Atlanta Braves fans are no strangers to playoff disappointment and pain. Even if you ignore the Braves' pathetic showing against the Dodgers this year, the team’s recent playoff history includes multiple painful eliminations at the hands of the Dodgers and Phillies, Game 5 of the 2019 NLDS against the Cardinals, and the infamous "infield fly rule" game (also against the Cardinals). Each one of those moments was brutal in their own way, but one World Series moment from further back takes the cake.
It was October 23, 1996, and the Braves were up two games to one in the World Series against the Yankees. Atlanta had won the first two games on the road, dropped Game 3, and it appeared as though they were about to take a commanding 3-1 series lead after building a 6-0 lead after the Braves jumped all over Yankees starter Kenny Rogers. Had that lead held, the Braves would have been overwhelming favorites to win their second straight World Series title.
Unfortunately, that is not what happened at all. After the Yankees put up three runs in the sixth inning on Denny Neagle, Atlanta still had a 6-3 lead in the eighth inning when Jim Leyritz came to the plate and changed the course of Braves franchise history forever.
30 years ago today, the Braves' World Series hopes were crushed after Yankees rallied to win Game 4 of the 1996 World Series
Mark Wohlers was usually such a reliable force at the end of games for the Braves, but he picked the absolute worst time to have an off night. However, he was also the recipient of some terrible luck, as Charlie Hayes hit a slow roller that just stayed fair for an infield single, and the usually sure-handed Rafael Belliard botched what should have been a double play.
However, it is Leyritz's three-run bomb that tied the game in the eighth inning that history remembers best, and with good reason. The game did not end at that exact moment, but the momentum shifted in the most seismic way on that one swing. Game 4 would go to extras, and Bobby Cox would bring in veteran Steve Avery to try and hold the fort. Avery would proceed to fall apart, walk in a run after loading the bases, and a flubbed pop-up would give the Yankees a two-run lead that they would not relinquish.
The rest, as they say, was history. The Braves wouldn't win another game the rest of the series, and the World Series loss would start a championship drought that lasted 26 years before mercifully ending in 2021. In short, if you think this year's playoff exit was bad, you should take a look back at this "gem".
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