1982 American League Championship Series

1982 Major League Baseball playoff series

The 1982 American League Championship Series was played between the Milwaukee Brewers and the California Angels from October 5 to 10, 1982. Milwaukee won the series three games to two to advance to the franchise's first World Series, where they would lose to the St. Louis Cardinals, four games to three. The 1982 ALCS was marked by a dramatic comeback by the Brewers, who lost the first two games of the series and were trailing late in the final game, and the series was the first League Championship Series where the home team won every game. The series was noteworthy as being the first to feature a matchup between two "expansion" teams (i. e., franchises not included among the 16 operating in the major leagues for most of the first half of the 20th century), for featuring two teams that had never before won a pennant, and for being the first time a team came from a 2–0 deficit to win the series. This was the first ALCS not to feature the Athletics, Orioles, or Yankees.

1982 would not be the closest the Angels came to winning a pennant in the 1980s. In 1986, the Angels were up 3 1 in the AL Championship Series, leading 5 2 in ninth inning, and within one strike of their first ever AL pennant. Dave Henderson of the opposing Red Sox caught hold of a Donnie Moore forkball and launched a home run into the left field seats to give the Red Sox a momentary, 6 5 lead on the top of the ninth inning. The Red Sox would go on to win the game 7 6 in eleven innings and complete the 3 1 series comeback. It would not be until 2002 when the Angels won their first pennant, on their way to their first World Series in franchise history. On the 1986 Angels roster was Don Sutton, who was traded from Milwaukee to Oakland in 1985. He nearly retired upon being traded to Oakland, but continued pitching and was later traded to the California Angels at the 1985 trade deadline. Coming into the 1986 season, Sutton had 295 career victories. He struggled early in the season, but earned his 300th career win on June 18 that year, pitching a complete game against the Texas Rangers, in which he allowed only three hits and one run while striking out Gary Ward for the final out of the game. Sutton was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. This was the Milwaukee Brewers last and only AL pennant, as they moved to the National League in 1998. The Brewers have yet to win a pennant since moving to the NL.