Top 10 World Series Games of the 2010s

When the 2010s started, the Yankees were the defending champions, the Giants hadn't won a World Series since they played in New York, and the Cubs hadn't won one in more than a century.  The Astros were on the verge of three straight 100-loss seasons, the Phillies were the best team in the National League, and the Rangers had never been to the World Series.  There was only one wild card in each league, and it had been a long time since a number of Major League cities (Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Toronto, Baltimore) had seen playoff baseball.  And there hadn't been a World Series game in the Nation's Capital since 1933.

Now, as we get set for the final World Series of the decade next week, the Nationals are set to make their World Series debut and the Yankees are looking at going an entire decade without a World Series appearance for the first time since the 1910s.  The Giants have three titles (all of which came in a five-year span), with one of those championship runs starting with a win in the Wild Card Game.  The Cubs' drought is over, and Houston has the makings of a dynasty.  The Rangers went to the World Series not once, but twice!, and the Royals also played in consecutive World Series (and won a title!).

We've seen some incredible moments over the past nine Octobers.  There have been some incredible World Series, too.  After three sweeps and only two seven-game series in the 2000s, we've had four seven-gamers and only one sweep (the Giants over the Tigers in 2012) over the last decade.

Entering this year's Fall Classic, there have been 53 World Series games played in the 2010s.  Which of those are the best?  Well, that's a completely subjective exercise (Cubs fans will certainly rank Game 7 in 2016 as their No. 1, while Royals fans probably enjoyed Game 5 of 2015 a little bit more than they did Game 7 a year earlier).  So, with full awareness that the Nationals and either Astros or Yankees can alter these rankings next week, here's my list of the Top 10 World Series games of the 2010s.

10. 2012 Game 4 (Giants 4, Tigers 3): I debated a few choices for this one, but I decided to go with San Francisco's second clincher.  The Giants took a 3-2 lead on Buster Posey's two-run homer in the sixth before Detroit tied it in the bottom half of the inning.  San Francisco scored a run in the top of the 10th, then Sergio Romo struck out the side to end the series.

9. 2013 Game 3 (Cardinals 5, Red Sox 4): This is the game where the term "obstruction" entered our collective baseball vocabulary.  It was 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth when St. Louis put runners on second and third with one out.  The Red Sox got Yadi Molina trying to score on a grounder to second, but the throw back to third was wide, Allen Craig tripped over Boston third baseman Willie Middlebrooks' legs, got up, and was tagged out at home.  The umpires ruled obstruction on Middlebrooks and counted the run, giving the Cardinals a 2-1 series lead.  That would, of course, turn out to be their final win of the series, as the Red Sox took the next three and the title.

8. 2015 Game 1 (Royals 5, Mets 4): Alcides Escobar hit an inside-the-park homer on Matt Harvey's first pitch in the bottom of the first.  Alex Gordon then hit one off Jeurys Familia in the bottom of the ninth to tie it at 4-4.  And they played on and on into the night.  Finally, after five-plus hours, Escobar scored the game-winning run on Eric Hosmer's sac fly in the bottom of the 14th.

7. 2018 Game 5 (Dodgers 3, Red Sox 2): That Royals-Mets contest held the record for the longest World Series games in terms of innings until that 18-inning epic last year at Dodger Stadium.  At seven hours, 20 minutes, the game was longer than the entire 1939 World Series.  Of the 50 players on both rosters, 46 played.  Both teams were out of position players, so Clayton Kershaw pinch hit.  Nathan Eovaldi threw six innings of relief for Boston.  Max Muncy finally ended the marathon with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the 18th.  The Red Sox, again, would get the last laugh, winning the next two games to clinch the series.

6. 2015 Game 5 (Royals 7, Mets 2): How different would things have been if Matt Harvey hadn't talked his way into coming back out for the ninth?  The Mets were up 2-0 and he had thrown eight shutout innings.  After a walk and an RBI double, Terry Collins replaced Harvey with Jeurys Familia.  Kansas City then tied it on a Lucas Duda error, resulting in Familia's third blown save of the series (the second of which wasn't his fault).  The Royals broke it open with a five-spot in the 12th, giving them their first championship in 30 years.  (Fun fact: this was the first-ever all-expansion World Series...it's looking like the second will be next week, and both would be 1962 vs. 1969.)

5. 2017 Game 2 (Astros 7, Dodgers 6): It tells you all you need to know about the 2017 World Series that Game 2 was only the second-best game of the series!  Houston tied it at 3-3 on Marwin Gonzalez's homer off Kenley Jansen in the ninth.  The Astros hit two homers in the top of the 10th, only for the Dodgers to score twice in the bottom of the 10th.  George Springer then hit a two-run bomb in the 11th.  The Dodgers' Charlie Culberson hit one in the bottom of the 11th, but that was it, as Houston tied the series.  More to come from this one.

4. 2014 Game 7 (Giants 3, Royals 2): Aka, the Madison Bumgarner Game.  San Francisco took a 3-2 lead on Michael Morse's RBI single in the fourth.  Then, in the fifth, they turned to Bumgarner on two days' rest, and all he did was retire 14 straight Royals after giving up a leadoff single.  With the tying run on third and two out in the bottom of the ninth, he got Salvador Perez to hit a popup behind third, thus cementing the Legend of Madison Bumgarner.

3. 2011 Game 6 (Cardinals 10, Rangers 9): Before the Legend of Madison Bumgarner, there was the Legend of David Freese.  The Cardinals were down to their last strike in the bottom of the ninth when Freese's two-run triple tied the game at 7-7.  Texas was again one strike from winning the series in the bottom of the 10th, when Lance Berkman ripped an RBI single to tie it at 9-9.  The, in the bottom of the 11th, Freese led off with a walk-off homer, forcing the first World Series Game 7 in nine years.

2. 2017 Game 5 (Astros 13, Dodgers 12): The only thing keeping this wild, crazy, ridiculously entertaining game out of the top spot is the fact that it wasn't a clincher.  It was definitely one of the best World Series games I've ever seen, though.  Kershaw and Keuchel starting...and it turns into a slugfest!  Houston put up a four-spot in the fourth to tie it at 4-4, then each team hit a three-run homer in the fifth.  The Astros led 12-9 in the ninth, so the Dodgers, of course, scored three runs to tie the game!  After there were somehow two half-innings where zeroes were put up, Houston won it on Alex Bregman's walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th.

1. 2016 Game 7 (Cubs 8, Indians 7): After arguably the most important rain delay in Major League history, the Cubs came out, scored twice, and ended 108 years of frustration.  They led 6-3 with Aroldis Chapman on the mound in the bottom of the eighth.  A Brandon Guyer double and a two-run Rajai Davis homer later, the game was tied.  The 17-minute rain delay came just as the game was about to enter extra innings, and Jason Heyward delivered a rousing motivational speech in the Cubs' clubhouse.  It worked!  They plated two runs in the top of the 10th, then, after Cleveland scored one, Mike Montgomery induced a ground ball to Kris Bryant, who threw across the diamond to Anthony Rizzo, and the moment Cubs fans had waited more than century for finally came!