The 10 Greatest Game 7s in World Series History

This year’s World Series ended in 5 games. The Brewers beat the Rays 4-1 at Tropicana Field on Oct. 28 to win the first title in franchise history, and nobody in Milwaukee missed Game 7.

There have been 40 winner-take-all Game 7s in World Series history, plus a Game 8 in 1912, when Game 2 ended in a tie called for darkness. Of the 40, 5 ended on a walk-off and only 1 ended on a home run. Five went to extra innings, and road teams have won the last 5. Here are the 10 best, counting down to the one where nobody struck out.

10. 1965: Koufax on Two Days’ Rest

It’s still the only World Series game the Twins have lost at home.

Dodgers 2, Twins 0, on Thursday, Oct. 14, 1965, at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota. Sandy Koufax threw a 3-hitter with 10 strikeouts on 2 days’ rest, and Jim Kaat started for Minnesota on 2 days’ rest, too. Lou Johnson’s home run off the left-field foul pole started a 2-run 4th, and Koufax needed nothing more. We told the whole story, Yom Kippur included, in our On This Date piece.

It ranks 10th because nobody scored after the 4th. In 1987 and 1991, the home team won every game of the World Series, so Koufax is still the last pitcher to beat the Twins in a World Series game in Minnesota. The Twins won their next 2 Game 7s at home, in 1987 and 1991. The 1991 game went 10 innings, and it’s No. 2.

9. 1962: McCovey’s Line Drive

The tying run was on 3rd, the winning run was on 2nd, and Willie McCovey was up.

Yankees 1, Giants 0, on Tuesday, Oct. 16, 1962, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Ralph Terry threw a 4-hitter without a walk, and the only run scored in the 5th when Tony Kubek grounded into a double play. Nobody got an RBI.

In the bottom of the 9th, Matty Alou bunted for a single. Terry struck out Felipe Alou and Chuck Hiller. Willie Mays doubled to right, and Roger Maris’s throw held Alou at 3rd. Ralph Houk let Terry pitch to McCovey with 1st base open and Orlando Cepeda on deck. McCovey hit a line drive straight to 2nd baseman Bobby Richardson.

Two years earlier, Terry had given up the home run that ended No. 1. This time he was the Series MVP. That December, Charlie Brown asked in Peanuts why McCovey couldn’t have hit the ball “just three feet higher.”

8. 1926: Alexander Strikes Out Lazzeri

A day after his Game 6 complete game, he came in with the bases loaded and struck out Tony Lazzeri.

Cardinals 3, Yankees 2, on Sunday, Oct. 10, 1926, at Yankee Stadium. St. Louis led 3-2 in the 7th when the Yankees loaded the bases with 2 outs. Jesse Haines had a bad finger, so Rogers Hornsby called for Pete Alexander, 39, who had thrown a complete game in Game 6 the day before.

The story goes that Alexander had celebrated all night and came in hungover. SABR calls that a myth and says he was “completely lucid and in control of himself.”

Tony Lazzeri hit a long drive just foul down the left-field line, then struck out on a low curve. “Less than a foot made the difference between a hero and a bum,” Alexander said.

He didn’t allow a hit in 2⅓ innings. With 2 outs in the 9th, Babe Ruth walked and was thrown out trying to steal 2nd, with Lou Gehrig on deck. It’s the only World Series that ever ended on a caught stealing.

7. 1997: The Marlins Win It in the 11th

Cleveland was 2 outs from its first title since 1948.

Marlins 3, Indians 2, in 11 innings, on Sunday, Oct. 26, 1997, at Pro Player Stadium in Miami. Jaret Wright, 21, held Florida to 1 hit through 6 innings. Bobby Bonilla homered on Wright’s 1st pitch of the 7th to make it 2-1 Cleveland.

In the 9th, Moisés Alou and Charles Johnson singled off José Mesa, and Craig Counsell’s sacrifice fly tied the game.

In the 11th, Bonilla singled, and Counsell’s grounder went under 2nd baseman Tony Fernández’s glove. After an intentional walk and a force at home, Edgar Rentería singled up the middle with 2 outs, and Counsell scored. The Marlins, in their 5th season, were the first wild-card team to win the World Series. “This is for the fans!” Jim Leyland shouted.

Cleveland still hasn’t won since 1948. Last month, the Guardians lost the ALCS to Tampa Bay.

6. 1924: Walter Johnson and Two Bad Hops

The greatest pitcher of his time lost Games 1 and 5. He won Game 7 in relief.

Senators 4, Giants 3, in 12 innings, on Friday, Oct. 10, 1924, at Griffith Stadium in Washington. It’s still the longest Game 7 ever played.

Down 3-1 in the 8th with the bases loaded and 2 outs, player-manager Bucky Harris hit a grounder at Giants 3rd baseman Freddie Lindstrom, who was 18. It hopped over his head, and 2 runs scored.

Walter Johnson came in for the 9th. He was 36, in his first World Series after 18 seasons, and he pitched 4 scoreless innings.

In the 12th, Giants catcher Hank Gowdy stumbled over his mask and dropped Muddy Ruel’s foul pop. Ruel doubled. After an error, Earl McNeely hit a grounder to 3rd that took another bad hop over Lindstrom, and Ruel scored. The common belief, SABR says, was that the ball hit a pebble. It was Washington’s only World Series title until 2019.

5. 2001: Arizona Gets to Rivera

The best closer ever had a 2-1 lead in the 9th inning.

Diamondbacks 3, Yankees 2, on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2001, at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix. Alfonso Soriano’s homer off Curt Schilling put New York ahead 2-1 in the 8th, and Mariano Rivera came in to finish it.

In the bottom of the 9th, Rivera threw a bunt away at 2nd, Tony Womack doubled in the tying run, and Luis Gonzalez blooped a single over the drawn-in infield to win it. We covered the whole inning in our On This Date piece.

Gonzalez explained the swing afterward: “That was the first time I’ve choked up all year.” Rivera put it in fewer words. “I’m not perfect, you know.”

Randy Johnson got the win in relief, the day after he started and won Game 6. He and Schilling shared the MVP. Johnson shows up again at No. 4.

4. 2025: Yamamoto on No Rest

He threw 6 innings in Game 6. The next night he got the last 8 outs.

Dodgers 5, Blue Jays 4, in 11 innings, on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Miguel Rojas tied it with a homer in the 9th, and Will Smith gave Los Angeles its first lead of the night with one in the 11th. Both are in our 10 greatest World Series home runs.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto came in during the bottom of the 9th with 2 on and 1 out, and he hit Alejandro Kirk with a pitch to load the bases. Daulton Varsho grounded to Rojas, who stumbled and threw home for the force. Then Andy Pages caught Ernie Clement’s drive on the left-center warning track while colliding with Kiké Hernández.

In the 11th, Kirk hit a broken-bat grounder into a game-ending double play. Yamamoto threw 2⅔ scoreless innings and was the Series MVP. He was the first pitcher since Randy Johnson in 2001 to pitch the next game of a postseason series after going 6 innings or more the day before.

3. 2016: The Cubs, the Rain, and 108 Years

One drought was going to end. Cleveland’s went back to 1948.

Cubs 8, Indians 7, in 10 innings, on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016, at Progressive Field in Cleveland. The Cubs hadn’t won since 1908, and they had come back from 3 games to 1 down.

Chicago led 6-3 in the 8th, and Cleveland tied it on Brandon Guyer’s RBI double and Rajai Davis’s 2-run homer off Aroldis Chapman. After the 9th, rain stopped the game for 17 minutes.

Jason Heyward called the team into the weight room behind the visitors’ dugout. As Tom Verducci recalled it in The Cubs Way, Heyward told them, “We’re the best team in baseball, and we’re the best team in baseball for a reason. Now we’re going to show it.”

In the 10th, Ben Zobrist doubled in the go-ahead run, and Miguel Montero singled in another. Cleveland got 1 back, and Kris Bryant threw out Michael Martinez to end it. Fox drew 40 million viewers, the most for a baseball game since No. 2. The whole night is in our Cubs On This Date piece.

2. 1991: Jack Morris Pitches 10 Innings

Nobody scored for 9½ innings. Then a pinch-hitter won it.

Twins 1, Braves 0, in 10 innings, on Sunday, Oct. 27, 1991, at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Both teams had finished last in 1990. Kirby Puckett’s walk-off homer in Game 6 set this one up.

John Smoltz threw 7⅓ scoreless innings for Atlanta. Jack Morris, a Minnesota native, threw 10. In the 8th, Chuck Knoblauch’s fake throw to 2nd held Lonnie Smith at 3rd on Terry Pendleton’s double, and after a groundout and an intentional walk, Sid Bream hit into a 3-2-3 double play. In the bottom half, Kent Hrbek lined into an unassisted double play.

Morris had 118 pitches through 9. Tom Kelly wanted to take him out, and Morris talked him out of it. “I never had a negative thought,” he said later.

In the 10th, Dan Gladden hustled a broken-bat flare into a double, and a bunt moved him to 3rd. With the bases loaded and 1 out, Gene Larkin singled over the drawn-in outfield.

1. 1960: Pirates 10, Yankees 9, and Nobody Struck Out

Nine pitchers faced 77 batters without a strikeout. The last one hit a home run.

Pirates 10, Yankees 9, on Thursday, Oct. 13, 1960, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh led 4-0. New York led 7-4 going to the bottom of the 8th.

Then Bill Virdon’s grounder took a bad hop and hit shortstop Tony Kubek in the throat. Kubek left the game, and Hal Smith hit a 2-out, 3-run homer for a 9-7 lead. In the top of the 9th, Mickey Mantle singled in a run. On Yogi Berra’s grounder to 1st, Mantle dove back into the bag, evaded the tag, and the tying run scored.

Bill Mazeroski led off the bottom of the 9th and hit the 2nd pitch over the left-field wall. The swing is No. 1 in our 10 greatest World Series home runs. “I didn’t think I’d be the guy to do it,” he said.

Ralph Terry took the loss. He’s back at No. 9. In the clubhouse, Berra said, “We just got beat, Roger, by the damnedest baseball team that me or you or anybody else ever played against.”

Honorable Mentions

• 1955, Brooklyn Dodgers 2, Yankees 0. On Oct. 4, 1955, at Yankee Stadium, Johnny Podres threw a shutout. In the 6th, Sandy Amorós ran down Berra’s slicing fly ball and started a double play. “I dunno. I run like hell,” he said. It was Brooklyn’s only World Series title.
• 1946, Cardinals 4, Red Sox 3. On Oct. 15, 1946, at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, Enos Slaughter scored from 1st on Harry Walker’s hit in the 8th. People still argue over whether Johnny Pesky held the relay. “I hesitated,” Pesky said.

Which Game 7 did we miss? Tell us in the comments.