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VERN STEPHENS |
BOSTON RED SOX ...
THE
CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 3
A
SUBWAY SERIES DISAPPEARS ...
Vern Stephens
powers the Red Sox
in another doubleheader sweep of the White Sox
July 22, 1948
... Continuing to pick on the weaklings of the
American League, the Red Sox whipped the Chicago White Sox by 3 to 0
and 5 to 3 scores, and find themselves only two games out of first
place. The victories put the Red Sox into undisputed possession of
third place, a half game ahead of the Yankees, who beat the
league-leading Indians, 6 to 5. Vern Stephens belted his 19th and
20th home runs and batted in five RBI. The White Sox have a string of 14 losses
in their last 18 games, and blew up at a decision of umpire Red Jones, which
resulted in the departure of three players, manager Ted Lyons, coach Bing Miller
and secondbaseman Cass Michaels. The awkward situation resulted in pitcher,
Allen Gettel, played second base. Oddly enough, Gettel played a solid game, and
could be helping the Chicago team in the future. The teams were tied at three
all in the fifth inning of the second game when Jones made the three ejections.
As a result the Red Sox added two more runs for the final 5 to 3 score.
Jones' decisions, right or wrong, certainly hurt the White Sox as events turned
out. With two outs, Luke Appling threw out Stephens after Stan Spence walked.
With first base open, pitcher Howie Judson pitched to Bobby Doerr and hit him
with a pitch to load the bases. The hot batting Sam Mele then fired a sharp
single past Appling allowing two runs to score and that was the game.
The White Sox scored three runs in the second inning after a walk and
successive singles by five players that gave them three runs and a 3 to 1 lead.
After that, Red Sox pitcher, Ellis Kinder, went unscored upon for the rest of
the game. The Red Sox had scored in the first on a walk to DiMaggio, a fielder's
choice and a single by Vern Stephens. The tying runs came across in the third on
Stephens' second home run.
Stephens won the first game, a neat five hit shutout for Denny Galehouse,
with a two run home run into the left-field nets in the first inning. White Sox
starter Bob Gillespie, who otherwise pitched a credible game, took the loss,
limiting the Red Sox to only five hits. Boston got another run in the eighth,
after Gillespie went out for a pinch-hitter, off Orval Grove.
Galehouse threw 100 pitches, but tired at the end, giving up his only walk to
Aaron Robinson with two down in the ninth. He had good control throughout,
especially in the view of the fact that he had tossed only 13 1/3 innings in the
past five weeks. |
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