Matty was heading to the mound as McGraw came in from the third base coaching box while the teams changed sides. The manager put his hand on his ace's shoulder, but neither man needed to say anything.

2B Larry Doyle, the Giants captain, jogged in front of Christy and shook his fist in an­ticipation of victory. Matty told the second sacker, "I'll float my old arm out there right after the ball if I have to in this inning. I'll win the game."

Boston manager Jake Stahl sent righthand batting Clyde Engel to hit for P Joe Wood. After taking a called strike, Engel swung at the next pitch, another rising fastball, and loft­ed a high fly to left centerfield as the crowd groaned. Clyde fired his bat down in disgust, and 2B Doyle yelled, "That'one of 'em!" loud enough to be heard in the press box. The other voice was Snodgrass's yelling "I got it! I got it!" as he called off LF Red Murray, who some thought had the easier play. Obeying one of McGraw's fundamental rules, "If the centerfielder believed he could catch the ball, he caught the ball," Red took a knee to stay out of Fred's way. Fred settled under the ball and dropped it. Hustling all the way, Engel ended up on second. Normally so cool, Mathewson swung his gloved hand in a small ges­ture of frustration.

If Fred was moping over his embarrassing blunder, he didn't show it. With the crowd in a frenzy, Harry Hooper twice tried to sacrifice but didn't succeed in laying one down in fair territory. So with two strikes, he smashed a ball to left center field that should have tied the game. But the Boston rightfielder, who had robbed Doyle of a homer in the fifth, was now denied himself on a diving catch by Snodgrass. As Harry remembered years later, "Ninety-nine times out of a hundred no outfielder could possibly come close to that ball. But ... Snod­grass ran like the wind and dang if he didn't catch it. I think he outran the ball. Rob­bed me of a sure triple." Engle ran to third after the catch. Mathewson again waved his glove at Snodgrass, this time to acknowledge a spectacular play.

The already-strange inning got even weirder. First, Matty tried to work the corners to 2B Steve Yerkes but walked the .252 hitter on a 3-1 count. Next up was CF Tris Speaker, eager to atone for his misplay in the top of the inning when he tried for a shoestring catch but missed, allowing the go-ahead run to score. He had gone four-for-11 against Mathew­son in the Series for a swell .363 average. Needing a strikeout or popup to keep the tying run at third, Christy got the latter. Here's what happened in Speaker's own words.

Mathewson had to put aside any thoughts of self-pity because he should have retired the Sox 1-2-3 to preserve the victory. Speaker yelled, "Well, Matty, you just called for the wrong man. Now it's gonna cost you the ball game!" Tris backed up his words by lashing the next pitch, a hanging curve, over 2B Doyle's head on one big hop to Josh Devore in right field. Engle scored the tying run, and Yerkes scampered to third. Speaker took second on the unwise throw-in over the cutoff man's head.

McGraw ordered an intentional walk to LF Duffy Lewis to set up a forceout at home. That brought 3B Larry Gardner to the plate, he of the two errors in the second inning, sore finger, and five-for-27 batting mark (.185) for the Series. With the infield drawn in, Gardner worked the count to 3-1, then smashed Matty's 27th pitch of the inning and 124th of the game deep into right field. As soon as the ball left the bat, Matty threw up his hands and left the mound. Yerkes tagged up and Engel, now coaching third, got ready to send him home. Devore caught it almost at the fence, but his desperation peg home had no chance. Player-manager Stahl, waiting on deck, threw up his hands to signal Yerkes that he didn't have to slide. C Meyers turned away without trying for the ball as Steve crossed the plate with the run that gave the Red Sox their second World Championship in as many tries.