Background
The 2007 season saw heavy competition between the Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks for the National League West divisional title. The Padres spent 52 days with at least a share of the lead, while the Diamondbacks spent 89 total days atop the division and ultimately won by a game with a record of 90–72. The Rockies spent just three days, last on April 6, with a lead in the division. Notably the Diamondbacks scored 20 fewer runs than their pitchers allowed, one of just five teams in MLB history to make the playoffs despite being outscored during the season.
In addition to the divisional race, the competition over the Wild Card continued to the last day of the season. Six teams in the 2007 National League finished within five games of one another: the aforementioned Diamondbacks, Padres, and Rockies along with the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, and Chicago Cubs. The Diamondbacks, Phillies, and Cubs won the Western, Eastern, and Central divisions respectively. Meanwhile the 2007 Mets underwent what was described in the New York Times as "one of the biggest collapses in baseball history", becoming the first team with a seven game divisional lead with only 17 games remaining to finish outside of first place, losing the Eastern division to the Phillies on the final day of the season. Also, at 88–74, the Mets finished a single game behind the Rockies and Padres' 89–73 record in the Wild Card race.
While the Padres had been a consistent presence amongst the league's top teams during the 2007 season, the Rockies finished the first half with a .500 record of 44–44. They propelled themselves into the Wild Card race, however, by going 46–29 in the second half of the season including a Rockies' season-best 11-game winning streak from September 16 through September 27 and ultimately tied the Padres regular season record. With the Rockies and Padres holding the best non-division winning records in the league a tie-breaker was necessary to determine the Wild Card winner. A coin flip conducted earlier that September set the Rockies' home park of Coors Field as the location for the game.
Read more about this topic: 2007 National League Wild Card Tie-breaker Game
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