The Dodgers’ 10 Most Memorable Games

October 15, 1988: Roy Hobbs Lives

The Dodgers entered the 1988 World Series as a true David against the Goliath that were the power-laden, powerhouse Oakland A’s. Nobody gave them a chance. Worse, untouchable ace Orel Hershiser couldn’t get a Game One starting assignment because he just pitched a shutout to end the NLCS two days earlier, and star hitter Kirk Gibson was essentially ruled out for the entire series because he could barely stand on his knees—one sprained, the other with a recently re-aggravated torn hamstring.

For eight and two-thirds innings in Game One, the A’s showed off all their strengths and appeared ready to clinch a made-to-order victory. Bash Brother Jose Canseco (40 homers, 40 steals in 1988) smashed a grand slam. Oakland ace Dave Stewart pitched eight solid innings. Dennis Eckersley, who had about as perfect a regular season as a closer could have, retired the first two batters in the ninth with ease—then walked Mike Davis, which to him was no big deal since light-hitting Dave Anderson was on deck.

That’s when Anderson got pulled—and up came Gibson. Throughout the game, the battered Dodger had been worked on in the clubhouse, receiving ice, rubdowns, cortisone shots—anything to possibly get him ready. He took a few swings in the batting cage, grunting in pain, and somehow convinced his coaches that he was ready if needed.

Gibson initially looked to be no match against the slick, smooth Eckersley, hobbling about home plate like a newborn dear on wobbly knees with every swing he attempted. But he persevered, drawing the count full and fouling off four pitches to stay alive. Eckersley then dared Gibson to reach painfully down to go after a dipping breaking ball. Somehow, someway, Gibson connected—and pulled the ball deep into the right-field bleachers. It was, arguably, the greatest home run ever hit; Dodger Stadium exploded into pandemonium as Gibson struggled just to circle the bases on his knees with his only at-bat in the series—sending the A’s into shock from which they would not recover, as the mentally energized Dodgers went on to stun Oakland in five games.

October 4, 1955: Next Year at Last

The Brooklyn Dodgers had become baseball’s bridesmaids. Seven World Series appearances—including five against the New York Yankees between 1941-53—and no championships. In 1955, the Dodgers came across the Yankees yet again at the Fall Classic and dreadfully felt that sense of “déjà vu all over again,” as rival Yankee catcher Yogi Berra famously once quipped.

After losing the first two games and rebounding to win the next three at Ebbets Field, the Dodgers lost Game Six to set up a decisive seventh game in enemy territory at Yankee Stadium. Both teams were battered; the Dodgers were without Jackie Robinson while the Yankees could not field Mickey Mantle, out with a torn leg muscle.

Both starting pitchers were on. The Yankees’ Tommy Byrne was cooling off the Dodgers’ formidable offense, while Brooklyn’s Johnny Podres—who had won just two games over the regular season’s final three months—was keeping the Yankees off the scoreboard, but just barely; in three of the first five innings, the Yankees were retired leaving runners in scoring position. But things really got hairy for Podres in the sixth; he walked Billy Martin to start the frame and then allowed a bunt hit to Gil McDougald. Berra next drilled a line drive down the left field line, and speedy but seldom-used Sandy Amoros—positioned toward left-center to help cover the Stadium’s expansive power alleys—made what many believed would be a futile dash to catch the ball. But Amoros caught up, reaching out with full arm extension toward the seats to make the catch; he then put on the brakes, turned and fired back to first, doubling up a disbelieving McDougald—who had run past second on the fly, convinced the ball would drop uncaught.

Podres retired the Yankees with ease over the final three innings, while Gil Hodges supplied the Dodgers’ offense with a run-scoring single and sacrifice fly. When Elston Howard grounded out in the ninth to finish the 2-0 Brooklyn win, what had seemed so stubbornly and tantalizingly out of reach for eons in the Borough had finally come true: The Brooklyn Dodgers were champions of the world, for the first—and only—time in 74 years before moving onto Los Angeles.

April 15, 1947: Emancipation

The Dodgers took the field for their season opener at Ebbets Field against the Boston Braves with a sight not seen in the majors for 63 years: An African-American was on the roster. After a year of prepping at Montreal, Jackie Robinson had been officially promoted to the parent club five days earlier, and a crowd of 26,623—half of them said to be black—showed up to see history made. Oddly, Robinson’s debut was not the big story in Brooklyn; Dodgers manager Leo Durocher had just been suspended for the entire season after a public flap he had in spring training with his former general manager (and current Yankee GM) Larry MacPhail. The replacement at the Dodgers’ helm that day was Clyde Sukeforth—the man who scouted Robinson in the Negro Leagues for Brooklyn president Branch Rickey.

Robinson’s wife Rachel recalled sending Jackie off to the ballpark that morning as if it was his first day of school. Enthusiastically greeted by the crowd, Robinson recorded the season’s first putout on Dick Culler’s ground ball. He flied out in his first at-bat and finished the day hitless—grounding into a double play. But his sacrifice bunt in the seventh is one of the key moments of the game, showcasing his explosive talent that would rattle opponents for the next 10 years; Boston’s Earl Torgeson, seeing Robinson fly down the line on the bunt, panicked and threw wildly to first, the ball glancing off Robinson’s shoulder. With runners in scoring position, Pete Reiser next delivered with a double to give Brooklyn a lead they would not relinquish, winning 5-3.

September 28, 1988: Orel History 101

As the 1988 season was coming to a close, Orel Hershiser was a man possessed on the mound, firing eight straight complete games—the last five by shutout—to build up a streak of 49 consecutive scoreless innings, threatening to break the major league mark of 58.2 set 20 years earlier by former Dodger Don Drysdale. But even if he had thrown one more shutout in his last start of the year, at San Diego, it was assumed he would finish the year two outs shy of Drysdale—and would have to wait until 1989 to continue the pursuit.

Thank goodness for a 0-0 tie and extra innings.

Hershiser continued his march toward the record, never allowing a rally and stifling the Padres on three hits through nine innings; even the great Tony Gwynn came up dry, grounding out all four times he faced Hershiser. But San Diego starter Andy Hawkins was equally brilliant, keeping the Dodgers silent throughout as well. Serendipitously, Hershiser now had an unexpected opportunity; he could take the ball for the 10th inning and go after Drysdale’s mark.

It wouldn’t be easy. He struck out Marvell Wynne to start the extra frame, but the ball went wild past catcher Mike Scioscia and Wynne reached first. Wynne was bunted over to second and pushed to third on a grounder to the right side; after intentionally walking Gary Templeton, Hershiser clinched the mark with an out to spare when he got Keith Moreland to fly out to right field. Hershiser was done for the evening and the Padres went on to win in 16 innings, 2-1, but the real victor on the night was the newest entrant in the record book.

May 7, 1959: For Roy

The Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958, but Roy Campanella would not join them on the field. On a cold, icy night on Long Island the winter before, the burly Dodgers catcher and three-time NL MVP skidded his car off the road and smashed into a tree, paralyzing him from the shoulders down; though he would regain feeling in his arms and hands, he would never walk again. Campanella’s role with the Dodgers was reduced to that of a scout.

A year later, one of baseball’s most memorable tributes to a fallen player would take place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the temporary home of the Dodgers. An exhibition was set up between the Dodgers and World Series rival Yankees, who beat Los Angeles, 6-2. The game was not top billing; that was reserved for a pregame ceremony to honor and benefit Campanella, who had become financially troubled from the medical expenses that followed his accident. A boisterous crowd of 93,103, the largest in major league history, turned out to see a man most of them had never seen play 3,000 miles away in Brooklyn. Emotionally overwhelmed by the reception, Campanella tearfully told the crowd that the tribute and their enormous enthusiasm was “a wonderful thing.”

The Dodgers would later break the attendance record in 2008 when, on the 50th anniversary of their move to California, they returned to the Coliseum and packed 115,300 fans to watch an exhibition with the Boston Red Sox.

September 19, 2024: A 100% Chance of 50/50

The mind-boggling maiden season for Shohei Ohtani in Los Angeles, after six years down the freeway in Anaheim, hit an historic high point in a late-season, midweek contest at Miami with a record-setting display ranked among the greatest ever witnessed in a major league ballgame. 

A month earlier, Ohtani became the sixth player to amass 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a season. Now, having respectively raised those numbers to 48 and 49, he was on the cusp of an unprecedented 50-50 campaign. Batting leadoff as the Dodgers’ designated hitter against the Marlins, Ohtani roped out a double to start the game, then stole third base to reach one half of the milestone. An inning later, he singled home a run and stole another base, his 51st of the year; in the third, he brought home two more runs on his second double of the night, getting nabbed at third as he attempted to stretch the hit into a triple. 

Ohtani’s productivity to that moment was mere prologue to the power to come. He blasted a 438-foot drive to right-center in the sixth, then an inning later went the other way, sending his monumental 50th into the left-field bleachers as numerous fans tirelessly wrestled for the valuable collectable, the ownership of which would later be determined in the courts. Not only did Ohtani’s round-tripper put him at the hallowed 50-50, it also broke Shawn Green’s season franchise record from 2001. Miami manager Skip Schumacher could have easily given Ohtani an intentional walk with first base open before each of the two homers, but the game was already in rout mode for the Dodgers and Schumacher decided it was better to give history a chance. 

In the ninth, Ohtani was given one more crack at the bat; with a massive Los Angeles lead and Miami infielder Vidal Brujan relieving a battered bullpen on the mound, the scenario had “just for the fun of it” written all over it. What fun it was; Ohtani took a batting practice-level delivery clocked at 68 MPH with no movement 440 feet into loanDepot park’s upper bleacher level in right. The three-run blast capped a sensational night in which Ohtani went 6-for-6 with a team-record 10 RBIs, the most ever by any leadoff batter in an MLB game; had he managed to reach third on that second double, he would have also hit for the cycle. All of this, and the celebrated dual threat didn’t even pitch as Ohtani continued his recovery from Tommy John surgery a year earlier. 

The 20-4 rout clinched the Dodgers’ 12th consecutive postseason spot, riding home field advantage through the playoffs toward their eighth World Series triumph as Ohtani finished his incomparable first season in Dodger blue with 54 homers and 59 stolen bases.

October 14, 1965: Sandy at the Summit

Sandy Koufax had begun the 1965 World Series as an absentee, choosing to observe Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year rather than except a Game One starting assignment for the Dodgers. But Los Angeles was determined to get Koufax, at the height of his unmatched dominance, as many shots on the mound as possible. So he started Game Two, allowing two runs in six innings but failing to help give the Dodgers victory over Minnesota; he threw a four-hit shutout in Game Five, on three days’ rest; and, with the series on the line with the teams tied at three games apiece, Koufax was given the ball once more for Game Seven—on two days’ rest and with 350 innings behind him for the season.

Rising to the occasion, the 29-year-old southpaw delivered with, very possibly, the greatest performance of his career. He showed some early possible signs of exhaustion; he walked two in the first inning and got out of a modest jam in the fifth to sit Don Drysdale—who had started to warm up in the bullpen, just in case. Meanwhile, the Dodgers notched two quick runs in the fourth off Minnesota starter Jim Kaat, initiated by a leadoff blast from Lou Johnson (who would pace the Dodgers in regular season home runs—with 12).

After the Twins’ failure to knock out Koufax, the Dodgers ace settled in; he retired 12 straight batters, a run that ended with one out in the ninth when Harmon Killebrew singled; but Killer’s knock was much ado about nothing, as Koufax struck out the final two batters to give him 10 K’s on the day, his second shutout in four days and his fourth—and last—World Series ring for the Dodgers.

October 27, 2020: Atop in Arlington

For much of the 2010s, a talented Dodgers team found itself singing a familiar old tune from its Brooklyn days: Wait til’ next year. Though the Dodgers won seven straight NL West titles, their attempts to capture a first world title since 1988 failed with two NLCS exits and, in 2017-18, defeat at the World Series.

With the pressure mounting to gain something triumphant out of this era, the Dodgers finally got over the top in a most peculiar, pandemic-ridden 2020 campaign.

Tasked with surviving an expanded postseason, the top-seeded Dodgers managed to advance to the Fall Classic, facing a frisky Tampa Bay side riding on analytics, discipline and little payroll. With the series being played entirely at a neutral-site locale—Globe Life Field, the brand-new ballpark of the Texas Rangers—and with crowds capped at 11,500 in compliance with state COVID-19 protocol, the Dodgers looked to successfully close out the Rays in Game Six. And early on, it didn’t look like it would be easy.

The Rays took a 1-0 lead in the first on a solo home run from breakout postseason star Randy Arozarena, while Tampa Bay ace Blake Snell was in absolute command, shutting down a formidable Dodgers lineup through five innings. But after Austin Barnes stroked a simple one-out single in the sixth, Rays manager Kevin Cash—loyally sticking to his analytic strategy—inexplicably removed Snell. The Dodgers couldn’t believe their luck, and they instantly seized upon it. Nick Anderson, Snell’s replacement, immediately gave up a game-tying double to Mookie Betts, who next moved to third on Anderson’s wild pitch—and then scored the go-ahead run on Series MVP Corey Seager’s grounder. Betts capped the scoring in the eighth with a solo shot, and the 3-1 lead was held over the final two-plus innings by Julio Urias—the seventh Los Angeles pitcher of the night—who retired all seven Rays he faced, four by strikeout.

In a fitting coda to the entire MLB season, Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner was removed late in the game—not for strategic purposes, but to be informed that he tested positive for COVID-19; he was the first MLB player to contract the virus in over 50 days. Yet in defiance of orders, Turner returned to the field after the final out to be part of the celebration.

September 17, 1996: Taming the Mile-High Wild

In 1995, Hideo Nomo had become the Dodgers’ second international sensation (after Fernando Valenzuela), breaking the Trans-Pacific barrier and showing that baseball players from the Orient could not only play but thrive in America. Using a unique tornadic windup with a pause in the middle, Nomo brought positive attention to a game that badly needed it in the wake of the crippling 1994-95 players’ strike.

Nomo’s finest moment on the mound came a year later in a place few felt would be susceptible to great pitching feats: Denver’s Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies. Although spacious in the outfield, the ballpark’s thin, mile-high air made the ball absolutely come alive, leading to numerous double-digit scores, sometimes by both teams in the same game. In their previous trip to Coors in late June, the Dodgers allowed 10 or more runs in each of four games—and still won one by a 13-10 count, before losing the series finale, 16-15. Nomo himself had two previous career starts at Coors—and in 9.2 innings, allowed 16 runs (12 earned) for an 11.17 ERA.

Early on, Nomo developed a bad habit of walking Colorado hitters—a dangerous thing to do at Coors—but after giving three passes in the first four innings, he settled down. The sellout throng of 50,000, expecting an offensive explosion from the Rockies at any instant, never even saw a spark. The Dodgers offense got in their hits, amassing nine runs on 14 hits off starter Bill Swift and three relievers. But Nomo continued sailing; after allowing his fourth walk of the night to leadoff batter Eric Young in the sixth, he retired the final 12 batters he faced, striking out Ellis Burks to complete one of the most unlikely no-hitters ever thrown.

October 19, 1981: Thank God It’s Monday

Rick Monday became a fan favorite in Los Angeles even before he wore a Dodgers jersey; playing for the Cubs in 1976, he came to the rescue of an American flag about to be lit afire by protestors in the outfield during a game at Dodger Stadium. Five years later, Monday’s biggest contribution to the Dodgers secured them a NL pennant and helped continue their march to a world title.

In the decisive Game Five of the NLCS at Montreal, Monday was making only his second start of the series but would make it worth the Dodgers’ while. With Los Angeles trailing 1-0, Monday led off the fifth with a single, was moved to third on a Pedro Guerrero single and a wild pitch by Expos starter Ray Burris, then came home on a grounder to the right side poked into play by Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela. The game stayed 1-1 into the ninth, with Expo ace Steve Rogers—making only his third relief appearance in nine years—taking over for a spent Burris. Rogers retired the first two Dodgers, but couldn’t retire the third; Monday launched a deep shot to right-center, bringing out the entire Dodgers bench to greet him between the dugout and home plate as a stunned Montreal crowd of 36,000 (18,000 short of capacity) looked on in disbelief.

Valenzuela, the astounding Mexican rookie, got the first two Expos out in the bottom of the ninth but then walked the next two, sending warning that he, too, was beginning to tire. Fellow rotation member Bob Welch, seeing only his second relief duty of the year, earned the save and secured the NL pennant by inducing a ground out to Jerry White to wrap up the 2-1 win.