ST. LOUIS — We have a new champion for the most stunning end to a World Series game.
Move over Bill Buckner, take a seat Kirk Gibson. From now on, when it comes to sheer shock value, we will hail the conclusion of World Series Game 3, 2013: The Immaculate Obstruction.
It had a Gibson-esque gimpy hero in Allen Craig. It had Red Sox fielding follies, as with Buckner. And it had an ending that was in doubt even after, well, the ending. The Rule was 7.06 that made the final 5-4 and the series 2-1 — both in favor of the Cardinals.
The video from the final play of Game 3 will be pored over like the Zapruder film. The strategies that brought poignancy to the moment will be debated for quite a while. Twenty-seven years and one day after World Series Game 6, 1986, Shea Stadium, John Farrell was John McNamara, a Red Sox skipper having to explain why the game ended without a first baseman having played — Dave Stapleton on defense then, Mike Napoli on offense now.
Still, to establish this as the New Stunner, we must determine a former champ in the end-we-never-saw-coming department. The only ground rule is it had to be the final play of a World Series game. So, for example, Mickey Owens dropping what could have been the final strike of Game 4 of the 1941 World Series does not qualify because it prolonged the game.
So where to begin?
Maybe the Yankees’ Bill Bevens losing a no-hitter and Game 4 of the 1947 World Series with two outs in the ninth when Cookie Lavagetto doubled home two runs. But the two runners on were Bevens’ ninth and 10th walks — the 10th controversially ordered by Yankees manager Bucky Harris to put the go-ahead run on because he didn’t want Bevens facing lefty-hitting Pete Reiser. Once a pitcher walks 10, can you be stunned by any outcome?
Nine years later, Don Larsen shockingly pitched a perfecto in Game 5 of the ’56 World Series. But as startling as it was who pitched it — the imperfect Larsen — once he gets 26 outs in a row, is the final out a complete never-saw-it-coming experience?
You have to consider Bill Mazeroski’s homer that finished the 1960 World Series. After all, the star-laden Yankees were huge favorites and outscored Pittsburgh 55-27. But once you get to the bottom of the ninth of a tied Game 7, it cannot be astounding when the underdog wins.
It was always jaw-dropping when Mariano Rivera blew a save, even more so in the playoffs. Going into Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, he had converted 23 straight postseason saves. But by the time he gave up Luis Gonzalez’s title-clinching, broken-bat single, Rivera already had blown the save. Plus, can we call anything completely shocking that Tim McCarver famously predicted could happen — Gonzalez looping a broken-bat single over a drawn-in infield — before it actually happened?
That leaves Buckner and Gibson.
The Gibson ending wins because while the Buckner error was a dramatic conclusion, the reality is the Mets had already tied the score on the malfeasance of Calvin Schiraldi and Bob Stanley. Even if Buckner beats Mookie Wilson to first, the game is not over. There are extra innings. The momentum had swung dramatically before that grounder.
When Gibson came to the plate, in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, the Dodgers trailed 4-3. A pulled hamstring kept him from the Dodgers lineup against the prohibitively favored A’s. He had received a cortisone shot in both a hamstring and an ankle before the game. He was still in shorts in the clubhouse when announcer Vin Scully said in the ninth inning that Gibson was not even on the bench and, thus, would not play. That moved Gibson to dress, hit off a tee and inform manager Tommy Lasorda of his availability.
Still, something shocking had to happen first. Dennis Eckersley, who had walked just 11 batters in the regular season, walked .192-hitting Mike Davis with two outs. Gibson limped to the plate, fell behind 0-2, worked the count full and, well, here is Scully: “In a year that has been so improbable … the impossible has happened!”
Then improbable married impossible to conclude this year’s Game 3, which was sensational before the final drama. In the top of the ninth, Farrell had his No. 2 homer/RBI man, Napoli, available, but let reliever Brandon Workman, zero professional (not just major league) at-bats, face 100 mph throwing Trevor Rosenthal. Farrell sensed a long game and felt the need to have Workman pitch multiple innings.
But Farrell replaced Workman with his closer, Koji Uehara, after Yadier Molina singled with one out in the bottom half. Craig, who hasn’t started in the field since Sept. 4 due to a foot injury, pinch hit a double to leave runners on second and third. Farrell then did not walk Jon Jay to set up a force at every base for Pete Kozma, a dreadful hitter.
The final play, which will be remembered for a defensive mistake, began with Dustin Pedroia making a brilliant, infield-in diving play on Jay’s grounder to his right. He threw home to nail Molina. But then catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia fired wide of third to try to nab the advancing Craig. Chaos ensued.
Craig and Middlebrooks became entangled. Did Craig push him to get up? Did Middlebrooks purposely kick his legs up to trip Craig? Did Craig stay in the baseline as he began his stumble home? Did third-base ump Jim Joyce properly call obstruction? Would Craig, his foot injury aggravated, have scored ahead of the throw from hustling left fielder Daniel Nava had he not been tripped? Because it is only obstruction if the umps believe the runner would have scored without the impediment.
Craig was thrown out and called safe. He was in agony on the ground, aware he might be safe only because his teammates were charging at him from the dugout. Meanwhile, the Red Sox were charging the umps, trying to get an overturn, as they had in a pivotal spot in Game 1. Instead, as in Game 2 when reliever Craig Breslow was the culprit, the Red Sox lost a second straight Series game on an overthrow of third.
This one ended with that miscue. A stumble-off win, a trip too far, a rare call at the rarest of times.
The Immaculate Obstruction: the new World Series game-ending champ.