The Tiebreaker of 1948

A look back at the first ever one-game playoff in American League history.

For two years in a row, baseball fans have been fortunate enough to be able to witness game number 163 in the regular season. The Twins-White Sox playoff for the American League Central pennant on Tuesday was the eighth one-game playoff ever played in MLB history. The first ever one-game playoff in A.L. history was set in 1948 at Fenway Park, as the Boston Red Sox battled the Cleveland Indians for the pennant.

The Indians led the pennant race by two games over the Red Sox and the New York Yankees with three games remaining. However, the Red Sox won their last three games, including two against the Bronx Bombers, to move into a position to force a tiebreaker. All Cleveland had to do was defeat Detroit at home on the final day to win the AL pennant. They didn’t, losing 7-1, and a one-game playoff would be played the next day at Fenway Park.

The 4th of October in Boston was a cold one, with a temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Still, 33,957 fans made their way over to Kenmore Square in hopes of seeing the Red Sox win the AL flag. If the Sox won, Bostonians would be treated to an all-Boston World Series, as the cross-town Braves captured the NL pennant the day previous.

Red Sox manager Joe McCarthy surprised baseball fans in Boston when he announced 36-year-old Denny Galehouse would start the elimination game. Galehouse, a right-hander, had only pitched in 27 games all season, starting 15 of those, and finished with an 8-8 record and an ERA of an even 4.

Cleveland manager and all-star shortstop Lou Boudreau, with Bob Feller and Bob Lemon unable to pitch, went with nineteen-game winner Gene Bearden. Bearden, a southpaw, had been very consistent for Boudreau during the season, leading the pitching staff with an ERA of 2.43. The Indians hoped he would collect win number 20, as that meant they could punch their ticket to the World Series.

With Commissioner Happy Chandler on hand to witness this first, the game got underway. Galehouse quickly retired the first two Cleveland batters, bringing Boudreau to the plate. Boudreau had a good campaign in 1948, one that would net him 3rd place in MVP voting. One reporter said that Boudreau looked “a bit drawn and tired” upon arriving in Boston. On this night, though, he was wide awake, taking Galehouse over the Green Monster in left field for a one run Indian lead.

Boston battled back in the bottom half off Bearden. With one out, Johnny Pesky doubled. After getting Ted Williams to ground out, Bearden gave up a single to clean-up man Vern Stephens. The ball landed just inside the left field line, giving Stephens his 137th run batted in and tied the game up at one.

Galehouse and Bearden settled down after shaky firsts, working scoreless 2nd and 3rd innings. The fourth got off to a rocky start for Galehouse, though, when Bourdeau led off the inning with a single into left field, falling just in front of Ted Williams. His middle infield partner, Joe Gordon, followed with an almost identical rap into left. That brought up the third baseman, Ken Keltner.

Unease drifted through the crowd at Fenway as Keltner arrived in the batter’s box. Coming in, Keltner had hit 30 home runs and drove in 116 runs. After looking at a couple of offerings, Keltner hit a high, towering shot toward the Monster in left field. The ball certainly had the height but did it have the distance?

Just barely. The ball disappeared over the wall and just like that the 4-5-6 hitters all crossed the plate to give Cleveland a 4-1 lead. McCarthy pounced out of the dugout quickly and gave his starter the hook and replaced him with Ellis Kinder.

Kinder did nothing to lighten the mood at Fenway. The first batter he faced, centerfielder Larry Doby, doubled to left-center. Rightfielder Bob Kennedy sacrificed Doby to third, recording the first out in the process. Then, catcher Jim Hegan bounced a ball to Stephens over at shortstop. With no chance to get Doby at home, Stephens flipped it to first base for the out. Kinder recorded the last out but the damage was done, 5-1 Indians after three and a half.

Bearden again shut the door on the Sox in the fourth and Kinder got off to a good start in the fifth, retiring the first two Indian batters. But reminiscent of the first, Boudreau agains waltzed into the box, already with two big hits in the game. This time, he nailed another moonshot into the air that left the park. The crowd at Fenway turned deathly silent as the Indians had a 6-1 lead with the game half over.

Hope, though, was just around the corner for Boston in the sixth. With the game still 6-1, Bearden retired Pesky for the first out. That brought up Williams, who was 0-for-2 on the day. He popped up into shallow rightfield where Gordon backpedalled to the ball while fighting the bright Boston sun. Gordon reached back blindly and the ball plopped into his mitt then fell out as he lost his balance. The Red Sox had life in the sixth.

Bearden was unfazed and quickly dispatched Stephens with a strikeout. With two outs, and the game quickly fading away, Bobby Doerr dug in and hit another ball towards the big wall in left. Again, the ball disappeared for his 27th longball of the season and the Fenway crowd suddenly came alive; the Indians lead had been trimmed to 6-3.

Cleveland looked to ice the game in the 7th. Bearden and leadoff man Dale Mitchell hit back-to-back singles off Kinder to lead off the inning. Pinch hitter Eddie Robinson moved the runners over with a sacrifice and the bases became loaded when McCarthy decided to take the bat out of Boudreau’s hands. However, Kinder pitched out of the jam and got out of the inning unscathed, getting Gordon to pop out to Doerr for the second out, and then retiring Keltner on a flyout to left.

The hero of the day, though, was Bearden, who has been fooling Red Sox hitters all day with a tremendous slider and knuckleball. Despite walking five, Bearden only gave up five hits and struck out six. Other than the hiccup during Doerr’s at-bat in the sixth, Bearden shut the door on Boston. He induced a double play from Birdie Tibbetts in the seventh, leading to the eighth where he would help his own cause with some help from Williams.

With runners on the corners and one out, Kinder picked Doby off third, looking for another Harry Houdini-like escape out of an inning. With two out, Bearden drove a ball deep into the left-center field gap. Williams and centerfield Dom DiMaggio both converged on the ball and Williams called DiMaggio off late. The ball went into Ted’s glove…and then it hit the outfield grass. Hegan, the runner at first, scored on the E7 and the Indians had a commanding 7-3 lead through eight.

Bearden was still pitching well in the eighth. Dom DiMaggio grounded out to end a 0-for day at the plate and Johnny Pesky followed that up by swinging through strike three. Williams roped a single into right field but was forced out at second on a ground ball off the bat of Stephens.

The Indians added one more run in the top of the ninth, giving Bearden five runs to work with in the final frame. Billy Hitchcock led off the last inning with a walk, where he was replaced on the base paths by Tom Wright. However, Bearden buckled down and got Billy Goodman to go down on strikes. Up came Tebbetts, who ended the day hitting into his second consecutive double play, 5-4-3.

As the dejected Boston fans and players headed for the exits and locker room respectively, the Indians celebrated their first pennant since 1920 on the field. Bearden was one of the heroes, going nine innings to earn his twentieth, and biggest, victory of the season. Keltner played spectacular all day at third base and went 3-for-5, with his three-run bomb in the fourth standing as the game-winning runs.

However, the spotlight shone brightest upon Lou Boudreau. The player-manager played a flawless game at shortstop but will be remembered in this game most for his two home runs over the leftfield fence. He went 4-for-4, scored three runs and drove in two in the pennant-clinching victory.

Seven days later, on the 11th, Cleveland was back in Boston winning another pennant, this time the World Championship. The man on the mound at the end of the game was fittingly Bearden, who came on in relief of Bob Lemon. Thanks to that 4-3 win at Braves Field, the Indians won the ’48 World Series, the last title the franchise has won.