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1939 - New
York Yankees (4) vs. Cincinnati Reds (0) |
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Game |
Date |
Winning Team |
Losing Team |
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1 |
Oct. 5 |
NEW YORK (Ruffing) 2 |
Cincinnati (Derringer) 1 |
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2 |
Oct. 6 |
NEW YORK (Pearson) 4 |
Cincinnati (Walters) 0 |
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3 |
Oct. 8 |
New York (Hadley) 7 |
CINCINNATI (Thompson) 3 |
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4 |
Oct. 9 |
New York (Murphy) *7 |
CINCINNATI (Walters) 4 |
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*10 innings |
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Managers -- Joe McCarthy, Yankees; Bill McKechnie, Reds |
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Notes: With the four-game sweep, the Yankees had won 16 of the last 19 World Series games played. ... The Yanks' Charlie Keller led all regulars with a .438 batting average.
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The New York Yankees captured
their fourth straight American League pennant with ease, winning 106 games
despite the loss of Lou Gehrig, who was diagnosed with amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis. The Cincinnati Reds
withstood a late charge from St. Louis to win their first NL flag since
1919.
Red Ruffing, who had a three-game winning streak in World Series comeptition, ran his streak to four with a victory
in Game 1, beating the Reds, 2-1, in Yankee Stadium. When the Yankees came
to bat in the ninth, the score was 1-1, as Cincinnati starter Paul Derringer
had matched Ruffing by allowing just four hits.
After Red Rolfe led off
with a groundout, Charlie "King Kong" Keller tripled to the right-field
bleachers. Joe DiMaggio was intentionally walked, but the strategy proved
fruitless when Bill Dickey followed with a single to center field, scoring
Keller with the winning run.
In Game 2, Yankees right-hander Monte Pearson posted one of the all-time
great World Series starts. After seven innings, Pearson owned
a 4-0 lead and was working on a no-hitter. Ernie Lombardi broke up the
no-hit bid with a clean single in the eighth, and Billy Werber collected
a base hit in the ninth, but Pearson finished with a two-hit, one-walk
shutout, striking out eight.
Two days later, the World Series resumed in Cincinnati, and the Reds
grabbed a 3-2 lead in the second inning on the strength of four singles.
After that, it was all Yankees. In the third, DiMaggio blasted a two-run
homer over the center-field fence, and in the fifth the Yankees scored
three times on Keller's two-run homer, his second of the game, and Bill
Dickey's solo shot. Bump Hadley, who relieved New York ace Lefty Gomez
in the second inning, pitched the final eight frames to earn the 7-3 decision.
Needing a win in Game 4 to avoid elimination, the Reds carried a 4-2
lead into the ninth inning. Keller and DiMaggio opened the ninth with
singles, but Dickey hit a perfect double-play ball to Reds second baseman
Lonny Frey, who relayed to shortstop Billy Myers ... who dropped the ball,
allowing Keller to score. DiMaggio later scored to tie the game, and the
game went to extra innings. And with the help of three more Cincinnati errors, the Yanks
scored three more in the 10th. Cincinnati didn't score in the bottom of
the inning despite a pair of singles, and the Yankees
had a 7-4 victory and their fourth World Series in as many
years.
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