Twelve years ago to the day, September 18, 2006, the Dodgers pulled off what even today is considered the single greatest come-from-behind walk-off win in Dodgers (if not baseball) history, when Messrs. Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew, Russell Martin and Marlon Anderson hit back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to turn a 9-5 San Diego Padres lead into a 9-9 tied ballgame to send it into extra innings.

Even after the Padres regained the lead in their half of the 10th inning to take a 10-9 lead, Dodgers shortstop Nomar Garciaparra slugged a game-winning two-run home run in the bottom of the 10th for the incredible, if not impossible, 11-10 Dodgers walk-off win.

Former Dodgers shortstop and current SportsNet LA analyst Nomar Garciaparra hit the ‘plus one’ walk-off home run in the famous ‘Four plus one game’ on September 18, 2006. (Getty images)

It was the single greatest come-from-behind walk-off win in Dodgers history.

Was.

Although that game on September 18, 2006 – which shall forever be known as the Four plus one game – is still considered the most incredible come-from-behind Dodgers walk-off win in Dodgers (if not baseball) history with both the Dodgers and Padres making it into the postseason only to fall to the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals in their respective Divisional Series games, the game between the National League West leading Los Angeles Dodgers and the NL West second place Colorado Rockies (by a mere 0.5 GB) on Tuesday night, September 18, 2018, in front of a Dodger Stadium crowd of 49,537, may have surpassed the Four plus one game in importance.

How so, you ask?

With only 10 games now remaining in the 2018 regular season, the Dodgers upped their lead over the Rockies to 1.5 games. As such and with the strong likelihood that neither NL Wild Card winner will come out of the NL West, every Dodgers win and/or Rockies loss will ultimately determine which of these two teams will make it into the 2018 postseason and which one will not.

So who was the Dodgers hero on this September 18th?

It was none other than Chris Taylor, more affectionately known as “CT3.”

After a brilliant pitchers duel between Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw and Rockies ace Kyle Freeland, the game went into the 10th inning with the score knotted at 2-2. Dodgers left-hander Scott Alexander and right-hander Dylan Floro kept the Rockies off the board in the top half of the 10th, with Dodgers first baseman Max Muncy, second baseman Chris Taylor, and the Dodgers hottest hitter, third baseman Justin Turner, due up in the bottom half of the 10th to face Rockies star right-handed closer Adam Ottavino.

Muncy led off the inning with a hard line drive to Rockies right fielder David Dahl for the first out of the inning, bringing Taylor to the plate. As every Dodger fan on the planet knows, Taylor leads the National League with his 166 strikeouts. As such, most of the attention was focused on the on-deck circle, where .323-hitting Justin Turner was anxiously awaiting his shot to hopefully end the game with a walk-off hit.

He never got the chance.

On a 2-2 count, Taylor crushed Ottavino’s hanging 82.2-mph slider 411 feet into the cool Dodger Stadium night for a game-winning walk-off solo home run.

“Just trying to battle, he hung a slider, I saw it up and just put a good swing on it,” a visibly excited Chris Taylor told SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo immediately after the game. “I just tried to shorten up – he’s got good stuff – luckily he left one up and I saw it.

“It’s the best feeling in the world,” Taylor added, about hitting a walk-off home run in a tight pennant race. “Probably the biggest hit of my career.”

Taylor called his walk-off home run on Tuesday night, September 18, 2018 “Probably the biggest hit of my career.” (Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

Ironically, it was an extremely rare error by Turner (and a second by Taylor on the same play) that gave the Rockies the then game-tying unearned run. After the game, Turner told reporters that if CT3 hadn’t hit the game-winner, he was going to, to atone for his costly error that prevented Kershaw from getting what should have been his ninth win of the season.

As it turned out, Dodgers right-hander Dylan Floro picked up the win after tossing two-thirds of an inning in the top of the 10th, during which he struck out both Rockies batters he faced needing only eight pitches to do so.

Game-3 of the extremely crucial three-game series against the Rockies is Wednesday night, when the Dodgers will send phenom right-hander Walker Buehler (7-5 / 2.88) to the mound opposite Rockies left-hander Tyler Anderson (6-9 / 4.82), with first pitch set for 7:10 pm PT.

There is nothing like September baseball. Nothing!