10 greatest pennant chases in Major League Baseball history
5. 1993 National League West: Braves over Giants
The last season before the implementation of the Wild Card gave us one of the greatest playoff chases of all-time.
With a powerful lineup that included Barry Bonds, Matt Williams and Will Clark, and a pitching staff led by John Burkett and Bill Swift – who won 22 and 21 games that year, respectively – the 1993 San Francisco Giants won 103 games. That meant San Francisco had the second best record in all of baseball.
But, because the Atlanta Braves posted a 28-9 record over their final 37 games, the Giants couldn’t hold on to a nearly season-long lead in the NL West and missed the playoffs altogether.
The Giants’ collapse began on July 22, when the club was 65-32 and held a season-high ten-game lead in the division. By September 9, during part of an eight-game losing streak, San Francisco lost control of the division and fell four games behind the Braves. However, the back-and-forth race continued to the final day of the regular season.
With Atlanta and San Francisco sharing identical 103-58 records, the Giants laid an egg in the season finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers, losing 12-1. It was just the third loss for the Giants in 17 games, but it was one too many. The Braves beat the Colorado Rockies 5-3 in the regular season finale to complete a three-game sweep and win the division for the third season in a row.
Perhaps the “Last Real Race” took too much out of the Braves. Atlanta lost the NL pennant to the Philadelphia Phillies in six games during the NLCS.
Next: 1949 AL and NL