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Major League Baseball history is built on moments – swings, pitches, and split-second plays that reshaped seasons and, in some cases, entire franchises. From walk-off home runs in winner-take-all games to clutch hits under October pressure, the biggest plays often came when the stakes were highest. Stacker<\/a> identified the most impactful plays in San Diego Padres history using data from Stathead<\/a>. Plays were ranked by their Championship Win Probability Added (cWPA), a metric that measures how much a single play changed a team’s odds of winning the World Series.<\/p>\n #5. October 17, 1998 (WS Gm 1)<\/p>\n – Score: tied 2-2 (5th inning, 2 outs)<\/p>\n – Opponent: NYY<\/p>\n – Event: HR<\/p>\n – Play Description: Home Run (Line Drive to Deep RF); Q. Veras Scores<\/p>\n – cWPA: 7.72%<\/p>\n #4. October 07, 1984 (NLCS Gm 5)<\/p>\n – Score: down 3-2 (7th inning, 1 out)<\/p>\n – Opponent: CHC<\/p>\n – Event: RoE<\/p>\n – Play Description: Reached on E3 (Ground Ball); C. Mart\u00ednez Scores\/No RBI<\/p>\n – cWPA: 9.94%<\/p>\n #3. October 06, 1984 (NLCS Gm 4)<\/p>\n – Score: tied 5-5 (9th inning, 1 out)<\/p>\n – Opponent: CHC<\/p>\n – Event: HR<\/p>\n – Play Description: *WALK-OFF*:Home Run (Deep CF-RF); T. Gwynn Scores<\/p>\n – cWPA: 10.09%<\/p>\n #2. October 10, 1984 (WS Gm 2)<\/p>\n – Score: down 3-2 (5th inning, 1 out)<\/p>\n – Opponent: DET<\/p>\n – Event: HR<\/p>\n – Play Description: Home Run; G. Nettles Scores; T. Kennedy Scores<\/p>\n – cWPA: 10.89%<\/p>\n #1. October 07, 1984 (NLCS Gm 5)<\/p>\n – Score: tied 3-3 (7th inning, 1 out)<\/p>\n – Opponent: CHC<\/p>\n – Event: 2B<\/p>\n – Play Description: Double to CF; T. Flannery Scores (Unearned run); A. Wiggins Scores; T. Gwynn to 3B (Advanced on throw) on throw to Hm<\/p>\n – cWPA: 14.04%<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 Stacker Media, LLC<\/p>\n This story was originally published March 19, 2026 at 3:09 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grindstone Media Group \/\/ Shutterstock Major League Baseball history is built on moments – swings, pitches, and split-second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-534359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}