These two “original 16” franchises renew their post-season “rivalry”, a mere 102 years after their only previous World Series matchup. A look back and a look ahead to this year’s Fall Classic are after the jump.
Most of the drama in that 1916 World Series came early as the first three games were all decided by just one run.
- Boston looked to be in good shape in the opener, leading 6-1 after 8 innings. But, Brooklyn rallied in the 9th, loading the bases with one out, before third baseman Mike Mowrey hit what might have been a game ending double play ball that instead plated two after an error by Boston second baseman Hal Janvrin. Brooklyn reloaded the bases and then sent up Fred Merkle to pinch-hit; Merkle drew a walk to draw the Robins within two, sending Boston starter Ernie Shore to the showers. Center-fielder Hi Myers greeted reliever Carl Mays with a single to close the gap to just one run, before Mays induced a Jake Daubert groundout to end the threat.
- Game 2 was a 14 inning pitchers’ duel that remains the longest in World Series history. The two starters, Babe Ruth for the Red Sox and Sherry Smith for the Robins. both went the distance as Boston prevailed 2-1. The Red Sox threatened in the 9th and 10th innings, with the winning run thrown out at home in both frames, before walking off the Robins on a Del Gainer pinch-hit single that plated pinch-runner Mike McNally from second base. Ruth held Brooklyn hitless over the last 6 innings to take the win.
- Brooklyn got back into the series, taking game 3 at home. The Robins jumped out to a 4-0 lead and then held on to win 4-3, with reliever Jeff Pfeffer retiring eight straight Red Sox batters to close out the game.
- Brooklyn took an early 2-0 lead in game 4, before Boston quelled that first inning uprising by throwing out Zack Wheat attempting to steal home. The Red Sox replied in the top of the 2nd with a three-run inside-the-park home run by third baseman Larry Gardner, and then cruised to a 6-2 win, with Dutch Leonard shutting out the Robins on three hits over the last eight innings.
- The series returned to Boston for game 5, with the Red Sox winning 4-1 on a three hit CG by Shore.
Ernie Shore posted a 2-0 record for the series, holding Brooklyn to just 3 ER over 17.2 IP. Robins’ ace Rube Marquard was 0-2 in his two starts, surrendering 7 ER in only 11 IP. Brooklyn bats were mostly silenced by Boston’s pitchers, with only Casey Stengel (.364 BA) hitting better than .250 among the Robins’ regulars. Harry Hooper and Duffy Lewis paced the Red Sox attack with a combined 9 runs and 13 hits, while Dick Hoblitzell drew 6 walks and Larry Gardener recorded 6 RBI.
This was Boston’s second straight World Series title and fourth since taking the inaugural Fall Classic in 1903; another title would follow two years later, but that would be the last WS championship for the Red Sox until the next century. For Brooklyn, this was their first post-season appearance of the modern era; six more World Series losses would follow before finally recording a Fall Classic title in 1955.
Fast forwarding to 2018, this series is just the sixth between the clubs since inter-league play began. In their 15 regular season matchups, Boston holds an 8-7 edge, including winning two of three in 2004 and 2013, both WS championship seasons for the Red Sox. This is the 24th World Series since the introduction of the division series in 1995, but only the tenth in that period between original 16 opponents; the AL holds a 5-4 lead in those series, including those Red Sox wins in 2004 and 2013.
As a viewing companion to this series, here are crib sheets on how the players on the two teams have fared against each other.
Best WS prep, historical and current. I’ve seen yet. Thank you, Doug.
Whitey Ford, oldest living HOFer, turned ninety on Sunday, just in time for a fall event he frequented more than any other hurler. Here, if the link works, is Chris Bodig’s extended view of Ford’s career:
https://www.cooperstowncred.com/whitey-ford-chairman-board/
Left-handers will start for both teams in games 1 and 2, just the third World Series to begin that way (after 1973 and 1963). Ford got the game 1 start in 1963, one of a record 8 WS opening game starts for the Chairman.
Another Yankee, Bobby Brown, will turn 94 on Thursday. Brown made 4 PH appearances in the 1947 WS, going 3 for 3 with a walk and 3 RBI; he is the only living player from that or any earlier World Series.
In that ’47 World Series, Brown was teammates with Bobo Newsom. Newsom broke in with the ’29 Brooklyn Robins, where he was teammates with Max Carey. Max Carey! It’s kind of unreal to me that a guy who’s still alive is only two steps removed from a player who thrived in the deadball era. It’s almost like the thing where John Tyler (b. 1790) has two living grandsons (at least, they were alive four months ago, but they’re getting up there in age now). Almost; the John Tyler thing is the weirdest thing ever, I don’t think there’s really any denying it.
Tyler fathered 15 children, including son Lyon, born in 1853 when Tyler was 63. Lyon’s two living sons, now aged 94 and 90, were born when Lyon was 71 and 75.
Fred Caligiuri is currently the oldest living major leaguer, turning 100 this past Monday. Caligiuri was a teammate of Al Simmons, who was a teammate of Ty Cobb, Eddie Collins, Tris Speaker and Zack Wheat. Simmons also homered four times off of Walter Johnson.
Caligiuri is 4 players removed from the beginning of the National Association. He played with Simmons, who played with Cobb, who was a teammate of (but didn’t play with, since this was the famous suspension game) Deacon McGuire, who played with Joe Quest, who played in 3 games with the Cleveland Forest City Club in 1871.
A less tenuous link to the NA’s beginning is through Sam Thompson who played with both Cobb and Quest.
I found the Tyler family saga amazing about twenty years ago — who’d have thought that all these years later those grandbabies would still be around and kicking (but not the bucket)? What amazed me as much when I first noticed this was that Tyler, who was born a half century before baseball became a sport, and who became president a year before Alexander Cartwright organized the New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, had a daughter, Pearl, his youngest, who lived to see Major League baseball integrated. (Unlike her big brother, however, Pearl somehow failed to continue to have children into her seventies.)
Kimbrel continues his mastery over the Dodgers in game 1, his 16th scoreless appearance (of 17), all of them of at least one inning and all with a strikeout (and 14th with 2 or more K’s).
Make it 17 of 18 scoreless for Kimbrel against the Dodgers. Whatever Kimbrel was struggling with earlier in the post-season, he seems to have it fixed now.
So, LA leaves their two big LH bats on the bench in both games 1 and 2. If, like me, you’re wondering why, I can’t tell you. What I can tell you is how Muncy and Bellinger have fared against starting pitchers this season.
Muncy
Bellinger
So, tell me again, Dave Roberts, why these guys have been sitting for these first two games.
Sorry for a non-sequitur here. For those still paying attention to the Awards Voting posts, I posted wrap-ups to the Cy Young voting at the bottom of that post. If Doug chooses to post it, there’s still a Manager of the Year and Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year post (both awards combined) to come, so hopefully you folks will be willing to continue participating in the process if/when that one goes up.
Thanks Doom,
I’ll post the Rookie/Mgr Awards post after the series.
Perfect! Works for me. Thanks for continuing to post my random stuff, Doug.
So, game 3 is the 663rd in World Series history, but only the 8th between the Red Sox and Dodgers. But two of those eight rank #1 and #2 for most innings in a WS game.
Other factoids from last night’s marathon.
– Eovaldi’s 6.0 IP is longest in the post-season for a reliever taking the loss since Johnny Sain’s 6 innings for the Yankees in their 11-inning loss to the Dodgers in game 5 of the 1952 WS. Since Eovaldi went 6 innings + a batter, you could go back even further to Al Brazle’s 6.2 IP for the Cardinals in game 5 of the 1946 WS, tied with four other earlier games for the longest in the post-season.
– Xander Bogaert’s 0 for 8 is the biggest oh-fer in post-season history
– 19 strikeouts by Dodger pitchers are the most in a WS game, breaking the record of 17 by the Cardinals in game 1 of the 1968 series, all of them by Bob Gibson.
– Nine pitchers used by each team ties the post-season record for one team, and establishes a new record for both teams.
Last night’s Dodger-Red Sox game (7:20) was longer than the entire 1939 WS (7:05).
The first four spots in the Boston lineup went oh for 28.
That’s the biggest oh-fer from the 1-4 spots in any searchable game in major league history.
Doug: I was unable to figure out a way to find that 0 for 28 stat record. Baseball-Reference accepts questions on Twitter. Last night I asked them if they could determine if that was the record. They usually respond quickly to questions but so far they have not answered mine. Could you have answered the unanswerable?
I heard this on the ESPN Internationial telecast. I think there is a way to confirm this with P-I but it would be a mountain of work. You would probably start by identifying all the team games with 58 or more PAs, and then eliminate from that list all the games with a hit from any of the first four batting positions.
I think if there was a single batter in each of the first 4 BOP it could be done . I’m going to try.
I made 2 searches.
The first was for a single player at each BOP. I set the PI Player Batting Game Finder for BOP = 1 and PA >= 7. I posted the results into an Excel spreadsheet. Then I repeated for BOP = 2, BOP = 3 and BOP = 4, and posted those results on to the spreadsheet. After sorting the results the closest I could find to 0 for 28 was 1 for 22 for the Reds on 7/8/1943 (2).
The second search was for one or more players in each BOP. I set the PI for Team Game Pitching Finder for PA >= 58 and sorted by hits in ascending order. I checked the box scores for those games with up to 6 hits, 36 games altogether. The closest I could find to 0 for 28 was 1 for 27 for the Senators on 5/13/1909. I didn’t bother to check for games with more than 6 hits.
I made another attempt. I ran the Player Batting Game Finder for # of players matching criteria in a team game, PA >= 7, H = 0. There were 30 games with 4+ such batters. I found 1 game in which the first 4 batters had no hits, the Braves on 6/2/1963 who went 0 for 24 (Maye, Mathews, Aaron and Torre). That search covered games in which only 1 player was in each BOP. And the search was for regular season games only.
Doug: There is a way to track that data on the PI Event Finder but it will take a lot of searching and spreadsheeting.
I mentioned Dick Hoblitzell in the post, of whom I knew nothing. His career ended when he received a commission in the Army in 1918. Nearly died from influenza and remained in the service until 1920. As a result, Hoblitzell’s 1318 games are the most for a player whose career ended before age 30.
Game 4 is just the second in WS history with a visiting team win after trailing by 4 or more after 6 innings. The first was Toronto’s 15-14 win over Philadelphia in game 4 of the 1993 series. The home team has 3 wins in WS games in which they trailed by 4 or more after 6 innings: Philly in 1929 game 4; Milwaukee in 1982 game 4; and Anaheim in 2002 game 6. Only the Brewers failed to win the series.
Six Superbas relief pitchers.
Eight outs.
Eight runs.
They all gave up at least one run.
Rich Hill allowed one hit.
He threw 91 pitches.
He was lifted in the middle of an inning.
He struck out the last batter he faced.
And, he was removed after striking out a RH batter, and with a LH batter coming up. A day after your bullpen gives you 11 innings, seems you would want to ride an effective starter as long as possible. Definitely think that Boston has had the managing edge in this series.
Congratulations to the Red Sox on their win. Clearly the class of this year’s tournament, winning easily despite their two best players under-performing for the post-season. No slight to Steve Pearce, but I think David Price was trhe true MVP for the series; good on him for getting that monkey off his back big time.
David Freese becomes the first player with a pair of WS games with a triple and home run.
Wait till next year!
The nausea is strong with this Yankees fan. Watched it with a Red Sox fan, an Orioles fan, and a Nationals fan.
So that’s how it works nowadays: the Red Sox are an evil worse than the Dodgers for Yankee fans. Reminds me of how I rooted for the Yankees in ’62, since, for a Dodger fan (from Brooklyn days), the Giants were the deeper enemy. I believe that when I was growing up the Dodgers had no peer on the enemies list of Yankee fans, at least among my acquaintances. It’s a sad comment on the state of the franchise that the BoSox now top them.
Yes, a sad commentary. Not that I’m in love with the Dodgers, but they live in a strange land across what used to be a giant inland sea, and are affiliated with an entirely different baseball league (not even “American”).
Forced to go back to politics, with occasional side trips to quieter places like HHS.
Not good. Not good at all.
I guess I should feel relieved. When Yankee fans are in love with the Dodgers, surely the Last Times will be upon us.
Of course, now that you mention politics, perhaps the time is not far . . .
Bob, having been a junkie for both baseball and politics since I was a child (a wonky child) I understand the disruption to The Force in having the Red Sox preen pales in comparison to more tectonic issues. End Times might need a few more elections.
Maybe this has been noticed all over the place—I was out of media range for a couple of days—but the last time these two teams played in the WS it was also a five-game affair, with the Dodgers lone win in game three.
And that series, like this one, produced the longest ever WS game by innings. In the 1916 series, all of the games in Boston were played at the larger Braves Field, instead of the Red Sox regular home field at Fenway Park.