Monday, October 13, 2014

World Series: Did You Know?

Elroy Face was the first pitcher to record more than two saves in the Fall Classic.

The stat, which was introduced by writers and historians in the 1950s, took on a meaning in as writer Jerome Holtzman put together a more meaningful way of assessing it. Previously, a save was given by some in baseball to pitchers who did little more than finish the game for the winning team but not pick up the win.

So Larry Sherry had pickup up two in 1959, looking great to go along with two wins. That regular season it was Elroy with an 18-1 record in relief. He added 10 saves, going along with the creteria for them at the time. But four of the wins were from blown saves, as was his lone loss. Also, Face blew four additional saves where he failed to pick up a decision.

So in some ways, Elroy was better in 1960. He won 10 games, still a pretty good total. But none of them were the result of blown saves. He also saved 24 games. He blew three saves in his losses, which totalled eight, but only two additional lost saves were in no decisions. Face ended 1960 with more games pitched (68) and innings pitched (114 2/3) then in 1959 (57 and 93 1/3). His ERA rose from 2.70 to 2.90, and the Pirates went 33-23 (one tie) in games Elroy pitched in 1959. In '60 it was actually a little worse. Pittsburgh went 39-28 (again, one tie) in his appearances.

But that should not detract that Elroy Face was clearly the man out of the 'pen in Pittsburgh. Years before Kenny Tekulve (who record three saves of his own in the 1979 Fall Classic) it was Elroy nailing down the last outs when the Pirates needed it the most.

Face had something huge going for him, though, that Tekulve did not. It was still the old system of saves being used. I'm not quite sure when the "new" criteria came into play. I suspect 1969, as that's when saves became an official stat.

Elroy hopped into the first game of the 1960 World Series, in which Pittsburgh was facing the New York Yankees. It was 6-2, Pirates at home. The first two batters had reached base in the top of the eighth. There were no outs. This actually is a save situation by today's standards as the Yankees had the tying run on-deck. But it was Mickey Mantle at the dish and Yogi Berra next. Mantle was not the type of guy to hit into a double-play.

But Face got The Mick to look at strike three. Then it was Berra's turn, as Moose Skowron looked on as the tying run. But Berra could only fly out. Neither Hector Lopez, at second, or Roger Maris at first, advanced. Skowron then became Face's second K.

In the top of the ninth, after Ryne Duren (who posed a 1.88 ERA himself in 1959 and 32 consecutive shutout innings that year from the pen) held Pittsburgh at bay, the Yankees got to Face.

Elston Howard went yard with a man on, and it was now 6-4 Pirates with only one out. Next, Tony Kubek hit a single. The tying run was at the dish!

It was Hector Lopez. He had two weaknesses. 1) He was poor defensively (which didn't matter here) and 2) He was slow (which did matter here).

Face got him to ground into an inning ending double play. So it went into any and all record books, then and now, as a save. But for a while, it didn't look like Elroy would get another in this World Series. The Yankees had too much firepower, you see.



They showed in game two, as New York won 16-3. Then Whitey Ford started his legendary shutout streak with an all-too-easy 10-0 shutout. Mantle, who Face fanned in game one, hit three home runs in those two games. Games four and five would be at Yankees Stadium, where Ford and his mates seemed unstoppable.

But Pittsburgh won game four, 3-2. Face came into pitch in the last of the seventh with Pittsburgh clinging to that 3-2 lead. Then, the Pirates looked done like dinner.

Johnny Blanchard batted for Bobby Shantz and singled. Then, Bob Cerv, crushed one of Face's offerings to deep right centre. It was up to Bill Virdon to make the catch. Joe DeMaestri, who was running for Blanchard, tagged and made it to third. It were two outs, but the tying run was ninety feet away. Kubek grounded back to Face. The inning was over. As was the Yankees offence.

Face got 'em 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth as Roger Maris went down on a fly, Mantle fanned and Berra grounded out. When Elroy had another 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the ninth, the 1960 World Series was square at two, and Elroy Face's name was alongside Larry Sherry's with most saves in a single World Series. After game five, he had that record, all to himself.



Harvey Haddix, went out and held New York to just two runs. Pittsburgh had only four themselves as New York batted in the bottom of the seventh. But they had two more runners on as Lopez moved Kubek (who had singled) to second with a single. Richardson had been retired by Haddix to start the inning, but it was the last out he recorded. The Pirates needed Face to save face and the game.

A grounder by Gil McDougald forced Kubek. And then Face fanned Maris to get out of there. From there on in, all New York got was a walk to Mantle (The Mick's third of the game.). The Pirates scored on Duren in the top of the ninth on a wild pitch.



With a 5-2 win, Pittsburgh was back ahead in the 1960 Fall Classic for the first time since game one. And although the dropped game six back at home, the Pirates ultimately won game seven.

Elroy Face may have not pitched that well in the 1960 World Series, as New York scored four earned runs off him in game seven for good measure. Bill Virdon's catch in game four was also needed. But regardless, when Pittsburgh needed Face, he came in and did the job more often than not in 1960, from April to October!


References


Enders, Eric. 100 Years Of The World Series. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. 2005. Print.

Golenbock, Peter. Dynasty: The New York Yankees, 1949-1964. Lincolnwood, IL: Contemporary Books, 2000. Print.

Neft, David S., Richard M. Cohen, and Michael L. Neft. The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball, 1992. 12th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. Print.

Nemec, David et all. 20th Century Baseball Chronicle: A Year-by-year History of Major League Baseball. Collector's Edition. Lincolnwood, Ill: Publications International, 1993. Print.

Retrosheet. Web. 26 Oct. 2015. <www.retrosheet.org>.

Snyder, John S. World Series!: Great Moments and Dubious Achievements. San Francisco: Chronicle, 1995. Print.

Sports Reference LLC.  Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Informationhttp://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.

Thorn, John, and Pete Palmer. Total Baseball. Vers. 1994. Portland, OR: Creative Multimedia Corp., 1994. Computer software. CD-ROM.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 13 Oct. 2014. <https://en.wikipedia.org>.

Youtube. Youtube. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/>.

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