Game Five of the 2017 World Series between the Dodgers and Astros ended with the most runs scored in the Fall Classic in over twenty years, a ten-inning affair that also set a record number for home runs hit. Nevertheless, one memorable World Series game saw the two pennant winners cross the plate nearly thirty times, and they managed to do it without the extra inning.
Back in the fall of 1993, Toronto entered game four in Philadelphia having won two of the first three. It would be a contest that makes the 2017 Series, which has been hailed as both wacky and whacky, appear rather calm.
The Blue Jays set the tone early, as future Hall of Fame outfielder Rickey Henderson led off the game with a double. He was quickly joined on the base paths after Devon White walked, and eventual Series Most Valuable Player Joe Carter singled
Another future Hall of Famer, designated hitter Paul Molitor, worked a bases-loaded walk to put the Blue Jays up 1-0. Shortstop Tony Fernandez then lined a two-run single, which allowed Toronto right hander Todd Stottlemeyer to take the mound with a 3-0 lead.
Stottlemeyer then proceeded to walk four batters in the bottom of the first before allowing a triple to outfielder Milt Thompson, giving the Phillies a 4-3 lead. An inning later a two run homer by outfielder Lenny Dykstra extended that margin to 6-3, only to have the Blue Jays mount their first comeback in the third.
Three singles and a pair of base on balls netted Toronto four runs for a 7-6 lead, which was erased in the fourth with a double by Dykstra and an RBI single from infielder Mariano Duncan. Just like the end of the sixth inning of game five in 2017, the two teams were deadlocked at seven.
The Phils looked to have put the game out of reach when they plated five runs, including homers from Dykstra and catcher Darren Daulton. Toronto managed to add two of their own in the sixth, cutting the deficit to 12-9.
Those two runs were quickly made up by Philadelphia, which scored one in each of the successive innings to get the lead back to five. Then ten men went to the plate in the Toronto eighth, when six Blue Jay runners crossed the plate to take a 15-14 lead.
Closer Duane Ward entered in the eighth and retired all four batters he faced to notch the save for Toronto, which was now just one game from winning its second straight World Series Championship. It took another two games before the Blue Jays finished off the Phillies, who clinched it all on the historic walk-off home run by Joe Carter.
That roller coaster ride in the fourth game highlighted one of the sport's greatest World Series, one that would have to satisfy baseball fans when the following season came around. Unfortunately, there would be no Fall Classic in 1994 because of a breakdown of labor negotiations.