Fence-way at Fenway: World Series Homers in Boston

Heading back to Fenway now.  Five players have hit more than one homer at Fenway during a single World Series. Three of those guys played for the home team: Yaz had three homers at Fenway in the 1967 Series, Rico Petrocelli had two homers at Fenway in 1967, and Big Papi has two at home so far in the current Series.  The other two guys with multiple homers at Fenway during a World Series both did it for the Mets: Gary Carter had two in Game 4 in 1986 and Lenny Dykstra had one in Game 3 and one in Game 4 that same year. 

Three pitchers have given up multiple homers at Fenway during a single World Series : Steve Crawford in that 1986 Game 4 allowed Dykstra’s homer and one of Carter’s.  In 1967’s Game 7 Jim Lonborg gave up homers to no, not Cepeda or Maris or Flood but to Julian Javier and Bob Gibson.  And then there’s Cardinals pitcher Dick Hughes, who gave up five, count ’em five, homers to the Red Sox at Fenway in that 1967 Series. One of those was to Yaz in Game 2 and then Hughes gave up four more in Game 6: another to Yaz, two to Petrocelli and one to Reggie Smith.  Yaz, Petrocelli and Smith all homered off Hughes in the fourth inning.  Hughes (who had been terrific as a 29-year-old rookie for the Cards during the ’67 regular season, coming in second in the Rookie of the Year voting to Tom Seaver) started only five more major league games after that fourth inning, as a rotator cuff injury wiped out his career. Dick Hughes news story; Dick Hughes at I70

Lew Burdette (five HRs allowed in the 1958 Series) is the only other pitcher besides Hughes to give up as many as five homers during a single World Series.

The facts for multiple homers allowed at Fenway in a single World Series are exactly the same for career World Series homers allowed at Fenway, because no pitcher has ever allowed a home run at Fenway in two different World Series.  Indeed, I see only four men who have ever even pitched at Fenway in two separate World Series: Bullet Joe Bush gave up a homer in 11 IP at Fenway in the 1914 Series, but did not allow a homer in his 1 IP in Boston in the 1918 Series.  Lefty Tyler pitched at Fenway in both the 1914 and 1918 Series, but allowed no homers in those games.  Curt Schilling and Mike Timlin each pitched at Fenway in both the 2004 and 2007 Series, but also never allowed a homer in those games.

On the hitting side,  David Ortiz is the only man to have hit homers at Fenway in a World Series in two different seasons.  He joins Yaz as the only man to have hit three career World Series homers at Fenway.

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Bryan O'Connor
Editor
11 years ago

Interesting that there were so many homers- ten in four games- at Fenway in ’67. There were only three in three games at Busch. This year, Fenway played as a slight pitcher’s park according to ESPN (.96 run factor), and was among the toughest parks in which to hit a home run (.845, just ahead of Busch and six other parks). ESPN Park Factors only go back to 2001, but every year in that sample, Fenway has boosted overall scoring far more than home run hitting. Baseball-reference has Fenway as basically neutral (100 for batters, 98 for pitchers) this year… Read more »

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago
Reply to  Bryan O'Connor

Two of those ten HR were by pitchers, Jose Santiago and Bob Gibson. The only other WS in which there were two HR by pitchers in the same park was in 1924 when Rosy Ryan and Jack Bentley connected at the Polo Grounds.

Brendan Bingham
Brendan Bingham
11 years ago

According to WeatherSpark, Oct 4th and 5th (Games 1 and 2) were unusually warm, about 80 F. Oct 11th and 12th (Games 6 and 7) were about average, 60-ish. However, 7 of the 10 Fenway home runs came in Games 6 and 7.

Doug
Doug
11 years ago

Rube Marquard pitched against the Red Sox in two series, but only in one at Fenway. Similarly, Babe Ruth and Carl Mays pitched in two series for the Red Sox, but only one at Fenway. Ernie Shore pitched in two series for the Red Sox, but neither was at Fenway.

Tyler appeared at Fenway for the Braves and against the Red Sox. Bush appeared at Fenway for the Red Sox and against the Braves.

Doug
Doug
11 years ago

In the 1986 series, the Mets out-homered the Red Sox 5-0 at Fenway, while the Red Sox out-homered the Mets 5-2 at Shea.

In addition to Ortiz, Dwight Evans and Larry Gardner are the only players to homer for the Red Sox in two different WS. Evans hit 3 HR, all on the road. Gardner hit one HR at Fenway and two on the road.

Matt Holliday is the only player to homer against the Red Sox in two different WS. He has one HR at Fenway (this year) and two at home.

Yippeeyappee
Yippeeyappee
11 years ago

Julian Javier!!! No wonder they lost the series!

Yippeeyappee
Yippeeyappee
11 years ago
Reply to  Yippeeyappee

Dang, I should check twice before I comment – I was thinking of Dal Maxvill…

Brendan Bingham
Brendan Bingham
11 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

Javier even received a few MVP votes in ’67!

Luis Gomez
Luis Gomez
11 years ago

Crap, I´m going to school tonight, so I´m pulling for the Cardinals to win so I can watch game seven tomorrow!