On This Date in Sports October 3, 1993: The Last Great Race
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
The National League West race comes down to the last day of the season, as both teams enter with identical records of 103-58. The Giants spurred by the signing of Barry Bonds raced out to a quick start, while the Braves had a second-half surge after acquiring Fred McGriff. The Braves win the division beating the Colorado Rockies 5-3, while the Giants suffer a 12-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 1993 season was one of transition for baseball, as it was announced there would be a realignment to three divisions in 1994, with a Wild Card and an added playoff round. This would make the 1993 season the final one in which you had no postseason safety net and needed to win your division to get into the playoffs.
For the San Francisco Giants under first-year manager Dusty Baker, it was a year of rejuvenation. Just a year earlier they seemed to be on the verge of moving to Tampa Bay, before new ownership and the promise of a new stadium kept them by the bay. To help make the team on the field improve, the Giants signed NL MVP Barry Bonds from the Pittsburgh Pirates to a six-year deal worth $43.75 million. Bonds had one of his finest seasons, with a .336 average, 46 home runs, and 123 RBI. With Bonds leading the way the Giants held a record of 65-32 on July 22nd, leading the Atlanta Braves by ten games.
The Atlanta Braves managed by Bobby Cox were coming off two straight World Series losses had their own off-season signing, picking up Cy Young winner Greg Maddux from the Chicago Cubs to a five-year deal worth $28 million. While the Giants scorched the early months, the Braves scuffled through April and found themselves, ten games out just after the All-Star Break despite a solid record of 55-42. Looking for an extra bat to spark their offense the Braves landed Fred McGriff in a trade with the San Diego Padres. After the trade and a press box fire in their stadium, the Braves were smoking winning 19 games, in July, August and September to catch the Giants on September 10th. The rest of the way it was a battle to the finish as both teams reached the century mark in wins and went into the final day of the regular season tied for first at 103-58.
The two teams entered the final weekend tied, with the Braves winning the first two games against the expansion Colorado Rockies managed by Don Baylor at Fulton County Stadium, while the Giants won the first two games against the Dodgers managed by Tom Lasorda on the road.
The Braves game was played first, with Tom Glavine starting against former teammate Dave Neid, whom the Rockies had selected off the Atlanta roster with the second pick in the expansion draft. The Braves scored first in third, as Fred McGriff and Terry Pendleton had RBI singles and added two more in the fourth with a two-run triple by Ron Gant to make it 4-0. In the fifth, the Rockies began chipping away with runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh to knock Glavine from the game. David Justice got Atlanta some insurance leading off the seventh with a home run off Gary Wayne. Meanwhile, Greg McMichael pitched two perfect innings to get the save as the Braves clinched at least a tie for the division with a 5-3 win and went into the clubhouse as fans stayed in their seats to watch the Giants play the Dodgers on the video screen holding a record of 104-58.
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The Giants took the field at Dodger Stadium, knowing they had to win as the Braves had already won their game by the time of the first pitch. Dusty Baker rolled the dice with rookie Solomon Torres getting the start again Kevin Gross, who had the Giants number throwing a No-Hitter against them one year earlier. The Dodgers plated two runs in the third with Dave Hansen and Eric Karros each getting an RBI. The lead would grow to 3-0 in the fourth on a single by Jose Offerman. Darren Lewis got the Giants a run in the fifth, but it would go all downhill the rest of the way for San Francisco. With Dave Burba on in relief in the fifth, Los Angeles got a leadoff home run from Rookie of the Year Mike Piazza and a two-run shot by Cory Snyder to make it 6-1. Karros drove home another run in the sixth, as Gross frustrated the Giants bats. In the eighth inning, the Dodgers drove the final nail in their archrival’s coffin with five runs, with a three-run home run off the bat of Piazza and a two-run shot by September call-up Raul Mondesi. Kevin Gross meanwhile went the distance as the Dodgers won 12-1, as the Giants at 103-59 went home for the off-season as the Braves won the National League West.
It would be the last time that a team winning 100 games missed the playoffs as the addition of the Wild Card and realignment to three divisions changed baseball’s pennant races forever. After winning the West, the Braves seemed to run out of gas as they were upset by the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS four games to two.