October 2, 1968 at Busch Stadium
Cardinals 4, Tigers 0
Cardinals Lead Best of Seven Game Series 1-0
The Tigers ran into a buzz saw in game one of the 1968 World Series and the end result was a game one loss. Bob Gibson struck out a World Series record seventeen batters as he was the star of game one with a five hit shutout. The Tigers had almost as many errors (3) as they did hits in this one and a mediocre start by Denny McLain meant little because he would have had to have been perfect for the Tigers to walk away with this one.Â
The Cardinals got on the board in the fourth inning with three runs. Roger Maris led off with a walk before Orlando Cepeda popped out to Norm Cash. Tim McCarver drew a walk and then Mike Shannon drove in Maris with an RBI single. McCarver moved to third and Shannon moved to second on the play after an error by Willie Horton and then Julian Javier singled them both home to make it 3-0 Cardinals.
The Tigers only real threat came in the sixth inning. Dick McAuliffe singled and then moved to third on a two out double by Al Kaline but Norm Cash struck out to end the inning. The Cardinals added a run in the seventh off of Pat Dobson when Lou Brock belted a solo homer but the insurance was unneccesary.
Mickey Stanley was the lone Tiger to reach base more then once with a pair of singles. Kaline’s double was the lone extra base hit but even he had a tough day with three strikeouts.Â
