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(1939) NY Yankees 4, Cincinnati 0




The World Series is the championship series of Major League Baseball. The World Series is played between the American League and National League champions and the Series winner is determined through a best-of-seven playoff matches.  

Despite the absence of Lou Gehrig, Red Ruffing, who had a three-game winning streak in World Series competition, ran his streak to four with a victory in Game 1, beating the Reds, 2-1, in Yankee Stadium. When the Yankees came to bat in the ninth, the score was 1-1, as Cincinnati starter Paul Derringer had matched Ruffing by allowing just four hits. After Red Rolfe led off with a groundout, Charlie, King Kong, Keller tripled to the right-field bleachers. Bill Dickey followed with a single to center field, scoring Keller with the winning run.

In Game 2, Yankees right-hander Monte Pearson posted one of the all-time great World Series starts. After seven innings, Pearson owned a 4-0 lead and was working on a no-hitter. Ernie Lombardi broke up the no-hit bid with a clean single in the eighth, and Billy Werber collected a base hit in the ninth, but Pearson finished with a two-hit, one-walk shutout, striking out eight.

The World Series resumed in Cincinnati, and the Reds grabbed a 3-2 lead in the second inning on the strength of four singles. In the third, DiMaggio blasted a two-run homer over the center-field fence, and in the fifth the Yankees scored three times on Keller's two-run homer, his second of the game, and Bill Dickey's solo shot. Bump Hadley, relief pitched the final eight frames to earn the 7-3 decision.

In Game 4, the Reds carried a 4-2 lead into the ninth inning. Keller and DiMaggio opened the ninth with singles, but Dickey hit a perfect double-play ball to Reds second baseman Lonny Frey, who relayed to shortstop Billy Myers, who dropped the ball, allowing Keller to score. DiMaggio later scored to tie the game, and with the help of three more Cincinnati errors, the Yanks scored three more in the 10th. Cincinnati didn’t score on a pair of singles, and the Yankees had a 7-4 victory and their fourth World Series in as many years. With the four-game sweep, the Yankees had won 16 of the last 19 World Series games played. The Yanks' Charlie Keller led all regulars with a .438 batting average.

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