World Series: Scherzer vs. Cole and the best matchups ever
By Bill Felber
Bob Gibson vs. Denny McLain, Games 1 and 4, 1968, 452 ERA+
Between them, Gibson and McLain delivered two of baseball’s greatest pitching seasons in 1968. So it’s only right that their two meetings during the 1968 Fall Classic should rank as the definitional Clash of Mound Titans.
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Both seasons are legendary even today. Gibson went 22-9 for the Cardinals with a league-leading 1.12 ERA that still ranks among the best in all of baseball history. That drove his ERA+ to stratospheric heights, 258, the seventh-best of all time.
McLain, of course, became the last pitcher to win 30 games in a single season, His 31-6 record came atop a 1.96 ERA in 41 starts and 336 innings of work. That added up to a 154 ETA+.
The two aces met twice in the 1968 Series. Gibson dominated the opener, striking out 17 Tigers and shutting them out 4-0 on just five hits. McLain left for a pinch hitter in the sixth inning, having allowed three runs.
Four days later, with the Cardinals leading two-games-to-one, the aces squared off a second time. If anything, this was even less of a contest. While the Cardinals extracted four runs and six hits out of McLain in the first three innings, Gibson stuck out 10 more Tigers in another complete-game win, this time by a score of 10-1.
When the Tigers came back to win the fifth game but still facing elimination, Tiger manager Mayo Smith opted to return his ace to the mound on just two days rest for Game 6. This time McLain delivered a complete game 13-1 win.
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One day later, Gibson faced the Tigers for the third time, this time pitted against Mickey Lolich, who was also working on just two days of rest. Finally, in the seventh inning, the Tigers broke up the double shutout with a four-run outburst against Gibson and won the Series decider 4-1 on Lolich’s five-hitter.