This Date in Baseball

Oct. 10

1904 — Boston clinched the pennant on the last day of the season when Jack Chesbro of the New York Highlanders threw a wild pitch in the ninth to allow the winning run to score from third.

1920 — The Cleveland Indians beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 8-1 in the fifth game of the World Series. For the Indians, Elmer Smith hit the first Series grand slam and Jim Bagby, the winner, hit the first Series homer by a pitcher.

1924 — The Washington Senators won their only championship by defeating the Giants 4-3 in 12 innings. The winning run scored when a ball hit by Earl McNeely bounced over third baseman Fred Lindstrom’s head.

1926 — Grover Alexander, 39, saved Game 7 and the World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals, fanning Tony Lazzeri with the bases loaded in the seventh inning and pitching 2 1-3 hitless innings. The game ended with Babe Ruth being thrown out trying to steal second base. With two outs in the top of the ninth, Ruth walked for the third time, having homered in the fourth inning.

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1931 — The St. Louis Cardinals held on to beat the Philadelphia A’s, 4-2 in Game 7 of the World Series. The Athletics rallied for two runs and had two runners on base with two outs in the ninth inning when Cardinals reliever Bill Hallahan got the final out for the win.

1937 — New York Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez drove in the winning run for a 4-2 win over the New York Giants and the World Series title in five games.

1945 — The Detroit Tigers scored five runs in the first inning of Game 7 of the World Series en route to a 9-3 win over the Chicago Cubs and the World Championship.

1957 — Lew Burdette’s third victory of the World Series, a 5-0 decision over the New York Yankees in Game 7, gave the Milwaukee Braves the championship.

1968 — Mickey Lolich won the World Series for the Detroit Tigers by defeating Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 in Game 7. It was Lolich’s third win and came after the Tigers had lost three of the first four games.

1973 — New York’s Tom Seaver pitched the Mets into the World Series with a 7-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.

1980 — Kansas City’s George Brett hit an upper deck three-run homer off relief ace Goose Gossage to give the Kansas City Royals a 4-2 victory and a three-game sweep of New York Yankees in the ALCS.

1990 — The Oakland Athletics swept the Boston Red Sox for the American League pennant and their third straight trip to the World Series with a 3-1 victory. MVP Dave Stewart won for the eighth straight time in head-to-head matchups with Roger Clemens, who was ejected in the second inning for arguing balls and strikes with umpire Terry Cooney.

1999 — One night after winning their second postseason game in 20 tries, the Boston Red Sox made it two in a row in record style — shocking the Cleveland Indians 23-7 to force a deciding fifth game in their first-round AL playoff series.

2011 — Albert Pujols had one of the biggest postseason nights of his career in Game 2 of the NL championship series, going 4 for 5 with a home run, three doubles and five RBIs as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 12-3 to even the series at 1-1.

2011 — Nelson Cruz hit the first game-ending grand slam in postseason history, lifting the Texas Rangers over the Detroit Tigers 7-3 in 11 innings for a 2-0 lead in the AL championship series.

2016 — Joe Panik doubled off the wall in right-center field to drive in Brandon Crawford with the winning run in the 13th inning, and the San Francisco Giants staved off elimination yet again by outlasting the Chicago Cubs 6-5 in Game 3 of their NL Division Series.

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