FENWAY PARK'S BEST PLAYERS FENWAY PARK'S HISTORY HOW THE BRAVES LOST BOSTON FOOTBALL
AT FENWAY
SOURCES
THE DIARIES

Vern Stephens' walk-off grandslam beats St. Louis

VERN STEPHENS

ON THIS DATE (August 24, 1950) ... The Red Sox completed a sweep of the St. Louis Browns on Vern Stephens' ninth inning walkoff grand slam home run which brought them a 6 to 2 victory. A two-out error by the Browns' Tom Upton contributed to loading the bases.

With one out, Buddy Rosar broke his bat, blooping a single to left. Tom Wright batted for pitcher Walt Masterson and followed with a double down the left-field line, that moved pinch runner Lew Stringer over to third. Dom DiMaggio followed when Browns' pitcher Ned Garver, issued him a base on balls that loaded the bases.

Then Billy Goodman sent a roller a bit to the right of shortstop Upton. He got in front of the ball but was an able to pick it up cleanly, allowing Stringer to score and tie the game, leaving the bases still full.

That brought up Vern Stephens, who had struck out with three men on in the first inning. He was zero for four on the day, but came through by slugging the ball over the left-field wall for his grand slam.

Masterson picked up his sixth victory by holding the Browns to eight hits. Two of those came in succession, giving the St. Louis a 2 to 1 lead in the sixth inning, on Ray Coleman's double and Roy Sievers' home run.

Garver, gave up a run in the fourth on Billy Goodman's double and Walt Dropo's single. He dug himself out of a seventh-inning jam when the Red Sox loaded the bases with two outs. Then he pitched a perfect eighth-inning and continued into the ninth when he retired Al Zarilla, only two outs away from his 10th victory of the year, but then the walls came crashing down around him.

Billy Goodman raised his average to .364, 13 points better over Larry Doby of the Indians. Vern Stephens upped his RBI total to 124, seven better than teammate Walt Dropo.

 

F   E   N   W   A   Y     P   A   R   K

 

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

 

R

H

E

 
 

ST. LOUIS BROWNS

0

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

 

 

2

8

1

 
 

BOSTON RED SOX

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

5

 

 

6

10

1

 

 

W-Walt Masterson (6-4)
L-Ned Garver (9-13)
Attendance - 7340

 2B-Goodman (2)(Bost), Wright (Bost), Coleman (StL),
 Garver (StL), Delsing (StL)

 HR-Stephens (Bost), Sievers (StL)