April 19: Yankees Rout Senators in Opening Day Massacre

Yankees Rout Senators in Opening Day Massacre

April 19, 1948

Charlie Keller knocked two balls out of the park for the only homers of the game. New York still had no problem driving in runs, as everyone but the pitcher had at least one RBI.

For a couple of innings, it seemed like Washington might have a shot of upsetting the defending champions of New York. Through two innings, Senators starter Early Wynn had retired all six batters, avenging a George McQuinn single in the second by getting the next batter to ground into a double play. The Senators then took a 3-0 lead with three runs in the bottom of the second inning after the first four batters all reached base.

New York responded in the third with four runs to take the lead. In the inning, the team batted for the cycle, with Phil Rizzuto leading off with a single, Snuffy Stirnweiss hitting a two-out double, Tommy Henrich driving both in with a triple, and Charlie Keller finishing it off with a homer. From there on out, the game would be all Yankees as Allie Reynolds would not surrender any other scores.

The Yankees scored exactly two runs in the fourth, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, then made it three in the ninth. The final score was 15-3 by the time the game was over.

President Truman was in attendance as he threw out the first pitch. While he has seen Washington win all three times that he has been in attendance outside of the team's home openers, the Senators are now 0-3 when's he been there to start the season. This was by far the worst performance of those three, though, even worse than last year's 7-0 rout also at the hands of the Yankees.

Keller led the team with five RBIs thanks to his two homers, the only ones of the game. Henrich and McQuinn tied at four hits, and the remaining seven Yankees all contributed at least one hit to their final total of 21. Only pitcher Reynolds missed out on an RBI. Joe DiMaggio had a quiet day, hitting a pair of singles in the final innings when the game was out of reach.

BOXSCORE: 1948 New York Yankees At 1948 Washington Senators         4/19/1948
 
  Yankees            AB  R  H RBI AVG     Senators           AB  R  H RBI AVG
  S.Stirnweiss 2B     5  2  2  1 .400     E.Yost 3B           4  0  1  0 .250  
  T.Henrich RF        6  4  4  3 .667     A.Kozar 2B          3  0  1  0 .333  
  C.Keller LF         5  2  3  5 .600     G.Coan LF           4  0  0  0 .000  
  J.Dimaggio CF       5  1  2  1 .400     M.Vernon 1B         4  1  1  0 .250  
  G.McQuinn 1B        6  2  4  1 .667     L.Culberson CF      3  1  0  0 .000  
  B.Johnson 3B        5  0  2  1 .400     S.Robertson RF      3  1  1  1 .333  
  P.Rizzuto SS        3  2  2  2 .667     M.Christman SS      4  0  2  2 .500  
  G.Niarhos C         4  2  1  1 .250     J.Early C           3  0  0  0 .000  
  A.Reynolds P        4  0  1  0 .250     E.Wynn P            2  0  0  0 .000  
                                        A-J.Wooten PH         1  0  1  01.000  
                                          R.Garcia P          0  0  0  0 ----  
                                        B-A.Evans PH          1  0  0  0 .000  
                     -- -- -- ---                            -- -- -- ---      
         Totals      43 15 21 15                 Totals      32  3  7  3
 
A-Pinch Hit For Wynn In 7th Inning
B-Pinch Hit For Garcia In 9th Inning
 
Yankees......... 0 0 4  2 0 2  2 2 3  - 15 21  0
Senators........ 0 3 0  0 0 0  0 0 0  -  3  7  0
 
Yankees (1-0)            IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR    ERA  SCORESHEET
A.Reynolds WIN(1-0)       9       7   3   3   4   6   0   3.00  A1
Totals                    9       7   3   3   4   6   0
 
Senators (0-1)           IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR    ERA  SCORESHEET
E.Wynn LOSS(0-1)          7      14  10   9   0   2   2  11.57  A1 D7
R.Garcia                  2       7   5   5   3   1   0  22.50  D8
Totals                    9      21  15  14   3   3   2
 
ATTENDANCE- 14,322 DATE- Monday, April 19th 1948 TIME- Day WEATHER- Average
UMPIRES- Bill McGowan, Cal Hubbard, Bill McKinley, 
T- 2:52
LEFT ON BASE- Yankees: 8  Senators: 6
DOUBLE PLAYS- Yankees: 2  Senators: 1
DOUBLES- S.Stirnweiss(1st), G.McQuinn(1st), P.Rizzuto(1st), S.Robertson(1st),
         M.Christman(1st)
TRIPLES- T.Henrich(1st)
HOME RUNS- C.Keller-2(2nd)
RBIs- S.Stirnweiss(1st), T.Henrich-3(3rd), C.Keller-5(5th), J.Dimaggio(1st),
      G.McQuinn(1st), B.Johnson(1st), P.Rizzuto-2(2nd), G.Niarhos(1st),
      S.Robertson(1st), M.Christman-2(2nd)
SACRIFICE HITS- A.Reynolds
SACRIFICE FLIES- S.Stirnweiss, P.Rizzuto, G.Niarhos
WALKS- C.Keller, J.Dimaggio, P.Rizzuto, A.Kozar, L.Culberson, S.Robertson,
       J.Early
STRIKE OUTS- S.Stirnweiss, A.Reynolds-2, M.Vernon-2, L.Culberson-2, E.Wynn-2
GIDP- B.Johnson, G.Coan, J.Early
PASSED BALLS- J.Early
2-out RBI- T.Henrich-3, C.Keller-3, G.McQuinn, J.Dimaggio
RLISP 2-out- E.Yost-2, S.Stirnweiss, B.Johnson-2, G.McQuinn
TEAM RISP- Yankees: 8 for 12  Senators: 2 for 9