1948 BOSTON BRAVES
SPAHN & SAIN and PRAY FOR RAIN ...
 

The 1948 Braves were strengthened in every department over the 1947 team. For the outfield they bought slugger Jeff Heath from the St. Louis Browns, got Jim Russell from Pittsburgh, and drafted Clint Conaster from Buffalo. The infield had a new keystone combination consisting of Alvin Dark, a rookie shortstop acquired from Milwaukee to play alongside secondbaseman Eddie Stanky. New pitcher's included Vern Bickford, a competitive right-hander from Milwaukee, Bobby Hogue, a relief pitcher from Dallas, and in June, they picked up Nelson Potter. To help Phil Masi with the catching, Bill Salkeld had been picked up from Pittsburgh.

This gave Billy Southworth a team experienced, but still with the question of whether, the veterans would have good seasons once again, and would the Alvin Dark come through at shortstop. Dark, while not the slickest fielding shortstop in Braves history, was an outstanding competitor, the kind that would go from first the third on a bunt or cash a pop fly with his bare hands. A Marine flyer during the war, Dark signed with the Braves for $40,000 in 1946. In 1947 he helped Milwaukee win the American Association playoffs.

Southworth did a great job of bringing the Braves players together, most of whom were veterans who had some limitations in one department or the other. The brusque a little manager manipulated his lineup so as to get the maximum results with the talent at his disposal.

The National League's most valuable player in 1947 was Bob Elliott. His average dropped to .283 in 1948, but he knocked in 100 runs and hit 23 home runs.

Until he broke his ankle in midseason, Eddie Stanky was the spark plug. When he was hurt, Sibby Sisti step in at second base and played as he never had before and never would again. The Braves did as well with Sisti as they did with Stanky, and some objected when Stanky returned to the lineup for the World Series.

Tommy Holmes not only led the team in hitting with a .325 average, but he actually saved the Braves four straight losses in St. Louis when he threw out Stan Musial at the plate from right-field in the ninth-inning. Earl Torgeson and Phil Masi both slumped, batting .253, but they played steady defense and Torgy was safe the first 14 times he tried to steal a base.

Where the Braves really excelled was in the pitching department. Warren Spahn was the southpaw ace, winning 15 games, and Vern Bickford had an 11-5 record in his first season. The big wheel however, was Johnny Sain, whose 24–15 record made him a 20 game winner for the third successive season.

The Braves led the National League just about all summer and held off a charge by the Dodgers at the end of the season, to win the pennant by 6 1/2 games.

The road to the pennant began in Florida.  The Braves returned to Bradenton after spending the previous two spring trainings in Ft. Lauderdale.  The Braves made headlines on March 6th when they acquired secondbaseman Eddie Stanky from the Dodgers.

Manager Billy Southworth was a by-the-book regimentarian, using a clip board and a stop-watch to judge his recruits.  They were broken up into groups and followed a regular practice schedule.  Practice ended at 4PM and Southworth instituted an 11:30 curfew.

The team started off slowly on the road.  The Phillies took the first two games of the season, but the Tribe salvaged the road trip by taking the third game on April 22nd, before returning back to Boston.

On April 23rd, Braves Field was decked out in red, white and blue bunting as 11, 553 hearty fans.  The field was in fine shape as the day was cold and chilly.  Hank Gowdy, the former member of the 1914 "Miracle Braves" returned to Braves Field as a member of the New York Giants coaching staff.  The Pat Sands Orchestra provided some of the music, competing with the infamous Troubadours for the fans' attention.  The Troubadours entertained the crowd by playing "Three Blind Mice" when the umpiring crew made their appearance.  The Giants, however, scored all the runs they would need in the first inning against Warren Spahn.  The Giants ended up sweeping the four game series to give the Tribe their fifth loss in six games.

On May 1st Bobby Hogue curbed a Giants' seventh-inning rally to preserve Bill Voiselle's 6 to 3 victory and knock New York out of first place.   The Braves (6-8) had now won five of their last six, and took two of three in New York.  They were in 5th place, 3 games out of first.

They moved on to Pittsburgh and lost one game and then to Cincinnati and swept a rain-shortened two game series from the Reds. On May 7th, Bill Voiselle got his third straight victory of the season, riding a two run Eddie Stanky single in the sixth inning. They came from behind on May 8th, 3 to 2, as Clint Conaster hit an eighth-inning single to climax a three-run rally, chasing Jim Russell home with the winning run.

Three consecutive shutouts by Johnny Sain in St. Louis on May 10th, Bill Voiselle in Chicago on May 13th and Warren Spahn in Brooklyn on May 15th, pushed the Braves up the standings.  They concluded a series in Brooklyn by knocking out 18 hits and scoring 12 runs on May 17th.  Tommy Holmes' (.400 BA) hot bat earned him the major league lead in batting in mid May. 

The Braves returned home and played .500 baseball. The lost 2 of 3 to Pittsburgh, but on May 19th, Vern Bickford got the start and pitched a brilliant five hit, 4 to 1 victory. They split a series with the Cardinals. On May 21st, Warren Spahn wrecked the six-game winning streak of the Cardinals, with a 3 to 1 victory over the league leaders. Spahn scattered seven base hits and missed a shutout by a single pitch.

After losing two to the Dodgers, they split a doubleheader with the Phillies on May 31st. After they blew the opening game, 6 to 3, Spahn and a 13 hit barrage ended a four-game losing streak for the Tribe, 10 to 4, as a six run explosion in the fifth inning enabled him to coast home. The month ended, with the Braves finishing May with a 17-17 record and in fourth place. 

As June began, the Braves got hot, winning 8 out of 10 games. With Johnny Sain holding the Pittsburgh Pirates to three scattered hits, and Jeff Heath and Earl Torgeson furnishing the power, the Braves launched their second road trip with a 5 to 1 win over the Pirates on June 2nd. Two days later, on June 4th, they exploded with a seven run seventh inning that enabled them to wipe out a Pirate lead and score a 10 to 7 victory. Jim Russell's three run homer climaxed the tribes uprising.

After splitting the Pirates series, they swept the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Sain (5-4) won his fifth game, as he put down the Chicago Cubs on four hits with a 1 to 0 victory, on June 6th.

In the second game at Wrigley Field on June 7th, Jim Russell pounded his way into the baseball record books, as the Braves scored a 9 to 5 victory over the Cubs. The Braves outfielder hit two home runs, one swinging right-handed and the other swinging left-handed. On top of the two blasts, Russell knocked out a couple of doubles, batted in five runs and scored three himself as he enjoyed a near perfect day. On June 8th, Vern Bickford threw a four hitter, giving the Boston Braves a lopsided 11 to 1 demolition of the hopeless Cubs and the sweep.

On June 9th, the Braves walloped the Cardinals in St. Louis, by an 11 to 5 score. Fourteen hits bounced off the Braves bats, along with four St. Louis errors and seven free passes handed out by the Cardinals pitchers. Then the next night, June 10th, Sain put down the Cardinals on seven hits. Bob Elliott ended a long slump by crashing out four hits and drawing a walk. Finally, on June 11th, the Braves went into first place after winning six in a row and eight of their last ten.  They staged a sparkling come from behind sweep of the three-game series with the Cardinals, taking the finale 7 to 3. 

After losing a doubleheader in Cincinnati, the team bounced back to sweep a second doubleheader on June 13th. The Braves made a sensational comeback in the first game.  Trailing 6-0 after six innings, they scored four runs in the seventh and four in the ninth, with the winning run being driven in by Eddie Stanky to win, 8 to 7. A three run homer by Bob Elliott and a three run double by Clyde Shoun highlighted the second game, a 10 to 5 victory, in which Cincinnati ace, Ewell Blackwell was driven to the showers.

They headed back to Boston, tied with the Giants for the National League leadership. In last place during the first week of the season, the Braves have made a magnificent drive to the top of the National League.

Johnny Sain won for the first time at Braves Field on June 15th.   Then the Braves staged two come-backs to sweep a doubleheader from the Cubs on June 17th. They then came back against the Reds for a 5-4 win on June 18th. Next, it was Sain (8-4) shutting out Cincinnati, 5-0, on June 19th. During his last five complete and winning games, Sain held the opposing team to just four earned runs.

Backed by the surprisingly good pitching of both Red Barrett and Vern Bickford on June 20th, the Tribe took both ends of a doubleheader, making it 18 wins in their last 23 games. Tommy Holmes (.362 BA) continued to lead the Braves hitting attack.  Earl Torgeson extended his perfect stolen base streak to 14 of 14.

The St. Louis Cardinals next came in and took three straight games, to sweep the series, only one half game behind the Braves. But the Braves bounced back, taking 2 of 3 from Pittsburgh. On June 25th, home runs by Jim Russell and Holmes led the Braves to a 12 to 3 win. On June 27th, the Braves protected their first place lead with a 9 to 1 victory. Clint Conaster knocked in three runs to help Johnny Sain notched his ninth victory of the season. Shoun knocked home the winning run in the second inning by drilling a two run single that gave the Braves a 2 to 0 lead.

They next took 2 of 3 from the Giants, to open a 2 1/2 game lead in the National League, as July began.  On June 30th, Bill Voiselle gave the Braves a 3 to 1 It was his eighth win of the year. Johnny Sain became the first National League pitcher to win his 10th game on July 1st. They finished their homestand in first place by 2 1/2 games.

The Braves, in fierce competition with other big league teams, signed an 18-year-old left-handed pitcher who just graduated from high school. Johnny Antonelli was given a bonus of $52,000. The big outlay of cash to an untried schoolboy annoyed veteran players. None were more annoyed than Johnny Sain and to appease him the Braves gave him a new contract before the All-Star game that covered the balance of the 1948 season as well as 1949.

The Braves went on the road to Philly, as July started, taking the first two games of the series and extending their National League lead to four games.  On July 3rd, Bob Elliott smashed two homers. He had four home runs in three successive games.

On July 6th, with Vern Bickford pitching four hit ball and Frank McCormick ripping off his first home run of the season, the Braves successfully fought a 4 to 3 battle with the Giants at the Polo Grounds.

Although Eddie Stanky broke his ankle in the third inning during a collision with Brooklyn thirdbaseman, Bruce Edwards on July 8th at Ebbets Field, the Braves beat the Dodgers in the final game of the road trip, thanks to Jim Russell's grand slam.  Stanky had been scheduled the be the National League's starting secondbaseman in the All Star Game. The Braves (43-31) returned home after a .500 road trip still 2 1/2 games in first.

Alvin Dark (.333 BA) continued on his splendid hitting spree. Starting on June 19th he had hit safely in 23 successive games. Over that stretch he had gotten 39 hits in 91 times at bat for a .425 batting average. In 13 of the games he had connected safely more than once.

Johnny Sain picked up his 11th victory of the year and turned in his 13th complete game, as he rode to a soft victory over the Phillies by a 13 to 2 score on July 9th. They edged the Phillies 4 to 3, the next night. Big Bill Voiselle came within one out of racking up his sixth complete game but he was forced out with the tying run on first in the last of the ninth. In the final game on July 11th, sparked by Connie Ryan, filling in for the injured Eddie Stanky, the Braves defeated the Phillies 9 to 4 and swept the three-game series. The Braves, after sweeping the series with the Phillies, held a 5 1/2 game lead over the Pirates at the All-Star break.

Although Boston players figured prominently in the All Star Game, none did so as dramatically as Johnny Sain. He relieved Johnny Schmitz, the Cubs southpaw and losing pitcher, in the fourth inning. He retired five men in succession before giving away to a pinch-hitter, striking out three men in row on 13 pitches in the fifth inning, two of them being Vern Stephens and Bobby Doerr of the Red Sox.

After the break the Braves went on the road. They took 2 of 3 from the Cubs in Chicago.  On July 16th, the Braves won a slugfest, 12-10, coming from behind three times for their sixth consecutive win.

With Nels Potter and Vern Bickford pitching superbly, and Jeff Heath, Alvin Dark and Bob Elliott slamming home runs, the Braves captured one of their most important doubleheaders of the season, as they battered the Pirates, 10 to 2 and 3 to 1 on July 18th.

The Braves thus zoomed into an eight game lead in the National League pennant race. They dumped the Pirates into fourth place, 8 1/2 games behind and gained a full game on both the Cardinals and the Dodgers, who split a doubleheader in St. Louis.

But the Braves' fortunes started to slide. They won only two of their last seven decisions on their post All Star Game road trip, finished it with a 6-6 record, but managed to keep their National League lead at 5 games, thanks to late inning heroics by Bob Elliott in their last game against the Cardinals on July 25th. Elliott's clutch home run, with two aboard in the ninth, brought the Tribe back, rescuing them from a desperate situation, after losing three straight to the second place Cardinals.

The Braves came home to sweep a series with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  On July 27th, the Braves defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates behind Nels Potter's six hit pitching, by a score of 5 to 1. Ralph Kiner, of the Pirates, hit his 28th home run in the first inning, but the Braves offset it with a two run round tripper by Phil Masi, and Clint Conaster's first big-league homer.

The next day, July 28th, the Braves hustled and polished off the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8 to 2, behind Vern Bickford's six hit pitching. Bill Voiselle batted and pitched a 2 to 1 triumph over the Pirates on July 29th. He pounded out his fifth hit of the season in the second inning, to provide his own winning margin for his 11th triumph of the year. His pitching in the clutch was terrific and it overshadowed his stick work, even though his base hit won the game.

After losing the first game of the series with the Cardinals, the Braves staged their greatest comeback of the season on July 31st. A base clearing triple by the almost forgotten Sibbi Sisti, in the ninth-inning, gave the Braves a 7 to 6 walkoff win. 

But the Braves lost two of three to the Cardinals to start August, then lost three of four to the Reds. In the final game of the series with the Reds, on August 5th, Earl Torgeson drilled a hit into left-center for a triple, scoring Tommy Holmes and Alvin Dark for a 6 to 4 victory. The hit ended the Braves four-game losing streak. The relief pitching of Bobby Hogue, blanked the Reds over the final three innings, on one infield hit.

The Cubs came in and, after losing the first game, the Braves staged a seventh-inning rally that dissolved a 3 to 3 deadlock, to score an impressive 6 to 3 win. It gave Johnny Sain his long overdue 14th victory on August 7th. The next day, the Braves knocked out 10 base hits for a 6 to 3 win over the Cubs before 41,527 fans at Braves Field that afternoon. It was the largest crowd to see a game in two seasons. Bob Elliott paced the team with a perfect day on a pair of doubles and two passes, driving in two runs. 

Terrific homers by Elliott and Jeff Heath provided the power behind Sain's 15th win on August 11th against the Giants. It was a win that gave them a even split in that series.

On August 12th, Sibby Sisti was on third in the ninth inning of a tie game. Elliott came to the plate and Ralph Branca's first pitch was a curveball in the dirt, that bounced between Roy Campanella's legs all the way to the backstop. Sisti charged in from third, sliding underneath Branca for the winning walkoff run, as the Braves won their opener from the Brooklyn Dodgers with a 2 to 1 score.

On August 14th, the Braves roared back in the bottom of the ninth-inning, to get by the Dodgers in an exciting, 4 to 3, come from behind win. Entering the ninth, the Braves were two runs down and came up with a thrilling three run rally. The Braves now had a 17-13 record in one-run games, but won only two of the five games in the Brooklyn series.

Their lead was dwindling by mid August as Southworth was booed after using Al Lyons, a pitcher, as a pinch-hitter for Jeff Heath. Then Jim Russell was hospitalized with a heart condition. The Braves finished their homestand winning 10 of the 20 games. They had slumped since the All-Star game, starting the second half with a 5 1/2 game lead in the National League.  They left Braves Field only 2 games ahead of the Dodgers and 2 1/2 ahead of the Cardinals.

On August 17th, the Braves traveled to New York to meet the Giants at the Polo Grounds. Behind the six hit pitching of Bill Voiselle, they trounced the Giants by a 10-2 score. The silent bats of the Braves finally became loaded with tremendous power. Clint Conaster rattled a tremendous home run and a triple, along with a single, to lead the 14 hit attack against three Giants pitchers.

After splitting with the Giants at the Polo Grounds, the Braves moved on to Ebbets Field for another showdown with the Dodgers. The Braves got knocked out of first place by percentage points, when the Dodgers took the opening game of the doubleheader by an 8 to 7 score on August 21st. Atop Ebbets Field are the banners arranged in the standings of the National League. It was a wild scene when the Braves banner was switched around for the one of the Dodgers after the first game. The Braves had been wearing the crown since June 13th, 69 days altogether. But in slightly more than two hours, Warren Spahn had slipped his teammates back into their thin one-game lead with a four hitter and a 2 to 1 victory. Spahn pitched one of his best games of the season. He had a shutout until the ninth-inning and allowed only but one man to reach second base. Tommy Holmes (.319 BA), who hadn't knocked in a run in 23 games, drove in two runs in the first game.

On August 22nd, the Brooklyn Dodgers stole eight bases, five in one inning, but the Braves won the game on a clutch eight inning home run from Clint Conaster. The Braves took three games of the four game series, and as a result, they knocked Brooklyn out of second place and moved on to St. Louis with a 2 1/2 game lead over the Cardinals, and a three-game lead over the Dodgers.

Against the second place Cardinals and their ace, Harry Brecheen, the Braves, led by Tommy Holmes (.319 BA) increased their National League lead to 3 1/2 games in a 9-3 rout on August 24th. The next day, August 25th, the Braves opened up more daylight on their two chief contenders for the National League lead, behind Warren Spahn's seven hit, 2 to 0 shutout over the Cardinals.  They had won five straight from the Dodgers and Cardinals and were ahead by 4 1/2 games.

The  team then moved on to Chicago and Pittsburgh and the Braves lost six out of seven games to the Cubs and the Pirates. The team just stopped hitting and left runners on base at an alarming rate (18 in the Pittsburgh series). On August 29th they dropped from the top of the National League. The Braves appeared to be a listless baseball team, returning from their road trip. As one National League umpire said before the team left Cincinnati, he had never seen a team fighting for a pennant with such a lack of enthusiasm.  They finished their road trip, taking 2 of 3 from Cincinnati, going 9-9 and in second place, 1/2 game behind the Dodgers.

After a day off, the Phillies came to Braves Field and Johnny Sain got his 17th victory of the year, and just missed a shutout on September 3rd.  The win put Braves back on top of the N.L., with the Dodgers losing both ends of a doubleheader to the Giants. 

On September 4th, after blowing a 3 to 1 lead in the seventh inning of the first game, and losing 4 to 3, the Braves bounced back to beat the Phillies 8 to 1. The Tribe may well have had a double victory, but Bill Voiselle was the victim of some ragged defense in the seventh inning of the opening game.

On September 5th, Red Barrett steered the Braves to a 5 to 1 victory over the Phillies. Barrett, leading 2 to 1 in the fifth inning, rode on to a safer margin with the help of Frank McCormick's three-run double to right. He chalked up his third straight win and issued no walks for his second consecutive time.

The Braves took three of the four games with Philadelphia to move two games out in front of the Dodgers. In their last five wins, Braves pitchers had only allowed one run in each game.

And so, as the Dodgers came to Boston, the showdown series became one of the most important ones that the Braves had played in years. And nothing did the Tribe more good than the double victory over the Dodgers at Braves Field on September 6th, which gave them a four game lead over Brooklyn. Warren Spahn pitched perhaps the best game of the season, winning the opener 2 to 1 in 14 innings, allowing only five hits and picking Jackie Robinson off base two times. Torgeson's double in the 14th inning was the winning hit. Johnny Sain then won the seven inning nitecap 4-0, as the fans roared their approval to see the Braves, for the first time in many long years, actually win games they needed to win.

Two days of rain followed two days off in Philadelphia.  Manager Southworth trotted out Spahn and Sain again and the two aces again dominated the Phillies in sweeping both ends of a doubleheader on September 11th.

After splitting a second doubleheader with the Phillies on September 12th, the Braves came back to Boston.

They then beat the Cubs at the Wigwam, as Johnny Sain won his 20th game on September 14th. And the on the next day, September 15th, Warren Spahn beat the Cubs.

After a day off, the second place Pirates came to Braves Field on September 17th and fell to Sain (21-14). And again on the next day, September 18th, Spahn (15-10) won again also. Spahn and Sain had won eight of the last ten games that the Braves played.

On September 19th, the Braves came from behind to pin a 4 to 2 defeat on the Cincinnati Reds, in a game that saw Eddie Stanky come off the bench to deliver a base hit that helped tied the score in the seventh inning. In doing so the Braves won their six straight game and twelfth in their last thirteen outings.

The Braves were knocking at the door when they swept a doubleheader from the Cardinals on September 21st. Sain played an integral part once more in winning his 22nd game of the season. The big right-hander pitched his sixth complete game and got his sixth win in the Braves' last eleven games in the opener.

They coasted to the pennant, which was clinched a week before the season ended with a 3 to 2 victory over the Giants, on September 26th in Boston. Bob Elliott belted a three run home run in the first inning that gave them the runs they needed.

The Braves celebrated proudly with the players pounding each other on the back as Stanky and Southworth hugged each other. It took 34 years, a dozen managers and "Three Steam Shovels" to bring Boston the first National League pennant since the legendary miracle men of George Stallings. As the Braves fanatics whooped it up after last out, to the band playing "Tessie", a lone figure was seen moving slowly off the playing field. He had on a New York Giants uniform but was weeping tears of joy. His name was Hank Gowdy and he was a hero of the 1914 World Series victory over the Athletics. He was not a part of the victory celebration, but he could not keep back the floodgates of the memory.

It was Stan Musial and not Johnny Sain who was voted the National League's most valuable player for 1948. But in a period of 19 days, from September 3rd to September 21st, Sain had pitched and won six games for the Braves.

The Braves went into the World Series against Cleveland with one of their heaviest hitters on crutches. Jeff Heath broke his ankle sliding home at Brooklyn four days before the season ended. He had batted .310 and walloped 20 homers, while knocking in 77 runs.

Although tired after winning a six-game series to put them in a playoff with the Red Sox, the Indians were favored to win the World Series, having a more younger and better balanced team than the Braves. The Indians came through because, while the Braves pitching was good, their pitching was excellent.

In Game #1 at Braves Field, Johnny Sain pitched the Braves to a 1 to 0 victory. The man showed that he was a much more resourceful pitcher than his counterpart Bob Feller, thanks to an eighth-inning single by Tommy Holmes. For seven innings Sain and Feller had matched each other and were tossing a shutout. It seemed that this game might go into overtime, so brilliant were the ace right-handers, each of whom was tops in their respective league.

Bill Salkeld was the first Braves hitter in the last of the eighth he went down to first base on a base on balls. Phil Masi came in to pinch run for Salkeld at first. Mike McCormick laid down a perfect bunt on the first pitch. As Feller threw McCormick out at first, Masi scooted down to second. Sain then lined out to Walt Judnich, in right field. That brought Holmes to the plate and  he drove a low line drive to the right of Ken Keltner at third. It was going safely into left field and Masi took off like a shot and with his cap in his hand, he scored the one and only run of the game which turned out to be the game-winner.

Sain yielded only four hits and they were all singles. He was cool, tough, and delivered in the clutch. He felt that one run would be all that he needed. Never was it better than when it happened in the eighth-inning.

Game #2 went to the Indians, a 4 to 1 victory. The Indians found Warren Spahn to be a pushover. He pitched three scoreless innings and then started slipping in the fourth, fading out of the picture by the fifth inning.

Spahn pitched a perfect opening inning, and in the bottom half, the Braves were the first to crack open the game when Dark came up and slapped a roller at Joe Gordon. Gordon fumbled it for an instant, but it was enough for the speedy Dark to beat his throw. The Braves took advantage and didn't hesitate to cash in. Earl Torgeson took a called strike and then lined a single to right, allowing Dark to get over to third. That seemed to shake up Lemon, who fired two balls to Bob Elliott. On the next pitch Bob slashed it vigorously over Boudreau's head for a clean single and Dark walked home with the first run of the game.

But after that they were throttled by Bob Lemon. The Braves put the pressure on him in the second inning, the fourth and the sixth inning, but he took care of the Tribe in the clutch, baffling them with a sinker ball that was very effective.

Lou Boudreau was the leadoff hitter for the Indians in the fourth. He pushed a ball into right field for a double and that brought up Gordon. He atoned for his miscue and pulled a single into left field. Boudreau was off with the crack of the bat and didn't stop as he turned third. There wasn't even a chance to nail him and Gordon took off for second, as Torgeson cut off the ball and the game was tied. Working carefully, Spahn eliminated Ken Keltner on a foul pop up, but Larry Doby, who had doubled off Spahn in the second inning, came through again, as Spahn got himself in a three and one hole. On the next pitch Doby sent a line drive into right field that scored Gordon and put the Indians ahead.

Lou Boudreau was a one-man show. He not only scored the first Cleveland run but knocked in the game clincher. Dale Mitchell opened the fifth with a single to left. Allie Clark sacrificed him over to second and that brought up Boudreau. Spahn got in the hole, three and one, and then Lou drove the next serve back through the box into centerfield, scoring Mitchell with the third Cleveland run.

The Braves committed three errors in the game and allowed the Indians to run them out of the park. They permitted a cheap fly ball to fall in for a hit and run and looked like a jittery sandlot baseball team rather than a club fighting for the world title.

In Cleveland, Gene Bearden, who pitched the Cleveland Indians into the World Series, put his club within two games of winning it. Four days after he put down the Red Sox in the American League showdown, he blinded the Boston Braves with a dipping knuckleball in Game #3. He shut the Braves out, 2 to 0, giving his team a 2 to 1 edge in the series.

Bearden was a one-man show, shutting out the Braves on 85 pitches and he scored the first run for his team. He got two of the five Indians hits, his first being a double in the third inning, and the other knocking out his rival, Vern Bickford, in the fourth inning. The Braves had few scoring chances as Ken Keltner started one doubleplay and Bearden started another. Eddie Stanky was the only Braves player to reach third base during the whole game. Bearden struck out four and registered six putouts with his glove.

The Indians Steve Gromek, who had been largely forgotten, hurled his team to a 2 to 1 win over the Braves in Game #4. The Indians gained their third victory for a 3 to 1 series lead on Larry Doby's monstrous 400 foot home run off Johnny Sain in the third inning. Sain pitched a neat five hitter but didn't win the game as his teammates could not hit the ball at the opportune times to get runs across.

Once again the Braves were futile with their bats. They managed to slap out seven hits, only two more than the Indians got off Sain. But with men in scoring position, Gromek and his knuckle half curveball bewildered the Braves. Two times, Bob Elliott, the 1947 MVP of the National League and leading RBI man on the team this year, had a chance to put the Braves back in the game and didn't come through.

Outside of a few pitches, both pitchers were just about perfect. They each served up a home run ball but Sain had better control. Once more he didn't walk a batter, but he got off to a rough start when the Indians got to him for two hits and their initial run in the first inning. Working with only two days rest, a normal procedure for Sain over the past two months, his curveball didn't have the bite in the cold biting wind. He had blanked the Indians on four hits only three days ago, but his scoreless stretch was shattered in the first inning.

In Game #5, the Braves carried the World Series back home back to Boston, with an 11-5 scalping of the Indians. Bob Elliott led the assault on Bob Feller by ripping him for two home runs. Warren Spahn came into the game as a reliever, and threw a magnificent 5 2/3 innings simply freezing the bats of the red-hot ball club. He pitched like the cool effective craftsman, who was a 21 game winner a year ago, as well as the clutch performer against the Dodgers and the Cardinals during the pennant run.

The game was tied until the Braves seventh, when the Boston Tribe broke it open. Holmes singled to left center and Dark sacrificed him to second. Earl Torgeson then slammed a clean single to center, scoring Holmes and putting the Braves up. That was it for Feller and in came Ed Klieman. The first batter he faced was Elliott, who he walked, moving Torgeson up to second base. Marv Rickert then lined a single to center that scored Torgy and Larry Doby tried to cut off Elliott, who was heading into third. But Doby's throw flew over Ken Keltner's head into the Boston dugout. So Elliott walked home and Rickert was waived over to third-base. The next batter was Bill Salkeld, who Kleiman also walked, so Boudreau handed the ball over to Russ Christopher, who also failed to hold the Braves. Mike McCormick he lined a single into right. Rickert scored and Salkeld had plenty of time to glide to third. Eddie Stanky got the hit-and-run sign and he tossed his bat toward the ball, catching it and floating it out to right-field, allowing Salkeld to score and McCormick to race over to third, and that was it for Christopher. So, now striding in from the right-field bullpen, was none other than Satchel Paige.

The crowd howled and cheered as he warmed up. His first batter was Spahn and he pulled a long fly out to Doby in center, that scored McCormick from third with the sixth and final run of the inning. The big lead was all that Spahn needed as he retired Indians in order in the seventh and set down nine men in a row, striking out five of the last six batters in the ball game.

For the first time in 28 seasons, the Indians stood on top of the baseball world as they defeated the Boston Braves 4-3 in Game #6 at Braves Field in front of 40,103. The game was a microcosm of the Indians’ season, good offense and starting pitching but a late rally by the opposition tested the Tribe’s mettle and Gene Bearden saved the day.

A backfiring bunt brought the Series to a dramatic, but dismal finish, for the Braves. When Jim Hegan grabbed Sibbi Sisti's pop up in the ninth-inning and converted it into a doubleplay, Cleveland won the game and the World Series, four games to two.

The Braves waged an excellent struggle, to make the game one of the most exciting in the series. They missed winning it in the eighth, when Phil Masi's double to left, fell short of clearing the fence by a few feet. As Bob Kennedy caught Tommy Holmes' fly ball in left field to end it all, the Indians celebrated. Several of the Indians players ganged up on Gene Bearden and started to carry him off the field and then went off into the darkness of the dugout and locker room.

Previous Braves opportunities and failures were forgotten as the Tribe started swinging on Bob Lemon in the eighth-inning. Down 4 to 1, Tommy Holmes opened the inning by slicing the first serve to left for single. Alvin Dark took a healthy cut at a two and one pitch, but lined it straight at Larry Doby for the first out. The fans' groans changed abruptly to screams and cheering when Earl Torgeson slammed the first pitch he saw down the right-field line for a double and Holmes steamed into third base. Lemon pitched carefully to Bob Elliott, who already had three singles, and got him up to a three and two count before walking him.

The Braves had been in the limelight from opening day, when they gave the fans a new electric scoreboard and inaugurated "Jimmy Fund" day, the charity to help children with cancer that is still a hallmark of Boston sports to this very day.

The Braves set their Boston attendance record at 1,455,438 despite miserable weather in the spring. By the end of 1948, it seemed that the Braves had established themselves as powerful competitors of the Red Sox in the favor of the Boston public. But the pennant conquest of 1948 was the last convulsive effort of a dying giant, the last flaming eruption of a volcano before it goes silent.