Oct. 20
1910 - Philadelphia’s Jack Coombs pitched a complete game on one day’s rest to beat the Chicago Cubs 12-5 and give the Athletics a 3-0 lead in the World Series. Coombs also had three hits and drove in three runs.
1947 - The radio rights for the World Series sold for $475,000 for three years.
1972 - In the fifth game of the World Series, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds homered on the first pitch of the game from Oakland’s Catfish Hunter. The Reds went on to win 5-4.
1973 - Reggie Jackson of Oakland had RBI doubles in the first and third innings to lead the A’s to a 3-1 victory over the New York Mets and set up a seventh game in the World Series.
1982 - The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 in Game 7 to win the World Series.
1988 - Orel Hershiser pitched a four-hitter and Mickey Hatcher and Mike Davis hit two-run homers to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics and the World Series title in five games. Hershiser became the third player to win the MVP in both the playoffs and the World Series.
1990 - The Cincinnati Reds completed one of the biggest upsets in baseball history, beating the Oakland Athletics 2-1 to win the World Series in four games. Cincinnati’s Jose Rijo allowed just two hits in 8 1-3 innings, retiring the final 20 batters he faced, before Randy Myers got the last two outs, finishing a series in which Reds relievers pitched 13 scoreless innings.
1992 - The first World Series game is played outside the United States. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2 on Candy Maldonado’s bases-loaded single in the ninth inning. The Blue Jays, backed by homers by Joe Carter and Kelly Gruber, take a 2-1 lead in the series.
1993 - Devon White’s two-run triple capped a six-run eighth inning, and the Toronto Blue Jays rallied for a 15-14 victory over the Phillies and a 3-1 World Series lead. The 29 runs shattered the series record of 22 set in Game 2 in 1936, when the Yankees beat the New York Giants 18-4. It was also the longest nine-inning game in series history - 4 hours, 14 minutes.
2004 - Just three outs from being swept in the AL Championship Series three nights earlier, the Boston Red Sox finally beat the New York Yankees, winning 10-3 in Game 7 to become the first major league team to overcome a 3-0 postseason series deficit. David Ortiz, the series MVP, hit a two-run homer in the first off Kevin Brown, and Johnny Damon quieted Yankee Stadium in the second inning with a grand slam on Javier Vazquez’s first pitch.
2015 - Daniel Murphy homered for a record-tying fifth straight game in the postseason, sending Jacob deGrom and the New York Mets over the Chicago Cubs 5-2 for a 3-0 lead in the NL Championship Series.
2017 - Justin Verlander pitched seven shutout innings when the team needed him most, and Jose Altuve homered and drove in three runs as the Astros extended the AL Championship Series to Game 7 with a 7-1 win over the New York Yankees.
2018 - Yasiel Puig hit a three-run homer, Chris Taylor made a key catch and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-1 in Game 7 of the NL Championship Series. Los Angeles ace Clayton Kershaw closed out the win as the Dodgers reached the World Series for the second straight year.
Today’s birthdays: Ronald Guzman, 25; Chris Shaw, 26; Trevor Kelley, 26; Ty Blach, 29.
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