Alexander seals St. Louis World Series victory as Ruth gets caught stealing for final out.
On October 10, 1926, After pitching a complete Game 6, 39-year-old Grover Cleveland Alexander appears from the bullpen Through the cold, misty fog that had descended upon the field, the 38,000 plus in attendance and the Yankee bench were surprised to see the great Pete Alexander appear.
Most assumed Alexander would be unable to pitch because of his alcoholism and his previous days start.
However, Hornsby had told Alexander he may need him for game 7 and he was ready. With the bases loaded and Tony Lazzeri up, Alexander nearly gives up a grand slam, but Lazzeri is a tad early on an 0-2 pitch and missed a mammoth homerun by a few feet. However, the old- vet was able to regroup and get Lazzari to swing at a low curve outside the strike zone to strikeout Lazzari and preserve the lead.
Ruth had homered to start the scoring with a homerun in the 3rd inning, St. Louis scored all their of their runs in the 4th, Sunny” Jim Bottomley got it started with a one-out single to left. Third baseman Les Bell followed with what looked like an inning-ending double-play ball but shortstop Mark Koenig let the ball bounce off his glove. Chick Hafey followed with a sharp single to left, loading the bases. O’Farrell then lifted a routine fly ball to the outfield. Left fielder Meusel positioned himself under the ball, reached up to make the catch, but let the ball plunk off his glove. Bottomley scampered home with the tying run. With the bases still loaded, shortstop Tommy Thevenow punched a pitch into right field scoring two more runs. Hoyt then struck out Haines and got Wattie Holm to ground one to shortstop. This time Koenig made the play ending the inning but the Cardinals had scored three unearned runs.
The Yankees scratched out a run in the 5th to make the score 3-2.
Alexander stayed on to pitch and after retiring the first 6 batters in a row, Babe Ruth came up, with the count 1-2, Alexander did not give Ruth another pitch to hit and walked on the full count. With Ruth on first, Meusel came to the plate with a chance to redeem himself for his crucial 4th inning error. The Yankees left fielder was the only hitter who had consistently given Alexander problems. In the seven times, the two had faced each other during the Series Meusel had three hits including a double and a triple the previous day. As Alex released his first pitch to Meusel, a strike, Ruth inexplicably took off for second. O’Farrell gunned a perfect strike to second. Hornsby tagged out the sliding Ruth and the Cardinals had won their first world championship.
This marks the only time a World Series has ended in a caught stealing.
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