BOSTON RED SOX ...
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 3
A SUBWAY SERIES DISAPPEARS ...
Vern Stephens and Bobby Doerr
carry the Sox

August 21, 1948 ... The terrific one-two hitting punch furnished by Vern Stephens and Bobby Doerr, carried the Red Sox to within two games of the Cleveland Indians, as they slugged out a 10 to 6 decision over the Washington Senators at Fenway Park.

Stephens, whose broad shoulders, have been keeping the Sox in the pennant scramble, knocked out a pair of home runs. One of his circuit blasts came with the bases loaded. Doerr, besides delivering a home run for the first Red Sox score, broke up a 6 to 6 deadlock in the eighth-inning. With the bases loaded, he drilled a single through the infield, to break up a tie game at the time. It happened right after the fans roared out their approval of the White Sox beating the Indians as shown in the left-field scoreboard. Both Stephens and Doerr took advantage of playing at Fenway, a park design for right-handed hitters. They drove in eight runs between them and scored five. They accounted for four of the eleven Red Sox hits and their fielding was just as perfect as their times at the plate.

As usual, the Sox had to come from behind to win. They had three runs scored against them in the first inning off Ellis Kinder.

The Senators knocked around Kinder very easily in the first inning and scored three runs. The Sox come back was started by Doerr. The secondbaseman hit a sizzling line drive into the left-field nets to start the second inning. The Red Sox second run was also a one hit performance. This was supplied by Stephens, who poked one into the screen with none aboard, in the third inning, to cut the deficit to 3 to 2.

At this point Kinder had straightened things out a bit. He pitched hitless ball from the second through the fourth. The Senators starter Dick Welteroth had been wobbly on the mound since the beginning, but he didn't get thumped until the fourth inning. He opened by walking Birdie Tebbetts, who was thrown out at second on a poor bunt by Kinder. Welteroth didn't help himself at all by walking Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky to load the bases for Ted Williams. The Kid, however, could only loft a high fly ball out to centerfield and that brought up Stephens. Welteroth knew he'd been tagged by Stephens, in his last at bat, and was careful to keep the ball low and away. The count came down to two and two, and Stephens took a low curve, poking it high into the screen and sending the Sox ahead, 6 to 3.

But Kinder couldn't hold onto the advantage. He was finally chased out in the sixth inning. Bud Stewart slammed a long fly ball out to DiMaggio, who caught up to it, but the ball bounced off his glove for two bases. A single by Mickey Vernon brought him across. A walk to Al Evans with a pinch-hit double by Sherry Robertson tied the game at 6 to 6.

In the eighth-inning, with Milo Candini now pitching for Washington, DiMaggio more than atoned for his dropped fly ball by doubling to right-center. Pesky pushed a bunt past the pitcher's mound and moved DiMaggio over to third in the process. Williams then rolled one down the secondbaseman Al Kozar, who tried to nip DiMaggio at home. Dom got caught in a run down and flagged Pesky to third in the process, Williams to second. No more chances were going to be taken with Stephens and he was intentionally passed to load the bases. That brought up Doerr, who answered the call, and singled out of the reach of shortstop Mark Christman into center for two runs. A third run scored on Billy Goodman's double and a final one was forced over on successive free passes to Tebbetts and Earl Johnson.

Earl Johnson had come in to relieve Kinder and receiving credit for the Sox latest uphill struggle, when he pitched three perfect innings. The five RBIs Stephens knocked in, increased league leadership over Joe DiMaggio with 112. He has hit 26 home runs, the most he has ever belted in the major leagues. Doerr became the club runner-up to Stephens in home runs with his 22nd of the year. This tied him with his best home run mark since first coming up.