ON THIS DATE IN BASEBALL HISTORY
OCT. 9
1910: Nap Lajoie, in a batting race with Ty Cobb, had eight hits for Cleveland in a season-ending doubleheader with the Browns. The hits were tainted, however, with St. Louis third baseman Red Corriden playing back as Lajoie bunted safely six times. Regardless, Cobb was awarded the batting title by a fraction of a point. 1916: Babe Ruth outpitched Sherry Smith of the Brooklyn Dodgers as the Boston Red Sox won the longest World Series game, 2-1 in 14 innings.
1928: Babe Ruth hit three home runs in a World Series game for the second time in his career as the Yankees beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-3.
1934: Dizzy Dean of St. Louis blanked the Detroit Tigers 11-0 in the seventh game of the World Series.
1958: Bob Turley of the Yankees pitched 6 2-3 scoreless innings in relief to beat the Milwaukee Braves 6-2 for the World Series title. New York became the first team since 1925 to win the World Series after being down 1-3.
1967: Roger Maris homered for the Cardinals in the ninth inning, but Jim Lonborg‘s 3-1 win sendt the World Series back to Boston.
1971: The Orioles won the opener of the World Series over the Pirates 5-3. Dave McNally tossed a three-hitter and Merv Rettenmund added a three-run homer. 1984: The Tigers won the World Series opener as Jack Morris pitches a complete-game 3-2 victory over San Diego. Larry Herndon’s two-run home run in the fifth provided the winning margin.
1977: The New York Yankees rallied for three runs in the ninth inning to beat the Kansas City Royals 5-3 and take the American League pennant in the fifth game of the playoffs.
1988: The Oakland Athletics completed a four-game sweep in the ALCS by beating the Boston Red Sox 4-1.
1996: Bernie Williams homered in the 11th inning to give New York a 5-4 victory over Baltimore in Game 1 of the AL championship series. The Yankees got a lot of help from a fan when Jeff Maier, 12, created a game-tying homer by Derek Jeter in the eighth when he reached out and grabbed a ball that was about to be caught by Tony Tarasco.
2005: Chris Burke hit a home run in the bottom of the 18th inning and Roger Clemens pitched three scoreless innings of relief in Houston’s 7-6, series-ending victory over Atlanta in the NLDS. The longest postseason game in history took 5 hours, 50 minutes to complete. Atlanta’s Adam LaRoche and Houston’s Lance Berkman each hit grand slams, making it the first postseason game to feature two grand slams.