Round One. Region 1. Best of 3 Series.
1. 1939 New York Yankees v. 128. 1979 Baltimore Orioles
Game 1
Orioles 4
Yankees 1
WP: Flanagan
LP: Ruffing
The first game of the tournament is an upset; Mike Flanagan throws a complete game and the Orioles move a game away from knocking out the top seed. Red Ruffing takes the loss for New York.
1st: Baltimore scores two in the first; Al Bumbry led off with a walk, then stole second. With two outs Ruffing intentionally walked Eddie Murray; Doug Decinces drew a walk to load the bases - and then Kiko Garcia made himself a hero with a two run single.
2nd/3rd: Bumbry stole his second base of the game an inning later; but the Orioles didn't score. New York had a huge chance in the third - two on, two out - when Flanagan struck out Joe DiMaggio.
4th: The Yankees halved the lead in the 4th; George Selkirk led off with a homer; a Bill Dickey walk and Kiko Garcia error later and New York again had two on, this time with just one out. Flanagan again got a big strike out, this time of Frankie Crosetti. There's no DH as the pre-DH Yankees are the home team, so Ruffing hit for himself and he laced a single to left - too sharply for Dickey to attempt to score, so that loaded the bases with 2 out - and Flanagan got Charlie Keller looking on a called strike 3.
5th: John Lowenstein hit a one out double in the fifth, but the Orioles couldn't capitalize and it remained 2-1.
7th: The scoring ended in the 7th; with one out Crosetti booted a Bumbry grounder, a Lowenstein bloop put runners on the corners; and then Ken Singleton and Eddie Murray hit back to back singles to make the game 4-1, the final score. New York didn't put another man in scoring position.
2 hits each for Lowenstein, Singleton, and the unlikely hero, Kiko Garcia. Selkirk was the only Yankee with 2 hits.
Baltimore is one win away from kicking off the tournament with an upset of the top seed.
Game 2
Yankees 1
Orioles 5
WP: McGregor
LP: Hadley
Well, that's why they play the games.
Scotty McGregor goes 7, holds the Yankees to 3 hits and we kick off the tournament with a shocking upset. #128 beats #1.
1st: It looked like a reversal of fortune from the very first pitch - Joe Gordon led off the game with a homer just inside the left field foul pole. New York went with Bump Hadley instead of Lefty Gomez in a certain to be questioned decision; he put two men on in the first - with a single by Bumbry and a walk by Singleton; but he induced the 4-6-3 double play from Murray and New York held that 1-0 lead.
3rd: The Orioles put two on again in the third - with two outs Babe Dahlgren couldn't handle a Bumbry ground ball and Lowenstein drew a walk, but Hadley got Singleton to hit a comebacker to end the threat.
4th/5th/6th And then in the 4th - Baltimore got 'em. Murray led off with a walk and Gary Roenicke blasted a 2 run homer to right to give the Orioles a lead they'd never relinquish. The Yanks had a runner in scoring position in the 5th and 6th but couldn't capitalize. In the bottom of the sixth Baltimore effectively ended the series - Murray led off with a single and Gary Roenicke - once again - hit a 2 run homer, this one just barely clearing the center field fence and it was 4-1.
7th/8th/9th: Marius Russo came on for New York and gave up the 5th run in the 7th; Bumbry singled, Lowenstein got hit with a pitch, Keller dropped a fly ball allowing Singleton to reach and then a Murray double play made it 5-1. Tippy Martinez entered for Baltimore and threw a perfect 8th and 9th to send everyone home.
One hit in the series for DiMaggio; 2 hits in this one for Bumbry and the two big two run homers for the series MVP Roenicke.
The Orioles move onto Round 2 where they will face the winners of this matchup:
64. 1931 Philadelphia Athletics v. 65. 1984 Detroit Tigers
Game 1
Tigers 3
A's 1
WP: Petry
LP: Grove
Sv: Hernandez
1st/2nd/3rd: Detroit gets game 1 on the road, Dan Petry beating Lefty Grove. Detroit put a man in scoring position early, Chet Lemon got a 2 out double in the first, but he died there. Larry Herndon led off the second with a double, but Grove pitched his way out of that jam as well. He wasn't as fortunate in the third; Alan Trammell led off with a walk, Lou Whitaker singled to second, Lemon struck out and then Kirk Gibson drove home the first run of the game with a base hit to left. Mickey Cochrane threw Gibson out trying to steal second - and with two out Herndon hit his second double in two innings to make it 2-0 Tigers.
3rd/4th: The A's had a runner in scoring position in the third but couldn't dent the plate, Detroit kept the pressure on Grove in the 4th, with two out Petry got an unlikely base hit, and then Grove hit Trammell on the arm. Whitaker ground out to first to end the threat and keep the Tiger lead at 2-0.
6th/7th: Philly's first hit of the game came with 2 out in the 6th on a Jimmy Dykes infield single; Detroit had another man die in scoring position in their half after a Howard Johnson single and stolen base. The second A's hit was by Grove himself, who led off the 6th with a single but couldn't advance. The 7th provided Philadelphia their real chance. Al Simmons led off with a single, an out later Mule Haas walked to put the tying run on first. Bing Miller hit a texas leaguer that just got past the mound and now the bases are loaded with only one out in a 2-0 game.
7th/8th: Sparky Anderson left Petry in the game - he was rewarded with harmless shallow flyball outs by Dykes and Dib Williams. With 2 out in the 8th, Lance Parrish homered to left center off of Grove and Detroit was up 3-0.
9th: Petry started the 9th inning - and gave up a monster, light tower busting lead off homer to Jimmie Foxx that made it 3-1, after a Trammell error Sparky made the move, bringing in Willie Hernandez. He gave up a single to Miller and the A's were in business. 2 on. No one out. Winning run coming to the plate.
9th: But Hernandez bore down - got Dykes to strike out swinging and then Williams to ground 6-4-3 to end the game.
2 doubles by Herndon, 2 singles by Ho-Jo, and the Parrish homer set the pace for Detroit; Miller had a couple hits for the A's along with the Foxx homer. Petry goes 8 and gets the win to set up Detroit, going back home, with big game Jack Morris ready to take the mound.
Game 2
Athletics 7
Tigers 8
WP: Lopez
LP: McDonald
The first extra innings game thusfar ends our second series; the Tigers knocking out the A's in 11 innings in a game with 31 combined hits.
1st: Jack Morris got the ball for the Tigers and got rocked early; the Athletics scoring 3 in the first. Max Bishop led off with a walk and was driven home by a Mickey Cochrane double to the left field corner. Al Simmons then hit a 2 run homer to left and 3 batters into the game Philadelphia led 3-0
2nd: The Tigers get two back in the second off of Rube Walberg; a Bishop errant throw put Rusty Kuntz on first to lead off the inning, and out later Larry Herndon hit his third double of the series to put men on second and third. Howard Johnson plated the first Tiger run with a sac fly - and Darrell Evans got the second with a run scoring single.
3rd: An inning later, the Tigers caught up on a 2 out Kirk Gibson homer that just cleared the right field wall.
5th: The Tigers took the lead two innings later; Alan Trammell led off the inning with a bloop single and Lou Whitaker followed with a 2 run homer that put the Tigers up 5-3.
6th: Walberg's still on the hill for the A's and he gave up another one in the 6th; Darrell Evans sat in game one; but he's at first base today and hit a one out double; a walk and an a flyout followed, then Chet Lemon singled Evans home, and Detroit had a 6-3 lead with only three innings to play.
7th: Morris had only given up a single since the first three batters of the game, but got into trouble in the 7th, Phil Todt and Bing Miller opened up the inning with singles - but Morris strike outs of Jimmy Dykes and Max Bishop sandwiched a Dib Williams pop up to end the threat.
8th: You'd understand if the Tiger faithful were looking to Sparky to make a move when Morris got in trouble again in the 8th; with two out Jimmie Foxx and Mule Haas singled back to back, but Phil Todt harmlessly flew out to right and now the Tigers were 3 outs away from advancing.
8th: Detroit added what sure looked like an insurance run in their half of the 8th, back to back one out singles by Trammell and Whitaker put runners on the corners for Chet Lemon, whose ground out wide of the bag at first plated Trammell and Detroit took a 7-3 lead into the 9th inning.
9th:With one out, Jimmy Dykes homered to right center to get that run back; Williams followed with a single and that was the end of Morris's day, Willie Hernandez came on; his first pitch went to the backstop and allowed the runner to move to scoring position and an out later, he scored on a Mickey Cochrane single. 7-5 Tigers; two out - down to their final strike, Al Simmons hit a game tying 2 run homer to left and the A's had completed the comeback.
9th: Eddie Rommel was on now for the A's, he put a runner in scoring position in the bottom of the inning after singles by Lance Parrish and Howard Johnson, but Rommel got Evans to ground out to send the game into extras.
10th: Todt opened up the 10th with a base hit and moved to second on another Hernandez wild pitch but that's where he would remain.
11th: The A's had one more chance - Al Simmons doubled with 2 out, and the A's loaded the bases with back to back walks to Foxx and Haas. Doc Cramer, with his 64 OPS+ had entered as a pinch runner the prior inning - and he stood in with the bases loaded and 2 out; Sparky brought in Aurelio Lopez, Senor Smoke, who induced a fly ball to left.
11th: 20 year old Hank McDonald got the call from Connie Mack to go to the mound for the 11th, he got the first out - but then Kuntz singled to right; Parrish walked - and Larry Herndon won the series with a single to center; Kuntz just getting in under the tag at the plate.
Bedlam in Detroit - Herndon's game winning RBI capped a series where he hit 3 doubles and he takes the MVP.
So - we're underway. The '79 Orioles and '84 Tigers advance into the second round.
