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JOHNNY
PEACOCK |
JIMMIE FOXX'S MVP SEASON
...
The Sox score 19 runs in the
first game
and then win the second on a suicide squeeze
August 27, 1938
... The Red Sox said goodbye to the Chicago
White Sox with two shots on the chin. The Sox flattened them, 19 to
6, in the first battle and 1 to 0 in the second game. It gave the Red
Sox a record of five wins in six games, over three days. The Sox
attack in the first game saw them bang out 12 hits and 10 runs in the first five
innings. Then they got 10 hits in the next three innings, one of them being
Jimmy Foxx's 38th home run with a man, on in the eighth.
The second game was a battle between Thornton Lee and Bill Harris, a
40-year-old fellow who was recently imported from Buffalo by the Red Sox. The
Red Sox however had a jack rabbit named Ben Chapman working on their behalf. He
scored from second base on a sacrifice and that proved decisive.
In the second inning of the first game, Joe Cronin doubled, Mike Higgins
tripled, Bobby Doerr walked, Johnny Peacock singled, Fritz Ostermueller doubled
and Joe Vosmik singled. The net result was four runs.
The White Sox gave starter Fritz Ostermueller both barrels in the fourth and
scored three runs, to get themselves back in the game for a few minutes. Then
the Red Sox smeared the White Sox with another batch of four runs in their half
of the inning. It was a great inning in which both Doerr and Peacock singled and
Ostermueller and Cramer doubled before anyone was even retired. Those four hits
accounted for three runs and then Jimmie Foxx singled Cramer across with the
fourth run, making the count 8 to 3.
Boston added two more runs in the fifth inning on Chapman and Doerr's single,
followed by catcher Norm Schlueter's error on a throw to the plate and an
infield out.
The White Sox got two runs in the sixth, but in the Red Sox half they scored
five more. A walk to Cronin, a single by Chapman, a walk to Doerr, a single to
Peacock, a wild pitch and a double by Doc Cramer, followed by a single by Vosmik
was the tale making the score 15 to 5.
After the Chicago scored one run on a pair of errors and a base hit the
seventh, the Red Sox drove across two more in their half. Singles by Cronin,
Chapman and Peacock, along with a walk to Doerr made the score 17 to 6.
Then in the eighth-inning, Jimmie Foxx completed the annihilation of White
Sox pitching with his 38th home run after Vosmik had singled.
Bill Harris gave the White Sox a slim chance to score on him in the first
inning of the second game. Marv Owen doubled with one out and Rick Radcliffe
beat out an infield hit, before Luke Appling was struck out. Harris did not
allow them another base hit until the fifth inning.
The Red Sox run in the seventh got underway when Ben Chapman bounced to Jimmy
Dykes, who after grabbing the ball behind second, dropped it. But even if he had
been able to make the throw Chapman would have beat it out for an infield hit.
Bobby Doerr laid down a bunt and moved him over to second. Catcher Gene
Desautels was purposely passed. Then a bunt and run play was signaled and by the
time Harris laid down his sacrifice, Chapman was almost the third. Marv Owen
charged the ball made a quick pick up and threw to Dykes to retire Harris at
first. Meanwhile, Chapman was charging for the plate and Dykes' return throw in
that direction was far too late. Harris got into a little trouble in the ninth
but was able to work his way out of it for the win, 1 to 0. |
