Whitey Ford did not need to win games 1,4,7 in 1960 World Series. Just 1,4. Yanks would have swept.

Whitey Ford could have won games 1,4,7 in the 1960 World Series (WS) against the Pittsburgh Pirates. That's been bouncing around all these years. I've debunked it thoroughly here. Quick summary:

- Ford never pitched in a WS game 7, despite his Yankee teams playing in them 7 times: 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964.
- Ford started three WS games twice:

1958 0-1 ERA 4.11

1962 1-1 ERA 4.12

- 1960 Ford started 29, relieved in 4; days of rest for starts:

2 days, 3 starts

3 days, 1 starts

4 days, 14 starts

5 days, 6 starts

6+ days, 5 starts

Ford started on "short" rest in 4 of 29 starts, 14%.

But what only occurred to me recently was this: had Ford started games 1 and 4, the Yankees would have swept and there would have been no need for Ford to pitch in game 7.

The scoring in the series was lopsided:

1. Pirates 6, Yankees 4

2. Yankees 16, Pirates 3

3. Yankees 10, Pirates 0; Ford complete game

4. Pirates 3, Yankees 2

5. Pirates 5, Yankees 2

6. Yankees 12, Pirates 0; Ford complete game

7. Pirates 10, Yankees 9

Yankees 55, Pirates 27

In fact if you line up the scores in descending order, the Yankees sweep all seven games:

Yankees, Pirates

16, 10

12, 6

10, 5

9, 3

4, 3

2, 0

2, 0

Yankee manager Casey Stengel started Whitey Ford on short rest in 1960 WS game 6. Ford pitched his second complete game shutout of that WS against Pittsburgh. I've been hung up on whether Ford could have pitched on short rest a second time and won. But that never would have happened.

The Yankees pitchers in games one and two would simply have their performances shifted to games two and three. So we would have this:

1. Yankees 4, Pirates 0; Ford complete game

2. Yankees 16, Pirates 6

3. Yankees 10, Pirates 3

4. Yankees 2, Pirates 0; Ford complete game

It's pretty basic stuff but 99% of commentary still regurgitates the unlikely notion that Whitey Ford could have pitched and won games 1,4,7 in the 1960 WS against Pittsburgh.

Bob Gibson: 3 World Series, 9 starts, 81 innings, 7-2. Thursday, October 18, 2018

Bob Gibson is the only pitcher to start and win WS games 1,4,7: 1967 against the Boston Red Sox. In 1957 Milwaukee Braves pitcher Lew Burdette started and won games 2,5,7 against the New York Yankees, all complete games, the last two shutouts.

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The most likely outcome of Ford starting games 1 and 4 is that the Yankees would have swept the Pirates in four games.