Thanks to a spirited battle on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium , the Yankees lived to fight another day in the best-of-three American League Wild Card Series to force a Game 3 with the Red Sox tonight. We have
now reached a single elimination game to determine which of these longtime rivals will advance to play the Blue Jays in the Division Series, and whose 26 players will be forced to go their separate ways for the long offseason.
The current atmosphere certainly lends itself to a classic potentially being in the works. Regardless, Game 3 of the 2025 AL Wild Card Series will join four other games in the history of this rivalry that were true do-or-die showdowns. And yes, that number is four—not three as has been discussed elsewhere today—because while the first was technically a regular-season game, it was the finale and carried exactly the same stakes as the 2021 AL Wild Card Game, Game 7 of the 2003 and 2004 AL Championship Series, and the 1978 AL East tiebreaker.
If Game 3 tonight goes the Yankees’ way, then there will actually be significant parallels between the 2025 team and the 1949 champions of 76 years ago. In fact—like the aforementioned Bucky Dent Game in ‘78—today is the anniversary of what was effectively a one-game playoff between New York and Boston for the AL pennant.
This was the first year under future Hall of Fame Casey Stengel, who at the time in baseball circles was still generally considered a bit of a clown who never won anything. But the Yankees thought he had a sharper mind than his reputation, and gave him the keys to a dangerous club led by the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, Tommy Henrich, Yogi Berra, Vic Raschi, and relief ace Joe Page. As an aside, this season was beautifully chronicled in one of the best baseball books ever written: Summer of ‘49 by the incomparable David Halberstam.
The Yankees paced the Junior Circuit for much of the ‘49 campaign until stumbling during the final couple weeks — perhaps due in part to the reported 71 injuries they incurred that year. At that point, Ted Williams and Dom DiMaggio’s Red Sox (led by another Hall of Fame Yankees skipper, Joe McCarthy) nearly snatched the crown away from them. Three years prior, Boston had won its first pennant since the days of Babe Ruth and came just shy of winning another in ‘48, losing a tiebreaker to the eventual champions from Cleveland. On September 25, 1949, Mel Parnell outpitched Allie Reynolds at Fenway to finally knot the Red Sox and Yankees in the standings for the first time since Opening Day, and the next day in the Bronx for a make-up game, Boston seized first place when the normally reliable Page fell apart in the eighth and blew a 6-3 advantage.
The two teams went their separate ways but came back together in the Bronx on October 1st and 2nd to finish the regular season. With the Yankees losing to the A’s and the Red Sox winning in DC on September 30th, Boston had a one-game lead. So the Red Sox needed just one win over the next two days at Yankee Stadium to take out the Bombers and advance. The Yanks play across the street from the old ballpark these days, but … 76 years later, doesn’t that sound familiar?
In the first game, the Yankees had a comeback for the ages. By the third, the Red Sox were already up 4-0 despite just three hits thanks to six walks and two wild pitches. In the fourth and fifth innings, the Yankees struck for two runs each, tying the game at four. In the bottom of the eighth, Yankee outfielder Johnny Lindell took Red Sox reliever Joe Dobson deep to left field to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead. Page shook off his misstep from the previous week, closing out the game with a herculean effort: 6.2 innings of one-hit ball on two days’ rest in relief of Reynolds. He had issued two bases-loaded free passes to begin his outing in the third, but then stranded the bases loaded on two K’s. From then on, it was smooth sailing. Boston and New York were officially tied in the standings going into the last game of the season.
The grand finale of this heart-pounding pennant chase was just as dramatic. The Yankees got out to a fast 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Rizzuto led off with a triple and scored on a groundout. Stengel fully trusted Raschi, an absolutely nails competitor who shut the Red Sox out on two hits through eight innings.
The Yanks weren’t finding much success against Ellis Kinder, but the righty left the game for a pinch-hitter. That allowed the Yankees to feast on Kinder’s relievers in the eighth, as Henrich homered and a rally off Tex Hughson ended with a three-run double by second baseman Jerry Coleman.
The 5-0 cushion was necessary in the ninth, as Raschi finally faltered, even as Stengel stuck with him. After a walk, a wild pitch, and a single, the Red Sox had something going. Bobby Doerr tripled past DiMaggio with one out to score two. The Yankee Clipper had been battling injuries all year long (especially to his heel) and he took the extraordinary step of removing himself from the game in favor of Cliff Mapes, just because the lead was precarious and he knew that the Yankees couldn’t afford another misstep in center.
After inducing a shall fly to Mapes, Raschi gave up an RBI single to Billy Goodman, prompting a visit to the mound by both Henrich and his catcher, Berra. It is at this point that I simply must relay a quote from Peter Golenbock’s Dynasty: The New York Yankees 1949-64, as featured in a SABR article about this game. Berra and Henrich thought that the tiring Raschi needed encouragement. Here’s how he responded:
“Give me the goddamn ball and get the hell out of here.”
Subtle! But fair. On the very next pitch, Raschi got Birdie Tebbetts to pop up to end the game, the final out falling into Henrich’s glove in foul territory next to first base. Travel back in time and listen to the legendary Mel Allen call the final out of the 1949 American League pennant race here:
May tonight offer a similarly thrilling conclusion!
Note: Some text was incorporated from past Pinstripe Alley history articles.
