New York Yankees history: The 10 best games of Mickey Mantle’s career

To fans of a certain vintage, Mickey Mantle was for 15 years the very embodiment of the New York Yankees.

Between his emergence as a teen sensation in 1951 and his injury-forced retirement in 1968, Mantle hit 536 home runs, leading the league four times in that category.

He won the Triple Crown in 1956 (.353/52/130) and was a centerpiece of 12 pennant winners, seven of them world champions. He was a three-time Most Valuable Player (1956, 1957, 1962), and (not surprisingly) a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee in 1974, approaching 90 percent of the vote.

A look back at the 10 most exceptional regular-season outings as well as the five best postseason games of Mickey Mantle’s career with the New York Yankees.

Our standard of measurement is Win Probability Added. That calculates the individual’s role in influencing the game’s outcome. It emphasizes late-inning game-turning accomplishments and judges the player’s contribution within the broader context of winning the game.

That may be a problem for some because this standard can overlook exceptional individual performances accomplished under less than game-critical situations. For example, Mantle’s three-homer game of May 13, 1955, does not make the top 10 list because he hit two of those three home runs after the Yankees had already built a three-run lead.

With that as an explanation, here are Mickey Mantle’s 10 most exceptional regular season performances.

10. June 14, 1955, Yankees 7, Tigers 6. Mantle seemed to have a thing for crushing the hopes of Tiger fans at the most sensitive possible moment. Five of his 10 most game-critical performances occurred against the Tigers, the only team to have been victimized by him more than once. On this Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, the Tigers carried a 5-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth  Mantle to that moment had a good but not great day working: 1-for-3 with walk and a seventh inning triple that did not translate to a run.

There were two on and two out when Mantle came up against Tigers closer Billy Hoeft, trying to protect that narrow lead. Instead, Mantle lined a game-tying single into left field, scoring pinch runner Frank Leja and sending Joe Collins to second. That set the stage for Elston Howard’s game-winning hit.  Mantle Win Probability Added: 0.559.

9. August 7, 1955, Yankees 3, Tigers 2. This was the second game of a Sunday doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, Detroit having won the first game. Mantle’s first inning home run off Detroit’s Frank Lary gave New York an early lead, but the score stood 2-2 at the end of the regulation nine innings.

Bob Turley worked around a two-out Bill Tuttle double to get out of the 10th inning scoreless, but Tiger reliever Babe Birrer fanned Hank Bauer and got Bobby Richardson on a grounder to short for  the second out. With the prospect of an 11th inning looming, Mantle opted for an alternative outcome, ripping his second home run of the game deep into the right field seats. Mantle Win Probability Added: 0.563.

8. June 6, 1958, Yankees 6, Indians 5. Again, Turley was the starter, and again Mantle christened the proceedings with a first inning home run. The Indians countered with three second-inning runs, but Mantle countered that with a three-run fifth inning blast of his own into the left field seats. That made the score Mantle 4, Indians 3.

New York added to its advantage in the seventh when Indians starter Dick Tomanek surrendered singles to Andy Carey and Tony Kubek then (sensibly given what had already transpired) intentionally walked Mantle. Bill Skowron’s bases loaded single scored Carey and Kubek. Mantle Win Probability Added: 0.579.

7. Aug. 13, 1957, Yankees 3, Red Sox 2. Through seven innings, the home town Red Sox led 2-1 despite Mantle’s best efforts. He had singled home New York’s only run off Sox starter Frank Sullivan in the third, walked in the first and  singled harmlessly in the sixth.

But in the top of the eighth, opportunity knocked one more time and Mantle answered. After Gil McDougald singled to left, Mantle blasted a Sullivan pitch deep into the seats in right field for a game-shifting, go-ahead two run home run. Reliever Bobby Shantz quelled a two-out Boston threat in the ninth to wrap up the 3-2 win. Mantle Win Probability Added: 0.591.

6. Sept. 3, 1961, Yankees 8, Tigers 5. Not only were Mantle and Roger Maris approaching the home stretch of their drive to break Babe Ruth’s home run record, but the Yanks and Tigers were locked in a close pennant race.  Entering the three-game series just one and one half games ahead of the Tigers, New York had won the first two and sent Bill Stafford against Jim Bunning in search of the sweep.

The Tigers scored in their first, but Mantle had an answer for that; his 49th home run of the season with Maris, who had singled in front of him, on base. Yogi Berra followed with a homer of his own to make it 3-1.

But the Tigers held on until Jake Wood’s ninth inning single off reliever Luis Arroyo plated Dick McAuliffe and Reno Bertoia with the game-tying and go-ahead runs. Gerry Staley came in to protect that one-run lead but the first batter he faced, Mantle, blasted a 1-0 pitch into the right-center field seats for a game-tying 50th home run. Five batters later, Elston Howard delivered a three-run game-winner to cement the 8-5 victory. Mantle Win Probability Added: 0.620.

5. Aug. 15, 1960, Yankees 4, Orioles 3. Again, the Yankees were locked in a late-season pennant race with a surprising challenger, and again Mantle would play the decisive role. The Yanks entered the two-game series at Yankee Stadium trailing the Orioles and Chicago White Sox by a half game, and with 11-game winner Art Ditmar on the mound.

The Orioles grabbed the momentum with a pair of early runs only to have New York tie the game in the fourth when Mantle homered into the right field seats scoring Hector Lopez, who had singled, ahead of him. But in the top of the eighth, Jackie Brandt muscled up on a Ditmar offering and sent it into the left field seats, giving Baltimore the 3-2 lead.

That only lasted until the bottom of the inning. After Lopez led off by drawing a walk, Mantle lofted a lazy popup behind home plate that catcher Clint Courtney muffed for an error. It was all the break Mantle needed. His next swing landed deep in the right field seats for a two-run homer and a 4-3 lead, which Ditmar protected in the ninth. The win gave the Yankees sole possession of first place. Mantle Win Probability Added: 0.662.

4. Aug. 26, 1966, Yankees 6, Tigers 5. Although only 34 years old, injuries had reduced Mantle to a part-time player by August; in fact he would make only six more starts the remaining five weeks of the season. But he was still Mickey, and that meant he remained capable of delivering in the big moments, especially, it seemed, against the Tigers.

On this day, Mantle watched from the bench as Detroit gradually built a 5-3 advantage. But after Elston Howard opened the bottom of the ninth with a ground rule double and was wild pitched to third, Clete Boyer singled Howard home to put the tying run on base.

With the pitcher’s spot due next, Yankee manager Ralph Houk played his hole card, calling on Mantle for pinch hit duty. Batting right-handed against Tiger lefty Hank Aguirre, Mantle drove a fastball the other way and it reached the lower deck in right field for a dramatic, game-ending two run home run. Mantle Win Probability Added: 0.699.

3. July 22, 1954, Yankees 4, White Sox 3. The most memorable moment of the early portion of Mantle’s career ironically unfolded in the only one of his first eight seasons that his Yankees did not win the pennant.

The Yanks entered play just a half game behind the eventual champion Cleveland Indians and facing a double-header with the White Sox at Yankee Stadium. After being retired on his first three at bats, Mantle finally felt a sense of contribution when his eighth inning base hit off reliever Jack Harshman scored Bill Skowron with the run that tied the game at 3-3.

When neither team generated anything in the ninth, the contest moved into extra innings, with Mantle due up third for New York. Tiger pitcher Don Johnson got Skowron and Hank Bauer on easy grounders, but Mantle was having nothing of that. He sent a Johnson pitch deep into the left field seats for the game-ending home run. Mantle Win Probability Added: 0.705.

2. July 4, 1964, Yankees 7, Twins 5. The last pennant race of Mantle’s career played out in 1964 and included a July 4 doubleheader with the Twins. New York began play as four-time defending champions but in second place, four games behind the Orioles, so the pressure was on.

Mickey was up to the challenge. His first inning ground rule double scored one of New York’s two runs that inning. He singled opening the third and scored ahead of Joe Pepitone’s home run.

But the Twins fought back and led 5-4 entering the bottom of the eighth, when Twins reliever Al Worthington lost his poise. John Blanchard opened the inning by striking out, but he reached first when Worthington’s third strike pitch sailed past catcher Earl Battey. Phil Linz tried to lay down a bunt, and Worthington threw that ball away, too, allowing Linz to reach first safely with pinch runner Hal Reniff at second.

Worthington retired the next two hitters, but that brought up Mantle. He made Worthington pay for his lapses with a three-run home run into the right field seats. When the Twins failed to score in the ninth, Mantle’s home run was a game winner. Mantle Win Probability Added: 0.732.

1. April 26, 1961, Yankees 13, Tigers 11. Mantle’s consummate regular season performance again victimized the Tigers. At Briggs Stadium, the game began with a five-run Yankee first in which Mantle played a minimal role. Tiger shortstop Chico Fernandez fumbled his made-to-order double play ball, allowing four of the runs to score unearned.

Through the next six innings, Mantle was about the only one on either side who didn’t contribute. The Yanks piled up eight runs, but New York pitching was so bad that they still trailed 11-8 entering the eighth. That’s when Mantle asserted himself. After a Jim Donahue wild pitch produced one run, Mantle homered to right-center, scoring Tony Kubek ahead of him and tying the game 11-11.

When neither team did anything in the ninth, the game moved into the 10th inning.  Hector Lopez’s one out hit gave Mantle a chance and he delivered with his second home run, this one to left-center off Hank Aguirre. His hit swung the outcome to New York. Mantle Win Probability Added: 0.737.