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Dom DiMaggio brings home a
Sox victory
July 14,
1940 ... The Red Sox took a pair from the St. Louis
Browns before 17,600 fans at Fenway Park. It took the Red Sox 11
innings to win the opener, 5 to 4 while they won in abbreviated
second game 7 to 3. Joe Cronin played shortstop for the first time in
a week and Dom DiMaggio was presented with a trophy for being the
Pacific Coast League's most valuable player in 1939. But in winning
a pair from the slumping players from St. Louis, the Red Sox lost the services
of their captain Jimmie Foxx, who was stepped on at first base in the opening
inning of the first game. He was replaced by Marv Owen. Foxx not only received a
spike wound, but wrenched his left knee. He was taken to the hospital for x-rays
and held overnight for observation.
Lefty Grove worked the first game but was taken out for pinch-hitter and
Emerson Dickman who finished up by pitching three scoreless innings of one-hit
ball, receiving credit for the victory.
Dom DiMaggio scored the winning run in the 11th inning, singling off Vern
Kennedy and racing all the way home on Doc Cramer's well-placed double to
left-center. The second contest was a comparative breeze. Denny Galehouse, while
hit hard and frequently had eleven of the Brown's blows well separated. The Red
Sox made good use of their nine base hits which included DiMaggio's first
big-league home run and the seventh homer of the year by Bobby Doerr.
Cronin started the Red Sox off in the opener by denting the left centerfield
wall for a double in the second inning. After Doerr walked, Jim Tabor doubled
Cronin across and put Doerr on third. Passes to DiMaggio and Cramer forced Doerr
over and gave the Red Sox a two run lead.
Another run was picked up in the third inning. With one gone, Cronin walked
and Doerr singled to center with Cronin racing the third. Doerr tried to reach
second on the throw to third and Cronin raced home when Doerr was wiped out at
second.
Grove was knocked around partially in the fourth when Cramer galloped all
around centerfield to retire the side. Before he had made the final put out, a
single by Radcliffe, a triple by Harland Clift, and Heffner's double produced a
pair of St. Louis runs. They picked up two more in the sixth inning and went
ahead by a run, 4 to 3.
It looked like a lost cause when Kennedy retired the first two men in the
eighth. But then Doerr started things going with a single and Tabor doubled off
the left-field wall, to bring him home with the tying run.
The count remained at 4 to 4 through the 10th inning and the way Kennedy and
Dickman were mowing people down, it appeared that the game would be a marathon
struggle. However with two outs in the 11th, DiMaggio blasted a line drive off
Kennedy's glove. It must've unsteadied him and on a hit-and-run play, Kramer
poked one into left centerfield for a two bagger to win the game.
The Sunday blue laws held the second game down to seven innings during which
every member of the Red Sox got a hit, as Galehouse notched his sixth victory of
the year. DiMaggio was hit by a pitch in the first inning and after being
sacrificed to second, scored on Cronin's double.
The Browns tied it up in the second on a double and a single. After a walk to
Tabor, Johnny Peacock singled and a perfectly executed squeeze bunt by
Galehouse, regained the lead the Red Sox in their half of the second inning
which they kept down to the end.
A home run by Bobby Doerr brought the Sox their third run in the third
inning. After the Browns got a home run in the fifth the Red Sox put the game on
ice. DiMaggio started the inning with a well blasted drive half way up into the
left-field netting. Cramer followed with a single and took second as Cronin was
thrown out at first. He took third on Ted Williams' infield hit and Jim Tabor
singled into the left-field corner sending in Cramer and putting Williams on
third. Ted scored when Heffner allowed Radcliffe's throw to roll past him.
Roxie Lawson pitched the last two innings for the Browns, and the Sox scored
one run against him in the sixth. Owens opened with a single and when Galehouse
lined a double that got by the in rushing Harland Clift, who had expected a
bunt, Owen reached third. Following a pop up by DiMaggio, Cramer was
intentionally walked. But when Lawson walked Cronin, Owen was forced over with
the final Red Sox run, 7 to 3. |
