The year's pennant races were as tight as a drum in both leagues. In the American League, Cleveland held a 2 game lead over New York, 2.5 games over Philadelphia, 3 games over Chicago and 6 games over defending Boston when September rolled around. With only ten games remaining, a different story had occured. The Red Sox got red hot and was now tied with Philadelphia while Cleveland was 2 games behind, New York 2.5 and Chicago 3. With only a few games to go, Boston had taken a 1.5 game lead over Cleveland while the Athletics were 2 back and the Yankees were 3. The Red Sox captured their fourth straight title on the next to last day of the season. The Boston offense was once again led by Tris Speaker, who led the league with a .330 average and was chosen the league's outstanding hitter as he also had 6 homers, 72 rbi and 40 stolen bases. The mound staff was led by ace pitcher Smokey Joe Wood, who finished second in the AL in wins (22) and first in strikeouts (235), while being awarded with the league's outstanding pitcher award. Philadelphia, who had been dumping some of their stars in a rebuilding mode, finished in second place, 2 games behind. The Mackmen were led at the plate by Frank Baker and rookie Bill "Duke" Kenworthy, who led the AL in runs batted in (108) and in runs scored (98) plus finished second in home runs (16), as he was awarded the AL's rookie of the year award. Cleveland finished 3 games back and in third place thanks to the hitting of Dutch Zwilling, who led the league in homers and was tied for second in RBIs.
The senior circuit also had a tight multi-team race as St.Louis lead by 4.5 games over Brooklyn, 5 over Philadelphia, 7 over New York and 9.5 over Boston, as September started. With ten games to go, the Cardinals' lead was down to 3 games over both the Phillies and the Giants, while Brooklyn and Boston started falling out of contention. With only a few games to go, the red hot Giants tied St.Louis and passed them the next day. New York won the NL title on the next to last day. Ben Houser and Ed Lennox led the way for the Giants as Houser was the NL's home run champ with Lennox finishing second in HRs and third in RBIs. St.Louis finished in second place, 2 games behind, thanks to the brilliant hitting of superstar Ty Cobb, who had set a major league record in average by batting a whopping .418 and also another one by hitting 29 triples. The "Georgia Peach" was awarded his fourth straight NL Outstanding Batter Award while finishing second in the league in RBI (94) and runs scored (110) plus finished third in stolen bases (59). The Phillies finished five games behind and in third place as pitcher Ed Hughes finished third in ERA (2.51) and won 20 games. Pittsburgh, which came out of nowhere to finish in fourth place, nine games behind, found a bargin in pitcher Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander. Alexander was released by Detroit late in 1912 and awarded the Pirates by leading the NL in ERA and in strikeouts.
During the World Series, the Boston Red Sox split the first two games with the Giants and then took a 2-1 advantage by winning game 3 behind ace Smokey Joe Wood. However, the bats of New York woke up and the Giants took the next three games by the scores of 7-2, 10-6 and 7-6 as Braggo Roth drove in Doc Gessler in the bottom of the ninth in game six to win the world's championship.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Boston 85 69 .552 -- New York 86 68 .558 --
Philadelphia 83 71 .539 2 St.Louis 84 70 .545 2
Cleveland 82 72 .532 3 Philadelphia 81 73 .526 5
Chicago 80 74 .519 5 Pittsburgh 77 77 .500 9
New York 80 74 .519 5 Boston 75 79 .487 11
Detroit 71 83 .461 14 Brooklyn 72 82 .468 14
Washington 69 85 .448 16 Cincinnati 72 82 .468 14
St.Louis 66 88 .429 19 Chicago 69 85 .448 17
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
T.Speaker, BOS .330 T.Cobb, STL .418
R.Oakes, WAS .323 A.Marsans, BRO .359
M.Huggins, DET .313 V.Campbell, CIN .348
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
D.Zwilling, CLE 18 B.Houser, NY 17
B.Kenworthy, PHI 16 E.Lennox, NY 13
F.Baker, PHI 15 B.Kauff, BRO 11
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
B.Kenworthy, PHI 108 R.Williams, BRO 100
G.Cravath, NY 95 T.Cobb, STL 94
D.Zwilling, CLE 95 E.Lennox, NY 91
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
B.Kenworthy, PHI 98 B.Kauff, BRO 111
D.Zilling, CLE 97 T.Cobb, STL 110
G.Cravath, NY 96 E.Lennox, NY 106
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
T.Leach, NY 44 B.Kauff, BRO 66
V.Saier, STL 43 C.Milan, BOS 60
T.Shafer, BOS 42 T.Cobb, STL 59
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
C.Falkenberg, PHI 2.25 P.Alexander, PIT 2.04
C.Hendrix, WAS 2.32 C.Bender, BOS 2.45
J.Raleigh, STL 2.40 E.Hughes, PHI 2.51
Wins W Wins W
M.McHale, CLE 23 C.Bender, BOS 22
J.Wood, BOS 22 B.Groom, NY 21
J.Harris, CLE 21 C.Mathewson, NY 21
Saves SV Saves SV
H.Suter, CHI 5 J.Hovlik, STL 6
H.Gardner, STL/BOS 4 S.Burk, PIT 5
R.Jordan, WAS 4 G.LeClair, NY 5
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
J.Wood, BOS 235 P.Alexander, PIT 219
C.Falkenberg, PHI 202 C.Bender, BOS 195
D.Leonard, CHI 185 B.Groom, NY 187
1913 World Series
Game #1
Boston (A) 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 8 0
New York (N) 0 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 x - 4 9 1
J.Killilay and T.Easterly. P.Ragan and A.Wilson, T.Clarke (9).
WP - P.Ragan (1-0)
LP - J.Killilay (0-1)
HR - none
Game #2
Boston (A) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 3 - 7 14 0
New York (N) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 - 2 8 3
E.Steele and T.Easterly. R.Caldwell and A.Wilson.
WP - E.Steele (1-0)
LP - R.Caldwell (0-1)
HR - NY: A.Wilson (1)
Game #3
New York (N) 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 - 3 7 2
Boston (A) 0 0 2 4 0 3 0 1 x - 10 13 0
B.Groom, J.Lively (8) and A.Wilson. J.Wood and T.Easterly.
WP - J.Wood (1-0)
LP - B.Groom (0-1)
HR - none
Game #4
New York (N) 1 0 0 0 1 0 3 2 0 - 7 6 1
Boston (A) 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 - 2 6 5
C.Mathewson and A.Wilson. A.Malloy and T.Easterly.
WP - C.Mathewson (1-0)
LP - A.Malloy (0-1)
HR - NY: D.Gessler (1)
Game #5
New York (N) 1 4 0 0 0 3 1 1 0 - 10 10 3
Boston (A) 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 - 6 7 1
P.Ragan and A.Wilson. J.Killilay, R.Benton (7) and T.Easterly.
WP - P.Ragan (2-0)
LP - J.Killilay (0-2)
HR - none
Game #6
Boston (A) 1 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 - 6 14 2
New York (N) 2 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 1 - 7 13 3
E.Steele and T.Easterly. R.Caldwell, W.Anderson (7), G.LeClair (9)
and A.Wilson, T.Clarke (9).
WP - G.LeClair (1-0)
LP - E.Steele (1-1)
HR - none