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In his first at-bat in the 1922 World Series, Yankees great Babe Ruth goes down swinging against the New York Giants southpaw hurler Art Nehf to end the first inning.
But the Bambino would do his part later in the day knocking in teammate Joe Dugan with a sixth inning single giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead. In the next frame Aaron Ward would tack on a run with a sacrifice fly as things were looking up for the Yankees who were looking to avenge their 1921 World Series loss to the same Giants squad led by the ornery skipper John McGraw. And the same squad they shared the Polo Grounds with before they would move to their new digs in 1923.
However Yanks pitching would falter in the eighth inning as Yanks starter Bullet Joe Bush, who this this point had held the Giants scoreless, would give up four consecutive singles, the last one by Irish Meusel tying the score at 2-2, before getting pulled for a 22-year-old pitcher by the name of Waite Hoyt. The future Hall of Famer tried valiantly to limit the damage with runners on first and third and no outs, but the first batter he would face, Ross Youngs, would punch a fly ball to center field for the first out and the go ahead run in Frankie Frisch.
Waite would strike out High Pockets Kelly and Casey Stengel to end the inning, but the deadly blow wasn’t averted and the Yankees never recovered in their last at bat in the ninth inning and dropped the first game of the series
From there the Giants took full control of the series and captured their second consecutive title in five games, even so the Yankees never won a game as Game Two would end in a tie and controversy.
Ruth would finish the series with just a .118 batting average and wouldn’t knock in another run in the series. But fortunes would change for the Sultan of Swat and his Yankees, for the next season (1923) they would move into the new state of the art Yankee Stadium, win their first World Series against, of course, the Giants
