In the Series, the Yankees showed some power of their own, including Gil McDougald's grand slam home run in Game 5, at the Polo Grounds.

This World Series also matched up two of baseball's most colorful managers, Casey Stengel of the Yankees and Leo Durocher of the Giants.

The Yankees cut the Giants' lead to 2–1 in the second when Gil McDougald doubled with one out off Dave Koslo and scored on Jerry Coleman's single.

The scored remained that way until the sixth when Alvin Dark's three-run home run gave the Giants a commanding 5–1 lead.

The first three batters Larry Jansen faced were Mickey Mantle, Phil Rizzuto and Gil McDougald, all of whom singled for a quick 1-0 Yankee lead.

In the fifth Willie Mays flied out to Joe DiMaggio, who waved off right fielder Mantle, who got his spikes caught in an exposed drain and injured his knee and had to leave the game.

Monte Irvin scored in the seventh, tagging and coming home on pinch-hitter Bill Rigney's bases-loaded sacrifice fly, as the Giants got within 2–1.

The Giants struck first in Game 3 when Bobby Thomson hit a leadoff double and scored on Willie Mays' single in the second, then a five-run fifth inning was the undoing of Yankee starter Vic Raschi.

Reynolds allowed a one-out RBI single to Bobby Thomson in the ninth before getting Willie Mays to hit into the game-ending double play as the Yankees tied the series with a 6–2 win.

For the third game in a row, the Giants scored first when Al Dark singled with one out in the first and scored on Monte Irvin's single aided by left fielder Gene Woodling's error, but starter Eddie Lopat kept them scoreless for the rest of Game 5 while the Yankees hammered Larry Jansen, Monty Kennedy and George Spencer.

Playing right field in place of Mickey Mantle, Hank Bauer benefited from a tricky Yankee Stadium wind—as well as the umpire's generous call of a ball on Dave Koslo's two-strike pitch—to belt a bases-loaded triple in the sixth inning that would be the difference.