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October 5, 1924: Senators Win First World Series Game In D.C. Baseball History

The Washington Senators blew a 3-1 lead in the top of the ninth in Game 2 of the 1924 World Series, but, as Washington Post writer Shirley Povich wrote on the 70th anniversary of that game, "the Senators got to Jack Bentley in their half of the ninth to win it on [Roger] Peckinpaugh's double."

By Patrick Reddington
Rob Carr

The 1924 Washington Senators finished the regular season with a 92-62 record, tops in the American League. The Senators' first first-place finish earned them the right to face the 93-50 New York Giants, who were back in the World Series for the fourth straight season having won in 1921 and 1922 before dropping the '23 series to the New York Yankees. The Senators finished two games ahead of the defending American League champion Yankees in 1924, and for the first time in the franchise's history, represented the AL in the '24 World Series.

"[Walter Johnson] was the victim of cheap home runs by Bill Terry and George Kelly into the temporary bleacher seats that fronted the left field wall, installed to accommodate more fans." - Washington Post's Shirley Povich on 1924 WS

Washington dropped Game 1 to New York's Giants, 4-3, in front of 35,760 fans in Griffith Stadium. Walter Johnson, 36 and in his 19th season in the nation's capital that year, was (23-7) in the regular season with a 2.72 ERA, 77 walks (2.50 BB/9) and 158 Ks (5.12 K/9) in 38 starts and 277 2/3 IP. He did all he could in the first postseason start of his major league career, holding the Giants to two runs through eight and a half innings, before the Senators rallied to tie it at 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth. New York scored two off Johnson in the top of the 12th though, and the Giants took the first game of the World Series, 4-3.

On October 5, 1924, Washington sent 28-year-old lefty Tom Zachary out to the mound against New York in Game 2 of the Series in front of a crowd 35,922 fans in Griffith Stadium. Zachary, a 6'1'' southpaw out of Graham, North Carolina, was (15-9) with a 2.75 ERA, 62 walks (2.75 BB/9) and 53 Ks (2.35 K/9) in 33 games, 27 starts and 202 2/3 IP that season, with Washington 20-13 on the year when he took the mound.

"[Tom] Zachary held the Giants to one run in the second game until the ninth, when [George] Kelly and Hack Wilson singled home runs to make it 3-3." - Washington Post's Shirley Povich on 1924 WS

Zachary held the Giants scoreless through six as the Senators got out to a 3-0 lead, but gave up a run in the seventh and two more in the top of the ninth before he was lifted in favor of Firpo Marberry, who struck Giants' shortstop Travis Jackson out to keep it tied at 3-3 after eight and a half in D.C. Senators' first baseman Joe Judge walked to start the home-half of the inning and was bunted into scoring position by Ossie Bluege, bringing Sens' shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh to the plate against Giants' starter Jack Bentley, who surrendered a game-winning walk-off double by Peckinpaugh that gave Washington its first-ever World Series win, 89 years ago today, on Sunday, October 5, 1924.

The Senators would go on to win the one and only World Series title in D.C. baseball history five days later, taking Game 7 of the '24 World Series from the Giants.

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