After a year's absence, the Boston Red Sox returned to the top of the American League as they held a 1/2 game edge over the second place Chicago White Sox and a 3 game edge over the surprising Detroit Tigers heading into September. Within a few weeks Boston stretched their lead to 5 and 1/2 over Chicago and 7 1/2 over the Tigers and clinched their fifth title in six years. The one-two punch of Ted Easterly, who led the league in average (.319), and Tris Speaker, who won the AL's Outstanding Batter award with a .309 average and 76 runs batted in, were the leaders of the Boston attack to 690 runs, tops in the majors. The pitching staff was lead by Ernie Shore, who led the league in ERA (1.89) while posting 24 wins. Chicago, who finished 6 games behind, finished in second place thanks to the bats of Zack Wheat and Max Flack and the legs of Eddie Collins. The White Sox also boasted the league's Outstanding Pitcher Award winner, Dick Rudolph, who led the league with 26 wins.
The defending NL champion Brooklyn Robins once again had their hands full as the team entered September with a 1.5 game lead over the Chicago Cubs with the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Giants right behind at 7.5 and 9 games behind respectively. However, with only a week and a half remaining, only the Cubs were in any position to challenge Brooklyn but they were 4 games behind. The Cubs continued to fade and the Robins were able to clinch their second straight title by the end of the week. The Robins' team stars at the plate were Armando Marsans, who led the majors in average by batting .347, and Benny Kauff, who won the NL's Outstanding Batter award by finishing third in average (.291), second in home runs (11) and third in runs batted in (77). The mound staff was once again led by their ace, Walter Johnson, who was the league's Outstanding Pitcher award winner, as he won 28 games to lead the NL and also led the NL in strikeouts with 239. He received help in the middle of the season with the acquisition of pitcher Jim Buchanan from the Philadelpha Athletics in return for first baseman Dick Hoblitzel and minor league outfielder Wally Mayer. The Chicago Cubs were led by an offensive attack that led the league with 610 runs. Their hitting stars were Charlie Hanford (.273-8-61) and George Anderson (.272-6-53) and the pitching star was 18-game winner Joe Benz, who also had an ERA of 2.32 while striking out 121 batters.
By the time the World Series was over, Boston again claimed the championship as the Red Sox defeated the Robins in five games, 4 games to 1. The Red Sox pitching staff was led by Fred Arellanes, who won two games, and held Brooklyn to only 12 runs.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Boston 96 58 .623 -- Brooklyn 91 63 .591 --
Chicago 90 64 .584 6 Chicago 85 69 .552 6
Detroit 85 69 .552 11 Philadelphia 80 74 .519 11
Philadelphia 72 82 .468 24 Cincinnati 76 78 .494 15
Washington 71 83 .461 25 New York 75 79 .487 16
New York 70 84 .455 26 St.Louis 74 80 .481 17
St.Louis 70 84 .455 26 Pittsburgh 71 83 .461 20
Cleveland 62 92 .403 34 Boston 64 90 .416 27
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
T.Easterly, BOS .319 A.Marsans, BRO .347
T.Speaker, BOS .309 C.Dolan, STL .295
T.Daley, DET .299 B.Kauff, BRO .291
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
B.Kenworthy, DET 8 J.Titus, STL 13
W.Pipp, CLE 7 B.Kauff, BRO 11
M.Flack, CHI 6 E.Lennox, NY 10
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
J.Connolly, PHI 80 J.Titus, STL 98
Z.Wheat, CHI 77 E.Lennox, NY 90
T.Speaker, BOS 76 B.Kauff, BRO 77
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
B.Borton, BOS 107 J.Titus, STL 85
E.Collins, CHI 86 E.Lennox, NY 84
T.Speaker, BOS 86 T.Cobb, STL 83
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
E.Collins, CHI 49 T.Cobb, STL 66
W.Schang, WAS 45 B.Roth, NY 53
D.Moeller, STL 43 E.Murphy, BOS 43
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
E.Shore, BOS 1.89 B.Adams, BOS 2.11
B.Tincup, DET 2.06 J.Buchanan, BRO 2.13
D.Rudolph, CHI 2.11 A.Malloy, BRO 2.21
Wins W Wins W
D.Rudolph, CHI 26 W.Johnson, BRO 28
E.Shore, BOS 24 B.Adams, BOS 21
H.Keupper, NY 21 S.Stroud, CIN 21
Saves SV Saves SV
H.Suter, CHI 7 G.LeClair, NY 14
D.Mails, STL 6 J.Baker, CHI 8
R.Vickers, PHI 6 R.Fisher, PHI 7
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
H.Vaughn, STL 189 W.Johnson, BRO 239
F.Anderson, DET 178 P.Alexander, PIT 164
J.Wood, BOS 167 C.Bender, CIN 157
1915 World Series
Game #1
Brooklyn 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 1 8 4
Boston (A) 5 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 x - 8 16 0
B.Doak, S.Harkness (7) and R.Williams. F.Arellanes and T.Easterly.
WP - F.Arellanes (1-0)
LP - B.Doak (0-1)
HR - none
Game #2
Brooklyn 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 - 2 7 0
Boston (A) 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 - 3 10 1
A.Malloy and R.Williams, A.Watson (10). E.Hughes and T.Easterly.
WP - E.Hughes (1-0)
LP - A.Malloy (0-1)
HR - none
Game #3
Boston (A) 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 - 3 6 1
Brooklyn 0 0 2 0 0 0 3 0 x - 5 9 2
J.Wood, R.Collins (8) and T.Easterly. W.Johnson and R.Williams.
WP - W.Johnson (1-0)
LP - J.Wood (0-1)
HR - none
Game #4
Boston (A) 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 2 - 10 14 1
Brooklyn 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 - 2 11 2
E.Shore and T.Easterly. J.Buchanan, L.Madden (9) and R.Williams.
WP - E.Shore (1-0)
LP - J.Buchanan (0-1)
HR - none
Game #5
Boston (A) 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 - 3 7 5
Brooklyn 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 6 0
F.Arellanes, R.Collins (9) and T.Easterly. B.Doak and R.Williams.
WP - F.Arellanes (2-0)
LP - B.Doak (0-2)
HR - none