Cardinals record first win at Yankee Stadium since … the 1964 World Series

The last time the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Yankees in the Bronx, Bob Gibson was there. Until Saturday.

For the first time since Game 5 of the 1964 World Series, the Cardinals recorded a road victory against the Yankees, evening their current streak with a 6-5 victory. Prior to that, the team had a road record of 0-7 since the series immortalized in the David Halberstam classic “October 1964.”

According to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, the Cardinals were the only team not to win at the new Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009.

The MLB’s changed interleague rules made the Cardinals’ dry spell at Yankee Stadium possible

How does such a dry spell come about? The explanation is also a good lesson in the history of interleague play in the MLB. Obviously, the Cardinals and Yankees never met again in the World Series or the rest of the postseason. That leaves interleague play as the only possibility.

There was no interleague play until 1997, and that started with AL East teams playing NL East teams and NL Central teams playing AL Central teams. MLB didn’t shake up the schedule until 2002.

The Cardinals’ first road series against the Yankees came in 2003, and of course they were swept. Their next two series, in 2005 and 2014 (the time periods between interleague meetings can be irregular), were both in St. Louis, then they traveled there again in 2017. And again they were swept.

The next two series in 2022 and 2023 took place again in St. Louis.

However, such winning streaks will be much rarer in the future, as MLB has adjusted its schedule in 2023 by increasing the number of interleague games for each team from 20 games per year to 46, giving each team a home and away series against every other team, AL and NL. So the Cardinals have a chance to record another win at Yankee Stadium every year going forward.

Cardinals almost lost their winning victory

The Cardinals had a good lead in the eighth inning on Saturday and maintained their 6-1 lead by catching up in the third and sixth innings.

Reliever Matthew Liberatore opened the second part of the eighth inning by allowing a single by Gleyber Torres, which was then cancelled out by a double play by Juan Soto. After that, things went pretty awry, starting of course with Aaron Judge. The MVP favorite was the first of five batters to reach base.

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Anthony Volpe and Giancarlo Stanton ended the rally with RBI hits to make the score 6-5. At that point, Andrew Kittredge, who came on for Liberatore before allowing a double to Stanton, got the last out against Alex Verdugo.

The ninth inning was fortunately less dramatic, as closer Ryan Helsley avoided a double from Soto and recorded his 42nd save, leading the MLB.