Dodgers, Astros top all-time postseason highlights

Going back to the days of their same-city cohabitation, the Yankees and Dodgers have long been the premiere cross league rivalry in the game. This goes back to 1941, when then Brooklyn Dodgers faced the Yankees in the first "Subway Series." The two teams would face off seven times over the next fifteen years, although the Dodgers would emerge victorious only once.

19 years after first taking to the field as the Colt 45’s, Houston finally got a taste of the postseason, winning the National League West pennant over the Los Angeles Dodgers by a single game. After finish the regular season tied atop the division, the two clubs faced off in a one game playoff to determine a winner. Joe Niekro pitched them to a 7-1 victory, which was good for his 20th win on the year and advanced the club to the National League Championship Series to face the eventual World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Yankees pitcher Bill Beven was on the verge of history, as had the first no-hitter in postseason history (at the time) within his sites with two outs in the ninth inning of a 2-1 game. However, after walking two in the inning, he faced off against Lavagetto, who laced a double into right field, scoring both runners and giving Brooklyn the win.

Scott issued one of the most dominant seasons of all-time in route to the NL Cy Young Award in 1986, winning 18 games and striking out 306. He saved his best for last, throwing a no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants which clinched the National League West title on Sept 25. Scott’s dominance would continue against the Mets in the NLCS, when Scott won both of his starts in the series, allowing a single run over 18 innings, while striking out 19 and issuing only one walk.

Back in the days when the regular season champion from each league advanced directly to the World Series (which usually meant going to face the Yankees), tight races between the Dodgers, Cardinals and Giants were the norm. 1949 was no exception, as the Dodgers won the National League title after posting two runs in the top of the 10th inning of the final game of the year.

Between 1997 and 2001, led by the efforts of future Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio, the Astros would win the NL Central title in four of five seasons. In three of those campaigns, they would face the Atlanta Braves in the Division Series. However, in those three pairings, Houston managed to win only a single game, going 1-9 in postseason play against Atlanta.

Finally, after years on top of years of failing to break through, "'Dem Bums" finally did it in ’55. After falling to them four times in the previous eight years, the Dodgers defeated the Yankees in seven games to capture their first World Series title. The breakthrough win required them to come back after being down two games, as the club ultimately won all three games at Ebbets Field before Johnny Podres threw a complete game shutout in game seven to wrap things up and claim the only title the Brooklyn incarnation of the club would win.

In 2004, the specter of the Braves was finally conquered as the Astros overcame Atlanta to reach its first NLCS since 1986. The charge was led by a herculean effort from Carlos Beltran, who had been acquired via trade from the Kansas City Royals earlier in the year. In his first taste of the postseason, Beltran launched eight home runs – including one in five straight games – while posting a .435 average with 14 RBI and 21 runs scored over 12 games. 

In 1958, owner Walter O’Malley packed up shop and relocated the club to Los Angeles, breaking the hearts of the long-suffering, but staunchly loyal Brooklyn fan base. Baseball’s greatest working class collective was set to redefine itself via moving to the bright lights of Hollywood. And after an underwhelming year one, the Dodgers found themselves back in the World Series, this time facing off against the Chicago White Sox. Drawing record-attendance of 90,000 plus for each L.A.-based game, the Dodgers would win their second title in four years and the first for a West Coast team.

A year later, they were again confronted by ever-present NL East champs in the first round of the playoffs, and it appeared as if another elimination at the hands of their most persistent postseason foe was at hand. However, after a furious ninth inning comeback behind home runs from Lance Berkman and Brad Ausmus sent the game to extra innings, where the marathon affair would reach the bottom of the 18th before second baseman Chris Burke’s solo homer ended the series and sent the club to a second consecutive NLCs.

The only time the club clinched a title in Los Angeles came in ’63, when they accomplished their only sweep of the Yankees to pick up a third World Series title in eight years’ time. Sandy Koufax opened and closed the series with masterful bookend performances, winning both games while striking out 23. Don Drysdale added a shutout in Game 3 while the Dodgers continued to affirm their place as premiere team in the National League.

While it is far from the best memory for the Houston faithful, the mammoth shot that Pujols connected for against Astros closer Brad Lidge remains one of the most jaw-dropping home runs of all-time. The Cardinals slugger connected for a three-run homer in the top of the ninth of Game 5 of the NLCS to complete a Cardinal comeback that bashed off the glass wall in left field of Minute Maid Park and changed the trajectory of Lidge’s career.

It could be argued that the best complete year pitched in baseball history was the body of work that Koufax put together in 1965. He capped a 26-win, 382 strikeout campaign that included a perfect game in September by making three World Series starts and posting 0.38 ERA against the Minnesota Twins. Despite famously declining to pitch Game 1 due to it falling on Yom Kippur and losing Game 2, Koufax threw a complete game shutout in Game 5 before returning again in Game 7 to repeat his feat from just two days prior and wrap the series up.

After falling a game short the year before, the World Series finally made its way to Texas in 2005. Overcoming their two most constant postseason foes in the Braves and Cardinals, the Astros finally claimed their first National League Pennant. Roy Oswalt led the way, picking up NLCS MVP honors after notching a pair of victories over the Cardinals and posting a 1.29 ERA. Although they would go on to be swept in the World Series at the hands of the Chicago White Sox, it was a defining season for the high point era of Astros baseball to date.

As ninth innings go, Game 3 of the 1977 NLCS is about as bad as it gets. In an inning that saw a wild pitch, misplayed ball by Phillies outfielder Greg Luzinski resulting in a double, a bunt single and a controversial safe call at first base that favored Davy Lopes (and incensed shortstop Larry Bowa) all coming with two outs, the Dodgers rallied to a late win before following the next day to clinch the NLCS in Game 4.

After solving the haunting of the Yankees in the early-'60s, their chief AL rivals had again emerged to become the spear in the collective side of L.A. by 1981. The Yankees took two consecutive World Series from the Dodgers in 1977 and ’78 and took the first two games of the Series again in ’81. But in a series where Reggie Jackson famously lost a ball in the lights, the Dodgers rallied in Game 6 with an eight-run breakout after trailing in the first inning to finally conquer the Yankees, again.

After a decade absence from the postseason which saw the organization both switch leagues and suffer through the most pronounced stretch of losing seasons in MLB history, the Astros finally returned to the brink of the postseason in 2015. But in order to make a full-fledged return to series play, they would have to go through the Yankees on the road in the Bronx. It was a task that Dallas Keuchel was more than up to task for, as the season’s Cy Young winner struck out seven and allowed only three hits over seven innings in securing the victory.

One of baseball’s most timeless moments is the image of Kirk Gibson lumbering around the bases, fist pumping after sending a Dennis Eckersley delivery into the right field stands to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. After winning the NL MVP on the year, a pair of knee injuries had relegated Gibson to the bench, but Tommy Lasorda called upon his top gun to face off against Oakland’s relief ace. On a 3-2 count, Gibson threw himself and the bat at the pitch and got just enough to clear the fences and create one of sport’s great moments of unlikely triumph.

Coming in on the heels of an overwhelmingly dominant regular season where he ran up 308 strikeouts, Chris Sale stood as an ominous prospect in Game 1 of the ALDS. But Jose Altuve showed his flair for postseason dramatics early on, as he took the Red Sox ace deep twice, before coming back to go out a third time as an exclamation point against reliever Austin Maddox in the seventh inning. It was the tenth time in postseason history that a three-homer game occurred.

While they never were in danger of losing control of the series, the final exclamation point in officially breaking the longest World Series drought in franchise history came from an unlikely source. Coming into the postseason, outfielder Enrique Hernandez had only 28 career home runs. However, he sealed the deal in closing out the NLCS with three bombs –including a grand slam – in route to an NLCS-record seven RBI night, as the club will now host its first World Series game in 29 years.

After being acquired at the zero hour of the August trade deadline, Justin Verlander arrived in Houston and became a one-man stimulus package, and was at his absolute best in the ALCS. In route to an ALCS MVP, Verlander allowed one run over 16 innings against the Yankees while allowing only two walks and striking out 21, often times in an embarrassing fashion. Verlander’s efforts sealed a postseason where the club went undefeated at Minute Maid park against AL foes and set the table for a first ever American League pennant and a return to the World Series for the first time in 13 years for the ‘Stros.

In Game 1 of the World Series, Clayton Kershaw put his playoff foibles on hold and showed exactly why he's the best pitcher of his generation. Kershaw was brilliant in the Fall Classic's opener, striking out 11 Astros in seven innings of three-hit, one-run ball, propelling the Dodgers to a 3-1 victory and 1-0 series lead.

Already down 1-0 in the series and facing a 3-1 deficit in heading into the eighth inning of Game 2, the Astros had their backs against the wall. Instead of getting trapped, they began to bash their way out of trouble. Marwin Gonzalez homered in the ninth to tie the game, then Houston's two best hitters, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa, launched solo shots in the 10th to give Houston a two-run lead. Yasiel Puig responded with a solo shot of his own and L.A. tied it. The game kept going, but two George Springer home runs and a wild finish later, the Astros won in exciting fashion with Puig striking out to end the game in 11th, giving Houston a 7-6 victory. Then, with the series knotted at 2-2 going in to Game 5, Houston did it again in a wild one, winning 13-12 in 10 innings thanks to Alex Bregman's walk-off single to plate Springer.

After six exciting, exhausting games were not enough to decide the 2017 World Series champion, the Astros and Dodgers laid it all on the line in the decisive Game 7. It didn't take long for Houston to assert itself, pouncing on L.A. starter Yu Darvish for five runs in less two innings of work. That was all the Astros needed, saving the least stressful game for last. Houston 5-1 on the road, taking home the franchise's first World Series title in history. George Springer was named series MVP, going 11-for-29 with five home runs and seven RBIs, tying Chase Utley and Reggie Jackson for most home runs ever hit in one World Series.