Cronin had plenty of help offensively. Outfielder Heinie Manush hit .336 and knocked in 95 runs, first baseman Joe Kuhel finished at .322 and drove in 107 runs and second baseman Buddy Myer contributed a .302 mark. And outfielders Goose Goslin and Fred Schulte, obtained after the 1932 season from the St. Louis Browns, were .297 and .295 hitters. The pitching wasn’t exactly shabby, either, with Alvin Crowder winning 24 games and Earl Whitehill 22. And Lefty Stewart, also acquired in the Browns trade, went 15-6.
Having outdistanced the New York Yankees by seven games in the American League pennant race, Washington appeared too strong for the Giants. Having won the National League flag in their first full season under Bill Terry, who had succeeded John McGraw as manager in June 1932, the Giants had only one .300 hitter, first baseman Terry, and one 100-RBI man, outfielder Mel Ott. But in Carl Hubbell, Hal Schumacher, Freddie Fitzsimmons, Roy Parmelee and Dolf Luque, New York was loaded with strong arms.
Hubbell and Schumacher, who had combined for 17 shutouts, started the first two games of the Series for the Giants and were opposed by Stewart and Crowder, respectively. And while neither Giants pitcher was able to hold the Senators scoreless, each pitched extremely well. Hubbell did not permit an earned run while allowing only five hits and striking out 10 in a 4-2 victory. Ott was the hitting star of the Series opener, stroking a two-run homer and a run-scoring single. Schumacher yielded only one run in Game 2, that coming on a Goslin homer, and wound up a 6-1 winner as the Giants erupted for six runs in the sixth inning. The key hit in the outburst was a bases-loaded pinch single by Lefty O’Doul, whose trip to the plate marked his only career at-bat in World Series competition.
Good pitching was indeed stopping good hitting. And what marvelous pitching the Giants possessed. Hubbell had led the National League in victories with 23, shutouts with 10 and earned-run average with a 1.66. Schumacher, Hubbell and Parmelee had ranked 1-2-3 in the league in fewest hits allowed per nine innings. Schumacher had won 19 games, and his 2.16 ERA ranked third in the NL. Fitzsimmons had won 16. And reliever Luque, at 43, had won eight of 10 decisions and boasted a 2.70 ERA.
The standout pitching in this World Series continued in Game 3, only this time the stellar performance came from a member of Cronin’s staff. Whitehill, another prize off-season acquisition of the Senators (the lefthander had spent nearly a decade with the Detroit Tigers), doled out five hits and won, 4-0. Myer had three hits and two RBIs for Washington.
Cronin and company faced a major obstacle as they tried to square the Series in Game 4. That obstacle was named Hubbell. The 30-year-old screwball pitcher again did not allow an earned run, but found himself in a 1-1 tie after nine innings. Terry had accounted for the Giants’ run with a fourth-inning home run off Monte Weaver, while Washington countered with a seventh-inning run on Hubbell’s error, a sacrifice and Luke Sewell’s single. Neither club could score in the 10th, but New York edged ahead in the 11th on Travis Jackson’s bunt single, a sacrifice and Blondy Ryan’s single. In the bottom of the inning, Hubbell escaped a one-out, bases-loaded situation by getting pinch-hitter Cliff Bolton to ground into a double play. The Giants’ 2-1 win moved the New Yorkers within one victory of their first Series championship since 1922.
Schumacher was Terry’s pitching choice for Game 5, and Prince Hal presented himself with a 2-0 lead by singling home Jackson and Gus Mancuso in the second inning. And by the last of the sixth, it was 3-0. Schumacher retired the first two batters, but Manush and Cronin lashed singles and Schulte brought the Washington crowd alive with a game-tying home run to left. Before the inning was over, Prince Hal was in exile. The game was a battle of relievers — the Giants’ Luque against the Senators’ Jack Russell.
The 3-3 stalemate continued until the top of the 10th when, with two out, Ott drilled a Russell pitch into the center-field bleachers. Luque then went about the business of nailing down the Series title for the Giants. After getting two quick outs, the Cuban allowed a single to Cronin and a walk to Schulte. But the man who had first appeared in the majors in 1914 struck out Kuhel on three pitches to end the game-and the 30th World Series.
New York batted .267 in the Series, slightly above its season figure of .263. Washington hit .214 after leading the majors in 1933 with a .287 team mark.
What had unfolded in the ’33 Series was no mystery. Clearly, good pitching had stopped good hitting.
