The laws of baseball balance dictate that for every great win, there is an epically disastrous, head-banging, sleep-losing, heartbreaking defeat.
Those are the games that you will remember forever and rue repeatedly. That's baseball. The heartache lasts. Take it from someone wishing different outcomes for a couple of Mets losses in the mid-1980s.
These games come in all shapes and sizes but bring equal amounts of baseball-sized pain. They lead you to wander around asking, “How could they do this to me?”
We don't yet know which team's fans will fall victim to this in 2016, but each team whose position is unsecured at this point in the season has thoughts of such games running through their mind.
Our role here is to pick the one -- the one game that, if you don't make the playoffs, did you in.
With that, we'll also pay tribute to the patron saint of heartbreaking defeat -- Charlie Brown -- by citing an “Aaugh” that can accompany you for the rest of your rooting days.
Baltimore Orioles -- The game: Astros 15, Orioles 8 (Aug. 19)
The Orioles' first five batters in the bottom of the first inning against the Astros went home run, single, home run, home run, home run. Sure-thing win, right? Not exactly.
The Astros answered the Orioles’ five runs with five of their own in the top of the second. Though the Orioles rallied to take the lead, it was short-lived. The Astros drubbed Orioles pitching for 15 runs and 18 hits. The loss sent the Orioles into a bit of a malaise. They dropped the next two games in the series as well.
Aaugh! Teams to hit home runs at least five times in a game are 51-5 this season. The Orioles have two of the losses, including this one.
Boston Red Sox -- The game: Blue Jays 10, Red Sox 9 (May 28)
The Red Sox had an 8-4 lead in the eighth but didn’t escape the frame until the Blue Jays tied it. In the top of the ninth, it looked like they’d win anyway when David Ortiz homered to put them back ahead. Craig Kimbrel got the first two outs, then had an 0-2 count on Justin Smoak.
But Smoak singled, and after a steal by pinch-runner Ezequiel Carrera, Russell Martin doubled to tie the game. A wild pitch moved Martin to third, and he scored to win when Hanley Ramirez couldn’t handle Travis Shaw’s throw on a grounder to third by Devon Travis.
Aaugh! A hard-core Red Sox fan colleague described this defeat as "all things being equal, the worst loss in the history of baseball." Red Sox fans certainly know baseball pain, but this is understandable given that after Chris Young stole third base in the eighth inning, the Red Sox had a 98 percent chance of winning this game.
Detroit Tigers -- The game: Mariners 6, Tigers 5, 15 innings (Aug. 9)
The Tigers had a 4-1 lead in the eighth inning, but the path to getting the ball to Francisco Rodriguez was a rocky one. The Mariners tied the game on Kyle Seager’s three-run home run in the eighth inning. They’d play on deep into the night, with the Tigers squandering a bases-loaded chance in the 14th before breaking through to take the lead on Victor Martinez’s homer in the 15th.
Their chance of winning was 89 percent after Rodriguez got the first out in the home half, but a walk, two singles and a sacrifice fly made the Mariners winners.
Aaugh! The Tigers’ bullpen ranks 11th in the American League with a 4.13 ERA.
Houston Astros -- The game: Rangers 3, Astros 2 (Sept. 13)
When the Astros look back on their season, it will be the inability to beat the Rangers that haunts them. They went 4-15 against them, including two crushing defeats in their final series. In the second, they had a one-run lead with two outs in the ninth, but Ken Giles, obtained for just these sort of situations, couldn’t get the 27th out as the Rangers rallied to win.
Aaugh! Carlos Correa hit .159 against the Rangers this season. George Springer hit .165.
Kansas City Royals -- The game: Tigers 7, Royals 6 (Sept. 2)
After getting back into the postseason hunt with an incredible August, the Royals hit a nasty bump as the month ended and September began.
They lost four of five games, all by one measly run. The worst of those should've and could've been a great win. The Royals rallied from 4-0 down to lead 6-5 in the ninth inning, but Wade Davis, in his first game since July 27, hit a batter with the first pitch he threw, then allowed a two-run, game-losing double to Miguel Cabrera.
Aaugh! The Royals bullpen had risen to the occasion during Davis’ DL stint, posting a best-in-baseball 1.92 ERA in his absence.
New York Yankees -- The game: Rangers 9, Yankees 6 (June 27)
This will forever be known as “The Rain Delay Game,” one in which the Yankees took a one-run lead into the ninth inning with their closer Aroldis Chapman on the mound. A leadoff walk was followed by a 3-1 count on the next batter when the game was halted ... for three-and-a-half hours. When it resumed, after 2 a.m., Kirby Yates relieved Chapman, got an out, but then hit two batters (both with two strikes) and allowed a go-ahead hit to Adrian Beltre. The Rangers scored four times to win 9-6.
Aaugh! Ex-colleague Katie Sharp had a great stat from this game: The Yankees had won 160 consecutive games when leading entering the ninth inning before that loss.
Seattle Mariners -- The game: Rangers 8, Mariners 7 (Aug. 30)
The Mariners led the Rangers 7-6 in the eighth inning, and manager Scott Servais went for broke, attempting to use closer Edwin Diaz for a six-out save. Problem was Diaz walked two in the eighth and threw 24 pitches before escaping. Clearly gassed in the ninth, he yielded a single and a two-run, walk-off homer by Rougned Odor.
Aaugh! Though the Mariners’ win probability entering the ninth inning was around 80 percent. Diaz had been 100 percent in save chances (11-for-11 with 13 holds), with 69 strikeouts in 37 â…” innings. His invincibility being tarnished was crushing.
Toronto Blue Jays -- The game: Yankees 7, Blue Jays 6 (Sept. 6)
This one was doubly painful for the Blue Jays. First, the bullpen blew a 4-3 lead in the eighth inning, surrendering four runs. Then, trailing 7-6 with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth, they chased Yankees closer Dellin Betances in favor of Blake Parker. But Parker rose to the challenge, striking out Kevin Pillar, and Justin Smoak’s fly ball was (barely) caught at the left-field fence by Brett Gardner, sending the Blue Jays to a dreadful defeat.
Aaugh! The Blue Jays are 3-9 in September, with four of the losses by two runs or fewer.
National League
New York Mets -- The game: White Sox 2, Mets 1, 13 innings (June 1)
The Mets and White Sox battled deep into the late afternoon at Citi Field, with the Mets killing rally after rally by hitting into five double plays. They lost in true “LOLMets” fashion when White Sox pitcher Matt Albers doubled and scored on Jose Abreu’s sacrifice fly.
Aaugh! Albers had one at-bat in a major league game in the previous eight seasons and hadn’t had a hit since 2007 (he’s a career .086 hitter). But Logan Verrett’s inability to get him out might yet prove costly.
St. Louis Cardinals -- The game: Reds 7, Cardinals 5 (Aug. 2)
The second of consecutive walk-off losses was this crusher at the hands of a Reds team that was 20 games under .500 at the time. The Cardinals hit a pair of home runs in the eighth inning to take a one-run lead, and Seung Hwan Oh did a Houdini act to get out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the bottom of the inning. But he couldn’t get through the ninth. Scott Schebler beat him with a three-run home run.
Aaugh! Oh is the closer because of Trevor Rosenthal’s ineffectiveness and injury. Rosenthal lost the closer job during a three-week stretch in June in which he allowed 11 runs in seven innings and blew two save chances.
San Francisco Giants -- The game: Padres 7, Giants 6, 10 innings (July 17)
Pick a blown save by Santiago Casilla. There are eight to choose from, the ugliest of which is symbolic of the Giants going from best to worst after the All-Star break.
After a Buster Posey homer put the Giants ahead by a run in the 10th inning against the Padres, Casilla lost the game on three singles and a balk. There's something appropriate about the Giants' stumble in the second half given the way their closer stumbled off the mound attempting to make his final pitch that night.
Aaugh! Sometimes your closer blows a game and it's all right because you come back to win. Not the Giants. They’ve lost six of the eight games which Casilla has blown.
