page_title: 1926 World Series
section_title: Game 4
hierarchical_section_title: 1926 World Series / Matchups / Game 4
caption_attribution_description: English: American baseball player Babe Ruth in 1921
context_page_description: The 1926 World Series, the 23rd playing of Major League Baseball's championship series, pitted the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals against the American League champion New York Yankees. The Cardinals defeated the Yankees four games to three in the best-of-seven series, which took place from October 2 to 10, 1926, at Yankee Stadium and Sportsman's Park.
  This was the first World Series appearance for the Cardinals, and would be the first of 11 World Series championships in Cardinals history. The Yankees were playing in their fourth World Series in six years after winning their first American League pennant in 1921 and their first world championship in 1923. They would play in another 36 World Series through the end of the 2019 season.
  In Game 1, Herb Pennock pitched the Yankees to a 2–1 win over the Cards. In Game 2, pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander evened the Series for St. Louis with a 6–2 victory. Knuckleballer Jesse Haines' shutout in Game 3 gave St. Louis a 2–1 Series lead. In the Yankees' 10–5 Game 4 win, Babe Ruth hit three home runs, a World Series record equaled only four times since.
context_section_description: Future Hall of Famer Waite Hoyt started Game 4 for the Yankees at Sportsman's Park on October 6. Hoyt had a 16–12 record with a 3.85 ERA in 218 innings for the 1926 season. This was Hoyt's fourth World Series with the Yankees, and he entered the 1926 Series with over 35 innings of pitching experience in the championship series. He was opposed by Flint Rhem, the Cardinals' 20-game winner who had led the team with both a .741 winning percentage and 258 innings pitched.
  In the first inning, after striking out Earle Combs and Mark Koenig, Rhem gave up a home run to Babe Ruth. Bob Meusel was then walked, but was tagged out at home after attempting to score on a Lou Gehrig single. The Cardinals came into the bottom of the first with two straight singles to put runners at first and third base. Rogers Hornsby singled in Taylor Douthit to tie the game at 1–1 and moved Billy Southworth to second base. Jim Bottomley flied out to left field, and Les Bell followed with a sacrifice fly to center fielder Combs. With the go-ahead run at third base, Hornsby stole second, but Chick Hafey struck out to end to the Cardinals' run-scoring threat. Two innings later, Ruth came up to the plate with two outs and hit Rhem's pitch for a home run, his second of the game. Gehrig led off the next inning with a strikeout. Tony Lazzeri followed with a walk, and Joe Dugan hit a run-scoring double. Catcher Hank Severeid hit a single into center field, and Dugan ran towards home. He was tagged out at the plate by catcher Bob O'Farrell. The Yankees' starter Hoyt struck out to end the inning.
  The Cardinals responded by scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. With one out and no runners on the bases, Hafey hit a single. O'Farrell followed and hit a ground ball towards Koenig that he bobbled, enabling O'Farrell and Hafey to reach first and second base, respectively. Tommy Thevenow followed with a double to right field that got by Meusel, scoring Hafey and moving O'Farrell to third base. Cardinals' manager Rogers Hornsby then put in left-handed infielder Specs Toporczer to pinch hit for Rhem, who was done pitching for the game. Toporczer hit a fly ball to Earle Combs in center field, upon which O'Farrell promptly tagged up to score another Cardinal run. With the game tied at three apiece and a runner at second base, Douthit hit a double in the outfield, which scored Thevenow. Southworth followed with a single to left fielder Ruth, and Douthit immediately tried to score. Ruth threw from left field to catcher Hank Severeid, who tagged Douthit out at home plate.
  To start the top of the fifth inning, Art Reinhart was put in as pitcher. Reinhart walked Combs and followed by giving up a run-scoring double to Koenig. He then walked Ruth and Meusel in succession to load the bases for Gehrig. Reinhart walked Gehrig, allowing Koenig to score and keeping the bases loaded with no outs. Hi Bell replaced Reinhart as pitcher, but he was not able to suppress the Yankees' offense. Lazzeri hit a sacrifice fly to right field, which scored Ruth and moved Meusel up to third base. Dugan then hit a weak groundball; he was thrown out at first by catcher O'Farrell, but Meusel scored and Gehrig went to second base. Bell then balked, moving Gehrig to third base. Severeid was walked, and pitcher Hoyt ended the inning by hitting into a force play at second base.
  The Yankees expanded on their three-run lead in the next inning. After the entire Yankees lineup batted in the fifth inning, Combs was back at the plate to start the sixth. Combs hit an infield single past shortstop Thevenow. Koenig followed by striking out. Ruth, with two home runs already in the game, came up to the plate. The count on Ruth went up to three balls and two strikes before he hit a long home run. Ruth's three home runs was a feat equaled only thrice since. As one of the game announcers (either McNamee or Carlin) described the situation:
  The Babe is up. Two home runs today. One ball, far outside. Babe's shoulders look as if there is murder in them down there, the way he is swinging that bat down there. 
caption: Babe Ruth in 1921
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4250", "Image ImageLength": "6248", "Image BitsPerSample": "8", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "1", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "1", "Image XResolution": "900", "Image YResolution": "900", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2014:05:11 22:34:18", "Image Artist": "Library of Congress", "Image ExifOffset": "280", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "418", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6302", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3970", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "5944"}