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The Seasonal Narrative Of The 1992 Minnesota Twins

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The state of Minnesota had been electrified in 1991 when their beloved Twins completed a magical worst-to-first turnaround by winning a dramatic World Series, their second title in five years. The 1992 Minnesota Twins didn’t achieve those same heights—but even though they lost some key performers from that ’91 team, this ’92 edition of the Twins were still a good, solid baseball team that stayed in contention much of the season.

Jack Morris, the veteran starting pitcher who was the hero of the World Series, left via free agency. So did outfielder Dan Gladden, who had scored the winning run in Game 7. The Twins were in a tough division. In the pre-1994 alignment, they were in the AL West. The Oakland A’s had won three straight pennants from 1988-90 and were looking to get back on top. There was no wild-card berth available in this era, so Minnesota had no margin for error.

In the middle of spring training, the Twins made a big move to cover for the loss of Morris. The Pittsburgh Pirates were a regular contender, but starting to dump salaries. They were looking to unload 20-game winner John Smiley. Minnesota picked up the lefty on the cheap.

Smiley and Kevin Tapani would each win 16 games in 1992. Scott Erickson won 13. These three starters all finished with ERAs in the 3s and were the core of a reliable rotation. Bill Krueger was a manageable fourth starter, going 10-6 with a 4.30 ERA.

The fifth spot went back and forth between Willie Banks and 21-year-old Pat Mahomes—and yes, the latter is the father of the current Kansas City Chiefs quarterback who has lit up the NFL and won a Super Bowl.

Manager Tom Kelly had a deep bullpen to rely on. Carl Willis, Tom Edens and Mark Guthrie all had ERAs in the high 2s and all got steady work. The same went for closer Rick Aguilera, who slammed the door on 41 saves. All told, the Minnesota pitching staff ended up third in the American League in ERA.

The everyday lineup was keyed by the great centerfielder Kirby Puckett. A hero of the previous October himself, Puckett had his best season in 1992. His stat line was .374 on-base percentage/.490 slugging percentage, he scored 104 runs and drove in 110. It was enough to place second in the American League MVP voting.

Puckett wasn’t the only outfielder who could hit. Shane Mack got the playing time that opened up with Gladden’s departure and Mack’s stat line was .394/.467. Chuck Knoblauch, the feisty young second baseman had a .384 OBP and stole 34 bases. Kent Hrbek’s power dipped, but the first baseman at least posted a .357 OBP. Veteran DH Chili Davis produced a stat line of .386/.439. Brian Harper’s .343 OBP was respectable by any standard and good for an everyday catcher.

There were offensive weaknesses on the left side of the infield, in right field and with depth. But led by Puckett, the Twins still ranked third in the AL in runs scored.

Minnesota started slowly, losing nine of their first fifteen games. Then they took a home series from Oakland, keyed by a 6-5 extra-innings win in the opener. It got the Twins on track and by Memorial Day, they were at 23-19 and only 2 ½ games off the pace in the AL West. Oakland led the way, the Chicago White Sox were in second and Minnesota narrowly led the Texas Rangers for third.

The Twins more or less held serve in that position until June 19. Then they got hot and ripped off 18 wins in 23 games. That included another series victory over the A’s, this one on the road. And it was capped off by taking three of four from the contending Baltimore Orioles. The winning streak pushed Minnesota into first place at the All-Star break, up 2 ½ on Oakland, 6 ½ on Texas and Chicago fading fast at 9 ½ out.

The Twins were still holding a three-game lead in late July. They went to Oakland, but this time the head-to-head battle didn’t work out so well. Minnesota pitching gave up 26 runs in three games and they lost all three. It set the stage for an August slide where the Twins went 12-17. That included three straight losses in Chicago where they were outscored 33-19. And it included three straight defeats at mediocre Cleveland where the bats went silent and only scored three runs for the series.

By Labor Day, Minnesota was 5 ½ back of Oakland and no one else was in serious shouting distance of the lead. There was still a chance, but the Twins had no time to waste. And there was a series coming up in Oakland in a week that offered a chance to change the dynamics of the race.

The Twins used that week leading up to the showdown well. They took five of six games in series with the California Angels and Seattle Mariners. The only problem was that Oakland played the same two teams and won six of seven. Minnesota was now six out when the head-to-head games began on September 14.

Monday night’s opener saw a pitching gem between Tapani and Oakland ace Dave Stewart. The score was tied 1-1 in the eighth and the bullpens were on. Edens blinked first and gave up the winning run. Minnesota lost 2-1.

Mahomes got the start on Tuesday and was outstanding. But an offense that had generated just eight singles the night before, only got two singles tonight. Another 2-1 loss was the result.

If there was any doubt the AL West race was over, they were put to bed on Wednesday’s getaway day finale. Smiley took a 1-1 tie into the fifth, but gave up three runs and lost 4-2. The only bright side was that Lenny Webster hit a double in the sixth, the only extra-base hit this offense got in the season’s biggest series.

Minnesota still played well for the balance of the season. They won 10 of their final 16 and reached the 90-win threshold. The final 90-72 record was fourth-best in the American League and tied for sixth-best in the majors. In other words, by the standards of what would exist just two years later, it was playoff-caliber.

The bigger problem was that this marked the end of Minnesota’s run of success, at least for a little while. They fell to 71-91 a year later. Winning baseball did not return to the Twin Cities until 2001, when Kelly won 85 games in his final season and set up what would be another good run for the franchise in the early 2000s.

1992 Boston Red Sox: The Ominous Start Of The Butch Hobson Era

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The Red Sox made an unpopular decision when they let go of manager Joe Morgan, who had led the team to a successful four-year run that included AL East titles in 1988 and 1990. The 1992 Boston Red Sox would be led by Butch Hobson, who had been a popular player in the late 1970s. But his tenure in the dugout got off to a poor start and never really gained steam.

1970s Red Sox

It wasn’t that the front office didn’t go all-in. Boston signed Minnesota ace’s lefty starter Frank Viola on the free-agent market and paired him up with Roger Clemens in the rotation. The result was a staff that would finish with the second-best ERA in the American League in ‘92. Clemens was vintage, with 18 wins and a 2.41 ERA. Viola went 13-12 with a 3.44 ERA. The two pitchers combined for 67 starts and nearly 500 innings.

The rest of the rotation, ranging from Joe Hesketh to John Dopson to Mike Gardner to Danny Darwin was average, but given the workhorses at the top, was more than acceptable. Greg Harris did good work out of the bullpen, as did Darwin who shuttled back and forth through the season.

But it was the offense, normally a given at Fenway Park, that fell apart. Wade Boggs posted a .353 on-base percentage, but at 34-years-old, his batting average slipped to .259. Tom Brunansky finished with a stat line of .354 OBP/.445 slugging percentage, hit 15 home runs and drove in 74 runs. That’s a nice enough year…but when it’s the best year of anyone in your lineup it’s a sign of trouble.

And trouble is what the Red Sox had. Tony Pena and Jack Clark were well past their prime. Mo Vaughn, a slugging first baseman who would win the MVP award in 1995, was still having growing pains. Ellis Burks dealt with a variety of injuries and only played 66 games. Jody Reed and Billy Hatcher each had bad years. Boston finished 13th in the American League in runs scored.

The Red Sox played respectable baseball early on. They split eight games with the Blue Jays, Orioles and Brewers, who were the AL East’s three best teams in 1992 (prior to 1994 each league was split into just an East & West, and Milwaukee was an American League team through 1997). By Memorial Day, the Sox were 20-19 and within 4 ½ games of the division lead.

They came out of the holiday weekend and swept a road series with the Angels, giving up only five runs in three games and nudging to within 2 ½ games of first place. But that would be the 1992 baseball season’s high point in Boston. That West Coast trip ended with five losses in six games against the Mariners and A’s.

The Red Sox continued to hang tough against the elite of their division, splitting ten games with Toronto, Baltimore and Milwaukee. But Boston was still hanging around .500, while the upper crust was getting hot. The Sox were ten back at the All-Star break.

Late 1980s Boston Red Sox

It would be a stretch to say anyone in New England was counting on a big second half push, but if there was, they had their illusions shattered quickly. Boston lost nine of their first fourteen games out of the break against AL West teams. Closer Jeff Reardon, struggling in any case, was traded to Atlanta, where he continued his struggles all the way through the World Series. Boston lost three of four to Baltimore. And the Sox dropped three of four in mid-August to Milwaukee. By Labor Day, the Red Sox were 63-73 and well off the pace.

Today in New England you’d just switch the focus to football, but the Patriots were a bad team at this point in their history. The Red Sox would have to do for September sports. And they kept collapsing, losing their first five series post-Labor Day. The final record was 73-89 and dead last in a seven-team AL East.

This would be the low point of the short Hobson era, but it never really got going. Boston made a run at .500 in 1993 before settling in at 80-82. And they were seven games under .500 in August 1994 when the strike hit and put everyone in Red Sox Nation out of their misery. Hobson was replaced prior to 1995, when the franchise got back on top and won the AL East.

A Surprise Season For The 1992 Milwaukee Brewers

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The 1992 Milwaukee Brewers represented the start of a new era, with Phil Garner managing the team. The previous five years under Tom Trebelhorn hadn’t been bad—three winning campaigns and another at .500—but there had been a definite decline from the 91-win season in Trebelhorn’s rookie year of 1987. Garner had to turn around the decline and that’s exactly what happened in a surprise year where the Brewers captivated their hometown in the month of September.

Milwaukee made one big move in the offseason and was to unload the immensely talented, but oft-discontented Gary Sheffied. Only 23-years-old, Sheffield would have an excellent career with a number of teams, but he wasn’t happy in Milwaukee and wasn’t going to be. The Brewers shipped him to San Diego for a package of players keyed by starting pitcher Ricky Bones.

Another change directly inspired by Garner was style of play. The Brewers would not wait for the long ball. They would run. And run they did. Eleven players stole at least ten bases. The leader was rookie shortstop Pat Listach who batted .290, swiped 54 bags and won American League Rookie of the Year honors.

The Brewers also hit singles and drove the ball in the gaps. Paul Molitor, now 35-years-old, hit .320 to lead the way. Robin Yount, the other holdover from the franchise glory years in the early 1980s, only hit .264, but the 36-year-old was still a leader and his quest for 3,000 career hits was a big storyline in this season.

In many ways this was the anti-Moneyball team. They didn’t take walks or hit home runs, but they hit the baseball the old-fashioned way and then started running. It produced the fifth-best offense in the American League.

The pitching was even better, ranking first in the AL in staff ERA. Balance was the key. Jamie Navarro won 17 games with a 3.33 ERA. Chris Bosio rang up 16 wins and posted a 3.62 ERA. Bill Wegman’s luck was a little harder, but he went to the post 35 times and finished with an ERA of 3.20.

That alone would have made the Brewers competitive, but they uncovered a gem midway through the season. Cal Eldred, only 24-years-old, got 14 starts and ripped off an 11-2 record with a dazzling 1.79 ERA. In the bullpen, Dan Plesac, Mike Fetters and Jim Austin were lights-out in doing setup work for closer Doug Henry.

One important historical point to make here is that prior to 1998, the Brewers were in the American League. And prior to 1994, they were in the AL East. Each league was split into just an East & West, with only first-place teams moving on the postseason. Realignment and postseason expansion was still two years away and that would be significant for the legacy of the 1992 Milwaukee Brewers.

It was still a mediocre start to the season. The low point of the early going was a seven-game road swing against the White Sox, Royals and Rangers. The Brewers lost six of those games and were 20-21 on Memorial Day, 5 ½ games off the pace in the AL East.

But they came out of the holiday weekend and went 8-4. A West Coast road trip produced four more wins in six games. The only down note was Milwaukee lost a couple series to Baltimore, who joined Toronto in setting the first-half pace in this division. The Brewers had slipped 7 ½ back by the All-Star break, but they were doing their part to improve, getting the W-L record to 45-41.

Garner’s team continued to gradually pick up the pace through the late summer. They won four of seven games against Toronto and in three of those wins scored a combined 48 runs. Milwaukee was 73-65 on Labor Day and still within 5 ½ games of the lead, with the Blue Jays and Orioles still running neck-and-neck. Yount was closing in on the magical 3,000-mark as the city got excited for September.

Milwaukee took the first two games of a series with Cleveland. They lost the finale, but even that came with excitement, as Yount got his historic hit. I was sitting in County Stadium that night. I can still recall seeing the pitch come in and Yount immediately attack and hit it over the second baseman. History was made. Now the Brewers had to try and pull off a miracle run.

And they almost did. They went to Baltimore for a three-game set. After losing the opener to Oriole ace Mike Mussina, the Brewers took over. Navarrao was staked to a 4-0 lead and pitched a complete-game shutout. Eldred went the distance in a 3-1 win in the finale, aided by three hits apiece from Molitor and Listach. Milwaukee couldn’t gain ground on Toronto, but they were pulling even with Baltimore.

The Brewers went on to Fenway and took advantage of a bad Red Sox team, winning three of four games. The Orioles were now making a return trip to old County Stadium in Milwaukee for a four-game weekend wraparound set. With Toronto playing at a steady pace, one of the contenders had to deliver a clear knockout blow here.

That’s what the Brewers did. In Friday night’s opener, Greg Vaughn hit a three-run blast off Rick Sutcliffe in the first inning and the rout was on in a 12-4 win. Bosio went seven strong innings on Saturday afternoon to win 4-1. On Sunday, Bones fell behind 3-0 and was chased by the fifth inning. No problem—Milwaukee scored eight runs in the bottom of the sixth, with Molitor doubling twice in the inning. The final was 9-3.

The seven-game Oriole-Brewer sequence ended as it had begun—with Mussina winning for Baltimore. But the wins in between meant Milwaukee had surged into second place and was 4 ½ games back of Toronto.

The Brewers didn’t stop. They won eight of the next nine, getting complete-game shutouts from Eldred and Bosio. The margin was down to two games, but only the final weekend of the season remained. Milwaukee was visiting Oakland. The A’s were an elite team, but also one with nothing to play for, having already clinched the AL West. The Blue Jays were hosting mediocre Detroit. The odds were still against the Brewers, but I can still vividly recall how much the city believed.

Friday night seemed to confirm something special was going on. Oakland led 2-1 in the ninth and turned it over to closer Dennis Eckersley, a future Hall of Famer having the best year of his career. Molitor beat him with a game-tying double and the Brewers won in 11 innings.

But Toronto wasn’t playing along with the Cinderella story. They jumped out to a 6-1 lead and then held off Detroit for an 8-7 win. On Saturday, both teams had day games on tap, but with the Brewers on the West Coast, they were the later start. Toronto won 3-1 and the race was over.

Milwaukee still finished 92-70, the third-best record in the American League. Fast-forward the clock two years into realignment and they would have won the AL Central. Instead, they were going home.

The unfortunate part of this story is that, in spite of the pitching staff being mostly in its prime, this would be a repeat of the Trebelhorn Era, where the team declined. Actually, it would be worse.

Brewer GM Sal Bando made a fatal decision to let Molitor walk in free agency, believing he could better spend the money on a larger quantity of marginal players. Molitor won a World Series MVP trophy in Toronto—cheered on by his old hometown, who knew he had been nudged out the door.

Milwaukee never again had a winning season under Garner, who oversaw the team’s transition into the National League in 1998. They would not see the postseason until 2008.

1992 St. Louis Cardinals: Drama Amidst The Mediocrity

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Joe Torre’s illustrious managerial career got its start in Atlanta in the early 1980s. It reached its peak with a glorious run at the helm of the New York Yankees that started in 1996. In between those two is a more forgotten part of Torre’s history, the 4-plus years he spent in St. Louis. Torre took over a team that had fallen hard in 1990, ending an otherwise outstanding era under Whitey Herzog. Torre promptly made them winners in 1991. The 1992 St. Louis Cardinals posted another winning season, with more than its share of excitement along the way.

The Cardinals moved to upgrade their power in the offseason, trading Ken Hill, an up-and-coming starting pitcher, to the Montreal Expos for first baseman Andres Galaragga. The trade, to be kind, was a disaster for St. Louis. Hill came into his own. Galaragga, who had been in decline for a couple years in Montreal, was not able to turn it around in St. Louis and needed a subsequent move to Colorado’s Coors Field to get his offensive numbers rejuvenated.

St. Louis still had players who could get on base. A talented young outfield included Bernard Gilkey, Ray Lankford and Felix Jose. Gilkey hit .302. Lankford and Jose both hit in the high .290s. So did 37-year-old shortstop Ozzie Smith. The four players also combined to steal 131 bases. The Cardinals led the National League in both batting average and stolen bases.

But the lack of power dogged them. With Galaragga not stepping up, Lankford’s 20 home runs and .480 slugging percentage were the closest thing St. Louis had to a real power threat. It’s the reason they only finished sixth in the National League in runs scored.

The pitching was better. Bob Tewksbury had a career year at the age of 31. He went 16-5 with a dazzling 2.16 ERA, worked over 230 innings and finished third in the Cy Young voting. Omar Olivares, Rheal Cormier and Donovan Osborne were all young arms that made 29-30 starts and posted ERAs in the high 3s. Lee Smith, the 34-year-old veteran, anchored a bullpen that was deep. Smith saved 43 games. The Cardinals’ staff ERA was fourth in the NL.

Torre’s Cards started slowly, losing nine of their first fifteen. That stretch ended with consecutive walkoff losses to the New York Mets, including a 1-0 decision to went 13 innings. But the next two games saw St. Louis go back home and win two walkoffs, against Montreal. The Cardinals got a 4-3 win when Lankford and Ozzie each hit two-out RBI singles in the ninth. And they outlasted the Expos in a 17-inning marathon that saw Tewksbury come on in relief, pitch the last two innings and then win the game with a two-out single with a man on third.

Those wins started a 16-6 stretch that saw St. Louis move into first place in the NL East. Here’s where we can step back to point out that prior to 1994 the leagues were split into just an East and West division, with the winners moving straight into the League Championship Series. The Cardinals and Cubs were in the East. So were the Pittsburgh Pirates, the two-time defending division champs. As were current occupants from Philadelphia, New York and Montreal (today’s Washington Nationals).

Memorial Day weekend summed up the early part of the St. Louis schedule. On Sunday, the Cardinals beat the Astros 4-3 on a walkoff home run by catcher Tom Pagnozzi. On Monday, the Dodgers came to town. After Lee Smith blew a save in the eighth, St. Louis trailed 5-3. Gilkey’s two-out, two-run double tied it in the bottom of the eighth. Another two-out RBI hit in the ninth, this one from Felix Jose, got the Cards another walkoff win.

They were a half-game up on the Pirates and a game up on the Mets. But St. Louis lost the next two games to Los Angeles, starting a stretch where they dropped five straight series. The record briefly slipped under. 500, before the Cardinals got back to 44-43 by the All-Star break.

St. Louis was still in second place and still within 4 ½ games of Pittsburgh. But a tough schedule was waiting on the far side of the break. The Pirates, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds and Expos would ultimately end up as the four best teams in the National League. In a 16-game stretch against all four, the Cardinals went 4-12.

They were 7 ½ out at the beginning of August. Any marginal hope that remained was shattered when Pittsburgh came into Busch Stadium and swept four straight. On August 9, St. Louis hit a low point with a record of 51-60 and were twelve games out.

The Cards wouldn’t get any close to the Pirates, and the Expos were also coming on in the second half, but St. Louis would salvage some self-respect. They got their record back to 78-78 entering the final week and had a shot at a winning season. They got there in what proved to be appropriate fashion.

Olivares beat Montreal 4-1 in the Monday opener of a three-game set. Then it was time for more walkoffs. St. Louis won Tuesday’s game in ten innings when a two-out error set up the game-winning hit. On Wednesday, they faced Hill and were trailing 2-0 in the eighth. Stan Royer hit a two-run shot to tie the game. Lankford won it in the 11th with an RBI base hit.

St. Louis finished 83-79. It wasn’t the year they were hoping for and certainly not the one that seemed possible back on Memorial Day weekend. But there was no shortage of drama.

1992 Baltimore Orioles: Johnny Oates Leads A Comeback Year

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Johnny Oates had a nice three-year run as manager in Baltimore. He took over a team that had a couple subpar years in 1990 and 1991, with Cal Ripken’s ‘91 MVP campaign being the only bright spot. Oates won more games than he lost in each of his three seasons and the 1992 Baltimore Orioles were the team that started the run.

The Orioles moved to address their pitching in the offseason. They signed 36-year-old Rick Sutcliffe to help the rotation. And they dealt a couple prospects to the Yankees in exchange for Alan Mills, who had a strong year in the bullpen. They joined a staff that had the most heralded young pitcher in baseball, Ben McDonald, ready to emerge on the big league level.

McDonald had a respectable year in ‘92. He pitched 227 innings, won 13 games and finished with a 4.24 ERA. Sutcliffe did what he was asked to do—while the 4.47 ERA might have been high, he was regular at taking his turn with 36 starts and won 16 games.

But the biggest splash wasn’t made by the highly touted prospect or the new free agent. Baltimore’s best pitcher proved to be 23-year-old Mike Mussina. He went 18-5, posted a 2.54 ERA, logged 241 innings, finished fourth in the Cy Young voting and got a stellar 18-year career off and running.

Gregg Olson anchored the bullpen with 36 saves and a 2.05 ERA, and he had quality help in front of him. Mills won 10 games and pitched over 100 innings. Todd Frowirth also worked over 100 innings and his ERA was 2.46. Storm Davis, a former starter, who now did most of his work in relief, went 7-3 with a 3.34 ERA. The bullpen was a big reason the Orioles finished with the fifth-best ERA in the American League.

Baltimore got a good year offensively from catcher Chris Hoiles, who posted a stat line of .384 on-base percentage/.506 slugging percentage. Brady Anderson was a productive outfielder at .373/.440. Oates got respectable, if not great years, from a range of players that included first baseman Randy Milligan, third baseman Leo Gomez and centerfielder Mike Devereaux.

It might have been enough to produce a good offense, but the Orioles were let down by the most unlikely of people—Cal Ripken Jr. had an off-year at the plate, with a meager .323/.366 stat line. Of course he played all 162 games and was reliable, but the loss of his usual numbers was the biggest reason Baltimore only had the 8th-best offense in the American League and why their pennant push ultimately came up short.

The Oriole season was marked by steadiness, as they rarely got either too hot or too cold. An early high point in April came when they won seven straight over the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals, averaging seven runs a night during that stretch. In May, the Birds went on a 11-4 run against teams from the AL West.

On the flip side, they were swept by the Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland A’s, the two best teams in the AL in 1992. But on Memorial Day, Baltimore’s 26-16 record was the best in the majors and they led the favored Blue Jays by a half-game in the AL East.

Baltimore was able to get series wins over Toronto and Oakland in June as they continued to play good baseball and ran neck-and-neck with the Blue Jays. But right before the All-Star break, the Orioles lost five of seven games to the defending World Series champion Minnesota Twins. The mini-skid let Toronto widen the lead to four games at the break.

Consistency continued to define Baltimore’s play through August and in the days leading up to Labor Day, they made an impressive statement out west. Seven wins on a nine-game trip had them within a game and a half of Toronto. The Birds were coming home and in position to pull an upset in the September stretch drive.

But just as quickly, the worm turned. They lost three straight to the Yankees. The Milwaukee Brewers were up next and coming on strong as a third horse in the AL East. Here’s where we should note that the Brewers were in the American League prior to 1998, the Eastern Division prior to the realignment of 1994 and that we were still a couple years from the existence of the wild-card. It was winner-take-all in this race.

Mussina took the ball on Friday night and delivered a complete-game six-hitter, winning 3-2. But the Oriole offense went into hiding and scored just one run the rest of the weekend, losing both games. They were now five games out.

Baltimore clipped the deficit back to three and made a return trip to Milwaukee the following weekend for a four-game set. Sutcliffe pitched the Friday opener…and got blasted, 12-4. Two more losses followed. A win in the Monday wraparound game was too little too late. It was the Brewers, not the Orioles, who would chase the Blue Jays to the final weekend of the season. And it was the Jays who ultimately won the World Series.

It was still a solid year in Baltimore. They won 89 games and it was fifth-best in the American League. By the standards of today, 1992 was a playoff-caliber season for the Orioles.

The 1992 Cincinnati Reds Return To Contention

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The Cincinnati Reds had run the gamut during Lou Piniella’s first two years as manager. In 1990, they won a surprise World Series title. In 1991, they collapsed to 74 wins a fifth-place finish. The 1992 Cincinnati Reds returned to contention.

The organization made moves in the offseason. The Reds acquired lefthander starter Greg Swindell for a package of players that included a former All-Star pitcher in Jack Armstrong. Cincinnati traded closer Randy Myers, a hero of the championship team, to San Diego for versatile outfielder Bip Roberts.

But the biggest move of all came when they traded Eric Davis—the face of the franchise at the time—to the Dodgers in order to improve their pitching. The key acquisition was Tim Belcher, a veteran starter, who had been a key part of LA’s own title run in 1988.

Cincinnati’s offense was steady and deep. Even though a number of notable players—Hal Morris at first base, Billy Doran at second, Chris Sabo at third and Paul O’Neill in right—had ho-hum years at the plate, none of them were really bad. Indeed, the Reds’ offense had no obvious weak points.

The difference-makers were players like Reggie Sanders, a fourth outfielder who got over 400 plate appearances and finished with a stat line of .356 on-base percentage/.462 slugging percentage. Or Roberts, whose stat line was .393/.432 and he stole 44 bases.

And the biggest difference-maker of all was a shortstop who still had both an MVP season and a Hall of Fame plaque in his future. Barry Larkin was still just 28-years-old, posted a stat line .377/.454 and played excellent defense. Larkin was the key to an offense that consistently got runners on base, hit balls in the gap and finished fourth in the National League in runs scored.

The pitching had talent at the top. Belcher and Swindell joined with Jose Rijo to give the Reds three quality starting pitchers. They all worked over 200 innings and combined for 42 wins. But the rotation lacked the kind of depth the everyday lineup had. The fade of 32-year-old lefty Tom Browning was a big reason, with Browning only making 16 starts and posted a bloated 5.07 ERA.

The bullpen was similar. Norm Charlton and Rob Dibble shared the closing duties left open by the Myers trade and they were good. The lefty/righty combo combined to save 51 games and both had ERAs hovering around 3. Scott Bankhead won 10 games out of the pen and had a 2.93 ERA.

But there was nobody who was really “lock down” and over the long haul that took its toll. Cincinnati’s staff ERA ranked seventh in what was then a 12-team National League.

The Reds got off to a middling start. They were swept in San Francisco, who jumped out to the early division lead. Prior to the realignment of 1994, each league had just an East & West division with winners going straight to the League Championship Series. Cincinnati and Atlanta challenged the laws of geography in joining the Giants, Padres, Dodgers and Astros in the NL West).

A sweep of the Braves, the defending division champs, was the high point of the early season and while the Cincy record was only 22-20 on Memorial Day, they were within two games of the division lead.

They got hot in June and went 10-3 in a stretch of games against the Dodgers and Giants. San Francisco started to fade, while Atlanta joined Cincinnati in heating up for the summer months. The Reds matched up with the best the National League had to offer. They won four of seven games with the Braves. Cincinnati took five of eight from the Pirates, who were the best team in the NL East. And at the All-Star break, they were 51-35 and two games up on the Braves in what was now a two-team race.

But it didn’t stay a two-team race for long. Atlanta stayed hot, while Cincinnati stumbled in the early part of August. The Reds lost three straight in a head-to-head matchup with the Braves to start a stretch where they lost 11 of 18 games. It wasn’t a collapse by any means, but in a race with no margin for error it was enough to effectively end Cincy’s hopes of a return to the playoffs.

They were 6 ½ back on Labor Day and never got closer than that until there was a week and a half to go and it was too late. The Reds finished the year 90-72, eight games off the pace Atlanta set.

It was still a good year and proved to be a nice swan song for Piniella, who parted ways with the team after the season. Cincinnati had finished tied for the fifth-best record in baseball, a clear playoff team by the standards of today.

1992 NLCS: The Atlanta-Pittsburgh 7-Game Sequel

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In 1991, the Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates staged a great seven-game NLCS that saw the Braves come out on top. It was a difficult act to top, but when Atlanta and Pittsburgh got together again for 1992 NLCS, it was even better. They again went seven games and again it was the Braves moving on to the World Series—this time with a ninth-inning rally for the ages.

You can read more about the regular season paths the Braves and Pirates took to win their respective division titles, and about their key players, at the links below. This article will focus exclusively on the games of the 1992 NLCS.

READ MORE ABOUT THE 1992 ATLANTA BRAVES
READ MORE ABOUT THE 1992 PITTSBURGH PIRATES

Atlanta had homefield advantage by virtue of the rotation system that existed at the time. They sent John Smoltz to the mound to face Pittsburgh ace Doug Drabek. The Braves struck first with a two-out RBI single from second baseman Mark Lemke in the second inning. Sid Bream, a former Pittsburgh first baseman now in Atlanta, added to the lead with an RBI double in the fourth. Jeff Blauser homered off Drabek in the fifth.

Meanwhile, Smoltz was cruising. He went eight innings and the Braves closed out a comfortable 5-1 win. If Game 1 was comfortable for Atlanta fans, Game 2 was a positive breeze. A Blauser triple off Pirate lefty Danny Jackson was the big blow in a four-run second inning. In the fifth, Atlanta’s Ron Gant hit a grand slam.

Even when Pittsburgh tried to get back in the game with four runs of their own in the seventh, the Braves promptly answered with five in the bottom half of the inning. The final was 13-5, as Atlanta held serve at home.

Pittsburgh was up against it and facing 20-game winner Tom Glavine in Game 3. The Pirates were sending out a mostly unknown 25-year-old knuckleballer named Tim Wakefield. Wakefield went toe-to-toe with Glavine and the game was tied 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh.

Gary Redus got the Pittsburgh half of the seventh going with his third hit of the night. He moved to third on a double by Jay Bell and scored on a sac fly by Andy Van Slyke. Wakefield made the 3-2 lead stand up with a complete-game five-hitter.

A Smoltz-Drabek rematch was on tap for Saturday night’s Game 4. Once again, the Braves got to Drabek by the second inning. This time it was Smoltz helping his own cause with an RBI single. Leadoff hitter Otis Nixon followed with one of his own and it was quickly 2-0.

But the Pirates answered with two of their own, as Drabek worked a walk and came around to score. When Pittsburgh grabbed a run in the third, as Barry Bonds walked and scored on a double by Orlando Merced, it looked the Pirates were ready to make this a series again.

But Nixon was peppering away at Drabek and the leadoff man would finish with four hits on the night. Another one came in the top of the fifth and started a two-run rally that sent the Pirate starter to the showers. In the top of the sixth, Smoltz again produced with his bat. He singled, stole second and scored on another Nixon base hit. Blauser drove in another run. Atlanta won the game 6-4. They had a 3-1 series lead.

The season on the line, Pittsburgh turned to 35-year-old Bob Walk to try and beat young Atlanta lefty Steve Avery. The previous October, Avery had been NLCS MVP with two brilliant games, and he’d also won Game 2 this year. On this Sunday night, the Pirates finally got him. They ripped four doubles in the first inning alone. Jeff King and Lloyd McClendon, a future Pittsburgh manager, had three hits apiece. Walk went the distance and allowed three hits. The final was 7-1.

With two games still in Atlanta, the Game 5 result seemed more like a nice sendoff to the Pittsburgh fans than anything that was really going to alter the course of the series. But the Pirates kept the momentum going in the Glavine-Wakefield rematch of Game 6.

Bonds started the top of the second with a home run. Two singles, two doubles and a Braves error followed. Then Jay Bell hit a three-run blast. A stunned Atlanta crowd was staring at an 8-0 deficit. Wakefield again went the distance in a 13-4 rout. Another Game 7 between these two teams was at hand.

It was Smoltz-Drabek III and Game 7 was a tension-filled classic. Van Slyke doubled in the first inning and later scored on a Merced sac fly. The 1-0 lead kept Pittsburgh’s momentum going. Drabek pitched around a leadoff double in the third. In the sixth, Bell doubled down the left field line and scored on a base hit from Van Slyke. Drabek was locked in with a 2-0 lead and a feeling of inevitability was starting to envelope this improbable Pittsburgh comeback.

Drabek continued to pitch out of trouble in the seventh. With runners on first and second and one out, he retired Lonnie Smith and Damon Berryhill on a consecutive flyballs to preserve the lead. In the top of the eighth, with Merced on first base, King doubled down the rightfield line. Merced tried to score with a big insurance run, but David Justice threw him out at the plate. Smoltz was able to keep it a 2-0 game going into the ninth.

Atlanta’s veteran third baseman Terry Pendleton opened the bottom of the ninth with a double that raised hopes. Justice hit a harmless groundball to second, but it was booted by Jose Lind. Suddenly, the Braves had the tying runs aboard with no one out. Bream worked a walk. The bases were loaded. Drabek’s courageous night was over and closer Stan Belinda came on.

Gant hit the ball hard to left, but Bonds tracked it down. The run scored from third to make it 2-1 and Berryhill drew a walk. Again, the bases were loaded. The bottom of the Atlanta order was up and it would be two pinch-hitters that would have to deliver.

The more dangerous of the two, Brian Hunter got the first chance. Belinda got him to pop up to second. Then he got ahead in the count 1-2 to Francisco Cabrera, a lightly regarded reserve catcher. Then Cabrera singled to left. The game was certainly tied and the slow-footed Bream came booking around third, looking to score the winning run.

Bonds had many extraordinary talents as a baseball player, but his arm wasn’t one of them. His throw was just off-target enough to allow Bream to slide in safely. Pittsburgh’s improbable comeback from 3-1 down in the series had been displaced by Atlanta’s improbable ninth-inning comeback of Game 7.

Smoltz was named NLCS MVP for his two wins and strong Game 7 outing that kept it close. Wakefield would likely have been the choice had Pittsburgh hung on, for his two complete game wins. What did the Pirates in overall was that none of their hitters had a signature series. Atlanta’s hitting hadn’t been great, but Nixon batted .375 for the series. Justice finished with a .419 on-base percentage/.560 slugging percentage, with Bream clocking in at .360/.545.

Atlanta wasn’t able to finish the job in the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays. The Braves won the first game and a had two-run lead late in Game 2. But the phenomena of the unknown pinch-hitter worked against them this time, as Toronto’s Ed Sprague tied the game with a shocking home run. The Blue Jays won that game and the next two at home. The Braves ultimately lost an 11-inning classic in Game 6 that ended the Series.

READ THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE 1992 WORLD SERIES

After the great battles of 1991-92, the Braves and Pirates went in separate directions. Pittsburgh, as expected, lost the core of its team to free agency. The franchise fell off a cliff and never even broke .500 for more than twenty years. Atlanta kept on winning. They went to the postseason every year until 2006. They had three more World Series trips ahead of them and in 1995, they won it all.

A 3rd Straight Division Crown For The 1992 Pittsburgh Pirates

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The 1992 Pittsburgh Pirates won a third consecutive division title. They overachieved and worked through considerable adversity to get it done. The lingering legacy of this team is an epic heartbreak at the end, but their road back to the National League Championship Series was anything but easy.

The Pirates had lost rightfielder Bobby Bonilla to free agency. Barry Bonds and Doug Drabek were each on the final year of the contracts. Management read the writing on the wall and looked to start the rebuilding process early. John Smiley, a 20-game winner in 1991, was traded to Minnesota for prospects. It’s the kind of trade you see often at the July deadline when a team is out of contention. It usually doesn’t happen in spring training to a two-time defending division champ.

Pittsburgh, led by manager Jim Leyland, dug in and made the best of it. Drabek, the rotation ace, won 15 games and posted a 2.77 ERA. Randy Tomlin stepped up with 14 wins and a 3.41 ERA. Those two were the steady horses of the staff. Then Leyland went to work and squeezing the most from the rest of the staff.

Zane Smith was limited to 22 starts, but the lefty’s ERA was 3.06. Bob Walk mixed in 19 starts with some relief work and finished with a 3.20 ERA. Another veteran, Danny Jackson was added and his 15 starts produced a 3.36 ERA. And Leyland discovered a 25-year-old knuckleballer named Tim Wakefield, who made 13 starts and posted a dazzling 2.15 ERA.

The bullpen didn’t have a lockdown arm, but it was still respectable. Stan Belinda handled closing duties, with help from Roger Mason and Bob Patterson. It all added up to a staff with the second-best ERA in the National League.

Pittsburgh’s offense was not deep. Andy Van Slyke was the primary support to Bonds, and Van Slyke ripped 45 doubles, en route to a stat line of .381 on-base percentage and .505 slugging percentage. But if you’re thinking that lack of depth meant the Pirates couldn’t score runs…well, think again.

Bonds—at a time when it’s generally believe he wasn’t using performance-enhancing drugs—put up a dazzling season. His stat line was .456/.624. He was walked 127 times. That didn’t stop him from hitting 34 home runs, driving in 103 runs, scoring 109 more and stealing 39 bases.

To point out Bonds won the MVP award doesn’t do his season justice. It has to be said that Barry Bonds singlehandledly took the ‘92 Pirates lineup, put it on his back and over a long six-month season, made it the most prolific in the National League.

Pittsburgh started fast and won 15 of their first 20 games. That included five of six over the Montreal Expos, with whom they would ultimately battle for the NL East title. This was still the era of pre-1994 realignment and playoff expansion. Each league had just an East and West division and winners advanced straight to the LCS.

A brutal 1-11 stretch in May saw the Pirates slip a game and a half back. The St. Louis Cardinals, managed by Joe Torre, were in the lead. But Pittsburgh heated up along with the weather in June. They went on a stretch where they won 10 of 13. They won two series against the Cardinals. By June 23, the Pirates had a comfortable seven-game lead.

Pittsburgh met Cincinnati in a pair of four-game series at old Three Rivers Stadium and old Riverfront Stadium—the cookie-cutter artificial turf parks each team had to play at before getting their new, current ballparks. The Reds were leading the NL West at the time and swept the series in Pittsburgh. The Pirates almost returned the favor, going to Cincinnati and winning three of four. When the All-Star break arrived, Pittsburgh was plus-4 ½ games.

St. Louis began to fade, but Montreal heated up after the break. Pittsburgh hit the skids, losing nine of the first twelve games in the second half. The Expos pulled even and the race was on. The Pirates responded like a veteran team, tested by adversity, often does. On July 30, they went 12-1 in a stretch of games played entirely against the Cardinals and the Mets.

It was some sweet revenge for Pittsburgh against Bonilla, who had gone to the Mets in what proved to be one of the most disastrous contracts in baseball history. More important, it opened up a four-game lead on the feisty Expos.

The next two and a half weeks lacked dramatic moments, but they were decisive. Pittsburgh went 11-6. That included four games with Montreal and by splitting, the Pirates denied the Expos a chance to get any more traction. By the time that stretch was over, the margin was up to seven games and the NL East race was all but over. It ended on the season’s penultimate Sunday when Jackson beat the Mets 4-2. Pittsburgh could spend the last week of the season celebrating and preparing for the NLCS.

The Atlanta Braves had surged past Cincinnati and ultimately won the NL West by a comfortable margin. It set up a rematch of the great 1991 NLCS, where the Pirates and Braves had gone seven games before Atlanta won. In that series, Pittsburgh was a big favorite and seemed in command, with a 3-2 series lead and the final two games at home before it fell apart.

The favorite and underdog roles had flipped this time, but the essentials of the series remained the same. Again, it went seven games. Again, Pittsburgh seemed to have command. It was a stranger journey to control this time—they lost three of the first four, before winning two straight and taking a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning of Game 7. But they were three outs from the World Series with Drabek on the mound.

Thanks to a key error by second baseman Jose Lind, the Braves rallied and ultimately won it on a two-out base hit from little-known Francisco Cabrera. The cruelest cut was watching slow-footed Sid Bream—a former Pirate—beat Bonds’ throw home as he scored from second with the winning run.

READ THE STORY OF THE 1992 NLCS

The ending was even more devastating, given that everyone knew this was finally the end of the line for this fine three-year run for the organization. Bonds and Drabek were gone after the season and for all of Leyland’s managerial skill, there was nothing left to work with.

The ending would have been even more devastating had Pirate fans known that not only were they now rebuilding, they were entering a 20-year run in the baseball wilderness. Not until 2013 would they have so much as a winning season, much less make the playoffs. But the overachievement of the 1992 Pirate team at least made for some warm memories in the long baseball winter.

How The 1992 Atlanta Braves Won The NL West

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In 1991, the Braves shocked the baseball world. They went from worst-to-first, won their first division title in nearly a decade and came within a run of winning the World Series. The 1992 Atlanta Braves carried the burden of expectations and met them, but again with a tinge of disappointment. Atlanta would again reach the World Series. But again, they would come up a bit short in the Fall Classic.

This franchise was defined by starting pitching during their great run through the 1990s and the ‘92 edition was no different. Tom Glavine was a 20-game winner at the age of 26 and a future Hall of Famer. John Smoltz, age 25, also had Cooperstown in his future and he won 15 games in 1992. Steve Avery, the 22-year-old hero of the previous October, didn’t have the same long-term future, but he was plenty good in ‘92. Avery logged over 230 innings and posted a 3.20 ERA.

These three arms alone would have made Atlanta’s rotation a handful, but there was more. Charlie Leibrandt, the veteran lefty, won 15 more games with a 3.36 ERA. Mike Bielicki made 14 starts and put up a 2.57 ERA. Pete Smith got the call 11 times and finished with a 2.05 ERA.

Collectively, the starting pitching was more than enough to cover for a mediocre bullpen and Atlanta’s staff ERA was the best in the National League.

The offense wasn’t bad either, ranking third in the NL in runs scored. Terry Pendleton, the third baseman who’d won the MVP in 1991, came back and hit .311, popped 21 home runs and drove in 105 runs. Ron Gant had 80 RBI and stole 32 bases. David Justice, a talented young rightfielder hit 21 home runs. Otis Nixon, the speedy centerfielder, swiped 41 bags.

More than that though, the Braves had depth. Jeff Blauser and Brian Hunter each hit 14 home runs off the bench. Deion Sanders, the two-sport dynamo, played 97 games of baseball, mixed in with his NFL work. Deion finished with a solid on-base percentage of .346, a slugging percentage of .495 and stole 26 bases. Atlanta didn’t have a signature great player on offense, but they had a lot of contributors and a manager, in Bobby Cox, who knew how to get the most from everyone.

Prior to 1994, MLB had only an East and West division in each league and the winners advanced directly to the League Championship Series. The Braves and Reds, in a tortured display of geographic understanding, were in the NL West, along with the Dodgers, Giants, Padres and Astros. Los Angeles had gone to the wire with Atlanta in the 1991 pennant race, while Cincy had won the World Series in 1990.

The expectation of a race with the Reds and Dodgers made losing six of seven to them in April a little more alarming. It was the most notable point of a poor start to the season. The Braves’ record sunk as low as 20-27 in late May. Then they hit the gas pedal.

Atlanta ripped off 21 wins in their next 24 games, including taking eight of ten from Cincinnati and Los Angeles. The Braves closed to within a game of the division lead and again faced the Reds for a three-game series as the All-Star break drew near. Atlanta’s momentum crested, as their reliable pitching was battered for 25 runs in a three-game sweep. But the Braves still crawled back to within two games by the break.

In early August, Atlanta got set for another visit from Cincinnati, one that would prove to be the turning point in the NL West race. The Braves trailed the Tuesday night opener 5-2 in the eighth inning, before rallying with three runs. Pendleton won it in the ninth with a two-out/two-run homer. The offensive momentum rolled right into the next game. Atlanta grabbed three runs in the first and it was all Avery needed, as he delivered a 5-1 win.

The Thursday finale was tied 2-2 in the fifth inning. Second baseman Mark Lemke homered, triggering another three-run outburst. Smoltz made it stand up in a 5-3 win. The sweep of Cincinnati was the high point of an August run where the Braves won 15 of 19 and opened up their first real margin of comfort in this season.

And it never got tighter. Atlanta coasted on home, winning a major-league best 98 games and clinching another NL West title. It got them an NLCS rematch with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Braves took three of the first four games, two of them wins from Smoltz and were in firm command. But the offense went silent—they lost Game 5, came and home and were routed in Game 6 and then looked ready to waste another gem by Smoltz in Game 7, trailing 2-0 in the ninth inning.

All that did was set the table for one of baseball’s memorable rallies. Atlanta, with help of a big error, pushed across one run and had the bases loaded with one out. Appropriately, for this team of depth, two pinch-hitters would get their shot to win it. Hunter popped up. But previously unknown Francisco Cabrera made himself a legend. He singled to left and slow-footed first baseman Sid Bream hustled home with the winning run.

Atlanta met up with Toronto in the World Series. When the Braves grabbed the first game and held a late lead in Game 2, they looked ready to finish the job. But now the unknown pinch-hitter dynamic turned against them. Ed Sprague tied the game with a home run for the Jays. Atlanta lost that game in extra innings and lost two of three on the road. They came home for Game 6 and lost an extra-inning thriller.

Even with two straight World Series heartbreaks, the good times for baseball in Atlanta were still just beginning. This was the beginning of an era where the Braves won their division every year through 2005. They won three more National League pennants. And in 1995, they finally got over the top and won it all.

1992 ALCS: Toronto Breaks Through Against Oakland

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The Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland A’s were old hands at postseason baseball by the time they met in the 1992 ALCS. The two teams faced each other in 1989, when Oakland rolled to a pennant and later a World Series title. The A’s had also been here in 1988 and 1990. The Blue Jays had also been to this round in 1985 and 1991. But while Oakland was a proven champion, Toronto had yet to get to a World Series. 1992 was the time to rectify that.

You can read more about the regular season journeys of the A’s and Blue Jays, and the performances of their key players, at the links below. This article will focus squarely on the games of the 1992 American League Championship Series.

READ MORE ABOUT THE 1992 TORONTO BLUE JAYS
READ MORE ABOUT THE 1992 OAKLAND A’S

Toronto’s Jack Morris and Oakland’s Dave Stewart were the very definition of big-game pitchers for their era and they squared off in the series opener on Wednesday night. By virtue of the rotation system that determined homefield advantage, the ALCS would open at Toronto’s Skydome.

The A’s got to Morris in the second inning. Harold Baines singled, and that was followed by home runs from Mark McGwuire and Terry Steinbach for a 3-0 lead. The Blue Jays chipped back in the middle innings on solo blasts from Pat Borders and Dave Winfield, but Oakland still held a 3-2 lead as the game went to the eighth.

With two outs in the bottom of the inning, Toronto got a double from Dave Winfield. Stewart was removed for Jeff Russell, but the setup man couldn’t stop John Olerud from lining a single to center to tie the game. Morris was still in for Toronto, but Baines got him one more time—with a home run down the right field line. This time the lead stood up and the 4-3 win gave the A’s early control of the series.

Toronto had acquired David Cone at the trade deadline and this kind of virtual must-win game at home on Thursday night was the reason why. He squared off with Oakland’s Mike Moore and both pitchers quickly settled in.

The game was scoreless until the fifth. The A’s had a chance to break through when they put runners on second and third. But a couple big strikeouts from Cone kept the scoreless tie intact. Until the Blue Jays came to the plate. Kelly Gruber hit a two-run blast for the game’s first runs. Two innings late, Gruber doubled and scored to give Cone a 3-0 lead.

Cone was removed in the ninth after allowing a leadoff triple to Ruben Sierra. Tom Henke, the closer came on. Baines’ RBI single brought to the tying run to the plate in the person of McGwire. The big first baseman hit the ball well, but got underneath it just enough to keep it in the park. The deep fly out to right was Oakland’s best shot in a 3-1 loss.

The A’s still had three games coming up home and the first one was a noon start local time on Saturday afternoon. Oakland sent postseason veteran Ron Darling to face Toronto’s talented young 16-game winner Juan Guzman.

An early error by A’s third baseman Carney Lansford resulted in a Blue Jay run and fourth-inning home run by Roberto Alomar nudged Toronto out to a 2-zip lead. Oakland made their first move in the bottom of the fourth. Sierra doubled to start a two-run rally that included another key base hit from Baines. The game was tied 2-2, the bases were loaded and there was nobody out. Mike Bordick lifted a fly ball to right. McGwire tagged up from third. Jays’ rightfielder Joe Carter threw him out at the plate. Toronto had turned back a potentially big inning and then immediately got a solo blast from Candy Maldonado to start the fifth.

The starting pitchers each made it through six innings and the score stayed 3-2 into the seventh. An error by Bordick opened the door to a two-run triple by Manny Lee and the Jays were up 5-2. The A’s countered with three singles, wrapped around a walk and stolen base by Rickey Henderson to get the two runs back and make it 5-4.

Russell came on in the eighth and for the second time in this series, struggled. He walked Winfield and with the 40-year-old later on third base, Russell uncorked a wild pitch that allowed the run. It proved to be a big run, because Oakland got something going against Henke in their own half of the eighth, getting runners on first and third with one out.

Lansford was at the plate and when he popped out, it looked like Henke would escape. But Sierra blooped a single to make it a 6-5 game and gave the red-hot Baines a chance to be a hero. Alas, Henke got Baines to ground out. Toronto added one more insurance run off Oakland’s MVP closer Dennis Eckersley in the ninth and won 7-5.

The two teams came back again at noon on Sunday. Morris took the ball on short rest for Toronto, while Oakland turned to veteran Bob Welch. And the Blue Jay offense seemed to pick up where they left off, with a home run from Olerud staking Morris to a 1-0 lead in the second inning.

But in the bottom of the third, the A’s bats got rolling. They peppered Morris for five hits, along with two walks and rang up five runs. They were in position to get more before Bordick grounded into a double play that kept the score 5-1.

Oakland rallied again the fourth and chased Morris with runners on the corners and one out. Todd Stottlemyre came out of the bullpen and delivered for the Jays. He got Sierra on a weak grounder that couldn’t bring in the run and then retired Baines.

Sierra ripped a two-out double in the sixth and came around to score. The lead was stretched to 6-1 and stayed that way until the eighth. Roberto Alomar led off the Toronto frame with a double. Welch was removed. It was simply up to the Oakland bullpen, so reliable all year, to get the final six outs and put the ball back in Dave Stewart’s hands the following afternoon. Even with Russell ineffective, Oakland manager Tony LaRussa had other options and he went to Jeff Parrett.

It didn’t help. Carter and Winfield each got hits and LaRussa was forced to go to Eckersley early. Olerud and Maldonado greeted Eck with base hits. Suddenly the score was 6-4, there were runners on first and second and still nobody out. Eckersley shut it down from there, and celebrated by shaking his fist at the Blue Jay dugout.

The celebration was premature. Devon White singled to start the Toronto ninth and Alomar homered to tie the game. LaRussa had to pull Eckersley, as Toronto loaded up the bases again with two outs. Jim Corsi finally got a big out for the A’s, keeping the score 6-6.

Oakland was poised to win it in the ninth. Baines singled. Pinch-runner Eric Fox stole second and was bunted over to third with one out. But Toronto’s Duane Ward got Steinbach and Lansford to to kill the threat.

It was one more missed opportunity for the A’s offense and it would be their last. Toronto picked up a run in the eleventh, Henke slammed the door and the Blue Jays had a commanding 3-1 series lead, with two home games still in tow.

The Blue Jays stood on the cusp of their first pennant, but it wasn’t going to happen against Stewart in his own backyard. Sierra hit a two-run blast off Cone early in the game for a 2-0 lead. Jerry Browne filled in for Lansford at third base and delivered a four-hit game, including an RBI single in the third.. Oakland added three more in the fifth. Stewart went the distance, pitching a seven-hitter and winning 6-2.

Toronto’s history of postseason failures meant no one in Canada was taking anything for granted. Especially because one of those failings—in 1985—involved blowing a 3-1 series lead and losing the final two games at home.

But not this year. In a late Wednesday afternoon start, the Blue Jay bats unloaded early and often against Moore. Carter hit a two-run blast in the first. Olerud added to the lead with an RBI single. And Maldonado blew it open in the third, with a three-run homer that made it 6-0. The rest of the afternoon and early evening was a party atmosphere in Skydome, with the Jays cruising to a 9-2 win.

Alomar was named 1992 ALCS MVP and it was a deserved honor. He finished the series with a stat line of .464 on-base percentage/.692 slugging percentage and his Game 4 home run off Eckersley remains the moment that defines this series, even more than 25 years later.

Credit also has to Olerud, Winfield and Maldonado, who were consistent bats throughout. And Devon White set the table effectively with a .448 OBP in the leadoff spot. Guzman’s two wins, including the Game 6 clincher, led the starting pitching, while Henke saved the three close games and didn’t allow a run.

Baines was the star on the Oakland side, with a stat line of .440/.640, including the game-winning home run in Game 1 that seemed like it might set the tone for the series. Sierra was excellent, at .357/.625. But Toronto was able to pitch around McGwire. The big slugger drew five walks, but didn’t get a chance to make a big enough impact with his bat.

For the A’s, this series was the end of an era. They would not return to postseason play until 2000. They did not reach the ALCS again until 2006. And they’ve yet to get back to the World Series.

Toronto had more champagne in their future. They finished the job in 1992, beating the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. And the Blue Jays came back in 1993 and did it again.

READ THE STORY OF THE 1992 WORLD SERIES

1992 Oakland A’s: One Last Run For Proud Vets

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The Oakland A’s were baseball’s dominant team from 1988-90. They finished with the best record in the majors and won the American League pennant all three years. They won the World Series in 1989. Upset losses in 1988 and 1990 dimmed their legacy, but there was no questioning their excellence. After a brief slip in 1991, they bounced back. The 1992 Oakland A’s were a group of proud veterans making one last run together.

Oakland came at opponents with deep pitching. Dave Stewart and Bob Welch, cornerstone arms of the pennant runs, were still good at age 35. Ron Darling, a key part of the New York Mets’ 1986 championship team, was now out west. This trio all had ERAs in the 3s. Mike Moore’s was a little higher, at 4.12, but the righthander won 17 games.

The bullpen was even deeper. Manager Tony LaRussa got the most out of a crew that included 38-year-old Rick Honeycutt and 40-year-old Goose Gossage. Jim Horsman, Vince Corsi and Jeff Parretts rounded out the setup team that served as the bridge between the rotation and the ninth inning.

And if Oakland got to the ninth inning with the lead? It was as good as over. At the age of 37, the future of Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersely saved 51 games, posted a 1.91 ERA and swept both the Cy Young and MVP awards in the American League.

Offensively, the A’s finished with the same rank as the pitching staff—fourth in the American League. The lineup was a little more top-heavy dependent on a few key parts. Rickey Henderson was 33-years-old, but the leadoff man could still fly. He finished with an on-base percentage of .412 and stole 48 bases. Mark McGwire hit 42 home runs with a .385 OBP and finished fourth in the MVP voting.

A player that’s forgotten from these teams is tough second baseman Mike Bordick, whose .358 OBP at the second base spot was invaluable. It helped at least partially offset a mediocre year from left fielder Jose Canseco, something the front office would move aggressively to address in the late summer.

Oakland played steady baseball in the early going and reached Memorial Day with a 26-17 record, good for a 1 ½ game lead in the AL West. In these days prior to the realignment and postseason expansion that was just two years away, each league had only an East & West division with the winners moving directly to the League Championship Series. That meant defending World Series champ Minnesota was a division rival of the A’s.

The A’s got hot in the first part of June. They scored 22 runs in a sweep of Boston and nudged the division lead out to four games. The second part of the month saw Oakland give the advantage back. They lost three of four at home to the Twins, the last two by scores of 12-2 and 10-2 in an ugly weekend of baseball at Alameda County Coliseum. When the All-Star break arrived, the A’s were two games behind the champs.

August was the defining month. Oakland went 19-10 and took control of the AL West, spurting out to a 6 ½ game lead. On the final day of the month, they were playing a contending Baltimore Orioles team. Canseco was in the on-deck circle in the first inning when he was summoned back to the dugout. He’d been traded to Texas.

It was a shocking move, but the A’s got a good package in return. Ruben Sierra was an offensive force in the outfield. Bobby Witt was a power righthander that gave the rotation another arm. Witt would make six starts down the stretch and post a 3.41 ERA. Jeff Russell gave LaRussa another weapon out of the bullpen and he pitched scoreless baseball in nine innings of September work.

Even so, the move clearly shocked a team that had taken control of a good division. Oakland was shut out that night by Baltimore and lost five of seven immediately following the trade. Minnesota pulled within 4 ½ games.

In those days, when the A’s really needed a win, there was no one more reliable then Stewart. So it was on September 9 when he took the mound in Anaheim. Stewart pitched seven innings of two-hit baseball, outdueling talented Angels’ lefty Mark Langston. Russell and Eckersely cleaned up the last two innings. That game was the final turning point of the season. Oakland’s divisional lead began trending back upward and the race never got tighter. The A’s clinched an off-night with a week to go, as the Twins lost a game.

Oakland’s 96 wins were even with AL East champ Toronto, but record didn’t decide homefield advantage. A simple rotation system did, so the American League Championship Series opened in Toronto. Stewart got the ball in Game 1, pitched well and the A’s pulled out a win on a late home run by Harold Baines. They had temporary control of this series.

The emphasis is on “temporary” though. Toronto won the next three games. The cruelest cut was Game 4. The A’s led 6-1 in the eighth inning and even after a Jays rally, still had a 6-4 lead in the ninth with Eckersley on the mound. The MVP gave up a game-tying home run to Roberto Alomar and it was lost in extra innings. Stewart won Game 5, but the Blue Jays closed it out in the sixth game.

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It was still a magnificent year in Oakland, the last run for a great group of players. The fact this was the end of the run was no surprise. In fact, it was LaRussa’s last winning season in Oakland. He stayed on three more years before rejuvenating his career in St. Louis. As to the A’s, they didn’t make it back to the playoffs until 2000. But the 1992 season was a nice final chapter to a truly great run of baseball in the Bay Area.

A Breakthrough Season For The 1992 Toronto Blue Jays

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The 1992 Toronto Blue Jays carried the burden of the organization’s past October failures with them. The Blue Jays had lost the ALCS in 1985, 1989 and 1991. In 1987, they’d collapsed in the final week of the regular season. Nothing short of at least reaching the World Series was good enough now.

Toronto went and got veteran help in the offseason. They signed 40-year-old Dave Winfield to DH and the move paid off. Winfield finished with a stat line of .377 on-base percentage/.491 slugging percentage. An even splashier move was the signing of 37-year-old starting pitcher Jack Morris. The ace of the Minnesota Twins staff that had ousted Toronto in the ‘91 ALCS and an eventual World Series hero, Morris’ reputation was the exact opposite of his new team—that of someone who always found a way to win.

Morris’ 1992 season was, in that regard, typical. He wasn’t dominant by any means, with a 4.04 ERA. But he was reliable, working 240 innings. And he found ways to get it done, posting 21 wins. Morris was one of those rare pitchers for whom the win totals were consistently better than his ERAs.

But it was the offense that carried the Blue Jays through the regular season and the best player was 24-year-old second baseman Roberto Alomar. Embarking on a Hall of Fame career, Alomar’s stat line was .405/.427. He was a key table-setter for power hitters that included—in addition to Winfield—Joe Carter, who hit 34 home runs and drove in 119 runs. Candy Maldonado popped 20 more homers. Toronto ended up second in the American League in runs scored.

The pitching staff was hindered by lack of depth. Tom Henke and Duane Ward were good relievers, but the bullpen was otherwise short on quality arms. Jimmy Key, the veteran lefty starter, ended up 13-13 with a 3.53 ERA. The best starter in the rotation was 25-year-old Juan Guzman, who won 16 games and posted a 2.64 ERA. But the search for pitching help would define Toronto’s in-season trade pursuits.

The Jays won 15 of their first 20 games and jumped out to an early lead in the AL East, but a slump at the end of May let the Baltimore Orioles move into more or less a dead heat. For the last part of May and almost all of June, the Blue Jays and Orioles stayed within a game of each other either way. Toronto’s 9-4 spurt as the first half wound down nudged their lead out to four games at the All-Star break.

Mediocrity settled over the Blue Jays in the late summer. They lost a series to Baltimore and lost two series to the Milwaukee Brewers, who were starting to make a move in the standings. The Brewers, prior to 1998, were an American League team. And prior to 1994, they were in the AL East. The realignment that would create a third division in each league and add wild-cards to the playoff was still a couple years off.

The late summer slowdown added urgency to the need for pitching and Toronto made the kind of big move you would expect from an organization in a win-or-bust year. They acquired 29-year-old David Cone. He would make eight starts for the Blue Jays down the stretch and deliver a 2.55 ERA in those games. It was essential stability that the Jays needed to hold off a hot challenger.

And the Brewers were coming on. I lived in Milwaukee during this season and still recall the sense of destiny that the city had, as their own great Hall of Famer, Robin Yount, closed in on his 3,000th hit and the team improbably overachieved. The Brewers were within striking distance on Labor Day, at 5 ½ games out and the Orioles were still nipping at Toronto’s heels, a game and a half back.

Baltimore faded, but Milwaukee didn’t. Toronto showed that their 1992 team was made of different stuff than previous years though, calmly playing consistent baseball in the face of the surge. In the first seven series after Labor Day, the Blue Jays won five and split the other two. It was enough to keep their lead at two games going into the final weekend of the regular season.

Friday night’s home game with Detroit was a microcosm of the season, as the bats made up for a shaky bullpen. Alomar, Maldonado and catcher Pat Borders all homered in building a 6-1 lead. Then they hung on for an 8-7 win. Milwaukee beat Oakland the same night, so the margin was still at two games with two to play.

Guzman took the ball on Saturday and was brilliant, going eight innings and allowing just one hit. Henke came on in the ninth to protect a 3-0 lead and managed to make it interesting—he allowed a run and had the bases loaded with two outs. Ward entered the game and got the final out, getting Dan Gladden to pop up. Toronto had its fourth AL East title in eight years.

This would finally be the year the Blue Jays’ achievements didn’t end with the AL East crown. After losing the ALCS opener at home against the Oakland A’s, the Jays won three straight games. The Game 4 win, rallying from 6-1 down against Oakland’s MVP closer Dennis Eckersley was the defining moment. Toronto returned home with a 3-2 series lead and then won Game 6 in blowout fashion. The World Series was finally going north of the border.

READ MORE ABOUT THE 1992 ALCS

Toronto met up with the Atlanta Braves in the Series, and it was an intense, six-game affair. Ed Sprague, a mostly unknown reserve hit a stunning home run that pulled the Blue Jays back from the abyss in Game 2. Jays’ centerfielder Devon White made one of the most defensive plays in the modern history of the Fall Classic. The Jays again won three of the first five games, but this time they had go on the road to finish the job. Game 6 went extra innings. Winfield delivered the go-ahead hit and Toronto turned back one last Atlanta rally. At long last, the Blue Jays were champions.

READ MORE ABOUT THE 1992 WORLD SERIES

And they wouldn’t have to wait long for another one. Toronto continued to stay aggressive in seeking veteran help and added future Hall of Famer Paul Molitor in the coming offseason, along with another experienced starter in Dave Stewart. The result—a repeat championship in 1993, capped off by Joe Carter’s walkoff home run.

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