How the Grinch stole SI‘s “Top 10 postseason walk-off home runs” joy

In this case I am the Grinch; I am the one who knocks…Ben Reiter’s list on SI.com, written after the Tampa Bay Rays’ Jose Lobaton beat the Boston Red Sox with a walk-off on Monday night.

I think you would agree that the most exciting situations are one where there’s no tomorrow, where everything is on the line, and other cliches. And what more emphatic way to win it than with a home run? So let’s look at each of Reiter’s selections, but using my new favorite toy I like to call “Pressure? What pressure?”

10. Robin Ventura, NY Mets, 1999 NLCS, Game 5

This was the “grand slam single,” where Ventura hit a bases-loaded home run but was mobbed by enthusiastic teammates which prevented him from circling the bases. No matter, the Mets beat the Braves, 4-3, in 14 innings.

BUT…The Mets were already trailing the Braves 3-0 in the series, so their elimination was pretty much a foregone conclusion by that point. No team, prior to the 2004 Boston Red Sox, had come back from such a deficit to win a postseason series. Plus the bases were loaded with only one out in a tie game. Even if Ventura had hit into an inning-ending double play, the game would have continued.

9. Ozzie Smith, St. Louis Cardinals, 1985 NCLS, Game 5

BUT…This was the first year of the best-of-seven format in the LCS and the Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers were tied at two games apiece (i.e., more games to play). Granted, Smith was perhaps the most unlikely guy to hit a home run, but, again, the game was tied with only one out.

8. David Freese, St. Louis Cardinals, 2011 World Series, Game 6

This was an elimination situation BUT…game was tied (thanks to Freese’s two-run triple in the ninth) with no outs.

7. Aaron Boone, NY Yankees, 2003 ALCS, Game 7