October 2, 1947: Dodgers strike back to beat Yankees in Game 3

The Dodgers were in a hole after losing the first two games of the World Series to their crosstown rivals the Yankees. But now the Series was headed to Ebbets Field and the Dodger faithful were confident that their team could bounce back.

“Now that we’ve got the Yanks in our own backyard, they can’t hurt us anymore” was the feeling throughout Brooklyn. Alfred Salerno of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote: “The result of today’s game was clear in their minds. We were going to win. And everything would turn out for the good.”1

The Dodgers sent Joe Hatten to the mound. Manager Burt Shotton originally planned to start Ralph Branca. But he had been forced to use Branca in the first game of the Series and didn’t think he would be ready on just two days’ rest.

But Shotton had good reason to feel confident in Hatten, who had been used as a starter and reliever throughout the season. Hatten had finished with a 17-8 record that included 11 complete games. After the poor performance by Dodgers pitchers in the first two games, their fans hoped Hatten would restore confidence in the Brooklyn pitching staff.

Hatten looked good through the first two innings. Although the Yankees got a single in each inning, Hatten kept their bats in check and the Yankees scoreless.

Bobo Newsom started for the Yankees. The 17-year veteran had been purchased by the Yankees in midseason. He played a key role in their pitching staff down the stretch, finishing with a 7-5 record and a 2.80 ERA.

Newsom “was lucky to escape unscathed right from the start”2 when two Dodgers baserunners were caught stealing. Jackie Robinson singled. He stole second on a wild throw by the catcher but was tagged out after overrunning the base. Pete Reiser, next up, also walked. He was also caught stealing. Reiser twisted his ankle on the hard slide but stayed in the game.

Newsom’s luck did not last. After Phil Rizzuto raced in to grab Dixie Walker’s hopper and make a quick throw to George McQuinn for the first out, he struggled, starting when he walked Gene Hermanski.

Bruce Edwards then doubled to left field. Lindell dived for the ball as it bounced off the wall but missed. By the time Joe DiMaggio ran it down, Hermanski had crossed the plate with the Dodgers’ first run.

Pee Wee Reese followed with a single to center, scoring Edwards. Spider Jorgensen flied out to DiMaggio for out number two and it appeared the Yankees might get out of the inning. But Hatten singled and a passed ball allowed both runners to advance.

Yankee fans began to wonder when Yankees manager Bucky Harris might pull Newsom. Harris later said that he “didn’t think that [Vic] Raschi was sufficiently warmed up in the pen at the time” and that Newsom still “had good stuff.”3

But Eddie Stanky doubled off the right-field wall and both runners scored, and Newsom was finally sent to the showers. A “sobered” Newsom later said, “I thought I was fast and had my stuff but they just hit me.”4

Raschi went to the mound to get the final out. When Robinson’s single left runners at the corners, it was clear that Raschi might not have been warmed up. As Reiser’s ankle continued to swell, Shotton was forced replace him with Carl Furillo.

Furillo had been kept on the bench because “he supposedly can’t hit right-handed pitching.”5 He promptly exploded off the right-handed Raschi for a double that sent Stanky and Robinson across the plate. The Dodgers were finally retired after Walker grounded out for the second time in the inning. But the Dodgers had grabbed a six-run lead The Yankees may have been in a hole but they quickly began to dig out of it with some help from Hatten. Sherm Lollar led off the third with a single. The Dodgers hurler then walked pinch-hitter Allie Clark.

Hatten bore down to get the next two outs. But Lindell and DiMaggio followed with singles that scored one run apiece, leaving the Dodgers with a four-run lead at 6-2.

“Sensing that Hatten was going to need all the help he could get,”6 the Dodgers scored another run in their half of the third. Karl Drews was on the mound for the Yankees and he was wild from the start. He clipped Hermanski on the leg and then moved him to second on a wild pitch. Edwards’ groundout pushed Hermanski to third. He came home on Jorgensen’s single down the left-field line.

The Dodgers expanded on their lead in the fourth against Spud Chandler, the Yankees’ fourth pitcher. After Chandler walked two of the first three batters he faced, singles by Walker and Hermanski plated two runs, pushing the Dodgers’ total to nine. It was the most any Dodgers team had scored in a World Series game.

But Hatten continued to struggle, surrendering two more runs in the fourth. He walked leadoff batter Johnson, who came home on Lollar’s double. Snuffy Stirnweiss’s two-out single brought home Lollar, giving the Yankees four runs for the game.

Hatten got himself in trouble again in the fifth when he let the leadoff man get on base for the fourth time. DiMaggio then “teed off to present a customer in the upper left-center deck with a Series souvenir.”7 Although Hatten got the next batter out, Shotton replaced him with Branca.

Branca got through the frame unscathed but got himself in trouble in the sixth. Pinch-hitter Bobby Brown got things started with a blast that “caromed off the screen atop the fence in right field and which [the Yankees] maintained should have been ruled a home run.”8

Brown ended up on third and advanced to third when Stirnweiss grounded out to short. Tommy Henrich then hit a line drive that bounced off Stanky’s glove into short right field. Brown scored and Henrich ended up on second. The score was now 9-7. Walks to DiMaggio and McQuinn loaded the bases. With two outs and the count 3-and-1 on Billy Johnson, most in attendance expected that Johnson “would be ordered to take the next pitch.”9 He wasn’t and swung hard but raised a soft pop fly to Stanky for the third out.

Harris later said, “I let Johnson hit that 3-and-1 pitch against Branca in the sixth because I had confidence in his ability to smack one. He popped up. What else is there to say? We won the pennant taking chances and I had to play the game the same way.”10

The Dodgers were scoreless in the sixth. With one out in the seventh, Branca faced pinch-hitter Yogi Berra. Berra was hitless in the Series so far and Harris had benched him. Berra hit the third pitch over the scoreboard, “which barely missed knocking the clock off Ebbets Field.”11 The home run cut the Brooklyn lead to just one run at 9-8. It was the first pinch-hit home run in World Series history.

After Berra’s homer, Shotton brought in Hugh Casey to replace Branca. Casey retired the Yankees but got into trouble in the eighth. He walked leadoff batter Henrich. Lindell singled. DiMaggio stepped to the plate.

DiMaggio tried to check his swing but wasn’t fast enough. The ball cracked off his bat for a grounder to Stanky, who scooped up the ball, tagged Lindell, and made a quick toss to first to complete the double play. McQuinn grounded to Robinson for the third out, and the Yankees were still trailing by one run.

After the game Lindell insisted that Stanky had never touched him, and Harris “backed his player.”12 “I’m not dishonest and I don’t kick unless I’m on the level,” Lindell said. “I didn’t feel any kind of a tag and I’m certain I ran past him as he swiped at me.”13 American League umpire Bill McGowan, who made the call, was not swayed.

After the Dodgers were scoreless in the eighth, Casey retired the Yankees in order in the ninth. Jackie Robinson grabbed Johnson’s leadoff groundball to Robinson and flipped it to Casey for the first out. Rizzuto flied out to right field. With two outs, Berra hit a line drive up the middle. Casey “had the presence of mind to throw up his glove and deflect Berra’s smash to Stanky,”14 who threw Berra out at first, and the game was over.

After the game, DiMaggio was inconsolable about his eighth-inning at-bat, saying, “I tried to check myself on a slider, topped it and lost a ball game.”15

Casey was credited with the win. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s Tommy Holmes wrote “Ordinarily, a pitcher preserving a one-run lead for two and two-thirds innings does not become a hero to name your children after. But these are not ordinary times. And this was not an ordinary ball game.”16

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, I used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for box-score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other pertinent material.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO194710020.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1947/B10020BRO1947.htm

Photo credit: Hugh Casey, Trading Card Database.

NOTES

1 Alfred Salerno, “Bleacher Fans Defy Yanks in All-Night Vigil,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 3, 1947: 1.

2 Dick Young, “Flock Wins 9-8, Casey Halts Yanks,” New York Daily News, October 3, 1947: C19.

3 Young.

4 James Dawson, “Several Incidents Rouse Bombers Ire,” New York Times, October 3, 1947: 33.

5 Young.

6 Young.

7 Young.

8 Dawson.

9 Young.

10 Joe Trimble, “2 Gambles Cost Yanks Possible Win: Bucky,” New York Daily News, October 3, 1947: C17.

11 Young.

12 Dawson.

13 Trimble.

14 Tommy Holmes, “The Innkeeper Draws One for the Dodgers,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 3, 1947:16.

15 Dawson.

16 Holmes.