10. Philadelphia A's, 1929 World Series
In Game 4, the Athletics trailed the Cubs 8-0 in the seventh inning. Then the floodgates opened. Cubs manager Joe McCarthy did everything he could, but nothing worked. The A's sent 15 men to the plate and scored 10 runs on their way to a 10-8 victory. Which was miraculous enough. But two days later in Game 5, the A's clinched the Series with a 3-2 win, all three runs coming in the bottom of the ninth inning.
9. 1986 New York Mets
In Game 6 of the World Series, the Mets trailed 5-3 in the bottom of the 10th inning. With two outs and nobody on base, the Mets were just one out away from elimination ... and the Red Sox were just one out away from winning their first World Series since 1918. Miraculously, the Mets rallied for three runs, the last of which scored when Mookie Wilson's groundball snuck between Bill Buckner's wickets (and of course the Mets won Game 7, delaying Boston's gratification for another 18 years).
8. Kirk Gibson, 1988 World Series
In Game 1, with his Dodgers trailing by a run in the bottom of the ninth, gimpy Kirk Gibson homered off Oakland's Dennis Eckersley -- MLB's top relief pitcher -- in his only appearance in the Series.
7. 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates
In 1960, the Pirates hadn't been in a World Series since 1927, when they'd been swept by the Yankees. In the intervening years, the Yankees had won 19 pennants and 16 World Series. As you might guess, then, when the two clubs met in the 1960 World Series, the Yankees were huge favorites. And for the most part, they played like the favorites. When the Series was over, the Pirates had been outscored 55-27. Yet somehow the Pirates won, their shocking upset capped by light-hitting Bill Mazeroski's homer in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7.
6. 1914 Boston Braves
In 1912, the Braves finished last in the National League for the fourth straight season. In 1913, under new manager George Stallings, the Braves jumped all the way to fifth place, their best finish since 1902. But in 1914, the Braves quickly sunk to the bottom of the National League standings, and in mid-July they still were there. And then came one of the great second-half runs in major league history. From July 16 through the end of the season, the Braves went 61-16 to win the pennant going away, and then swept the heavily favored Athletics in the World Series. All of which earned them a nickname: "Miracle Braves."
5. 1978 New York Yankees
Trailing the Red Sox by 14 games on July 20, the Yankees stormed back to win the division title, capped by Bucky Dent's unlikely homer in the one-game playoff. How unlikely? Dent, a right-handed batter, during his career had hit only 10 home runs against right-handed pitchers in 1,634 at-bats.
4. 1951 New York Giants
On Aug. 11, the New York Giants were shut out by the Phillies, 4-0. At the same time, the Brooklyn Dodgers -- in the first game of a doubleheader -- were beating the Boston Braves 8-1. Those results dropped the second-place Giants 13½ games behind the first-place Dodgers. The Giants had only 44 games left to play, and one might have excused them for simply giving up, even after the Dodgers lost the second game of their doubleheader that afternoon (shaving their lead to 13 games). But the Giants didn't give up. Thanks to a variety of things -- great pitching, rookie Willie Mays, Leo Durocher's take-no-prisoners mentality and (yes) a sign-stealing telescope in the far reaches of the Polo Grounds -- the Giants won 37 of those 44 games, and on the last day of the season forged a tie with the Dodgers. The two teams met in a best-of-three playoff for the National League pennant. They split the first two games. In the third, the Dodgers owned a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth. But the Giants somehow scored four runs, capped by Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World."
3. 2007 Colorado Rockies
On the morning of Sept. 16, the Rockies were in fourth place in the National League West. They were 6½ games out of first place, and 4½ games behind the wild card-leading Padres. They'd lost three straight games, and they were dead in the water. Or so it seemed. On the afternoon of Sept. 16 the Rockies trounced the Marlins 13-0, beginning a season-ending surge that would include one loss and 14 wins, including a one-game playoff for the wild card. Since then they've swept their Division and League Championship Series, and so they enter the World Series next week having won 21 of 22 games, and it's safe to say that no team has ever entered the World Series on a run like the Rockies'.
2. DiMaggio's 56 in '41
In 1941, Joe DiMaggio shattered the major league record with hits in 56 straight games; nobody seriously has threatened DiMaggio's record, and Stephen Jay Gould has famously observed that of all the famous streaks in all of sports, DiMaggio's is the only one that simply should not have happened.
1. Boston Red Sox, 2004 ALCS
All the Red Sox did in 2004 was become the first team in major league history to win a best-of-seven postseason series after losing the first three games and they did it against the Yankees (with everything that comes along with them). And oh by the way, the Red Sox followed up their unlikely feat with a sweep of the Cardinals in the World Series. Which some might consider a miracle of its own.
Written by Rob Neyer who writes for ESPN Insider
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