1967 World Series
The Red Sox reached the World Series by emerging victorious from a dramatic four-team pennant race that revitalized interest in the team after eight straight losing seasons.
The White Sox lost their last five games (two to the lowly Kansas City Athletics and three to the similarly inept Washington Senators) to fall out of the race.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox and Twins met in Boston for the final two games of the season, with Minnesota—who won the AL Pennant two years earlier—holding a one-game lead.
Boston swept the Twins, but needed to wait out the result of the Tigers' doubleheader with the California Angels in Detroit.
Twenty-two-year-old Steve Carlton won 14 games in his first full major league season, beginning what was to be a lengthy and very successful career.
Gibson cemented his reputation as an unhittable postseason pitcher in this series, allowing only three total runs over three complete games.
In St. Louis, the El Birdos (as Cepeda had nicknamed them) took Games 3 and 4, with Briles pitching the home team to a 5–2 victory (a two-run homer by Mike Shannon proved to be the decisive factor), and Gibson tossing a 6–0 whitewashing (with two RBIs apiece by Maris and McCarver).
Yastrzemski led off the inning with a long drive over the wall in left center and, two outs later, rookie Reggie Smith and Rico Petrocelli hammered consecutive shots.
The Cardinal ace clearly dominated the finale, allowing only three hits, striking out 10 batters and even adding a home run blast of his own in the fifth.
Santiago matched Gibson until the top of the seventh when Brock again led off with a single to right (his fourth hit), promptly stole second base, and eventually scored on back-to-back groundouts by Flood and Maris.
After Tim McCarver and Mike Shannon led off the eighth with groundouts, Julián Javier turned a Lonborg fastball around, lining a double into the left-field corner breaking up his no-hitter.
Lonborg retired the side in order in the ninth ending the game as close to perfect, giving up just one hit and one walk while striking out four.
Carl Yastrzemski provided more than enough offense by homering in the fourth and adding a three-run shot in the seventh (scoring Jose Tartabull and Dalton Jones.)
The other Red Sox run came in the sixth inning on walks to George Scott and Reggie Smith and a sacrifice-fly by shortstop Rico Petrocelli.
Briles, after losing 15 games in 1966, alternated between middle-relief and starting pitching in '67, and finished with a neat 14-win, five-loss record (.737 winning percentage—best in the N.L.)
But the Cards added some insurance in the bottom of the frame with the disconcerting Brock bunting for a hit, eventually going to third when Stange, attempting a pick-off, threw wild into right-field.
Roger Maris, in his next-to-last season, would have a good Series with ten hits and a home run, scored Brock with a single to right-center.
Briles would finish his complete-game victory with a 1–2–3 ninth, the second out recorded when Reggie Smith would interfere with McCarver who was trying to catch his pop-up foul down the first-base line.
Curt Flood singled to shallow left and Roger Maris powered-up going the other way, doubling into the left-field corner scoring both base-runners.
Pitching with a slight cold (and a paper horseshoe in his back pocket) Lonborg again sparkled, at one point retiring 12 straight.
Maris spoiled the shutout bid by homering over the right-field fence but Orlando Cepeda ended the game on a ground-out to third.
Rico Petrocelli gave the Red Sox an early lead with a second inning blast over the Green Monster in left field.
In the Sox half of the fourth, Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Smith, and Rico Petrocelli would all go deep setting a new World Series record with three home runs in the same inning.
A demoralized Hughes wouldn't finish the inning and Ron Willis would be summoned from the bullpen to get the last out, an Elston Howard groundout to third.
Only once before had a seventh game of a Series brought together starting pitchers who both had 2–0 records in the Series—in 1925, when the Washington Senators' Walter Johnson pitched against the Pittsburgh Pirates' Vic Aldridge.
Two more scored in the fifth on a home run by Gibson, Lou Brock's single and two stolen bases (his seventh steal—a new Series record), and a Roger Maris sacrifice-fly to right.
With the 7–2 defeat, Boston's "Impossible Dream" ended one win short, and the St. Louis Cardinals were World Series Champions for the second time in the 1960s, and eighth overall.
In the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals the Bruins swept the Blues with Bobby Orr scoring the memorable series-winning goal in overtime in Game 4.
The New England Patriots followed suit by defeating the St. Louis Rams' "Greatest Show on Turf" team 20–17 in Super Bowl XXXVI after the 2001 NFL season, with kicker Adam Vinatieri scoring the game-winning field goal on the final play.
In the 2004 World Series, the Red Sox swept the Cardinals in four to break the Curse of the Bambino, then bested them again in six games nine years later.
