Entering the last of the ninth inning of the Series opener, Ruffing and the Yankees led, 7-0. The Cardinals had managed one base hit off the 37-year-old Ruffing, and it had taken them until the eighth inning — until there were two out in the eighth, in fact — to get that measly hit, a single by center fielder Terry Moore. St. Louis had four errors, New York none. If ever there was a case of savvy over jitters, this appeared to be it.
Musial, the Cardinals’ left fielder, fouled out to open the ninth. Catcher Walker Cooper followed with a single, but first baseman Johnny Hopp flied out. The next batter, pinch-hitter Ray Sanders, walked. Then, the Cardinals lashed five consecutive hits that produced four runs. That brought Musial to the plate with the bases loaded. Spud Chandler was now pitching for New York, and he got Musial to hit a game-ending grounder to first base.
No, the Cardinals had not made a miraculous, game-winning comeback but they had given the Yankees — and the experts — something to think about.
Manager Billy Southworth’s Redbirds had proved conclusively during the 1942 National League season that they could battle back. They had trailed league-leading Brooklyn by 10 games on the morning of August 5 and charged to a two-game margin of victory over the Dodgers. Southworth’s team was more than capable of winning four of six games — what it now would take to overcome the Yankees in the’42 Series — a fact demonstrated in clear-cut fashion during the pennant race. A four-of-six pace was a day at the beach for these Cardinals; in overhauling Brooklyn, St. Louis had won 43 of its last 51 games.
The Cardinals did not go out and beat the Yankees in four of six games. It didn’t take the Cards nearly that long to upend the New Yorkers.
Newcomer Beazley, who posted a 2.13 earned-run average while winning 21 games for St. Louis in 1942, carried a 3-0 lead into the eighth inning of Game 2 but surrendered a run-scoring single to DiMaggio and a two-run homer to Keller. The Cards won, though, 4-3, thanks to Slaughter’s double and Musial’s single in the bottom of the eighth and Slaughter’s ninth-inning throw from right field that nailed Yankee pinch-runner Tuck Stainback at third base (and thereby short-circuited a New York rally).
Cardinals lefthander Ernie White stole the show in Game 3, shutting out the Yankees on six hits and winning, 2-0. White got marvelous outfield support, with Moore making a great catch in the sixth and Musial and Slaughter making homer-saving catches in the seventh. Suddenly, St. Louis was exhibiting the skills it had honed while winning 106 regular-season games.
First-game loser Mort Cooper, who in the regular season won 22 games, fired 10 shutouts and posted an ERA of 1.78, went against Hank Borowy the next day. Cooper lasted only 5 1/3 innings and was victimized by Keller’s three-run homer in New York’s five-run sixth; Borowy lasted into the fourth, an inning in which St. Louis got two-run singles from third baseman Whitey Kurowski and pitcher Cooper (older brother of the Cards’ catcher) and scored six times overall.
In the seventh, Walker Cooper’s RBI single snapped a 6-6 tie and shortstop Marty Marion delivered a run-scoring fly ball. St. Louis reliever Max Lanier not only proceeded to pitch shutout ball the rest of the way, he also singled home an insurance run in the ninth. The Cardinals held on in a wild one, 9-6.
Game 5 matched the older Ruffing against youngster Beazley. The Yankees jumped on top when Phil Rizzuto, who had hit a total of seven home runs in his first two big-league seasons, hammered a Beazley pitch into the left-field stands in the first inning. St. Louis tied it in the fourth when Slaughter countered with a homer to right, but New York slipped back in front in the bottom of the inning on DiMaggio’s run-scoring single. The resilient Redbirds forged another deadlock in the sixth – Walker Cooper’s fly ball drove in the run — and the teams went to the ninth tied 2-2.
Walker Cooper touched Ruffing for a single and was sacrificed to second by Hopp. That brought up the 24-year-old Kurowski, 3-for-14 at that point in the Series after batting .254 with nine homers during the regular season in his first extended big-league duty. Kurowski whacked a Ruffing delivery into the left-field stands, just inside the foul pole. Cardinals 4, Yankees 2.
The World Series setback was the first since 1926 for the Yankees, who had won in all eight of their appearances in the fall classic in the interim.
