Lefty Grove
1929-1931 Philadelphia Athletics 4-2 2 Saves
During the A's championship run
Lefty Grove went an incredible 79-15. So it might not be that shocking that
during this same period he was just as dominating and its actually more
impressive when you consider how the first series went.
Because the 1929 Cubs were stacked
with right-handed batters Connie Mack made the decision not to start Grove in
the series and use him only in relief. Most famously he started Howard Ehmke in
Game 1 who had pitched only 56 innings all year. Ehmke struck out thirteen Cubs
on the way to a 3-1 victory as the A's won four games to 1. Grove pitched only
6 and a third innings in relief in Game 2 and Game 4 and saved both games,
striking out ten in the course of them.
The next year against the
Cardinals when Grove had gone 28-5 he started Lefty twice and pitched him once
in relief. In Game 1 he pitched a complete game to beat the Cardinals 5-2. In Game 4, despite throwing a five hitter, he
lost 3-1 to Jesse Haines. The following day, however, Connie brought him in the
eighth to relieve George Earnshaw and he completed a 2-0 shutout as the A's
would go on to win in six.
In a rematch the following year
Grove started Game 1 and again beat St. Louis 6-2. In Game 3, however, Burleigh
Grimes pitched a masterful 2 hitter and Grove lost 5-2. In Game 6 facing
elimination Grove won his second game in a rematch against Paul Derringer who
he'd defeated in Game 1, winning 8-1. But the next day Grimes would win his
second game of the series as the Cardinals won their rematch.
Grove was the first pitcher listed
who was nearly as great in the World Series as he was all-time. Not only did he
save two games and win one game in relief he also pitched three complete game
victories.
Warren Spahn
Braves 1948, 1957-1958 4-3
During their drive for the 1948
pennant the chant around Boston was "Spahn, Sain and pray for rain."
To be clear Sain was the more dominant pitcher in 1948 he went 24-13 to Spahn's
15-12. (Even for a pitcher like Spahn, that was a mediocre year.) He didn't do
much better in the World Series against Cleveland and in fact only started one
game, though he relieved in two others.
He lost his only start to Bob
Lemon in Game 2 and was actually taken out in the fifth as Cleveland won 4-1.
He came in as a reliever in Game 5 in the one blowout pitching 5 and 2/3
innings after Cleveland went ahead 5-3. The Braves scored 6 in the seventh to
win 13-5. In Game 6 with the Braves trailing 4-1, Spahn came in to relief but
the Braves couldn't quite come back and Boston would lose both the game and the
series.
A decade later when the Braves
were the toast of Milwaukee and baseball Spahn won the Cy Young award with 21
wins. They called him into start Game 1 against the Yankees' best Whitey Ford. Third
baseman Andy Carey knocked him out in the sixth as the Yankees took Game 1,
3-1.
Spahn was back on the mound in
Game 4 and he pitched what turned out to be a ten inning game. He was gifted a
4-1 lead right up to the ninth when with 2 outs he gave up a three-run homerun
to Elston Howard to tie the game. The Yankees actually scored another run in
the tenth but in a remarkable turn of events the Braves rallied to win 7-5 off
an Eddie Matthew home run. The real hero of the World Series was Lew Burdette
who won three games and pitched 24 consecutive scoreless innings to nearly
match the great Christy Mathewson's unthinkable record.
The following year the Braves
repeated as National League Champions with Spahn contributing 22 wins this year
and once again faced the Yankees. In Game 1, he once again faced off against
Whitey Ford and this time outpitched him in a ten inning match 4-3. Spahn would
drive in the tying run in the eighth against ace reliever Ryne Duren.
In Game 4 Spahn pitched a
masterful 2 hit shutout as the Braves went up 3 wins to one. At that point the
Braves got cocky, understandably so. Spahn had said after winning the previous
year the Yankees couldn't finish fifth in the National League. These remarks
were echoed after Game Four and he said the last two games of the World Series
would be unnecessary. But when the Yankees won Game 5 they were and Spahn came
back to pitch Game 6 on two days' rest.
For the first nine innings Spahn
and three other Yankee pitchers battled to a 2-2 tie. Then in the tenth Gil
MacDougald hit a home run and three consecutive Yankees would drive in another
run before Spahn was taken out with the Yankees ahead 4-2. However the Braves
rallied, scoring one run and putting the tying run on third before Casey
Stengel called in Bob Turley, who'd pitched a complete game one day earlier to
get the last out. Turley retired Frank Torre and the following day the Yankees
beat Lew Burdette to win 6-2 and become only the second team in baseball
history to that point to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a World Series.
The Braves would manage to tie the
L.A. Dodgers for the National League Pennant the following year but lost the
three game playoff in two consecutive games. This led the Dodgers to face the
White Sox which brings us to…
Early Wynn
Cleveland Indians 1954, Chicago
White Sox, 1959 1-2
Wynn is only one of a handful of
players at any position to play in four different calendar decades, 1939-1963.
Making his first appearance for Clark Griffith's Senators at 19, he was a
superb pitcher for a truly terrible team losing 17 games and 19 games during
the 1940s. In 1949 he ended up getting traded to Cleveland at age 29.
Wynn was they called a workhorse,
starting 40 games four times during the four times in his career. On Cleveland
he was one of four future Hall of Famers along with Bob Lemon. Bob Feller and
Hal Newhouser along with such superb starters as Mike Garcia and Herb Score.
Three times in his tenure he was one of three 20 games winners on
Cleveland's staff. Which was great except they were playing against Casey
Stengel's Yankees.
In 1954 they managed to go an
incredible 111-43 to win the American League Pennant, beating the Yankees by
eight games. Wynn led the American League with 23 win, innings pitched and
games started. The Indians were overwhelming favored to beat the New York
Giants in the World Series. If you anything about the career of Willie Mays you
know how that worked out.
Attempting to recover from the
upset loss in Game 1 Wynn started Game 2. He pitched a 1-0 shutout until the
fifth and then Dusty Rhodes – who the previous day had won Game 1 with a pinch
hit homer – pinch hit a single to tie it up. In the seventh with the Giants
clinging to a 2-1 lead Rhodes hit another homer and the Giants won 3-1. The
Indians never recovered, being swept in four games and never getting back to
the World Series.
Wynn would be traded in 1958 to
the White Sox to work with his former Cleveland manager Al Lopez. At that point Wynn had two straight sub .500
years and was 38, so most insiders thought his best days were behind him . He
shocked the baseball world by having a 22-10 season to win the Cy Young Award
at 39. Even more remarkable the Go-Go Sox won the franchise first pennant in 40
years.
Wynn would start and win Game 1
over the Dodgers in impressive fashion, pitching seven shutout innings in what
would be an 11-0 blowout. Unfortunately that was Wynn's highpoint in the World
Series. He started both Game 4 and Game 6 and was knocked out of both of them.
In the latter it came in a six run inning which would allow the Dodgers to win
their first World Championship in LA.
The White Sox didn't return to the
World Series until they won it all in 2005.
Next time we enter the era of the divisional
series and see how four of the all-time greats did in it.
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