Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, postseason edition! We'll keep you up to speed on everything you need to know every weekday throughout the 2025 MLB playoffs. Thanks for being here.
Sal Frelick’s reaction said it all. After one of the weirdest and wildest sequences in recent postseason memory, the Brewers center fielder was just like the rest of us -- stunned, confused and wondering what just happened.
Honestly, we’re still processing the absurdity of what we saw in Game 1 of the NLCS last night. A near grand slam on a 404-foot fly ball to center field … somehow turning into an inning-ending double play (and a GIDP at that)? It seems impossible, but that’s what the Brewers pulled off against the Dodgers in the top of the fourth inning to keep the game scoreless. (Amazingly, the Dodgers still went on to win, 2-1.)
Naturally, that got us reminiscing about the craziest plays from past postseasons, so we decided to put together a list of some of our favorites.
Lo Duca’s double tag
Dodgers @ Mets, 2006 NLDS Game 1 Watch >
Last night wasn’t the first time the Dodgers were on the short end of an unusual double play in the postseason. In Game 1 of the 2006 NLDS, Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca stopped Los Angeles’ second-inning rally cold with an incredible two-for-one at home plate, alertly tagging out a pair of runners in quick succession following an outfield relay. (You might remember Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk pulling off something similar against the Yankees in 1985.) The Dodgers would score just one run in the inning and went on to lose, 6-5, before dropping the next two games as well. -- Thomas Harrigan
Middlebrooks called for obstruction, Cards walk off
Red Sox @ Cardinals, 2013 World Series Game 3 Watch >
This play has a key factor in its favor that the others on this list don’t: It was a walk-off -- in the World Series, no less. The chaos started with runners on second and third and one out in the bottom of the ninth of a tied game. Second baseman Dustin Pedroia, playing in on the grass, made an incredible diving stop on a ground ball and cut down the winning run at the plate. That’s when things really went haywire.
Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia tried to turn it into a double play by catching trail runner Allen Craig at third, but his throw went wide, past a sprawling Will Middlebrooks. As the Red Sox third baseman tried to get up, his legs got tangled with Craig, who tripped while trying to run home. While Craig was thrown out at the plate, Middlebrooks was called for obstruction, which gave the Cardinals the run -- and the game. As players poured out onto the field, the Red Sox tried to argue their case, but to no avail. They got the last laugh, though, winning the next three games and the Series. -- Andrew Simon
Martin's throw hits Choo's bat
Rangers @ Blue Jays, 2015 ALDS Game 5 Watch >
Exactly 10 years ago today, this seemed like it could go down as one of baseball's all-time blunders before it was immediately overshadowed by one of baseball's all-time great moments. With a runner on third and two outs in the seventh inning of a tie game, Toronto backstop Russell Martin's throw back to the pitcher banged off the bat in hitter Shin-Soo Choo's outstretched hand and rolled away, allowing Rougned Odor to scamper home with the go-ahead run. Over 10 minutes of chaos and confusion ensued, with the run eventually allowed to stand.
It would have been an ignominious end to the Blue Jays' season, but then Texas made THREE consecutive errors to open the bottom of the inning, setting up José Bautista's seismic three-run homer and famous bat flip minutes later. -- Andy Werle
Ball bounces off Renfroe and over wall, preventing run
Rays @ Red Sox, 2021 ALDS, Game 3 Watch >
With their game and series tied in the top of the 13th, the Rays celebrated what appeared to be an easy run on a two-out gapper, but a bizarre bounce knocked the momentum away from them just as quickly. Kevin Kiermaier's scorcher caromed off the top of Fenway's right-center-field wall, and before Red Sox right fielder Hunter Renfroe could even react, the ball bounced off his hip and over the wall. Yandy Díaz, who was on first when the pitch was thrown and would've scored the go-ahead run standing up, was forced back to third because, as crew chief Sam Holbrook read from his Umpire Manual postgame, "'If a fair ball not in flight is deflected by a fielder and goes out of play, the award is two bases from the time of the pitch.'" The next batter struck out to end the frame and Boston walked off with a win moments later, then clinched the series the next night. -- Tom Vourtsis
