This Date in Baseball-Week Ahead, Oct. 14-20
Oct. 18
1910 - The Philadelphia Athletics pounded the Chicago Cubs 9-3 for a 2-0 lead in the World Series. Eddie Collins had three hits, including two doubles, and two stolen bases.
1950 - Connie Mack, at age 87, retired as manager of the Philadelphia Athletics after 50 years, and Jimmy Dykes was named to replace him. Mack, together with Ben Shibe, founded the Athletics in 1901.
1973 - The Mets' Jerry Koosman and Tug McGraw combined to three-hit the Oakland A's and take 3-2 lead in the World Series.
1977 - Reggie Jackson hit three consecutive home runs to lead New York to an 8-4 victory over the Los Angles Dodgers and give the Yankees the World Series title in six games. Jackson drove in five runs, and all three shots came on the first pitch.
1999 - Orlando Hernandez pitched shutout ball into the eighth inning and Derek Jeter hit a two-run homer as the New York Yankees won their record 36th pennant, beating the Boston Red Sox 6-1 in Game 5 of the AL championship series.
2012 - Max Scherzer capped a stupendous stretch for Detroit's starting rotation, and the Tigers advanced to the World Series by beating the New York Yankees 8-1 for a four-game sweep of the AL championship series. The Yankees hit .188 in the postseason, a major-league record, and .157 in the LCS.
2013 - Carlos Beltran and the Cardinals stunned Clayton Kershaw with a four-run third inning, rookie Michael Wacha was again magnificent on the mound and St. Louis advanced to its second World Series in three seasons by roughing up the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-0 in Game 6 of the NL championship series. Beltran had three hits and drove in two runs while facing Kershaw and made a spectacular catch in right field. St. Louis handed Kershaw four losses this season, including the two in the NLCS.
2017 - Javier Baez snapped an 0-for-20 skid with two home runs, Wade Davis hung on for a six-out save and the Chicago Cubs avoided a sweep, holding off the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series.
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Oct. 19
1972 - The Oakland A's rallied for two ninth-inning runs for a 3-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds to take a 3-1 lead in the World Series.
1976 - The Cincinnati Reds took a commanding 3-0 lead over the New York Yankees in the World Series with a 6-2 victory at Yankee Stadium. Cincinnati designated hitter Dan Driessen had a single, double, home run and a walk to lead the attack. Jim Mason had a solo homer in the seventh inning for the only home run by the Yankees in the series.
1981 - Los Angeles' Rick Monday hit a ninth-inning home run to give the Dodgers a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Expos and the National League pennant.
1986 - The Boston Red Sox took a 2-0 lead in the World Series with a 9-3 rout of the New York Mets. The Red Sox had 18 hits, and battered Dwight Gooden for six runs in five innings.
1999 - Kenny Rogers walked Andruw Jones with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 11th inning, sending the Atlanta Braves to the World Series with a 10-9 victory over the New York Mets in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series.
2004 - Curt Schilling, pitching on a dislocated ankle tendon held down by three sutures put in the day before, gave up one run over seven innings as the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 4-2 to save their season for the third day in a row and force a winner-take-all Game 7 for the AL pennant and a trip to the World Series. The series was three outs from a sweep on Oct. 17.
2005 - Roy Oswalt allowed three hits over seven innings and struck out six as Houston clinched its first World Series berth with a 5-1 win over St. Louis in Game 6 of the NLCS.
2006 - Yadier Molina hit a tiebreaking homer in the ninth to help St. Louis beat New York 3-1 in Game 7 of the NL championship series. St. Louis overcame Endy Chavez's astounding grab at the wall to pull back a drive by Scott Rolen that was headed for a tiebreaking, two-run homer.
2008 - The Tampa Bay Rays held off the defending champion Boston Red Sox 3-1 behind Matt Garza's masterful pitching in Game 7 of the AL championship series.
2009 - Jeff Mathis drove home Howie Kendrick with a two-out double in the 11th inning, and the Angels survived a second straight ALCS thriller, beating New York 5-4 to trim the Yankees' series lead to 2-1.
2009 - Jimmy Rollins lined a two-run double with two outs in the ninth inning off closer Jonathan Broxton and the Philadelphia Phillies rallied past the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4 for a 3-1 lead in the NL championship series.
2013 - Shane Victorino's seventh-inning grand slam propelled Boston to a 5-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers, clinching the AL championship series in six games. With 21-game winner Max Scherzer on the mound, Detroit took a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning and held it until Boston loaded the bases on a double, a walk and an error by shortstop Jose Iglesias. Victorino lofted an 0-2 pitch from Jose Veras over the Green Monster.
2016 - Cleveland rookie Ryan Merritt came out of nowhere and coolly delivered a lead to the Andrew Miller-led bullpen, and the Indians won their first pennant since 1997 by blanking Toronto 3-0 in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series. Miller, acquired from the New York Yankees in a midseason trade, was selected the ALCS MVP as the Indians took their sixth pennant.
2017 - Kike Hernandez homered three times and drove in seven runs, and the Los Angeles Dodgers romped past the Chicago Cubs 11-1 behind Clayton Kershaw to reach the World Series for the first time since 1988. Hernandez connected on the first two pitches he saw, belting a solo drive in the second against Jose Quintana and a grand slam in the third against Hector Rondon. Hernandez added a two-run shot in the ninth against Mike Montgomery. The 26-year-old Hernandez became the fourth player with a three-homer game in a league championship series, joining Bob Robertson (1971 NLCS), George Brett (1978 ALCS) and Adam Kennedy (2002 ALCS). Hernandez's seven RBIs set an LCS record and tied the postseason record shared by four other players who all did it in a Division Series.
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Oct. 20
1910 - Philadelphia's Jack Coombs, on one day of rest, had a complete-game victory to beat the Chicago Cubs 12-5 and give the Athletics a 3-0 lead in the World Series. Coombs also had three hits and drove in three runs in the game.
1972 - In the fifth game of the World Series, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds homered on the first pitch of the game from Oakland's Catfish Hunter, and the Reds went on to win 5-4.
1973 - Reggie Jackson of Oakland had RBI doubles in the first and third innings to lead the A's to a 3-1 victory over the New York Mets and set up a seventh game in the World Series.
1982 - The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 in Game 7 to win the World Series.
1988 - Orel Hershiser pitched a four-hitter and Mickey Hatcher and Mike Davis hit two-run homers to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics and the World Series title in five games. Hershiser became only the third player to win the MVP in both the playoffs and the World Series.
1990 - The Cincinnati Reds completed one of the biggest upsets in baseball history, beating the Oakland Athletics 2-1 to win the World Series in four games.
1993 - Devon White's two-run triple capped a six-run eighth inning as the Toronto Blue Jays rallied for a 15-14 victory over the Phillies and a 3-1 World Series lead. The 29 runs shattered the series record of 22 set in Game 2 in 1936, when the Yankees beat the New York Giants 18-4. It was also the longest nine-inning game in series history - 4 hours, 14 minutes.
2004 - Just three outs from getting swept in the AL championship series three nights earlier, the Boston Red Sox finally beat the New York Yankees, winning Game 7 in a 10-3 shocker to become the first major league team to overcome a 3-0 postseason series deficit. Boston didn't need any late-inning dramatics as David Ortiz, the series MVP, started it with a two-run homer in the first off broken-down Kevin Brown, and Johnny Damon quieted Yankee Stadium in the second inning with a grand slam on Javier Vazquez's first pitch.
2015 - Daniel Murphy homered for a record-tying fifth straight game in the postseason, sending Jacob deGrom and the New York Mets over the Chicago Cubs 5-2 for a 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series. Murphy tied the homer streak mark set by Carlos Beltran in 2004.