Monday, September 14, 2026

What were the most exciting games in history? Part 3

In Part 1, I had bases.chat, created by SABR member Ted Ingram, add up the absolute value of all Win Probability Added events in every game that have play-by-play data. Then I had it create a list of top games. The idea was that the higher the WPA the more exciting a game was.

The top games were all regular season games. In Part 2 I did the top post-season games.

bases.chat said "WPA computed from Retrosheet play-by-play data using Tom Tango's win expectancy framework."

In this part, I show the games with the most plays that had a WPA of 0.25 or higher. The idea was that some games could just go on a long time without any big events yet still end up with a high total WPA. So other games could be considered more exciting if they had more big events.

In the table below, Inn refers to how many innings the game lasted and # refers to how many such events there were in the game. This first table has regular season games. There are many extra-inning games here but some of them were only 10 or 11 innings, so they did not last too long or have too many more chances to get high WPA events.

Rank

Date

Visitor

Score

Home

Inn

#

1

5/24/1988

Padres

6–7

Expos

13

10

2

7/17/2000

Athletics

9–10

Rockies

10

9

3

7/10/1932

Athletics

18–17

Indians

18

9

4

7/23/1930

Pirates

16–15

Phillies

13

9

5

7/18/1949

Yankees

5–6

White Sox

10

9

6

8/11/2020

Orioles

10–9

Phillies

10

9

7

8/12/1966

Pirates

14–11

Reds

13

8

8

6/20/1977

Cubs

10–9

Giants

12

8

9

7/3/1951

Phillies

8–9

Giants

13

8

10

7/24/1998

Marlins

6–7

Phillies

12

8

11

8/4/2011

Blue Jays

6–7

Rays

12

8

12

5/7/1920

Robins

6–7

Giants

11

8

13

8/17/2019

Brewers

15–14

Nationals

14

8

14

6/15/1912

Cardinals

4–5

Dodgers

11

8

15

6/9/2023

Astros

9–10

Guardians

14

8

16

9/16/1991

Reds

5–6

Dodgers

12

8

17

6/21/1927

Cubs

5–6

Cardinals

13

8

18

7/7/1985

Expos

6–3

Astros

19

8

19

7/26/1993

Padres

6–9

Cubs

11

8

20

8/21/1954

Yankees

9–10

Red Sox

12

7

21

4/26/1995

Mets

9–11

Rockies

14

7

22

5/19/1990

Phillies

15–12

Dodgers

11

7

23

7/17/2012

Mets

4–5

Nationals

10

7

24

7/25/2019

Orioles

10–8

Angels

16

7

25

6/24/2011

Nationals

9–5

White Sox

14

7

Now the top 25 post season games.

Rank

Date

Round

Visitor

Score

Home

Inn

#

1

10/3/1995

NLDS

Braves

5–4

Rockies

9

7

2

10/29/2017

WS G5

Dodgers

12–13

Astros

10

6

3

10/24/2020

WS G4

Dodgers

7–8

Rays

9

5

4

10/3/1995

ALDS

Red Sox

4–5

Indians

13

5

5

10/9/1912

WS G8

Giants

6–6

Red Sox

11

5

6

10/25/2017

WS G3

Astros

7–6

Dodgers

11

5

7

10/4/1995

ALDS

Mariners

5–7

Yankees

15

5

8

10/9/1985

ALCS

Royals

5–6

Blue Jays

10

5

9

10/6/1995

NLDS

Rockies

7–5

Braves

10

5

10

10/27/2011

WS G6

Rangers

9–10

Cardinals

11

4

11

10/12/1986

ALCS

Red Sox

7–6

Angels

11

4

12

11/1/2025

WS G7

Dodgers

5–4

Blue Jays

11

4

13

10/17/2024

ALCS

Yankees

5–7

Guardians

10

4

14

10/9/1988

NLCS

Dodgers

5–4

Mets

12

4

15

10/12/2009

NLDS

Phillies

5–4

Rockies

9

4

16

10/10/2004

NLDS

Braves

6–5

Astros

9

4

17

10/21/1975

WS G6

Reds

6–7

Red Sox

12

4

18

10/9/2009

ALDS

Twins

3–4

Yankees

11

4

19

10/26/2018

WS G3

Red Sox

2–3

Dodgers

18

4

20

10/11/1986

ALCS

Red Sox

3–4

Angels

11

4

21

10/10/1995

NLCS

Braves

2–1

Reds

11

4

22

9/30/2020

Wild Card

Yankees

10–9

Indians

9

4

23

10/20/1972

WS G4

Reds

5–4

Athletics

9

4

24

10/8/2010

NLDS

Braves

5–4

Giants

11

4

25

10/8/1995

ALDS

Yankees

5–6

Mariners

11

4

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