New York Baseball

[BullNBear52]

Beware the Broom: Yankees on Verge of Being Swept Away

By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN

Sandy Koufax struck out 23 batters in the Dodgers’ 1963 World Series sweep of the Yankees, including 15 in Game 1.

The Yankees franchise has never been one to be shy about its success. Even the most casual observer could likely note that the team has 27 World Series championships, as that number is plastered all over Yankee Stadium. But failure, especially in the form of being swept in a postseason series, is something the franchise is less used to.

The Yankees are on the verge of being swept for just the fifth time in 73 postseason series. The players’ bats have abandoned them, to the tune of a .182 batting average, just as they had in the division series against the Baltimore Orioles. In Game 4 on Wednesday night, the team will need to get through Max Scherzer, who led the American League in strikeouts per nine innings, if they want to avoid that fate.

Previous Yankees postseason sweeps have seen a manager fired (Dick Howser in 1980), the gate from a game forfeited over a controversial decision to end a game in a tie (1922) and the final World Series of a legendary broadcaster (Mel Allen in 1963).

A look at the previous sweeps shows a familiar pattern of silent bats and wasted pitching efforts.

1980 American League Championship Series

Swept by Kansas City Royals, 3-0
Outscored: 14-6
Outhit: 28-26
Team batting average: .255
Team E.R.A.: 4.32
Worst regular: Bobby Brown, 0 for 10
Notes: The Yankees topped the Royals in the A.L.C.S. in 1976, 1977 and 1978, so it was payback time for George Brett and his teammates. The loss was bad enough that Yankees Manager Dick Howser was fired. He went on to manage the Royals, leading the team to a World Series win in 1985.

1976 World Series

Swept by Cincinnati Reds, 4-0
Outscored: 22-8
Outhit: 42-30
Team batting average: .222
Team E.R.A.: 5.45
Worst regular: Willie Randolph, 1 for 14
Notes: In the first World Series with a designated hitter (Dan Driessen for the Reds, Lou Piniella for the Yankees), the extra batter was not enough to ensure a Yankees victory. Randolph, the team’s second baseman, was hardly alone in his struggles, as Mickey Rivers (3 for 18) and Roy White (2 for 15) also slumped. The team wasted a .529 batting average from Thurman Munson, though all nine of his hits were singles.

1963 World Series

Swept by Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-0
Outscored: 12-4
Outhit: 25-22
Team batting average: .171
Team E.R.A.: 2.91
Worst Regular: Clete Boyer, 1 for 13
Notes: This was a World Series notable for many things other than the Yankees’ struggles. It was Mel Allen’s final World Series as the team’s broadcaster (he was fired in 1964) and it was also the World Series that R.P. McMurphy had been hoping to watch in a famous scene from the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” In game play, the World Series most valuable player, Sandy Koufax, managed to strike out 23 batters in his two wins (15 in Game 1) and Don Drysdale threw a shutout in Game 3, making the Yankees’ .171 batting average somewhat understandable if still not acceptable. The Dodgers used just three starting pitchers and one reliever in the series.

1922 World Series

Swept by New York Giants, 4-0-1
Outscored: 18-11
Outhit: 50-32
Team batting average: .203
Team E.R.A.: 3.35
Worst Regular: Babe Ruth, 2 for 17
Notes: All five games of the series were held in New York’s Polo Grounds, as that was the home of both teams, though the Giants were officially the home team in three games and the Yankees were home in two. The tie in Game 2 was one of just three ties in World Series history, and was the last one ever called. The reason for the tie, darkness, was widely disputed, and Commissioner Kenesaw Landis donated the gate proceeds to charity. Ruth played in seven World Series for the Yankees, and his .118 average in 1922 was his worst by nearly 200 points. It was his only World Series for the Yankees in which he did not hit a home run.