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The History of Blown World Series Saves

Jeurys Familia blew a save in the ninth inning last night. But cheer up, Mets fans - the Diamondbacks know that isn't necessarily the end...

Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

No, Familia is far from the first pitcher to blow a ninth-inning lead in the World Series, and for Arizona fans, that probably counts as "stating the bleeding obvious". Because, you will hardly need reminding that the 2001 World Series saw no fewer than three such events. Frst, Byung-Hyum Kim coughed up the lead in both Game 4 and Game 5, on successive, delirious nights in New York. But then, on that insane night in Phoenix, the unthinkable happened, with Mariano Rivera doing the same in Game 7. But I figured it might be fun to take a look at the history of such things over the past 110 years of the World Series.

It is kinda uncertain, because the save statistic was only invented in 1960. While it's possible to go back before that, and retroactively apply it to earlier games, this is by no means certain. For example, the first ninth-inning blown save [and we'll take the "ninth-inning" part as read for the rest of the article] I found was in 1924, when Tom Zachary of the Senators allowed two runs in the top of the ninth to the Giants, tying the game up, before being replaced by Firpo Marberry. The Senators then walked it off in the bottom of the ninth, but the official record credits Zachary with a W, and Marberry with a Sv. Modern rules would give Zachary a BS, and Marberry the W., so I'm going with that.

Here's the list of all 29 cases I found.

Rk Player Date Gm# Tm Opp Rslt Series
IP H R ER BB SO WPA
1 Jeurys Familia 2015-10-27 1 NYM KCR L 4-5 ??? 1.1 1 1 1 0 0 -0.157
2
Neftali Feliz 2011-10-27 6 TEX STL L 9-10 STL in 7 1.0 2 2 2 1 2 -0.420
3
Scott Feldman 2011-10-27 6 TEX STL L 9-10 0.2 1 0 0 1 0 -0.228
4
Arthur Rhodes 2011-10-20 2 STL TEX L 1-2 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 -0.072
5
Bobby Jenks 2005-10-23 2 CHW HOU W 7-6 CHW in 4 0.2 2 2 2 1 1 -0.381
6
Ugueth Urbina 2003-10-22 4 FLA NYY W 4-3 FLA in 6 1.0 2 2 2 1 0 -0.286
7
Mariano Rivera 2001-11-04 7 NYY ARI L 2-3 ARI in 7 1.1 4 2 1 0 3 -0.625
8
Byung-Hyun Kim 2001-11-01 5 ARI NYY L 2-3 0.2 2 2 2 0 1 -0.436
9
Byung-Hyun Kim 2001-10-31 4 ARI NYY L 3-4 2.2 4 3 3 1 5 -0.652
10
Armando Benitez 2000-10-21 1 NYM NYY L 3-4 NYY in 5 1.0 2 1 1 1 1 -0.269
11
Jose Mesa 1997-10-26 7 CLE FLA L 2-3 FLA in 7 1.2 4 1 1 0 2 -0.280
12
Mitch Williams 1993-10-23 6 PHI TOR L 6-8 TOR in 6 0.1 2 3 3 1 0 -0.789
13
Tom Henke 1992-10-24 6 TOR ATL W 4-3 TOR in 6 1.1 2 1 1 1 0 -0.258
14
Jeff Reardon 1992-10-18 2 ATL TOR L 4-5 1.1 1 2 2 1 1 -0.541
15
Dennis Eckersley 1988-10-15 1 OAK LAD L 4-5 LAD in 5 0.2 1 2 2 1 1 -0.828
16
Bob Stanley 1986-10-25 6 BOS NYM L 5-6 NYM in 7 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 -0.810
17
Todd Worrell 1985-10-26 6 STL KCR L 1-2 KCR in 7 0.1 3 2 2 1 0 -0.798
18
Dan Quisenberry 1980-10-19 5 KCR PHI L 3-4 PHI in 6 2.2 3 2 2 0 0 -0.346
19
Sparky Lyle 1977-10-11 1 NYY LAD W 4-3 NYY in 6 3.2 1 0 0 0 2 0.331
20
Rawly Eastwick 1975-10-14 3 CIN BOS W 6-5 CIN in 7 1.2 3 1 1 0 0 -0.158
21
Dick Drago 1975-10-12 2 BOS CIN L 2-3 1.0 2 1 1 1 0 -0.429
22
Tug McGraw 1973-10-14 2 NYM OAK W 10-7 OAK in 7 6.0 5 4 4 3 8 -0.123
23
Clay Carroll 1972-10-19 4 CIN OAK L 2-3 OAK in 7 0.0 3 1 1 0 0 -0.831
24
Harvey Haddix 1960-10-13 7 PIT NYY W 10-9 PIT in 7 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 -0.102
25
Bob Grim 1957-10-06 4 NYY MLN L 5-7 MLN in 7 0.1 2 2 2 0 0 -0.685
26
Allie Reynolds 1953-10-05 6 NYY BRO W 4-3 NYY in 7 2.0 2 2 2 1 3 -0.225
27
Bucky Walters 1939-10-08 4 CIN NYY L 4-7 NYY in 4 3.0 4 5 2 1 1 -0.622
28
Schoolboy Rowe 1935-10-04 3 DET CHC W 6-5 DET in 6 4.0 4 2 2 0 3 0.050
29
Tom Zachary
1924-10-05 2 WSH NYG W 4-3 WSH in 7 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 0.107
Random notes
  • Familia was the first blown save in Game 1 since 2000, when it was another Mets closer, Armando Benitez, who did it. The Yankees won that series in five.
  • The team blowing the save went 10-18 in those games, There was one game - #6 in the 2011 World Series - where there were TWO blown saves, both by the Texas Rangers. as they allowed two in the ninth and two in the tenth to allow the Cardinals to tie the game. St. Louis walked it off in the 11th and won the series in seven.
  • Overall, there are 18 series before this year with one blown save; two had a pair (both with one for each side) and two had a trio (2001 and 2011). In the 18 single BS cases, the side blowing the save went on to lose the series 11 times.
  • The 2001 Diamondbacks are the only side ever to have two blown saves and still win the World Series.
  • The worst in terms of Win Probability was Clay Carroll in 1972. He came in with one out in the ninth, a one-run lead and a runner on first, but gave up three straight singles to end the game and net a WP of -83.1%