Red Sox can’t beat the Yankees in the season’s final series
Following the disappointment of the 1948 season, the Red Sox came back in 1949 and fell 12.5 games behind the Yankees by the Fourth of July. However, they went on a tear after that and heading into the final two games of the season at Yankee Stadium the Red Sox had a one game lead in the standings.
All they needed to do was win one of the final two games against the Yankees and the 1949 American League pennant would be theirs. Instead, they somehow lost both games and finished the season 96-58, one game behind the Yankees. Mel Parnell started the first game and the Red Sox had a 4-0 lead but couldn’t hold on as the Yankees won the game 5-4.
That meant that the final game of the season between the two bitter rivals would determine who win the pennant. Ellis Kinder got the start for the Red Sox and gave up a single run to the Yankees in the first inning, but heading into the eighth inning it was still a 1-0 game. Boston manager Joe McCarthy pinch-hit for Kinder but the new hitter failed to do anything.
Now forced to put a new pitcher in for the bottom of the inning, McCarthy inexplicably put Mel Parnell in the game in relief. He gave up a home run and a single before being lifted for another pitcher, Tex Hughson. Hughson told McCarthy his arm was sore, but the manager didn’t care and insisted he pitch. With the bases load, he gave up a soft fly ball to right field that Red Sox outfielder Al Zarilla charged in on.
Instead of making the shoestring catch he attempted, the ball got past Zarilla for a three-run triple. The Red Sox scored three runs in the top of the ninth, but it was too little, too late and they lost the game and the pennant.
For the second year in a row, McCarthy’s managerial decisions were questioned by the sports media and for the second year in a row, the Red Sox squandered a golden opportunity to get back to the World Series.
It would be the last time Ted Williams had a chance to play in and win a World Series and it would be another eighteen years before the Red Sox would win another pennant.