1918 American League

1918 in baseball
1918 American League
Japanese baseball
National League
Negro Leagues
<< 1917 1919 >>

The 1918 season of the American League was the eighteenth season of the league.

BR page

Season summary

After the United States became involved in World War I, the government ordered Major League Baseball to finish its regular season by Labor Day, September 2, curtailing the season to around 130 games.

Standings

Bold indicates league champion, Italics indicates World Series champion

Rank	Team	G	W	L	T	WPCT	GB	RS (RS/G)	RA (RA/G)	AVG	OBP	SLG	ERA	FPCT
1	Boston Red Sox	126	75	51	0	.595	-.-	474 (3.76)	380 (3.02)	0.249	0.318	0.327	2.31	0.971
2	Cleveland Indians	129	73	54	2	.566	2.5	504 (3.91)	447 (3.47)	0.260	0.338	0.341	2.64	0.962
3	Washington Senators	130	72	56	2	.554	4.0	461 (3.55)	412 (3.17)	0.256	0.314	0.315	2.14	0.960
4	New York Yankees	126	60	63	3	.476	13.5	493 (3.91)	475 (3.77)	0.257	0.316	0.330	3.00	0.970
5	St. Louis Browns	123	58	64	1	.472	15.0	426 (3.46)	448 (3.64)	0.259	0.325	0.320	2.75	0.963
6	Chicago White Sox	124	57	67	0	.460	17.0	457 (3.69)	446 (3.60)	0.256	0.318	0.321	2.73	0.967
7	Detroit Tigers	128	55	71	2	.430	20.0	476 (3.72)	557 (4.35)	0.249	0.321	0.318	3.40	0.960
8	Philadelphia Athletics	130	52	76	2	.400	24.0	412 (3.17)	538 (4.14)	0.243	0.299	0.308	3.22	0.959

League leaders

Bold indicates league record, Italics indicate all-time record

Batting

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Games Played	George Burns Joe Judge	Philadelphia Athletics Washington Senators	130
At Bats	Eddie Foster	Washington Senators	519
Runs Scored	Ray Chapman	Cleveland Indians	84
Hits	George Burns	Philadelphia Athletics	178
Doubles	Tris Speaker	Cleveland Indians	33
Triples	Ty Cobb	Detroit Tigers	14
Home Runs	Babe Ruth Tilly Walker	Boston Red Sox Philadelphia Athletics	11
Total Bases	George Burns	Philadelphia Athletics	236
Runs Batted In	Bobby Veach	Detroit Tigers	78
Stolen Bases	George Sisler	St. Louis Browns	45
Walks	Ray Chapman	Cleveland Indians	84
Hit by Pitch	George Burns Joe Gedeon Braggo Roth	Philadelphia Athletics St. Louis Browns Cleveland Indians	8
Strikeouts	Babe Ruth	Boston Red Sox	58
Sacrifice Hits	Dave Shean	Boston Red Sox	36
Batting Average	Ty Cobb	Detroit Tigers	0.382
On-Base Percentage	Ty Cobb	Detroit Tigers	0.440
Slugging Percentage	Babe Ruth	Boston Red Sox	0.555
On-Base plus Slugging	Babe Ruth	Boston Red Sox	0.966
On-Base plus Slugging Plus	Babe Ruth	Boston Red Sox	194

Pitching

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Wins	Walter Johnson	Washington Senators	23
Losses	Eddie Cicotte Scott Perry	Chicago White Sox Philadelphia Athletics	19
Win-Loss Percentage	Sam Jones	Boston Red Sox	0.762
Appearances	Jim Bagby George Mogridge	Cleveland Indians New York Yankees	45
Games Started	Scott Perry	Philadelphia Athletics	36
Complete Games	Carl Mays Scott Perry	Boston Red Sox Philadelphia Athletics	30
Shutouts	Walter Johnson Carl Mays	Washington Senators Boston Red Sox	8
Games Finished	George Mogridge	New York Yankees	23
Saves	George Mogridge	New York Yankees	7
Innings Pitched	Scott Perry	Philadelphia Athletics	332.1
Batters Faced	Scott Perry	Philadelphia Athletics	1342
Hits Allowed	Scott Perry	Philadelphia Athletics	295
Home Runs Allowed	Happy Finneran	Detroit Tigers/New York Yankees	7
Base-on-Balls Allowed	Slim Love	New York Yankees	116
Hit Batsmen	Willie Adams	Philadelphia Athletics	12
Strikeouts	Walter Johnson	Washington Senators	162
Wild Pitches	Harry Harper	Washington Senators	13
Balks	Jim Shaw	Washington Senators	3
Runs Allowed	Jim Bagby	Cleveland Indians	108
Earned Runs Allowed	Willie Adams Hooks Dauss	Philadelphia Athletics Detroit Tigers	83
Earned Run Average	Walter Johnson	Washington Senators	1.27
Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched	Walter Johnson	Washington Senators	0.954

Postseason

In the World Series, the American League champion Boston Red Sox defeated the National League's Chicago Cubs, 4 games to 2.

Umpires

• Bits Bierhalter*
• Tom Connolly
• Bill Dinneen
• Mike Donlin*
• Billy Evans
• George Hildebrand
• George Moriarty
• Dick Nallin
• Silk O'Loughlin
• Brick Owens

* Denotes a fill-in umpire

Further Reading

• Skip Desjardin: September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series, Regnery History, Washington, DC, 2018. ISBN 978-1-62157-620-4
• Tom Ruane: "A Retro-Review of the 1910s (the 1918 edition)", Retrosheet.org [1]