The 1961 Yankees moved two games closer to .500 after defeating the 1937 Yankees four out of six games in their series. The '61 Yankees are now 32-34 while the '37 Yankees dropped to 32-28.
The first two games each lasted 10 innings. The '61 Yankees won Game One 4-3 after Roger Maris tied the game with a solo homerun in the 9th inning. Yogi Berra won the game with a walk-off sac fly the next inning. Mickey Mantle sent Game Two into extra innings with a two-out two-run homer after a Tony Lazzeri error kept the inning alive. The '37 Yankees scored three in the 10th on a two-out triple by Lou Gehrig and a two-run blast by Joe Dimaggio to give the '37 Yankees a 5-2 win. The '61 Yankees won the next two games that were equally close. Bill Skowron hit two homeruns and drove in five RBI in a 6-4 win. Elston Howard hit a go-ahead solo homerun in the 8th on their way to a 3-2 win. The '37 Yankees won Game Five convincingly 9-3 on the strength of Dimaggio who went 4-5, a triple, two homeruns, 3 RBI and 3 runs scored. The '61 Yankees clinched the series in the final game with a 2-1 win despite a 12 strikeout outing by Lefty Gomez. Hector Lopez drove in the go-ahead run in the 9th with a single.
Howard’s average dropped to .333, still tops on the '61 Yankees. Maris didn’t do much after Game One but leads the team in homeruns with 28 and RBI with 59. Mantle raised his average to .329 with 24 homers, 54 RBI, and 64 runs scored. Whitey Ford lowered his ERA to 3.73 to go along with a 6-2 record. Luis Arroyo picked up a win and three saves in this series to improve his record to 1-4 with 17 saves and a 3.95 ERA.
Gehrig leads the '37 Yankees in hitting at .328 with 19 homeruns, 48 RBI and a team leading 59 runs scored. Dimaggio hit .360 in the series with four homeruns and six RBI in the series. He raised his overall average to .283 with a team leading 23 homeruns and 67 RBI. Gomez and Red Ruffing are a combined 13-4 with a 2.12 ERA. The other starters are 17-19. Johnny Murphy has had an awful start as the closer. He is 1-6 with 9 saves and a 7.82 ERA. The '37 Yankees will battle with the 31-41 1952 Yankees in the next series.