The home team won each of the first four games of the Series. The Cardinals hoped to continue that trend in Game 5 and take a 3-2 lead in games.

To that end, manager Gabby Street went with veteran righthander Burleigh Grimes, who had lost Game 1 5-2. Grimes was the youngest of the last four pitchers officially per­mitted to throw the spitball. He also relied on his "unshaven, menacing presence on the mound," which earned him the nickname "Ol' Stubblebeard." He compiled a 17-9 record during the season. It is highly unlikely the Cardinals would have won the pennant without Cardinals.

Al Lopez remembered Burleigh this way: "Grimes just threw spitters all the time. He had great control, and he could make that thing go any way he wanted to. He'd break it inside or break it outside, break it down. He was a great spitball pitcher and a great compe­titor."

1930 was not a season in which you'd expect a pitchers' duel in the World Series. Major-league teams scored an average of more than 5 1/2 runs per game, which was the most for any season since 1896 and even 10% more than the "steroid era" of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Athletics averaged nearly 6.2 runs per game, and the Cardinals led the National League with an average of more than 6.5 runs per game. The Redbirds posted a .314 team batting average.

But the pitchers hadn't done too badly in the first four games of the Series. The two teams combined for just 23 runs, an averaged of 7.7 per game. The Cardinals scored a total of three runs in losing the first two games of the Series at Philadelphia while the Athletics scored just one run while losing the next two games at Sportsman's Park.

Grimes was sharp in Game 5, shutting out the A's on just four hits through eight in­nings. Unfortunately for the Redbirds, George Earnshaw matched him goose egg for goose egg with only two hits over seven innings.

When the A's got runners on first and third with one out in the top of the eighth, mana­ger Connie Mack pinch hit for Earnshaw, who was working on a two-hit shutout and had thrown only 83 pitches. But Grimes worked out of the jam without allowing a run.

Mack then resorted to a strategy he had used effectively in the 1929 Series against the Cubs. He brought in his ace, Lefty Grove, to pitch the bottom of the 8th. Grove had out­dueled Grimes in Game 1, winning 5-2, and had thrown 104 pitches the day before in a 3-1 loss.

Grove allowed just a harmless two-out single to keep the game scoreless heading into the top of the 9th.

Grimes had to face the heart of the A's potent batting order in the top of the ninth: C Mickey Cochrane, LF Al Simmons, and 1B Jimmie Foxx – all future Hall of Famers. He walked Cochrane on a 3-2 pitch but got Simmons to pop out to shortstop.

Up stepped Foxx, who had clouted 100 homers the last three seasons. Jimmie wasted no time, slamming the first pitch far up into the left field stands. Grimes said, "He hit it so hard I couldn't feel sorry for myself." Burleigh said the pitch was a curve ball that didn't curve.

As Cochrane rounded third base, he "put his hands to his ears and waved them deri­sively at Grimes" (E. Roy Alexander in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.) "Earnshaw, sitting near Connie Mack on the bench, waved his hand at the Cardinal pitcher in a gesture of contempt. Joe Boley and Bing Miller ran out from the bench and danced a few steps, concluding their performance by giving Grimes a Bronx cheer."

Back in Philadelphia, A's fan George McQuilkin heard Foxx's homer on the radio broadcast just as his wife delivered an 8-pound boy. The McQuilkins named their son James Foxx McQuilkin.

Grimes retired the next two batters to keep the Cards' deficit at 2-0.

LF Chick Hafey popped out to start the bottom of the 9th. Ray Blades pinch hit for RF George Watkins and drew a walk to bring the tying run to the plate in the person of C Jimmie Wilson. He had lined out and smacked a double against Earnshaw. But he hit a weak grounder to Grove that moved Blades to second.

SS Charlie Gelbert hit .304 during the season, but he was no match for Grove. Lefty buzzed three straight fast ones over the plate to put the A's up three games to two.

The Cardinals never got a runner to third base in the game.

Mack's club closed out the Series the next day to win their second straight champion­ship.