going down at Petco Park in San Diego on account of pandemic-related well being and security protocols, Tampa Bay gained the primary three video games earlier than the Astros obtained again in it with a pair of one-run victories, the second on a walk-off homer by Carlos Correa. Houston additionally took Recreation 6, placing up seven runs on 11 hits and 9 walks in a 7-4 victory that gave the workforce a shot at historical past.
Nevertheless, the Rays rose to the event in Recreation 7, with eventual ALCS MVP Randy Arozarena hitting a two-run homer within the backside of the primary inning and former Astros right-hander Charlie Morton tossing 5 2/3 shutout innings. Houston made it attention-grabbing within the eighth, as Correa’s two-run single minimize Tampa Bay’s result in 4-2 and introduced the go-ahead run to the plate. However Pete Fairbanks struck out Alex Bregman to finish the risk, then held the Astros scoreless within the ninth.
1998 NLCS: Padres over Braves, 4-2
All through the Nineteen Nineties, the highway to the NL pennant perennially went via Atlanta. From 1991-99, the Braves reached the World Collection 5 instances. The thrice they didn’t in that span, they served as a Fall Traditional gatekeeper of types, making it to the NLCS in all three years. The Braves needed to really feel fairly good about their probabilities of making one other World Collection in 1998, having gained a franchise-record 106 video games within the common season earlier than simply dealing with the Cubs within the NLDS. However an upstart Padres workforce had different concepts.
Regardless of having to face the Braves’ vaunted rotation trio of John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux within the first three video games, together with two on the highway, the Friars gained all of them as Andy Ashby, Kevin Brown and Sterling Hitchcock held Atlanta’s offense in test. The Braves’ bats wakened in a Recreation 4 blowout, resulting in a Recreation 5 thriller that noticed Atlanta erase a 4-2 deficit on a go-ahead three-run homer from Michael Tucker off Brown with one out within the prime of the eighth.
The Braves referred to as Maddux out of the bullpen within the backside of the ninth to guard a one-run lead, and the longer term Corridor of Famer sealed the win with the primary and solely save of his profession.
The entire strain was on the Padres with the sequence shifting again to Atlanta, however Hitchcock responded with 5 scoreless innings in Recreation 6, and San Diego broke via in opposition to Glavine for 5 runs within the prime of the sixth to extinguish the Braves’ comeback strive as soon as and for all. Hitchcock, who went 2-0 with a 0.90 ERA in his two begins in opposition to Atlanta, was named sequence MVP.
1999 NLCS: Braves over Mets, 4-2
A yr after their very own try at historical past fell brief in opposition to the Padres, the Braves discovered themselves on the opposite facet of a 3-0 sequence lead within the NLCS in opposition to the Mets.
Atlanta and New York performed an especially tight sequence all through, with the ultimate 5 video games all being determined by one run. That included Recreation 5, which famously ended on Robin Ventura’s “grand-slam single” after a 5 hour and 46 minute battle at Shea Stadium. Whereas Ventura’s bases-loaded blast within the backside of the fifteenth inning left the park, the play was dominated a one-run single after he was mobbed by his teammates between first and second base and by no means accomplished his residence run trot.
Again in Atlanta, the 2 golf equipment performed one other extra-inning epic in Recreation 6. After squandering a 7-3 lead within the seventh, the Braves battled again from one-run deficits within the eighth and tenth earlier than lastly placing the Mets away within the eleventh, when Kenny Rogers walked Andruw Jones to drive within the pennant-clinching run.
