1916 World Series Title

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The Red Sox's Babe Ruth pitched 13 shutout innings in Game 2, starting a consecutive scoreless innings streak that would reach 29 in 1918. As with the 1915 Series, the Red Sox played their home games at the larger Braves Field, and it paid off as they drew a then-record 43,620 people for the final game. The Red Sox pitching corps ultimately proved too much for the denizens of Flatbush. For the second straight series, Red Sox pitching dominated, this time holding the Robins to a team .200 batting average, contributing to an easy 5-game victory.

In Their Own Story

Until the ninth, Boston starter Ernie Shore was in control in Game 1. Holding a comfortable 6–1 lead, a walk, hit batter, error and bases-loaded walk to Fred Merkle finally forced the Red Sox to call on Carl Mays from the bullpen to preserve a 6–5 win. In Game 2, the Robins scored in the top of the first on an inside-the-park home run by Hy Myers, and the Red Sox tied it in the bottom of the third, Ruth himself knocking in the run with a ground ball. The game remained 1–1 until the bottom of the 14th, when the Red Sox won it on a pinch-hit single by Del Gainer. The 14-inning game set a World Series record for longest game by innings. In Game 3, a seventh-inning home run by Larry Gardner chased Brooklyn starter Jack Coombs and brought Boston to within one run. Jeff Pfeffer came through with 2+2⁄3 innings of hitless relief to save the victory for Coombs. In Game 4, Brooklyn's first three batters reached safely off Dutch Leonard in a two-run first inning, but that's all the Dodgers would get. Larry Gardner's second home run in two days was an inside-the-park one to left-center that scored two teammates ahead of him, giving Leonard all he would need for the win. The final game was over in a snappy 1 hour, 43 minutes. Ernie Shore threw a three-hitter. Boston scratched out a run on a walk, sacrifice bunt, ground-out and passed ball. The Red Sox added more in the third, thanks to an error and a Chick Shorten RBI single, and the fifth when Harry Hooper singled and scored on a Hal Janvrin double. Casey Stengel led off the Dodger ninth with a hit, but Shore allowed no more.

Did You Know?

• The Red Sox played their home games at the larger Braves Field, not Fenway Park, drawing a then-record 43,620 people for the final game.
• Babe Ruth pitched 13 shutout innings in Game 2, starting a consecutive scoreless innings streak that would reach 29 in 1918.
• Game 2 set a World Series record for longest game by innings at 14, a mark that was equaled in 2005 and 2015 before being broken in 2018.
• The two franchises met again in the postseason for the first time in 102 years in the 2018 World Series, 60 years after the Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles.
• This was the second meeting between teams from Boston and New York City for a major professional sports championship, and the last Boston-New York matchup in the Fall Classic until 1986.