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World Series: Game 4's demented 'Double Buckner' ending shocked the baseball world

So, Game 4 of the 2020 World Series ended. We can confirm that much.

Describing just how it ended is a little difficult. Maybe call it an incomprehensible cascading series of game-deciding blunders? It might just be better to show you how the Tampa Bay Rays walked off the Los Angeles Dodgers before putting it into words:

So, a bloop single from Brett Phillips found a soft spot in the shift, then bounced off the glove of Chris Taylor. Taylor picked up the ball and fired it to Max Muncy in the infield, who made an off-target throw to Will Smith at the plate to keep the game tied. Smith lost the ball as he turned to make a play at the plate, which never came because Randy Arozarena fell down as he was running down the third-base line. Arozarena recovered before Smith, broke for home and the game was over.

Deep breaths.

Tampa Bay Rays' Randy Arozarena touches after scoring the winning run against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the baseball World Series Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020, in Arlington, Texas. Rays defeated the Dodgers 8-7 to tie the series 2-2 games. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
What. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Over the course of its history, baseball has discovered some truly demented ways to end a game. But we may never see that many mistakes occur in the span of 10 seconds again, not in the context of a series-tying World Series walk-off win.

And especially not after a game that was already so dramatic, in which the team combined to score runs in eight straight-half innings. This is what the game’s win probability chart ended up looking like:

It’s hard to say just what that little line looks like. The mountains of Mordor outside the Tower of Sauron, perhaps?

Look, any game that makes Alex Rodriguez do this is going to go down in baseball lore.

It took a while for the baseball world to process what it just saw. And then the Bill Buckner references and everything else started rolling in.

Baseball world reacts to one of the craziest World Series endings ever

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