Baseball Gods Offer 2nd Winner-Takes-All Three-peat in MLB History

Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images) Rogers was one of the starting pitchers on October 11, 1981.

October 2, 2025

Baseball Gods Offer Second Winner-Takes-All Three-peat in MLB History

When the New York Yankees held off the Boston Red Sox in Game Two of their American League Wild Card Series Wednesday night, it guaranteed, on Thursday, something that had not happened in decades. For the first time in Major League Baseball since Sunday, October 11, 1981 — and second time ever — there will be three winner-take-all playoff games on the same day.

And what a day that was 44 years ago. Of the six starting pitchers that day, two are now in the Hall of Fame. Two others are pitching legends for their respective franchises. One of the three games saw a comeback win. The other two, which each had one of the Hall-of-Fame starting pitchers, ended in complete-game shutouts. That is no surprise, but the Hall of Famers — who were each still in their respective primes — both lost!

An Extra Round after a Split Season

It was the first-ever Divisional Round in 1981, a round necessitated by the split season caused by the first-ever in-season players’ strike. Owners voted overwhelmingly to add a playoff round, and to try and regain interest from a hurt and bitter fanbase, start every team with a clean slate in the second half. The thought was, if a team was already well out of it, their fans wouldn’t come back due to animosity over the strike. Like the LCS also was at the time, the Division Round was best three of five, but unlike the Division Round that began permanently in 1995, these were true divisional playoffs. Each league had an East and West division at the time, and these divisional playoffs were all within the division. They matched the first half champions with the second half champions.

The AL West Divisional Series saw the then-Oakland Athletics sweep the Kansas City Royals, and the other three all could have been sweeps. However, each of the other three saw the team falling in an 0–2 hole roar back to tie the series. The defending World Series-champion Philadelphia Phillies did so dramatically, tying the NL East Division Series on a walk-off 10th-inning homer by pinch-hitter George Vukovich.

The Two NL Games

The two National League games began at the same time — 4:05 pm Eastern/1:05 Pacific. In Philadelphia, Steve Carlton of the Phillies faced the man who outdueled him in Game One — Montreal Expos ace Steve Rogers. Meanwhile, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Houston Astros ace Nolan Ryan faced Dodgers lefty Jerry Reuss. Both Rogers and Reuss hailed from Missouri, where they pitched against one another in a state tournament in high school. And both had their work cut out for them, facing tough opposing lineups and Hall-of-Fame starting pitchers.

Rogers carved up the Phillies, limiting them to six hits in a 3–0 complete-game whitewash. He also batted 2-for-3 with two RBI. The closest the Phillies came to scoring was in the bottom of the fourth. With Gary “Sarge” Matthews on first, 1980 NLCS MVP Manny Trillo hit a deep liner to the gap in right-center. Dawson, playing center field, snagged it on one hop. Matthews tried to score, but a strong throw by Dawson and perfect relay by second baseman Jerry Manuel nabbed him.

Reuss also carved up the Astros, holding them to five hits in a complete-game 4–0 blanking. (Reuss did not have the same success at the plate, notching his second Golden Sombrero of the series.) With the victory in this error-riddled game — three for the Astros and two for the Dodgers — the Dodgers became the first team to ever win a best-of-five playoff series after losing the first two games. As mentioned earlier, had the Phillies won, they would have matched that feat.

Third Game: AL East Division Series, Brewers at Yankees

That night at Yankee Stadium, the Milwaukee Brewers — members of the AL East at the time — lined up with the Yankees. The Brewers also had a chance to win the series after falling in an 0–2 hole, but theirs would have had an extra level of “wow.” As legendary ABC play-by-play man Keith Jackson — the greatest college football announcer ever, but a fine baseball announcer as well — mentioned during the Game Five broadcast, no team had ever won a playoff series without winning any home games. (Two have now, both against the Astros — the 2019 Washington Nationals in the World Series and the 2023 Texas Rangers in the ALCS.) Moose Hass started pitching for the Brewers against Ron Guidry for the Yankees.

Drama from The Boss

This series had no shortage of drama, and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was in the middle of it — par for the course during the 70s and 80s. The Yankees had squeaked out a 5–3 Game One win and took Game Two as well, 3–0. After winning the first two games on the road, and with the remaining games of the series all at home, the Yankees were in good shape. They led Game Three, 1–0, and were three innings away from sweeping the Brewers.

But the Brewers fought back valiantly to win, 5–3, turning it around during a strange at-bat. With Cecil Cooper on first and Ted Simmons at bat, a lunatic leapt out of the grandstand and attacked third-base umpire Mike Reilly. Both benches emptied as every player, coach, and manager came to Reilly’s aid. When the chaos subsided and the game resumed, Simmons smashed a two-run homer.

The Brewers also held the Yankees at bay in Game Four, 2–1, after ace Pete Vuckovich, fighting off an illness, only lasted five innings. After Game Four, Yankees outfielder Dave Winfield and catcher Rick Cerone faced the wrath of Steinbrenner. Cerone had also stood up to Steinbrenner after The Boss berated the Yankees in the clubhouse after Game Three. He had the unenviable task of being the catcher brought in for the long-term to replace Thurman Munson, who tragically perished in a plane crash August 2, 1979. What the fans and press put him through was a combination of unfair and ridiculous, and he had had it. Steinbrenner also told the Yankees in their clubhouse after Game Four that “the great Yankees would turn over in their graves” if they lost Game Five, according to Cerone in an interview for Baseball’s Seasons: 1981.

An Anticlimactic Fifth Game

Game Five saw the Brewers take an early lead, but Reggie Jackson and Oscar Gamble hit back-to-back homers to put the Yankees ahead. They never relinquished the lead, tacking on more runs in the seventh and eighth to win the game, 7–3, and capture the series. Of note, Cerone belted a no-doubt homer in the seventh to make the score 5–3.

A Star-Studded Day

Of the six teams involved in these games, five had future Hall of Famers, and the sixth had a Hall of Fame manager. The Phillies had two, third baseman Mike Schmidt plus Carlton. They had another who would have been had he avoided getting into trouble, Pete Rose. The Astros had two, both starting pitchers — Ryan and long-time Dodger Don Sutton. Sutton, a free-agent arrival prior to the season, famously never missed a regular-season start due to injury. But in a cruel irony, on the third-to-last day of the regular season, a fastball shattered his kneecap while he was batting, keeping him out of the playoffs.

The Brewers and Yankees were both loaded — four for the Brewers and three for the Yankees. Catcher Ted Simmons, shortstop Robin Yount, center fielder Paul Molitor, and closer Rollie Fingers were the Brewers quartet. Outfielders Dave Winfield and Reggie Jackson, along with closer Rich Gossage, were the Yankees trio. The Expos also had three, catcher Gary Carter and outfielders Tim Raines and Andre Dawson. Oddly enough, the only one without a Hall of Fame player was the Dodgers, who ultimately won the World Series. They did, however, have Hall of Fame skipper Tommy Lasorda patrolling the dugout.

Another interesting piece of trivia comes from Game Five of the Phillies-Expos series. The Expos brought in a rookie outfielder as a defensive substitute in the eighth inning. That outfielder is connected with the current playoffs. It is Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona, whose team bowed out of the playoffs Wednesday night with an 8–4 loss to the Dodgers Wednesday night.

Epilogue

The Yankees handled the Athletics with a three-game sweep in the ALCS. In the NLCS, the Dodgers and Expos had a classic back-and-forth dogfight. The Dodgers ultimately overcame a two-games-to-one deficit, winning Games Four and Five on the road to take the series. Game Five came on the most infamous day in the history of Montreal sports: October 19, also known as “Blue Monday.” In the top of the ninth, with two outs, veteran Dodgers outfielder and current radio announcer Rick Monday homered off Rogers to give the Dodgers a 2–1 victory. Monday was Public Enemy Number One in Montreal for decades, having kept the Expos out of the World Series in what ultimately was their only postseason appearance as a franchise.

Rogers, pitching in relief for the first time since 1978, was the greatest starting pitcher in Expos history prior to Pedro Martinez. After 11 terrific seasons, he struggled for two years before retiring. In his 13 seasons, all with the Expos, he notched 37 shutouts, the same number Randy Johnson later had in his Hall of Fame career.

The Dodgers defeated the Yankees in the 1981 World Series, four games to two, after falling into another two-games-to-none deficit. They were the last road team to close out a World Series title at Yankee Stadium prior to the then-Florida Marlins in 2003.

About the Author

Evan Thompson is the author of the only comprehensive major league playoff history in existence, A Complete History of the Major League Baseball Playoffs. Volume I (Pre-divisional Tiebreakers through 1976) and Volume II (1977 through 1984) are both available for purchase.