by Cary Osborne
Eric Gagné can still see the pebble.
The Dodger Stadium infield, he recalls, was the most pristine in the Majors.
Once a ball hit the dirt, it bounded or rolled. Never skipped.
Except this one time.
Bottom of the ninth inning and one out, Dodgers up 5–4 against the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 5, 2004.
Gagné was riding the longest save streak in Major League Baseball history at an incredible 84 straight conversions — a stretch that began Aug. 28, 2002 and reached 84 on July 3, 2004.
That July 5, Arizona third baseman Chad Tracy hit a ground ball that Dodger first baseman Olmedo Sáenz attempted to corral. But as he dove, Gagné could see the baseball hit a pebble and skip into right field.
“I saw the ball bounce up, and then on the next bounce it just stayed underneath his glove,” recalls Gagné 20 years later.
One of the greatest achievements by a relief pitcher in baseball history was now over. Tracy’s single tied the score and ended Gagné’s save streak.
What happened next still remains in the 48-year-old’s mind.
“Goosebumps,” says Gagné, eight seasons a Dodger and the 2003 NL Cy Young Award winner. “It was crazy. I never got a standing ovation for failure. It was an unbelievable atmosphere. Everyone felt it. Everyone knew it. It was the best feeling in the world to get a standing ovation after you fail. That’s unbelievable.”
The Dodgers ended up winning that game. Left fielder Dave Roberts led off the 10th inning with a single and Shawn Green hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to score Roberts.
That’s the other part of the streak that Gagné remembers — the people who saved him.
He brings up Roberts’ catch in Houston on Aug. 28, 2003, when Roberts climbed the old hill in center field at Minute Made Park and took a home run away from Lance Berkman. It led to Gagné’s 52nd consecutive save.
He remembers a play 13 days before the streak began when Green threw out a runner at home plate from right field in Montreal to end the game on Aug. 15, 2002.
“Our defense at the time was so ridiculous,” Gagné says.
Gagné says he has a hard time with the word “save.” He prefers “preserved win.” Save is too individual, he says, because the team is already leading in that situation.
But the fate of the game in each of those 84 games was in his hands — one might say considerably in his hands.
It was a spot Gagné asked to be in.
He was a starter in his first three years in the big leagues from 1999–2001, but had a 4.68 ERA in the role. The Montreal, Canada native had a hockey mentality — high adrenaline, go all out — and he thrived on less-is-more. To this day, that’s still him — give him the snapshot info and let him run with it.
Starting pitching just didn’t fit.
In one of his dresser drawers today, he has a T-shirt with the words “Failed Starter” on it.
He was born a closer in 2002, and he made Major League history.
“I felt it was a new beginning,” he says. “That I could prove I belonged in the big leagues.”
He earned his first career MLB save — or preserved the win — on April 7, 2002. On Aug. 28, 2002, he struck out the side against Arizona at Dodger Stadium. It was his 45th save of the season and the first of an incomparable run.
On Sept. 2, 2003, he broke Tom Gordon’s consecutive saves record, recording his 55th in a row.
Gagné was a perfect 55 saves in 55 chances in the 2003 Cy Young Award season.
“I did think about the streak when it was happening, but it wasn’t really something I focused on,” he says. “It sounds cliché, but I was focused on making pitches. I was so locked in.”
He rolled into Anaheim on July 3 and retired all three Angels he faced to record his 84th save in a row.
His recipe for the 84 was four-seamer, changeup and the occasional show-me breaking ball. It helped that at Dodger Stadium, Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” played loudly over the speakers as he jogged in from the bullpen with “Game Over” logos displayed on Dodger scoreboards.
“Every time I listen to that song today I remember the running in and making sure my face was calm, so I would feel my cheeks drop,” Gagné says. “(Sports psychologist) Ken Ravizza used to teach me to be aware of how I feel. It was unbelievable — the adrenaline I would get. The Dodger fans would get going and go crazy. That’s why I was able to pitch that many games because you get that adrenaline rush and there’s nothing like that.”
It doesn’t feel like it’s 20 years, Gagné says. He says there’s an irony that he returns to Dodger Stadium on Wednesday to mark the anniversary and the Dodgers’ opponent is the Diamondbacks and the Dodgers’ manager is Dave Roberts. Gagné will make the honorary first pitch before the game on Wednesday.
Gagné says with baseball’s evolution — different extra-innings rules from when he played and today’s bullpen usage —it makes it more difficult for a closer to break his record streak.
“I’d love to see it,” though, he says.
It might be a while. Dodger closer Evan Phillips has converted on all 13 of his save opportunities this year. He’s the only Major League reliever with at least 13 saves and a save conversion percentage of 100 this year.
Until then, the record is his. And on Wednesday, he’ll relive it and hear the fans show their love and excitement again.
“The feeling is mutual,” Gagné said. “Every time I went out there, I felt it. I felt the electricity. I felt the positive vibes. I wish some people could feel that just for a minute. Every time I got on the mound I felt like they were lifting me up.”
It’s ‘Game Over’ all over again as Eric Gagné recalls save streak 20 years later was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.