Sunday night's wild Game 3 of the ALDS between the Red Sox and Rays had all the best October has to offer: home runs, a late-inning comeback, extra innings, a weird play that cost the Rays one run, and a walk-off home run. The latter came off the bat of Boston catcher Christian Vazquez - he of six home runs in 138 games all year - to pull the Sox to within a game of the ALCS.
If you watched the game on MLB Network, then you know the homer came with a near-perfect setup from play-by-play man Matt Vasgerian, who in the build-up to the pitch mentioned that seven catchers in history had hit walk-off homers in the postseason... then Vazquez became number eight.
Time will tell how Boston fares this month, but regardless Vazquez joins this group within his catching brethren to end a postseason game with a walk-off bomb:
2013 - Jose Lobaton: Prior to Vazquez, you have to rewind eight years to find the most recent walk-off homer by a backstop. Conveniently enough, just like Sunday, it came in Game 3 of an ALDS matchup between the Rays and Red Sox. Only this time the roles flipped: it was Tampa Bay who went home happy after Lobaton hit a home run off the near-unhittable Koji Uehara with two outs in the bottom of the ninth for a 5-4 win. Down 2-0 in the series, it briefly staved off elimination for the Rays, who would lose Game 4 and watch Boston go on to win the World Series.
1999 - Todd Pratt: In a 14-year Major League career, Pratt hit at least five home runs in a season three times, and he never hit more than eight. Alas, that didn't matter in Game 4 of the 1999 NLDS. With his Mets up 2-1 in the series against the Diamondbacks, Pratt had a chance to be a hero in the eighth inning, grounding into a fielder's choice with the bases loaded to keep the game tied. Two innings later he'd make due, hitting a walk-off homer off Matt Mantei to win the game and the series for New York.
1995 - Tony Pena: Of the now-eight walk-off homers by catchers in postseason history, two not only came in the same year (1995), they came on back-to-back days. First, Cleveland's Tony Pena ended Game 1 of the Indians' ALDS series against the Red Sox with a 13th inning bomb off Zane Smith on a 3-0 pitch (with a great bat flip to boot). Cleveland would ultimately sweep the series. And here's a fun fact: the 38-year-old would only hit one more home run in his entire career.
1995 - Jim Leyritz: Pena hit his walk-off on October 3, 1995 in extra innings. The very next night, Leyritz did the same. The Yankees were in Game 2 of the ALDS against Seattle when he hit a game-winner that scraped over the right field wall at Yankee Stadium to win. Though the Mariners would go on to win the series in a five-game classic - Edgar Martinez's double that scored Ken Griffey, Jr, anyone? - Leyritz and New York would come back the next year to win the World Series, with the catcher hitting a key home run in Game 4.
1981 - Alan Ashby: Most catcher walk-offs have come during the Division Series-era, which began in 1995. Well, ironically enough, Ashby did it in 1981! Because of the strike that year, the postseason was briefly expanded to include the LDS round and the Astros took on the Dodgers in a five-game set. Game 1 was tied at one heading to the bottom of the ninth when Craig Reynolds singled with two outs to bring up Ashby. The eight hitter, with the pitcher's spot on deck, he was challenged and ultimately won the game for Houston with a walk-off homer to right. Los Angeles, though, would win the series in five games and, ultimately, the World Series.
1975 - Carlton Fisk: It remains one of the most famous walk-offs in Major League history, and it's the only one by a catcher that came in the World Series. Surely you've seen the video of Fisk willing the ball fair in the 12th inning of Game 6 in the Fall Classic. Of course, the ball did stay fair, hitting the left field foul pole, to win the game for Boston and force a Game 7 the following day, when the Reds won 4-3 on a ninth inning run.
1973 - Johnny Bench: Bench's Reds got the better of Fisk's Red Sox in '75. And believe it or not, with nearly 70 years of "official" postseason baseball, Bench was the first catcher *ever* to hit a walk-off home run a few years prior in the 1973 NLCS. Down 1-0 to the Mets in the eighth inning of Game 1, Pete Rose tied it on a home run, then the next inning the Hall of Famer ended it with a long-shot off Tom Seaver for the 2-1 victory. However, despite all of Cincinnati's other successes in the 1970s with the Big Red Machine, New York would win the series.