A common refrain is that if analytics could predict everything, well, then there'd be no need to play the games. Could we have crowned a World Series champion back in April when the Red Sox started 17-2? Well, yeah, we could have, but then the last six months wouldn't have been remotely interesting, now, would they? So despite finishing the regular season with a team-record 108 wins, Boston still needed 11 more to truly be fulfilled. You even saw Alex Cora and his "win wall" ignoring the 108 and saying it's all about getting 11 more now.
After surviving a closer-than-it-looked Division Series against the Yankees and collecting the required four wins against Houston for the American League pennant, the Sawx were up to 115 wins. That's a lot. It's more than the Orioles and Royals had combined. The real prize, however, was the quest for 119 against the heavily analytics- and numbers-driven Dodgers. For that we must head north, well past 115th Street (or even 263rd at the Yonkers line), to Jersey. Um, hang on, what? Yes, that is the recently-redacted Yawkey Way in Boston, now back to being Jersey Street, which hadn't hosted a World Series game under that moniker since October 22, 1975, when Cora was four days old.
If your World Series drinking game had a provision for every time a broadcaster mentioned how cold it was, well, at least you were warm and toasty. It's New England in October. And it's not like we haven't been here before. Thanks to "season creep" (and note, that timer in the top-right corner is now counting to an earliest-ever season opener of March 20!), this was the fourth World Series to begin on October 23, and three of those games have been played at Fenway Park (also 2013 and 2007). And spoiler alert, Boston won all of them.
While the Dodgers were busy shivering and rounding up sled dogs to double as blankets, the Sawx opened with back-to-back singles from Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi, the seventh time a team's first two batters of a World Series had gotten hits. The last was in that 2007 game at Fenway, and the pair of Sawx to do it was Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis. When both of them later scored, it continued yet another theme: On six occasions has Game 1 of a World Series been played at Fenway Park; Boston scored in the 1st inning of that game four times. They won those four series. The two series where they didn't score in the 1st of Game 1, they lost.
No sooner had Manny Machado tied the game in the top of the 3rd than J.D. Martinez had untied it with an RBI double to score Benintendi again. J.D. joined Rico Petrocelli (Game 6, 1967) as the only Red Sox hitters to drive in a run in each of their first two plate appearances in a World Series game; Rico hit two homers to at least force a Game 7 in that series.
Of course this wouldn't be the season of #bullpenning if both starters didn't issue a leadoff walk in the 5th and have their managers declare that it must be time to go now. And we're not talking any starters here. Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale were only the fourth pair of Game 1 starters where neither went five innings. Woody Williams and Tim Wakefield both left an 11-9 slugfest in 2004; Dave McNally (5 walks) and Don Drysdale (2 homers) did it in 1966; and Waite Hoyt and John "Mule" Watson traded 3-run starts in 1923. (We can find no info on "Mule" other than that he already had the nickname by the time he reached the majors.)
Both those leadoff walks in the 5th would end up scoring, but not before Benintendi had recorded his third hit of the game and advanced when Ryan Madson's very first offering turned into a wild pitch. That would ultimately tag Kershaw with the loss, and Madson with the functional equivalent of a blown save. (This will be a theme.) Manny Machado got the Dodgers back within 1 in the 7th with a sac fly to drive in his third run, making him just the second Dodger ever to officially have a 3-RBI game at Fenway Park. "The Killer Tomato", Olmedo Saenz, did it with a two-run homer and a bases-loaded HBP on June 12, 2004. (Asterisk: Bill Zimmerman has been retroactively credited with doing it on April 21, 1915, before RBIs were kept by the leagues. At Fenway, you say? Mm-hmm. The Braves occasionally "borrowed" Fenway in case of scheduling conflicts; in this case it was because there were offseason renovations that weren't finished in time for Opening Day.)
Speaking of 3-RBI games, the real dagger in Game 1 came off the bat of Eduardo Nuñez who had been sitting around getting cold until summoned to greet Alex Wood in the bottom of the 7th. He proceeded to hit just the fifth pinch-hit 3-run homer in World Series history (there's never been a slam), the first since the Giants' Bill Bathe in 1989, and the second for Boston. The other was only Bernie Carbo's 8th-inning shot in 1975 that sent the game to extras... where Carlton Fisk waved it off. (The others were by the Indians' Hank Majeski and the Giants' Dusty Rhodes, in the same series in 1954.) And oh by the way, one of those runners ahead of Nuñez's dinger? Why, it's Andrew Benintendi again. He joined Jacoby Ellsbury (2007 Game 3) and Wally Moses (1946 Game 4) as the only Sawx batters with a 4-hit game in the World Series. And the only other player, for any team, with 4 hits and 3 runs scored in a World Series Game 1 was Pablo Sandoval, in his 3-homer game for the Giants in 2012.
If you live on Boston's north shore and want to get to Fenway Park, you might begin at the Wonderland subway station, named for a 1910-era amusement park turned greyhound track that sat right next to the station until Massachusetts banned dog racing in 2010. Now you can't even catch a Greyhound bus there, but you can take city bus #117 which will drop you in the North End if you'd prefer some fine dining and a leisurely walk across Boston Common to get to the game. Although apparently it's way too cold for that.
(Sidebar since we looked it up: The also-now-closed Hollywood Park horse track happens to be served by Los Angeles city bus #117 as well. But it's not about them.)
Appropriately for the 47-degree gametime temperature, David Freese would be the only one of the game's first eleven batters to reach base, but Xander Bogaerts began the flagging down of #117 with a 2nd-inning double. Ian Kinsler singled him home, but then got nailed at third base to end the inning. Freese thawed out the Dodgers offense in the 4th against David Price; with three singles, a walk, and a sacrifice fly, Los Angeles suddenly had a 2-1 lead and we wondered if this series might get to seven games after all.
Like Kershaw before him, Hyun-Jin Ryu gave up baserunners in the 5th and Dave Roberts (or his "numbers") decided it was time for him to leave. After Ryan Madson allowed two inherited runners to score yesterday, certainly the law of averages says that today he has to be able to-- mm, yeah, no, he didn't. He issued a five-pitch walk to Steve Pearce to tie the game, again functionally (though not statistically) blowing the save, and then Game 2's big dagger came in the form of J.D. Martinez's bases-loaded single. Those two runs made J.D. just the fifth Red Sox batter with multiple RBIs in consecutive World Series games, joining David Ortiz (2013), Mark Bellhorn (2004), and Dwight Evans (both 1975 and 1986).
The walk, meanwhle, was the second of the game-tying variety in both teams' postseason histories; while Manny Ramirez did play for both teams, he's on only one side of this note. He drew the only one for Boston (from The Pitcher Formerly Known As Fausto Carmona) in Game 2 of the 2007 ALCS, while Burt Hooton issued the Dodgers' only such walk, to Philadelphia's Bake McBride in the 1977 NLCS. And by allowing all three inherited runners to score, Madson joined a dubious list of Dodger pitchers to do that in a World Series. The others are Russ Meyer, who allowed a grand slam to Mickey Mantle in 1953 Game 5, and Billy Loes, who did it in Game 2 the prior year. Only three other pitchers had allowed a total of five inherited runners to score in a single World Series, which Madson managed to do in two games (we know; wait for it). That list is Oakland's Darold Knowles in 1973, Clem Labine of the 1960 Pirates, and Rosy Ryan for the Giants in 1923.
The teams would combine for only one baserunner after that, a Mookie Betts double in the 7th, which also means those three hits off David Price in the 4th wound up being L.A.'s only hits in the entire game. The previous World Series road game where the Dodgers collected no more than three hits... was the game where they didn't get any, Don Larsen's PG for the Yankees in 1956. And incredibly, it had been 20 years since the Dodgers had any game where they were held to three singles but still managed to score two runs; it last happened September 10, 1998, in San Diego. The Rockies and Orioles are now the only two teams not to pull it off in this century.
Trivia Time
There's a lot of talk about "metrics" these days, but back in the 1970s the United States tried to officially convert to the metric system. It, um, hasn't gone well. (To wit: Who's in favor of "moving" the pitcher's mound to 18.44 meters?) There's actually still a government office in charge of this endeavor; it employs exactly two people. But there are still two roads in the U.S. that have their exits signed in kilometers. One is about a seven-hour drive from Dodger Stadium and the other is about a seven-hour drive from Fenway Park. Go.
You're forgiven if you don't remember this one as being a fairly decent pitchers' duel at the beginning; Walker Buehler fanned seven and gave up just two hits, while the only damage against Rick Porcello was a solo homer by Joc Pederson in the 3rd. But when Yasmani Grandal found his way into a leadoff single in the 5th, well, we know by now what that means. Alex Cora channelled his inner Dave Roberts and Porcello must also get taken out before finishing the 5th. All told this postseason there were 66 starting pitchers and only 31 of them were allowed to get through five frames. The only postseason with a higher percentage of such a thing was 1947, whose World Series featured slugfests of 10-3, 9-8, and 8-6 where a bunch of starters got rocked and only four of the 14 made it to the 6th. (Last year, at 33 out of 76, comes in third now.)
Buehler's day was finally sealed when Roberts summoned Matt Kemp to pinch-hit for him in the 7th; he ended up becoming the fifth pitcher in World Series history to go at least 7 innings and allow no more than two baserunners. The previous one-- and the only other one to get a no-decision-- was another Dodger, Rick Rhoden, who did it in relief in 1977 Game 4 after the Yankees jumped on Doug Rau for three early runs. The others all threw shutout wins: Boston's Jim Lonborg in 1967 Game 2, Claude Passeau for the Cubs in 1945 Game 3, and of course Don Larsen's perfect game.
That no-decision, of course, came courtesy of Kenley Jansen, who was supposed to get six outs-- and did, but not before giving up a tying home run to Jackie Bradley. That was Boston's first tying (not go-ahead) homer in the 8th inning of a World Series since that same Bernie Carbo blast (setting up Fisk) in 1975. And it was only the third tying or go-ahead homer the Red Sox had ever hit in the 8th or later at Dodger Stadium. The others both came when the Angels borrowed it for their first few years: Dick Stuart on June 1, 1964, and Lou Clinton on August 14, 1962.
David Price would be tapped for the 9th, having just thrown 88 pitches two days earlier in Game 2. Gary Bell (1967) and Smoky Joe Wood (1912) are the only other Red Sox pitchers to start one World Series game and then show up in relief in the next; they both did it after short starts where they got knocked around (Wood gave up six runs in 1 IP). When Cody Bellinger hit a leadoff single-- at 8:27 pm, for the record-- we had our Dodgers walkoff notes ready to go.
Bellinger, naturally, got anxious about trying to steal second, broke before Price had made a move to the plate, and easily got picked off. When Craig Kimbrel came in after a two-out walk, we thought he might do the right thing and give up a game-winner, as he so often did in the ALCS. Nope. And when Ian Kinsler managed to run into an inning-ending double play in the 10th-- already at 9:01 pm, so four outs took 34 minutes-- we just had that feeling that it's One Of Those Games. Just like the 13-inning middle game of the Dodgers' NLCS, the middle game of the World Series was that stuck-in-quicksand game where neither team was going to do anything. For a while.
Finally in the 13th, with the Red Sox now on their ninth pitcher already (remember, Porcello wasn't allowed to finish the 5th because it's 2018), Brock Holt drew a leadoff walk and then stole second. (It's now 10:06 pm.) Eduardo Nuñez then began his interesting night of requiring medical attention, tripping over Austin Barnes in the batter's box, but also drawing a wild throw from Scott Alexander to score Holt and cue up the "3-0 series lead" notes. The Bill Buckner play from 1986 got mentioned a lot right around now, but that was a straight error. Nuñez's ball was only the second go-ahead "single-plus-error" in extra innings in World Series history; in 1939 Game 4, Joe DiMaggio ripped a single to right that was misplayed by the Reds' Ival Goodman and turned into a "Little League home run". If the Red Sox hadn't burned all their bench players already, it's likely Nuñez would have come out, but still, that's only an insurance run at this point, and it'll only matter if-- oh. Sure enough, Sandy Leon doubles on a play that probably should have scored Nuñez, especially with two outs, but his ankle thinks otherwise and he barely makes it to third. Still all we need is a 0 in the bottom of the 13th, and the Dodgers have put up 11 of those already, what could happen.
Yasiel Puig happens. And Ian Kinsler happens. And Nuñez hurts himself again. And we have the third game in postseason history where teams traded runs in the 13th inning or later, and the first one that didn't involve the Mets (of course). They walked off in 16 against the Astros in the 1986 NLCS after trading runs in the 14th; the other game, so that we can use this link again, is the Robin Ventura "grand slam single" (note the "1" on the Braves' half of the 15th).
We'll spare you innings 14 through 17 because we don't remember them either. There were two singles and an inordinate number of weak pop-ups because, as mentioned, it's the Quicksand Game and nobody seems interested. Nuñez did hurt himself again. And Max Muncy sent a ball just to the wrong side of the foul pole in the 15th-- at 11:30 pm-- before finally sending one to the correct side exactly an hour later.
Ignoring the 18 innings and 7 hours 20 minutes, which of course no World Series game had ever come close to, it was the fourth walkoff win in Dodgers WS history and the fourth walkoff loss for the Red Sox. You can probably get several of the other six games by now: For the Dodgers it's Kirk Gibson's homer in 1988, a Jackie Robinson walkoff single in 1956, and Cookie Lavagetto breaking up Bill Bevens' no-hitter with two outs in the 9th in 1947. On the Boston side it's the Buckner play, Joe Morgan's 10th-inning single for the Reds in 1975, and the Will Middlebrooks interference play at the end of 2013 Game 3 in St Louis.
Much was made of the top four spots in the Red Sox order-- that's six total players-- going 0-for-28. But just by themselves, Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts were the first pair of one/two hitters, for any team, to each go 0-for-7 since Ryan Thompson and Kevin Baez of the Mets did it in a 17-inning win over the Cardinals on September 29, 1993. The Red Sox offense hadn't struck out 19 times and lost since August 12, 1974, at Anaheim-- one of Nolan Ryan's three 19-K games that season.
And for a real throwback, it turns out there had only been five other games of 17 innings or later ever played at Dodger Stadium, and the only one that L.A. won was a 17-inning one against the Braves on May 2, 1968. That means they hadn't walked off in any game in the 18th or later since the Ebbets Field days-- and the very early Ebbets Field days at that. On August 22, 1917, they played Pittsburgh in what was, at the time, the longest game in National League history. In the bottom of the 22nd, Otto Miller hit a potential double-play ball to second, but in trying to decide whether he could get lead runner Jim Hickman at the plate, Pirates 2B Jake Pitler waited too long to make the relay throw and Miller beat out the walkoff FC.
Trivia hint if you're actually still thinking about the question: Remember what number the Red Sox are trying to get to.
One of two things inevitably happens after an 18-inning game until 12:30 am: Either the players are still sleepwalking and we get another 1-0 snoozefest where nobody can hit, or one/both teams find some kind of inspiration in not wanting to do that again and we end up with an 11-10 escapade. Game 4 actually brought us both. In that order.
After managing just one hit in the final five innings on Friday, the Red Sox managed just one in the first six innings on Saturday against The Rich Hill Experience, who recorded the third-longest no-hitter in Dodgers World Series history, behind Alex Wood's 5⅔ last season and Sandy Koufax for 4⅔ in the 1963 opener. The Dodgers only had two hits of their own by this point, and the most exciting thing to happen in the first five innings was that Boston starter Eduardo Rodriguez got hit by a pitch. And if you're a fan of '60s Cardinal and '70s journeyman Nelson Briles, well, this is your week. When it comes to getting plunked, the only other Red Sox pitcher to do it in the postseason was Gary Wasiewski, by Briles in Game 6 in 1967. Turnabout is fair play; when the Cards also went to the Series in 1968, Briles got hit by Tigers great Mickey Lolich, making him also the last pitcher to get hit in a World Series game before E-Rod.
Finally in the 6th the Dodgers break through with a Justin Turner double and a series of unfortunate events that ends with Christian Vazquez hitting Cody Bellinger in the back as he tries to complete an inning-ending double play. Alex Cora unsuccessfully argued that Bellinger might have been out of the running lane, and before we can finish resurrecting our 1-0 notes from Friday, naturally then Yasiel Puig cranks a three-run bomb. The Dodgers have never had a grand slam in a World Series game, and of their 16 three-run jobs, the previous one at Chavez Ravine had been by Mike Marshall off Oakland's Storm Davis in 1988 Game 2.
Rich Hill, of course, has gone six innings on 82 pitches, given up only the one hit, and has a 4-0 lead, but leadoff walk to Xander Bogaerts in the 7th. You know what "the numbers" say about that. Pull him. Now. Obviously he's spent. Here, Scott Alexander, face one batter (Brock Holt) and walk him on four pitches. Here, Ryan Madson, I seem to remember something about you and inherited runners.
If you've forgotten, Madson-- as of Game 2-- was just the fourth pitcher ever to allow five inherited runners to score in the same World Series. No one had ever allowed six. And technically you could say still no one has allowed six. Because Mitch Moreland three-run homer to make Madson 7-for-7 in that department. Moreland was only the second Red Sox batter with a pinch-hit homer at Dodger Stadium, again including the Angels years. Juan Diaz took Andy Ashby deep in a regular-season interleague game on June 23, 2002. And combined with Eduardo Nuñez's shot in Game 1, it was the first time two different Sox had hit them in the same postseason (Bernie Carbo did hit two by himself in 1975). Between Moreland and Puig, Game 4 was the 10th time in World Series history where each team hit at least a 3-run homer; that 13-12 escapade in last year's Game 5 was the only other one in the past 20 seaons.
But still it's 4-3 and the Dodgers look like they might hang on and guarantee us some more frequent-flier miles back to Boston. Kenley Jansen, how are you at getting six-out saves? Oh right, yesterday. Well the law of averages says there's no way they'll hit another game-tying solo homer in the 8th.
Steve Pearce, law-breaker. Kenley Jansen, third pitcher ever to blow a save in consecutive games of the same World Series (Jeurys Familia, 2015 Mets, and Byung-Hyun Kim, 2001 Diamondbacks). Rich Hill, first starter in World Series history to allow ≤ 1 hit, ≤ 1 run, strike out 7+, and not get the win. Red Sox, first team since the 2005 White Sox (Scott Podsednik and Geoff Blum) to hit a tying or go-ahead homer in the 8th inning or later in consecutive World Series games.
Unlike Game 3, it at least appeared both offenses were awake tonight and, even if this went extras, it didn't feel like 18-inning material. Things are happening frequently enough that somebody's gonna score again. Or, in the case of the Red Sox 9th inning, everybody's gonna score again. Holt double. Rafael Devers RBI single for the lead, just the third go-ahead pinch-hit anything in the 9th or later in Red Sox postseason history (Trot Nixon in 2003 ALDS and Del Gainer in 1916 WS both hit walkoffs). But Craig Kimbrel is warming up and it's still only 5-4, so maybe let's not strand that insurance run at third base this time. Oh hey, Steve Pearce is back. Bases-clearing double and out come the "3-1 series lead" notes. Only two other players have ever hit a three-run double in the 9th or later of a World Series game, Lorenzo Cain for the Royals in 2015 (Game 5), and then-Cardinal Terry Pendleton against the Royals in 1985 (Game 2). Adding in the 8th-inning homer gives Pearce 4 RBI, joining Shane Victorino (2013 Game 6), David Ortiz (2004 Game 1), and Carl Yastrzemski (1967 Game 2) as the only Red Sox batters to do that in a World Series contest.
As predicted, the Dodgers did get two back in the 9th off Kimbrel, so had Pearce not upped the ante, Enrique Hernandez's home run could very well have been another walkoff (and blown save). Obviously there are more rounds and more games now, but Kimbrel is the first pitcher ever to finish five games in the same postseason and give up a run in all of them.
And Justin Turner ended the game on second base after his third hit of the evening. He also had three hits in the Game 1 loss back at Fenway; only one other Dodgers batter has had multiple 3-hit games in the same World Series, Roy Campanella in 1955. And only six other players have ever done it in two losses in the same Series, the previous being Detroit's Sean Casey in 2006. The rest of that list is Mariano Duncan (1993 Phillies), Thurman Munson (1976 Yankees), Nellie Fox (1969 White Sox), Joe Marty (1938 Cubs), and Joe Judge (1924 Senators).
By the time Game 5 rolled around on Sunday, with the Red Sox riding the momentum again, and the Dodgers' only win requiring the equivalent of two games to get, it seemed like the question wasn't if the Red Sox would get that last victory, it was when. Steve Pearce, he of the tying homer and three-run double last night, apparently wasn't told that Game 4 was over, because he raked Clayton Kershaw's sixth pitch into the seats for a 2-0 lead. That made him the third player in Red Sox history to homer in back-to-back games of the same World Series, joining David Ortiz in 2013 and Larry Gardner in 1916. It was the first multi-run homer the Sox had ever hit in the 1st inning of a World Series road game, and their third 1st-inning homer at Dodger Stadium. Jonny Gomes (off Game 2 starter Hyun-Jin Ryu, but in 2013) and Frank Malzone (1965 off the Angels' George Brunet) had the others. And only one other Red Sox batter had ever homered in consecutive games at Dodger Stadium, in any inning: Jim Pagliaroni against the Angels on July 6 and 7, 1962.
Ah, but not so fast. After that cold midweek weather in Boston, David Freese has thawed out again. And David Price left him some high heat on the first pitch, which Freese then left in the right-field bleachers to instantly cut the lead in half. You may recall that Freese hit a leadoff homer in Game 6 of the NLCS in Milwaukee; he joins Jimmy Rollins (2008) and Angel Pagán (2012) as the only batters to hit two in the same postseason. Combined with Joc Pederson's in the Division Series, the Dodgers are also the first team to hit three in a single postseason (although of course there are more games now).
Now that we have the potential elimination game jitters over with, both pitchers settled down and combined for just four baserunners over the next five innings. One of those did happen to be a David Freese "triple", quotation marks because J.D. Martinez lost it in the setting sun and threw up his hands before watching it bounce behind him. It made Freese the 17th player in World Series history to homer and triple in the same game, or not, if you consider that he was already on that list. The David Freese Game™ from 2011 is remembered for his walkoff homer, but he also had a three-bagger in that one; the only other repeat among the 17 games is Paul Molitor, who did it twice in the 1993 Series with Toronto. Since you already know how this ends, Freese would also be the first Dodger to homer and triple in a loss at Chavez Ravine since Rafael Furcal did it against the Pirates on September 19, 2006.
Alas, the next two Dodgers could do nothing to score Freese, and one of those other baserunners we mentioned was a Mookie Betts homer to make it 3-1 in the 6th. In an interesting reversal from the rest of the series, Dave Roberts left Kershaw out there for the 7th, which promptly began with a homer by Martinez, and now they can smell it. Kershaw became just the fifth pitcher to allow three homers in a potential World Series-losing game, the previous being Charles Hudson of the Phillies in 1983. Back in Boston the police are closing down Kenmore Square and rerouting your 117 city bus (not true, the 117 doesn't go there, but other ones for sure) as David Price proceeds to retire 14 Dodgers in a row following that Freese triple.
And the ultimate icing on the champagne bottle (mixed-metaphor alert!)? That would be Steve Pearce one more time. Another solo blast in the 8th to join Shea Hillenbrand (June 21, 2002) as the only Red Sox batters with a multi-homer game at Dodger Stadium, and the first with two homers in a World Series clincher since Kirk Gibson did it-- no, not in that game, but in 1984 Game 5 at Tiger Stadium to finish off the Padres. It also marked the first time the Red Sox had ever hit four homers in a game at Chavez Ravine, and the second time they'd ever done that in any World Series game (1967 Game 6 vs Cardinals.
We had to get one last #bullpenning moment in, this one being when Price issued another of those leadoff walks in the 8th. At one point the Red Sox bullpen had three pitchers trying to warm up and only two mounds. In the end Joe Kelly and Chris Sale were deployed for the 8th and 9th respectively; they each faced three batters and struck out all of them. The Dodgers thus became the first team in postseason history to end a series with K's for their last six outs (not necessarily consecutive batters, just at all), and in Kelly's case in the 8th, all three were by pinch hitters. There'd been only one other half-inning in World Series history with three pinch-hit K's; that was in the 1944 all-St Louis series when Milt Byrne, Chet Laabs, and Mike Chartak of the Browns whiffed against Mort Cooper of the Cardinals in the 9th.
And only the opposing uniforms would make the final scene of the 2018 season different from the final scene of 2017. The venue, Dodger Stadium. The score, 5-1. The only other time both were repeated, it was with the same opponent: The Cubs won both the 1907 and 1908 titles at Bennett Park in Detroit by identical 2-0 counts. The Pirates also celebrated their 1909 title at Bennett Park (maybe this is why it got torn down by 1912?); the only other time the same stadium saw a visiting team hoist the trophy in consecutive years was at the Polo Grounds in 1936 and 1937 (both by their former co-tenants, the Yankees). The Yankees also lost their claim of being the last stadium to see the title won in consecutive years, by either team; the Reds won their 1976 title in the Bronx, and then Reggie Jackson's '77 squad won theirs at home against these same Dodgers.
Trivia Time
Figure it out? The only Interstate that's numbered in kilometers is the one that connects Tucson, Ariz., to the Mexican border at Nogales, Interstate 19. The odd one on the east coast is State Route 1 in Delaware; both roads were built in the late 1970s during the aforementioned attempt to change to the metric system. But that's 1. And 19.
Can Boston be number 1 again in '19? We are 142 days away from beginning a brand new journey of finding out. But they've got a good head start: As an original member of the American League from 1901, next season... is the team's 119th. Find some wall space.
A Hearty Thanks
We do not credit them enough, but the incredible Baseball Reference Play Index is an indispensable tool for many of our notes, and it can be yours too for only $3 a month. Much of its historical info is based on the tireless efforts of Retrosheet and the Society for American Baseball Research, and we've had some help from Stats LLC, Elias, ESPN, KillerSports.com, and a few other sites and databases along the way.
And thanks to you for reading and following and tweeting throughout the season. We might post some fun stuff during the winter, so check back occasionally, but for now we're going to nap for a couple weeks. ☺
Images 115, 116, and 119 from Google Street View. Detour sign from U.S. Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.
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