Eliminated from two postseasons in one day
The White Sox won again in Cincinnati, narrowing their World Series deficit to four games to three, taking Game 7, 4-1. The Pale Hose were in control from the jump, as Shoeless Joe Jackson had RBI singles in the first and third innings, and Happy Felsch knocked in two with a single in the fifth. Eddie Cicotte went the distance and got his first win of the Series; despite being a member of the Black Sox conspiracy, Cicotte finished his work against the Reds with a 2.91 ERA.
More ominously, also on this day Lefty Williams and his family were threatened by gambling interests, looking ahead to his Game 8 start back in Chicago the next day. Williams was told he would need to immediately and irrevocably throw the game — and the starter obliged by coughing up four runs in the first inning before manager Kid Gleason played his hunch and yanked his starter with just one out in the game.
The Dodgers clobbered Early Wynn and Dick Donovan in the third and fourth innings, jumping out to an 8-2 lead to fuel a 9-3 triumph in Game 6 of the World Series and be crowned champions. Chuck Essegian clubbed his second pinch-hit homer of the Series as a ninth-inning insurance run, making him the first player in history to have two pinch-hit homers in the same World Series.
With the White Sox down two games to one in the ALCS, Jerry Dybzinski overran second base after a single by Julio Cruz in the seventh inning of a scoreless game at Comiskey Park. In the ensuing rundown Vance Law, who was on base in front of Dybzinski, was thrown out trying to score what would have been the go-ahead run.
The Sox wound up losing the game and the series on a home run by Baltimore’s Tito Landrum in the 10th inning. The final score was 3-0, spoiling a masterful performance by Sox pitcher Britt Burns, who went the distance and struck out eight. Landrum’s homer came on Burns’ 150th pitch of the game.
With the White Sox down two games to none in the ALCS, Wilson Álvarez pitched a gem and beat the Blue Jays, 6-1. The Sox scored five runs in the third inning, which gave Álvarez some breathing room. The complete game victory was badly needed, and gave Sox fans a reason to keep hoping. Álvarez gave up seven hits and struck out six.
Also in the game, Tim Raines went 4-for-5 with two doubles and a run scored, marking just the third time in history (and first in 93 years) a White Sox player had four hits in a postseason game.
White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson was a prime-time player, and it showed in his first five postseason games. When Anderson got three hits in the White Sox a 9-4 loss to the Astros in Game 2 of the ALDS, that outburst gave him 13 hits in the first five playoff games of his career, dating back to the 2020 playoff series against the Athletics.
The 13 hits set the major league record, and also tied the record for the most hits in any five-game span in postseason history.
Anderson then added three more hits in Chicago’s 12-6 Game 3 win two days later, giving him 16 in six postseason games — the most ever by a player in a six-game postseason span.
