Fansided

Top 25 MLB pennant races of all time

By Joshua Sadlock

(Original Caption) Bucky Dent is a happy fellow as he jumps on home plate and is greeted by Roy White and Chris Chambliss after he hit a three-run home run in the 7th inning at Fenway Park.
(Original Caption) Bucky Dent is a happy fellow as he jumps on home plate and is greeted by Roy White and Chris Chambliss after he hit a three-run home run in the 7th inning at Fenway Park. /
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – CIRCA 1993: Barry Bonds #24 of the San Francisco Giants swings and watches the flight of his ball during a Major League Baseball game circa 1993 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. Bonds played for the Giants from 1993-2007. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – CIRCA 1993: Barry Bonds #24 of the San Francisco Giants swings and watches the flight of his ball during a Major League Baseball game circa 1993 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. Bonds played for the Giants from 1993-2007. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) /

4. The Last Real Race, 1993

Hard to believe there was a time in not-so-distant history that a team could win 103 games and fail to make the playoffs. In 1993, the final year before MLB went to three divisions in each league with a Wild Card, the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants entered the final day of the year with matching 103-58 records. Who would advance to the postseason?

Winning 103 games obviously means a team has had multiple long stretches of winning throughout the year, and the Giants and Braves were no different. San Francisco entered the final day of the season having won 14 of 16 games. Unfortunately, they had begun blowing a 10-game lead months ago. The Giants peaked at 65-32 on July 22, but had fallen four games behind the Braves by early September after a nine-game losing streak.

Having to win nearly every game to catch up to the Braves took something out of the Giants, and they lost the final game 12-1 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. There still wasn’t much else they could have done. Their lineup included Barry Bonds, Matt Williams and Will Clark, and their pitching staff had two 20-game winners. In any other year, winning 103 games would have made the Giants one of the top contenders for the World Series crown. Alas, they were a year too early for the Wild Card Era.

The Giants would not win a playoff series until 2002, when they came up a game short of beating the Anaheim Angels in the World Series. Interestingly enough, their three World Series titles in the 2000s all came in years where the Giants won the Wild Card. Talk about some athletic justice.

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