1930 World Series
Game 1
This game pitted two of the best pitchers in baseball against each other -
Carl Hubbell of the Giants versus
Lefty Grove of the A's. In the top of the 4th, Giants left fielder
Hack Wilson singled off Grove and then first baseman
Bill Terry followed with a home run to right field, giving the Giants a huge 2-0 lead. Meanwhile, Hubbell was pitching brilliantly, allowing only three hits to a powerful Oakland lineup over eight shutout innings. In the bottom of the 9th, Hubbell faced the top of Oakland's lineup. Third baseman
Pinky Higgins earned a leadoff single and the Giants stuck with Hubbell for the lefty-on-lefty matchup with
Mickey Cochrane. It worked, as Cochrane flied out. The Giants stayed with their ace, and he struck out
Al Simmons on four pitches. Pinch hitter
Al Wingo then battled through five pitches and drove a single up the middle. Then first baseman
Joe Hauser singled home Higgins on the first pitch he saw. With that, San Francisco went with their closer,
Rosy Ryan, who took six pitches to dispose of second baseman
Jimmy Dykes with a 6-3 ground out to end the game.
Game 2
The Giants quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning thanks to a 3-run homer from
Mel Ott off
Sam Gray. The A's came right back in the bottom of the inning with a 2-run home run by Mickey Cochrane off
Bill Walker to narrow the lead to 3-2. However, the Giants kept pounding on Gray, who never really had his best stuff and they took an 8-2 lead by the end of the 5th inning. The score stayed that way as Walker settled in to pitch eight successful innings. However,
Waite Hoyt, who struggled this season for the Giants, came on in a mop-up role in the 9th. He got two outs while allowing a walk to the first three batters, but then the A's lit some fireworks with back-to-back home runs by
Jimmie Foxx and Joe Hauser. In the end, the Giants still won but Oakland reminded them how powerful their lineup could be. That said, the Giants still leave Oakland with a huge 2-0 series lead.
Game 3
This game turned out to be a great pitching duel between a pair of hard-throwers in Oakland's
George Earnshaw and San Francisco's
Fay Thomas. The two pitchers combined to throw 13.2 innings, allowing just one run while striking out 16 batters. Earnshaw allowed only three hits over seven innings, but he was the starter who allowed a run. It came in the bottom of the 4th when
Frankie Frisch led off with a single and stole his MLHR record 17th career World Series base! He moved to third on a sac fly, and scored on another sac fly. Earnshaw gave up two more singles that inning, but neither of them scored. So Earnshaw gave up all three of his hits in a single inning and the only run scored on back-to-back outs. Every other inning he pitched, the Giants went down 1-2-3!
In the top of the 7th, Giants reliever
Mike Cvengros spelled Thomas with a runner on second base and no one out. He enduced a ground out from centerfielder
Doc Cramer to end the threat. Then in the 8th, Cvengros got two straight outs before falling behind Mickey Cochrane 3-1 and then serving up a mammoth home run to straightaway centerfield to tie the game. In the bottom of the 8th, Oakland sent in
Fred Heimach, who was the team's #5 starter all season but had spent the majority of his 10-year career in the bullpen. He gave up a leadoff single to
Ross Youngs - his first hit of the series - and after a fly out, Youngs stole second base. That prompted the A's to intentionally walk pinch hitter
Earl Webb to setup a double play. However, Frankie Frisch pushed a single through the hole on the left side of the diamond to load the bases. Heimach got ahead of
Freddie Lindstrom 0-2 and was then called for a balk which sent home the go-ahead run.
Heimach was livid and nearly got tossed from the game, but his manager ran out to protect him and was thrown out himself after giving the umpire a piece of his mind. Lindstrom worked the count full, but then Heimach struck him out with a fastball. Heimach then struck out Mel Ott looking with a nice curveball to prevent any other runs from scoring. Now going into the 9th with the lead, the Giants were able to bring in closer Rosy Ryan who sat down Jimmie Foxx and Joe Hauser on ground outs. Jimmy Dykes slapped a single on the first pitch he saw, but Ryan then enduced a ground out from
Bill Barrett to end the game.
Game 4
The Giants offense came out firing on this day. They pounded Oakland rookie
Bill Shores and reliever
Ossie Orwoll for 12 runs over the first four innings. Meanwhile, Giants starter
Roy Parmelee scattered three singles over 7 1/3 scoreless innings. The Giants offense hit six home runs on the day, including two by Hack Wilson in this 14-0 rout to win the Giants 6th World Series over the past 18 seasons.
Recap
While the Giants dominated this series statistically, let's not forget that two of the three Giants wins were 2-1 contests. The big story is the fact that the Giants' starting pitching dominated Oakland's lineup so much that three of the Giants' six relievers never even appeared in a game! Meanwhile the Giants offense crushed Oakland pitching in two of the four games. They hit eleven home runs in the 4-game series, including three by World Series MVP Hack Wilson.
Series MVP
Hack Wilson, LF, SFG: .533 AVG, 1.922 OPS, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 7 Runs and 1 spectacular play in left field when he made a shoe string catch and then doubled off a runner at second for a double play.
