Fansided

Tiebreaker games have given us some of baseball’s memorable moments

By David Salituro

(ga) ROCKIES_PADRES TIE BREAKER - Colorado Rockies run to home plate to congratulate Matt Holliday on scoring the winning run during the tie breaker game against the San Diego Padres for the National League West wild card playoff spot at Coors Field on Monday, October 1, 2007. (Glenn Asakawa / The Denver Post) MATT HOLLIDAY (Photo By Glenn Asakawa/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
(ga) ROCKIES_PADRES TIE BREAKER - Colorado Rockies run to home plate to congratulate Matt Holliday on scoring the winning run during the tie breaker game against the San Diego Padres for the National League West wild card playoff spot at Coors Field on Monday, October 1, 2007. (Glenn Asakawa / The Denver Post) MATT HOLLIDAY (Photo By Glenn Asakawa/The Denver Post via Getty Images) /
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(ga) ROCKIES_PADRES TIE BREAKER – Matt Holiday slides past the plate to score the winning run as Padres catcher Michael Barrett drops the ball in the Rockies’ 9 – 8 13th inning victory during the tie breaker game against the San Diego Padres for the National League West wild card playoff spot at Coors Field on Monday, October 1, 2007. (Glenn Asakawa / The Denver Post) MATT HOLLIDAY (Photo By Glenn Asakawa/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
(ga) ROCKIES_PADRES TIE BREAKER – Matt Holiday slides past the plate to score the winning run as Padres catcher Michael Barrett drops the ball in the Rockies’ 9 – 8 13th inning victory during the tie breaker game against the San Diego Padres for the National League West wild card playoff spot at Coors Field on Monday, October 1, 2007. (Glenn Asakawa / The Denver Post) MATT HOLLIDAY (Photo By Glenn Asakawa/The Denver Post via Getty Images) /

3) Matt Holliday (maybe) touches home

For the Players’ Weekend in 2018, Colorado Rockies’ veteran Matt Holliday decided to poke fun at a controversy that’s followed him around for 11 years. On the back of his jersey were the words, “I Touched Home.” The jest stems from the 2007 tie-breaker for the National League Wild Card spot, when the Rockies capped off one of the most remarkable late-season runs in baseball history.

On Sept. 15 the Rockies were just four games above .500 and 6.5 games back in the NL West. They then won their next 11 straight and closed the season winning 13 of their last 14 games, tying the San Diego Padres for the Wild Card with a record of 89-73 and finishing just a game behind the Arizona Diamondbacks for the division lead.

Their rally to end the season necessitated a one-game playoff at Coors Field on Oct. 1. The Rockies got off to a quick start, scoring three runs in the first two innings off Padres starter and eventual Cy Young winner Jake Peavy. Adrian Gonzalez responded for San Diego with a grand slam in the top of the third, part of a five-run inning for the Padres. Holliday would tie the game in the fifth with a RBI single, and the Rockies took the lead once again with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

The Padres would come back once again, however. With two outs in the eighth inning, Brian Giles lined a double to left to tie the game at six and send it into extra innings to decide who got the final playoff spot.

Both teams failed to score until the 13th, when Scott Hairston hit a two-run home run to give the Padres a 8-6 lead. San Diego handed the ball to Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman to finish the game, but the Rockies weren’t going down that easy. Kazuo Matsui led off the inning with a double to center and came home when Troy Tulowitzki also touched Hoffman for a double. Holliday then hit a triple to right, driving in Tulowitzki with the tying run and putting the winning run at third base with nobody out.

After an intentional walk to Todd Helton, Jamey Carroll hit a fly ball to right. Holliday took off for home and slid head-first as Padres catcher Michael Barrett tried to tag him out. The ball got away from Barrett, however, and Holliday was called safe, sending the Rockies to the postseason. But that wasn’t the end of the controversy. It remains uncertain whether Holliday ever did touch home plate.

The Rockies would continue their hot streak into the postseason, sweeping both the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS and Diamondbacks in the NLCS to reach the first World Series in franchise history. They cooled off while waiting nine days for the World Series to start and were themselves swept by the Boston Red Sox.

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