The 1941 Yankees ended their slide by beating the 1938 Yankees four out of six games to even their record to 63-63 with five series left to play. The '38 Yankees dropped back to 37-23.
The '38 Yankees won two of the first three games in the series. Red Ruffing led them to a 10-3 win in Game Two both on the mound and at the plate with two hits and two RBI. The '41 Yankees won the final three games of the series. One reason why was poor defense from the '38 Yankees. The '41 Yankees won Game Four 10-1 in a game in which six of their runs scored were unearned. Charlie Keller was 3-5 at the plate with a triple, three RBI, and two runs scored. Keller led the offensive attack again in the final game of the series, a 5-3 win; Keller went 3-4 with a triple and four RBI. Game Five was bananas, a 16-8 schitzo slugfest win for the '41 Yankees. They led 4-0 early, but surrendered eight runs in the 6th inning. The '38 Yankees scored the final 12 runs in the game, including seven runs in the 8th inning to retake the lead. Joe Dimaggio mashed for the '41 Yankees offense, going 3-6 with a triple, two homeruns, five RBI, and three runs scored while the '38 Yankees helped by committing five errors which lead to eight unearned runs.
Dimaggio hit .467 in the series for the '41 Yankees to raise his average to .370 with 42 homeruns, 120 RBI, 116 runs scored, 11 triples, and a 1.174 OPS. Keller hit .379 in the series with nine RBI to raise his average to .283 with 27 homeruns, 107 RBI, 88 runs scored, 10 stolen bases, and a .959 OPS.
Dimaggio leads the '38 Yankees in hitting at .316 with 15 homeruns, 55 RBI, and a .994 OPS. Bill Dickey is hitting .314 with 18 homeruns, 62 RBI, and a 1.020 OPS. Ruffing improved his record to 5-5 with a 2.94 ERA. Johnny Murphy picked up his 10th save in this series; he is 2-0 with a 1.00 ERA. The '38 Yankees will take on the 50-58 2009 Yankees in the next series.
