The Biggest CHOKES In Baseball History

it's october 12th 2012 and the washington nationals are on the verge of punching their first ever ticket to the postseason as cardinals ace adam wainwright is getting knocked around ryan zimmerman went deep to make it a three nothing ball game at one point young phenom bryce harper hit one out followed by michael morris hitting a two-run shot to make it six to nothing the cardinals were not quite done yet scoring five runs while the gnats got one more to cut their deficit to two but by the time the ninth inning rolled around the nationals were three outs away from a trip to the nlcs and then the st louis cardinals were just coming off of a world series championship the year prior in 2011. a fall classic which featured the most ultimate choke job arguably the biggest in baseball history and one that we'll explore a little later in this video a video that will consist of some of the biggest choke jobs of the 21st century so back to our nation's capital the nationals have taken a two run lead into the ninth and are just three outs away from moving on to the next round carlos beltran leads off the ending with a double followed by a ground out to third two outs away alan craig then strikes out one out away and up comes yatty are molina molina would go on to work a five pitch 3-2 count and on the sixth offering take a high off speed pitch for ball four up comes 2011 mr october david freeze and he would work a 3-2 count checking his swing on the 2-1 pitch and taking a relatively close one for ball 3 and taking ball 4 to go to first base the bases are now loaded and up comes the worst hitter on that 2012 team daniel descalzo on the mound drew storen who had a 2.27 era in his 30 and a third innings in 2012. surely he'll be able to get the worst hitter out in the cardinals right well no because on the very first pitch discussa would pull the trigger smoking went up the middle that would go off the glove of shortstop ian desmond and into center field bringing home two runs to tie the game in front of a stunned crowd of nearly 46 thousand as for the cardinals they weren't done the next man up pete cosma would line a base hit in the right field five pitches into his at-bat driving on two runs to give the cardinals a nine to seven lead there was only one good thing for the nationals here and that was the fact that jason ma st louis's closer was the next man up to bat mott struck out and the cardinals ninth inning magic was done and as for the bottom half of that inning for mott on the mound no big deal jason wirth would fly out to lead off the inning bryce harper strikes out on some high heat and ryan zimmerman pops out to second tapping off one of the biggest postseason choke jobs you'll ever see one in which resulted in heartbreak in washington dc we're now going to take a trip to houston texas in 2015 where the astros have a 2 2-1 series lead against the defending american league champion kansas city royals the astros are a team that went all the way to the world series in 2005 got swept by the white sox and then seemingly went into a deep depression for about a decade failing to make the postseason for nine straight years from 2011 to 2013 the astros failed to win more than 56 games they were really bad 2014 showed a little more promise as they won 7d and then 2015 rolled around and although they failed to win the als making a run for it and finishing two games behind the texas rangers they went on to secure the second wild card spot take down the yankees in the wild card game at yankee stadium and take a commanding 2-1 series lead in the alds and that's where we get to this moment salvador perez led off the scoring of this game with a two run homer giving the royals an early two to nothing lead carlos gomez must have taken that personally because he'd lead off the bottom half of that same inning with a solo shot making it 2-1 young rookie shortstop carlos correa then went deep in the third tying the ball game up and this was only the beginning of correa's productive day as he'd later slash a double to the right field corner to bring home george springer and give houston a 3-2 lead later swatting his second home run of the game a two-run bomb this time to make it 5-2 and it only got worse for the royals with colby rasmus hitting a solo shot to go back-to-back with correa and make it a 6-2 ball game six outs away from the run for a championship being over but the royals were not done after three consecutive singles to start off the eighth inning lorenzo kane would line a base hit to left scoring a run to make it 6-3 a pitching change would be made for a lefty unlefty match-up against sarah cosmere but that didn't matter with hosmer lining the royals fifth single in a row making it six to four next up kendrick's morales and a grounder up the middle that would skip over correa's glove is what tied this game up and this is all exactly what those 2014 and 2015 royals were all about they didn't rely on the long ball but instead small ball putting the ball in play and finding that good things happened another ball put into play would score hosmer to give kansas city the lead with hosmer going back out and hitting a two-run home run in the ninth giving the royals a three-run lead in which they'd keep to force a game five back home the astros actually had a lead in game five and blew that too but in less dramatic fashion as the royals would score seven runs from the fourth inning on winning the game and winning the series we're going to go back in time now to chronologically the first choke job of the three in this video let's go over to st louis missouri it's game six of the world series and the texas rangers are just coming off of a game five victory in which they took a three to two series lead the cardinals are fighting for their lives and the rangers are trying to end their lives the rangers wouldn't waste any time in the first as a josh hamilton single would make it one nothing texas but the cardinals would punch right back with lance berkman hitting a two-run homer to make it 2-1 skip ahead to the fourth and mike napoli would give the rangers the lead with a double a yadier molina bases loaded walk would make it 4 to 4 in the 6th and that's when the texas rangers started to get to business after adrian beltray went deep to right center to give texas back the lead nelson cruz would follow with a third deck bomb to go back to back and make it 6-4 with an ian kinsler base hit later in the inning making it seven to four five outs away from having his season ended alan craig would go deep but that's all the cards got in the eighth the rangers won the score in the ninth but they were now three outs away from their first ever world series win nephtali feliz the texas rangers closer he was pretty damn good in 2010 he went out as a reliever and won rookie of the year he became an all-star through almost 70 innings with a 2.73 era struck out 71 hitters got 40 saves and was a big reason as to why the rangers made it to the world series that year as for 2011 more of the same in over 62 innings the hard throwing righty struck out 54 hitters with a 2.74 era he was one of the best in the league and here he was on the mound for texas about to end the cardinal season and give the rangers their first ever championship a strikeout would start off the bottom half of the ninth two outs away from a title up comes rookie of the year and three time mvp albert pujols who would line a double in the left center lance berkman then walked putting the tying run on base for st louis and up walks alan craig who gets frozen on a 2-2 off-speed pitch for strike 3. one out away from a title david freeze then walks up to the plate and this isn't necessarily the guy you would pick to be a hero let alone a postseason hero during the 2011 regular season david freeze hit 297 with a 791 ops that ops of 791 was well above average at a 116 ops plus but that wasn't near the best on the team naftali feliz ends up getting ahead on frieza the 1-2 count so what does he decide to do attempt to blow a 98 mile an hour heater by freeze who knocks it the other way over the head of nelson cruz for a two-out game tying triple cruz would later admit that he actually played in instead of deeper in right field during that play because he wanted to be closer to the celebration ouch josh hamilton would give the rangers the lead again hitting a 2-run shot in the 10th to make it 9-7 after two straight singles to lead off the bottom of the 10th a bunt would put runners on second and third for the cardinals with one out a grounder the third scored a run for the cardinals but the rangers were one out away from a championship yet again and lance berkman would come up to the plate this time four pitches into the at-bat would make it a 2-2 count and the cardinals were down to their final strike for the second time in the game only for berkman to swat a base hit in the center to tie it up at 9. the rest is history david freeze would hit a walk-off home run in the 11th and after trailing early in game 7 by a score of two to nothing the cardinals went to work scoring two right back to tie it and going on to score six unanswered runs altogether winning the world series this is arguably one of if not the biggest chokes in baseball history the texas rangers went from having the cardinals by the throat twice to losing that game and the next there have been tons of choke jobs in baseball history so let me know if i should do a part two and thank you for watching

Channel: iTalk Studios

Views: 229,391

Keywords: mlb epic moments, greatest moments in sports, mlb biggest choke moments, astros royals game 4, astros royals, cardinals rangers game 6, cardinals rangers game 7, cardinals rangers game 6 david freese, biggest baseball chokes, cardinals nationals game 5, cardinals comeback vs rangers, cardinals comeback vs nationals, cardinals comeback, mlb greatest moments, biggest chokes in sports, biggest choke moments in baseball

Id: jPB6DC1BlTo

Length: 9min 15sec (555 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 23 2021