Cardinals earn first Yankee Stadium win since … 1964 World Series

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

For the first time since Game 5 of the 1964 World Series, the Cardinals swept the Yankees, 6-5, to even their current series. The team had previously gone 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 yet to record a win in the new Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009.

MLB’s changing interleague rules created drought at Cardinals’ Yankee Stadium

How does such a drought occur? The explanation is also a good lesson in the history of interleague play in MLB. Of course, the Cardinals and Yankees never met again in the World Series or the rest of the postseason. That leaves interleague play as the only option.

There was no interleague play until 1997, which began with AL East teams playing NL East teams and NL Central teams playing AL Central teams. MLB didn’t change the schedule until 2002.

So the Cardinals’ first road series against the Yankees was in 2003, and they were, of course, blown out. Their next two series in 2005 and 2014 (the gaps between interleague games can be sporadic) were both in St. Louis, and then they made the trip again in 2017. Where they were blown out again.

The next two series in 2022 and 2023 were again held in St. Louis.

However, streaks like this will become much rarer going forward, as MLB has adjusted its schedule in 2023 by expanding 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 will have a chance to get another win at Yankee Stadium every year.

Cardinals nearly blew away their streak-breaking win

The Cardinals were in good shape in the eighth inning on Saturday, opening up a 6-1 lead thanks to rallies in the third and sixth innings.

Reliever Matthew Liberatore led off the eighth by allowing a single to Gleyber Torres and then erasing it with a double play by Juan Soto. Things went awry from there, starting with, of course, Aaron Judge. The MVP ace was the first of five batters to reach base.

Anthony Volpe and Giancarlo Stanton finished the rally with RBI hits, making it 6-5. At that point, Andrew Kittredge, who had relieved Liberatore before allowing a double to Stanton, struck out the latter against Alex Verdugo.

The ninth inning was thankfully less dramatic, with closer Ryan Helsley ducking a Soto double to earn his 42nd save, the most in MLB.