AL Season Wrap-up
At the end of August, Detroit held an 8-game lead over Boston even after losing 3 of their final 4 games in the month. Then in September, Detroit won just 5 of their first 24 games! After finishing the next-to-last week of the season with two wins in Cleveland, the Tigers entered the final week in a tie with Boston for first place. The Tigers won 2-of-3 games in Oakland while the Red Sox won 2-of-3 at home against the White Sox to remain tied.
As luck would have it, the two league leaders would go head-to-head in Boston for the final three days of the season. In the first game, Boston's
Dutch Leonard (15-9, 3.51 ERA) outdueled
Bernie Boland (11-9, 3.83 ERA) 3-1 to take the lead. On the next day, Boston ace
"Smoky" Joe Wood (20-6, 2.47 ERA) pitched a gem, allowing just 4 hits and 3 walks over 8.1 shutout innings as the Red Sox defeated
Lefty Williams (20-8, 2.41 ERA) and the Tigers 4-1 to clinch their first pennant in five years.
Detroit was crushed after the epic collapse. Even I was disappointed, because I believe that Detroit has a much better team. However, give credit to Boston for playing hard all season and finishing strong like they did. Other than the Big Three in their offense, Boston's primary strength is its pitching, which should provide an exciting matchup against the San Francisco Giants offense. It will also be interesting to see if Boston can manufacture enough runs to win games against a good Giants pitching staff.
It's also worth mentioning that Yankees rookie left fielder
Lefty O'Doul (.341, 26 HR, 90 RBI) won the batting crown in his first season!
Standings
Batting Leaders
Pitching Leaders
National League Rosters
