Phillips' walk-off is Legendary Moment of 2020

November 6th, 2020

Brett Phillips' wild walk-off made Game 4 of the World Series an instant classic. And now that play is the winner of the 2020 MLB Legendary Moments Award presented by Budweiser.

The ending of Game 4 was one of the craziest Fall Classic finishes ever -- from Phillips' single off Kenley Jansen to shock the Dodgers with the Rays down to their last strike, to Randy Arozarena's caution-to-the-winds trip around the bases to score the winning run, to Phillips' Rays teammates spilling out of the dugout, chasing him down and mobbing him in celebration in the Globe Life Field outfield.

It was a moment unlike anything else in Major League Baseball all year, and now it has the honors to show for it.

Phillips' walk-off earned him a landslide victory as the Legendary Moment of the year. His play emerged as the winner from a 16-moment bracket that featured the top eight regular-season moments and top eight postseason moments of 2020, as voted on by fans and an MLB panel.

Phillips had some competition from plenty of other great moments. The top contenders for the Legendary Moments Award included feats like Lucas Giolito's no-hitter, plus some of the most dramatic moments of the postseason: Mike Brosseau's series-winning home run off Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman in Game 5 of the ALDS, Cody Bellinger's go-ahead homer in Game 7 of the NLCS to win the Dodgers the pennant and Mookie Betts' home run robbery of Freddie Freeman in that very same game.

Giolito pitched the first no-hitter of the 2020 season on Aug. 25, striking out 13 in his gem against the Pirates. Giolito became the 19th White Sox pitcher to throw a no-hitter, and the first since Philip Humber pitched his perfect game on April 21, 2012.

Brosseau added to the growing Yankees-Rays rivalry when he belted a tiebreaking eighth-inning homer off Chapman to send Tampa Bay to the ALCS -- after Chapman had buzzed him with a 100.5 mph fastball before striking him out to end the game in a regular-season meeting at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 1.

Bellinger sent the Dodgers to the World Series with an equally clutch home run (and epic bat drop), breaking a tie against the Braves with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning of Game 7 of the NLCS.

Betts made the sensational defensive play to match Bellinger's offensive moment earlier in Game 7, leaping high above the right-field wall at Globe Life Field to rob a home run from Freeman and keep it a one-run game.

But in the end, there could be only one winner of the 2020 Legendary Moments Award, and Phillips' World Series walk-off topped them all.