History of the World Series – 1968
History of the World Series – 1968
The decision went to Gibson, unanimously.
McLain was nicked for three fourth-inning runs by the Cardinals, who got a run-scoring single from Mike Shannon and a two-run single from Julian Javier in an uprising helped along by left fielder Willie Horton’s misplay on Shannon’s base hit. In the seventh, reliever Pat Dobson, working his second inning, yielded a bases-empty home run to Lou Brock.
Gibson was making an inexorable march toward the Series record book. Through seven innings, the Cardinals’ strong-armed righthander had struck out 13 batters, two shy of the fall-classic mark established by Los Angeles’ Sandy Koufax in 1963. He had permitted four hits and no runs. With Gibson in total command and the Cards ahead, 4-O, all attention was riveted on the 32-year-old pitcher’s quest to shatter Koufax’s strikeout standard.
Gibson didn’t disappoint. He struck out pinch-hitter Eddie Mathews to open the eighth. Then, after yielding a leadoff single to Mickey Stanley in the ninth, Gibson made Al Kaline his record-equaling 15th strikeout victim, Norm Cash record-breaking No. 16 and Horton one-more-for-good-measure No. 17.
The Tigers, obviously awed by what they saw (or perhaps didn’t see) of Gibson’s fastball, bounced back from the 4-0 defeat in impressive style. Seventeen-game winner Mickey Lolich not only held the Cardinals to six singles in Game 2, but also hit the only home run of his major-league career as Detroit won, 8-1. Horton and Cash also homered for the winners.
In Game 3, Tim McCarver shot the Cardinals into a 4-2 lead with a three-run homer in the fifth, Orlando Cepeda belted a two-on shot in the seventh and Brock stole three bases as St. Louis regained the Series lead with a 7-3 conquest. Kaline, playing in his first Series after 16 seasons with Detroit and installed as the starting right fielder by Manager Mayo Smith in a Series stratagey that sent center fielder Stanley to shortstop and regular right fielder Jim Northrup to center, walloped a two-run homer for the losers, who also got a bases-empty blast from Dick McAuliffe.
Gibson then posted a record seventh consecutive triumph in the fall classic, breezing to victory in a 10-1 laugher in which he aided his own cause with his second career homer in Series play (a record for a pitcher). Brock doubled, tripled, homered and knocked in four runs for St. Louis. The swift outfielder also recorded his seventh stolen base of this Series (tying a mark he had established in 1967). The free-spirited McLain, losing for the second straight time to Gibson, was lifted after 2 2/3 innings. The Tigers were on the ropes.
While Brock’s running game unquestionably was a big plus for St. Louis, his baserunning in Game 5 proved costly. After doubling with one out in the fifth, Brock tried to score standing up on Javier’s single to left, but Horton threw him out with a great throw (which probably wouldn’t have gotten a sliding Brock). Detroit, trailing by a 3-2 score at the time, seemingly received a boost from the reprieve and broke loose for three runs in the seventh as the 33-year-old Kaline, supplying the savvy that Smith had sought from the longtime superstar-turned-reserve, delivered a bases-loaded single. Lolich, rocked for a two-run homer by Cepeda in a three-run St. Louis first, pitched scoreless ball over the final eight innings and Detroit stayed alive with a 5-3 triumph.
Detroit’s man of panache, McLain, went against Ray Washburn, not Gibson, in Game 6 and came out a 13-1 winner as Northrup slammed a bases-loaded home run in Detroit’s l0-run outburst in the third. The Tigers’ spree matched the one-inning Series scoring record set by the Philadelphia Athletics against the Chicago Cubs in Game 4 of the 1929 fall classic.
Game 7 matched Lolich against Gibson, and the fact it was a 0-0 game after six innings surprised absolutely no one. The Cardinals got two runners on in the sixth — Brock via his record-tying 13th hit of the Series and Flood with a single — but Lolich picked off each Redbird.
Then, with two out in the Detroit seventh, Cash and Horton singled. Northrup then hit a drive to center field that the normally reliable — if not usually sensational — Flood misjudged. The Cardinals outfielder broke in on the ball, realized he had been fooled by the carry of the smash and ran back. The ball sailed past Flood, and Cash and Horton scored on the play (which was ruled a triple). Bill Freehan then doubled home Northrup, and Detroit was in control.
The Tigers and Cardinals traded runs in the ninth — Shannon accounted for the Cardinals’ score with a two-out homer — and the crafty-if-unathletic-looking Lolich wound up with a five-hit, 4-1 victory. The triumph brought Detroit its first Series title since 1945 and made the Tigers only the third team in history to rally from a 3-1 deficit to win a seven game fall classic.
It was the Year of the Pitcher, all right. And while McLain and Gibson (22 victories and 13 shutouts to go along with that gaudy ERA) stole the show in the regular season and Gibson was phenomenal in Game 1 of the Series and dominant in Game 4, it was three-time winner Lolich who surfaced as the Pitcher of the World Series.