1966 World Series
Despite the general consensus that the Orioles were short of pitching compared to the Dodgers and their star hurlers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, Baltimore pitching allowed only two runs in the entire series and ended up with a 0.50 team earned run average (ERA), the second-lowest in World Series history.
The Orioles got a substantial assist from long-time scout Jim Russo, who spent the first two weeks of September following the Dodgers as they won 12 of 14 games.
Other points included Maury Wills being the lone bunt threat; left-handed pitchers forcing switch hitters to bat right-handed and Ron Fairly out of the lineup, both to the detriment of the Dodgers; and that Orioles batters should avoid swinging at Koufax's rising fastball above the strike zone.
Frank Robinson also added suggestions based on his experiences in the National League when the team went over the scouting report a day prior to the start of the Series.
After the 1965 season that saw the Orioles finish in third place, they acquired Hall of Famer Frank Robinson from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for starting pitcher Milt Pappas.
In the first game of the double header, the Dodgers made two errors in the bottom of the eighth inning to turn a 3–2 win into a 4–3 loss.
AL Baltimore Orioles (4) vs. NL Los Angeles Dodgers (0) In the top of the first inning, after Russ Snyder drew a one-out walk, Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson hit back-to-back home runs off of Don Drysdale to give the Orioles an early 3–0 lead.
In the bottom half of the frame, Dave McNally walked Dodger leadoff man Maury Wills, who subsequently stole second.
In the second inning, Andy Etchebarren drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by McNally, and scored on a single by Snyder to widen the lead to 4–0.
After McNally walked Jim Gilliam, John Roseboro hit a fly ball to right center, but Snyder saved at least a run with a lunging catch, and Baltimore escaped the inning without further damage.
Meanwhile, Drabowsky struck out six consecutive batters in the next two innings, tying Hod Eller's record from Game 5 of the scandal-tainted 1919 World Series.
The Dodgers started left-handed ace Sandy Koufax, who was pitching in his last season but had won his third Cy Young Award in four years with 27 wins, 317 strikeouts, 5 shutouts, and his career best 1.73 ERA.
Surprisingly, Baltimore drew first blood against Koufax, although they were assisted by disastrous defense by Los Angeles center fielder Willie Davis.
Powell scored on the misplay, while Blair attempted to advance to third base; Davis subsequently released a high, rushed throw over the head of third baseman Gilliam.
The throwing error - Davis' third of the inning, a World Series record that still stands[7] - allowed Blair to score and Etchebarren to advance to third.
[8] The O's then earned one from Koufax in the sixth as Frank Robinson hit a triple on a fly ball that could have been caught but fell in between Davis and Ron Fairly.
Koufax escaped the inning after walking Blair intentionally to load the bases and getting Etchebarren to ground into a double play.
The Dodgers' defense woke up after Game 2's six-error embarrassment, and they turned several excellent plays, most notably first baseman Wes Parker's spectacular jump to snare Curt Blefary's sixth inning line drive and rob him of a base hit.
Willie Davis redeemed himself from his miserable Game 2 defensive blunders by robbing Boog Powell of a home run in the fourth, but to no avail as Paul Blair did the same to Jim Lefebvre in the eighth, and the Dodgers were shut out for the third consecutive time and for 33 consecutive innings, a World Series record.
(Bobby Richardson was the first position player to win the award, doing so in the 1960 World Series, but his New York Yankees lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates.)
Sandy Koufax, though arguably at the peak of his career, announced his retirement following the World Series because of the chronic arthritis and bursitis in his pitching elbow.
Tommy Davis, the 1962 and 1963 NL batting champion, still not fully recovered from a severely broken ankle suffered in 1965, was traded to the New York Mets after the 1966 season.
In total, the Orioles won six pennants (1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979, 1983) in that span to go with seven American League Eastern Division titles (1969-1971, 1973, 1974, 1979, 1983) and three World Series championships.
