LOS ANGELES — Carl Erskine, who pitched two no-hitters as a mainstay on the Brooklyn Dodgers and was a 20-game winner in 1953 when he struck out a then-record 14 in the World Series, died Tuesday. He was 97.

Erksine died at Community Hospital Anderson in Anderson, Indiana, according to Michele Hockwalt, the hospital’s marketing and communication manager.

Among the last survivors from the celebrated Brooklyn teams of the 1950s, Erskine spent his entire major league career with the Dodgers from 1948-59, helping them win five National League pennants.

The Dodgers mourn the passing of one of the team’s all-time greats, Carl Erskine, at the age of 97. Carl was an All-Star, a World Series Champion, a true ally to Jackie Robinson and more in the pursuit of equality, and a pioneering advocate for those with special needs, inspired… pic.twitter.com/1MPNDnz9HR

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 16, 2024

The right-hander had a career record of 122-78 and an ERA of 4.00, with 981 strikeouts.

Erskine had his best season in 1953, when he went 20-6 to lead the National League. He won Game 3 of the World Series, beating the Yankees 3-2 at Ebbets Field. He struck out 14, retiring the side in the ninth, for a World Series record that stood until Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax got 15 in 1963. The Dodgers went on to lose the 1953 series in six games as the Yankees won their fifth consecutive championship.

Erskine’s death leaves Koufax as the lone surviving Dodgers player from that World Series team.

Erskine was an All-Star in 1954, when he won 18 games.

He appeared in five World Series, with the Dodgers finally beating the Yankees in 1955 for their only championship in Brooklyn. He gave up a home run to Gil McDougald in the first inning of Game 4 and left after 3⅔ innings. The Dodgers went on to win 8-5.

Carl Daniel Erskine was born Dec. 13, 1926, in Anderson, Indiana. He began playing baseball at age 9 in a local parks program.

After graduating high school in 1945, he was drafted into the Navy with World War II underway. A year later, Erskine asked the Navy recreation officer where he was stationed if he could play baseball. He was turned away, but a few weeks later, he was scouted by the Dodgers and discharged from military service.

He spent the next 1½ years in the minors before making his major league debut on July 25, 1948. Erskine began as a reliever, going 21-10 during his first two seasons.

In 1951, he transitioned to the starting rotation and joined teammates Roy Campanella, Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider as one of the revered “Boys of Summer.”

In 1952, Erskine had a career-best 2.70 ERA and won 14 games. The following year, he led the NL with a .769 winning percentage, along with 187 strikeouts and 16 complete games, all career highs.

When teammate Don Newcombe was pitching in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the 1951 NL pennant with the New York Giants, Erskine and Ralph Branca were warming up in the bullpen.

On the recommendation of pitching coach Clyde Sukeforth, Newcombe was relieved by Branca, who then gave up the game-winning home run to Bobby Thomson in the famed “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”

Whenever Erskine was asked what his best pitch was, he replied, “The curveball I bounced in the Polo Grounds bullpen in 1951.”

Nicknamed “Oisk” by fans with their Brooklyn accents, Erskine pitched no-hitters against the Chicago Cubs in 1952 and the New York Giants in 1956.

Bobby Morgan preserved Erskine’s no-hitter against the Cubs with two brilliant fielding plays at third base.

“I made two super plays on swinging bunts where they just dribbled down the line and I fielded them one-handed and threw to Gil Hodges at first,” Morgan told The Oklahoman newspaper in April 2020.

Morgan, who died last year, said Erskine still thanked him years later whenever they spoke.

The Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles in 1957. Erskine didn’t enjoy being away from his family and he lasted just 1½ more years with them. He pitched his final game in June 1959 and retired at 32.

Erskine returned to his hometown about 45 miles northeast of Indianapolis and opened an insurance business. He coached baseball at Anderson College for 12 years, and his 1965 team went 20-5 and won the NAIA World Series.

He also became active in the community and served as president and director at Star Financial Bank from 1982-93.

A 6-foot bronze statue of Erskine was erected in front of the Carl D. Erskine Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine Center to honor his accomplishments in baseball and as an Anderson resident. An elementary school built on land he donated is named for him. He was inducted into the Indiana National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.

In 2002, Erskine Street in Brooklyn was named for him.

His youngest son, Jimmy, was born with Down syndrome, which led Erskine to champion the cause of people with developmental disabilities. He wrote a book called “The Parallel,” about the similarities in the journeys of Jimmy and Erskine’s teammate Robinson in breaking down social perceptions. He was long involved with Special Olympics in Indiana and the Carl and Betty Erskine Society raises money for the organization.

Jimmy Erskine died last November at age 63, having outlived his prognosis by decades.

“Carl Erskine was an exemplary Dodger,” Stan Kasten, president & CEO of the Dodgers, said in a statement. “He was as much a hero off the field as he was on the field — which given the brilliance of his pitching is saying quite a lot. His support of the Special Olympics and related causes, inspired by his son Jimmy — who led a life beyond all expectations when he was born with Down syndrome, cemented his legacy. We celebrate the life of ‘Oisk’ as we extend our sympathies to his wife, Betty, and their family.”

Erskine also authored the books “Tales from the Dodger Dugout” and “What I Learned From Jackie Robinson.”

He is survived by wife Betty and sons Danny and Gary and daughter Susan.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a fractured big toe on his right foot, it was announced Tuesday.

Albies was hit by a pitch in the second inning by Houston Astros rookie Spencer Arrighetti on Monday but continued playing in the 6-1 victory.

In a related move, the Braves called up David Fletcher from Triple-A Gwinnett.

Albies, a three-time All-Star, is hitting .317 with two home runs in 15 games.

It was 2:30 p.m. ET Friday, nearly five hours before second baseman Jackson Holliday‘s first game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

He was the only player on the field, and working on only a few hours of sleep after a late-night flight from Boston, but he was full of life as he posed for a baseball card shoot with Topps. Out of the Milwaukee Brewers dugout came another phenom, outfielder Jackson Chourio. The Jacksons embraced, then posed for pictures.

A writer approached Holliday and said, “Got your hands full?”

He smiled and said, “Yes, always.”

Those hands have been full most of his life, but they are big hands, sturdy hands — hands capable of juggling much more than a 20-year-old has a right to.

“He looks like he’s 12, he acts like he’s 30, and he has handled it all beautifully,” Baltimore Orioles catcher James McCann said. “He came to [big league] spring training for the first time, and it seemed like it was his 14th. I went to college [at Arkansas], I played in the SEC, we played before 10,000 people every game. … He came from Stillwater, Oklahoma. Two years ago, he was playing in front of … parents. And then his first game is at Fenway Park.

“Amazing.”

Holliday smiled. “That was an incredible place to start a career,” he said. “It was awesome.”

Holliday was called up on April 10, just 10 games into his season at the Triple-A Norfolk Tides, and played two games against the Red Sox. He went hitless, as he did again in his first game at Camden Yards. After an 0-for-13 start that included nine strikeouts, he got his first hit on Sunday, a single that eventually allowed him to score the deciding run in the Orioles’ 6-4 win.

“It’s a lot, but it’s been fun. It’s quite an experience. I don’t think I would ever take it for granted, the experience that I’m having,” Holliday told reporters after the game. “If you go 0-for for three or four games, it’s going to happen in baseball. I’d prefer it not to be at the beginning of my career, but it’s going to happen. I’m glad to hopefully learn from it.”

Even on a young team — the Orioles are the sixth-youngest team in MLB — Holliday is notably green, two years younger than shortstop Gunnar Henderson and four years behind Colton Cowser and starting pitcher Grayson Rodriguez.

The Orioles’ oldest player, closer Craig Kimbrel, is 35.

“When I started my career, he was … born,” Kimbrel said, smiling. “He is comfortable here.”

And Holliday is comfortable, despite his age, because he grew up in a major league clubhouse with his dad, Matt Holliday, a career .299 hitter, and arguably the greatest player named Matt ever to play in the major leagues. Jackson was constantly at his dad’s side, even at preschool age.

“Show Mr. Kurkjian your Ichiro batting stance,” Matt said to his son 15 years ago.

Five-year-old Jackson did Ichiro perfectly, then the stance of many other major league hitters. So when Jackson was called up, Matt received hundreds of text messages from former teammates — Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Aaron Judge among them — from his time with the Rockies, A’s, Cardinals and Yankees. They all sent messages because Jackson is their major league son, too. They all played catch with him.

In February 2008 in Tempe, Arizona, Brewers manager Pat Murphy, then the baseball coach at Arizona State, rented an adjoining house to Matt and Leslee Holliday for that spring training.

“Every time I looked out in the backyard,” Murphy said, “Jackson was hitting with my son.”

Matt, Leslee and their younger son, Ethan, were in Boston for Jackson’s major debut.

“For my debut,” Matt said, “I was scared to death. He was not.”

The Hollidays were in Baltimore for Jackson’s home debut, too. They left the next morning because Ethan, a tremendous high school player in Oklahoma, was missing too many games.

“He’s in high school, he’ll be OK,” Jackson said, smiling.

The pressure is enormous being the son of a major leaguer, being considered the best prospect in the minor leagues and being one of the final pieces in what could be a dynastic next five to 10 years in Baltimore. But Jackson Holliday has an advantage: He is not being asked to save the franchise, as perhaps catcher Adley Rutschman was when he was recalled in May 2022. The Orioles won 101 games last season. They are loaded with talent; even today, much of that talent remains in the minor leagues.

Holliday won’t be the last piece, but he might be the biggest piece — perhaps even bigger than Rutschman and Henderson — given his background and how he has overpowered the game at every stop. Yet he hit ninth in his first five major league games.

When was the last time he hit ninth?

“I did in spring training,” he said. “Before that, it was a while.”

In Holliday’s second game as a big leaguer, the Orioles put five No. 1 picks in order in their lineup: third baseman Jordan Westburg, outfielder Colton Cowser, Holliday, Henderson and Rutschman. But only Holliday was given a sacred number in Orioles history: No. 7, last worn by the late Cal Ripken Sr., one of the most important and instrumental figures in Orioles history, the man who personified the Oriole Way.

Matt Holliday, who wore No. 7, called Cal Ripken Jr. for permission to wear his dad’s number.

Ripken, part of the new ownership group with the Orioles, gladly agreed.

“Now wear it with pride,” Ripken said.

So far, Jackson Holliday has. It has been a wild week, but he has handled most everything with great poise. Outfielder Kyle Stowers is taking care of his dog in Norfolk. Cowser gave him a ride to the ballpark before the first game at Camden Yards.

He is where he is supposed to be. And now he has the first of what will surely be many, many hits.