Five pitchers, including 20-year-old lefthander Babe Ruth, won 14 or more games in 1915 for Manager Bill Carrigan’s Red Sox, whose 101 victories (against 50 losses) were just enough to stave off the Detroit Tigers (100-54) in the American League pennant race. The Phillies rode the pitching of Grover Cleveland Alexander and the slugging of outfielder Gavvy Cravath to their first National League flag. Alexander tossed four one-hitters and won 31 games in 1915 (the first of three straight years in which he reached the 30-victory mark). Cravath slammed 24 home runs — a major-league high to that point in the century — and drove in 115 runs.
Alexander faced Ernie Shore in the Series opener, and the Phillies’ Ol’ Pete emerged a 3-1 winner. With one on and one out in the ninth, Alexander had to dispose of Boston’s leading home-run hitter, pitcher Ruth, who despite his 18 victories was limited to this one appearance in the 1915 Series (as a pinch-hitter for Shore). Ruth, who had hit four homers in this dead-ball-era season, grounded out and Alexander got Harry Hooper on a game-ending pop fly.
Boston’s Rube Foster was the story in Game 2. Not only did Foster shackle the Phillies on three hits at tiny Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, he also drove in the winning run with a ninth-inning single. Erskine Mayer was the tough-luck 2-1 loser in a game witnessed by President Woodrow Wilson, whose appearance was the first by a chief executive at the Series.
With the Series tied at a game apiece, the action moved to new Braves Field, whose capacity outstripped that of Fenway Park. And, with a crowd of more than 42,000 looking on, lefthander Hubert (Dutch) Leonard was dazzling in a confrontation with Alexander. Leonard retired the last 20 hitters and was a 2-1 winner when Duffy Lewis singled home Hooper in the ninth.
Manager Pat Moran’s Phillies suffered their third consecutive 2-1 loss the next day when Shore set down the National Leaguers on seven hits.
First baseman Fred Luderus and reliever Eppa Rixey kept Philadelphia in the hunt in Game 5, to no avail. Luderus whacked a two-run double in the first inning and a bases-empty home run in the fourth, helping the Phils to a 4-2 lead; Rixey, pitching in relief of Mayer, took over with one out in the third and shut out the Red Sox through the seventh. In the eighth, however, Lewis hit a game-tying, two-run homer. Then, in the ninth, Hooper smashed his second homer of the game and, with Foster retiring the Phils in order in the bottom of the inning, Boston pulled out a Series-clinching 5-4 victory.
As for those other Boston and Philadelphia teams, the Braves ran out of miracles and finished second in the NL in 1915 and the Athletics ran out of players and wound up last in the AL. After their breakup by Connie Mack because of a dismal showing in the ’14 Series, the A’s fielded a team that ended up 58 1/2 games Red Sox.
This article was originally published on TSN
Game Recaps from Retrosheet
1915 World Series Stories
The 1915 Post-Season Games
World Series: Boston Red Sox (4) defeated Philadelphia Phillies (1)
World Series Game 1 Played on Friday, October 8, 1915 (D) at Baker Bowl
BOS A 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 - 1 8 1 PHI N 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 x - 3 5 1
BOX+PBP WP: Alexander (1-0) LP: Shore (0-1)
World Series Game 2 Played on Saturday, October 9, 1915 (D) at Baker Bowl
BOS A 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 10 0 PHI N 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 1 3 1
BOX+PBP WP: Foster (1-0) LP: Mayer (0-1)
World Series Game 3 Played on Monday, October 11, 1915 (D) at Braves Field
PHI N 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 3 0 BOS A 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 6 1
BOX+PBP WP: Leonard (1-0) LP: Alexander (1-1)
World Series Game 4 Played on Tuesday, October 12, 1915 (D) at Braves Field
PHI N 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 - 1 7 0 BOS A 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 x - 2 8 1
BOX+PBP WP: Shore (1-1) LP: Chalmers (0-1)
World Series Game 5 Played on Wednesday, October 13, 1915 (D) at Baker Bowl
BOS A 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 - 5 10 1 PHI N 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 - 4 9 1
BOX+PBP WP: Foster (2-0) LP: Rixey (0-1) HR: Hooper 2 (2), Lewis (1), Luderus (1)
