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THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ...
"THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM"
The Sox split in
a battle for first with Chicago
August
25, 1967 ... The Red Sox sat in first place
for a couple of hours by winning the first game of the doubleheader
with the White Sox, 7 to 1. But then wound up back in second place,
when they ended up splitting the doubleheader. The Minnesota Twins
swept their doubleheader, thereby pushing the Red Sox behind them in
the standings. The two games started one of the most important
series of the year for the Red Sox, and they slapped out 15 singles, along with
a triple by Carl Yastrzemski, to give Jim Lonborg a rather easy 7 to 1 evening,
for his 17th win.
But in the second game, they ran into a hot Ken Berry, who led the White Sox
back to win, 2 to 1. Berry hit a home run and a single, with the last hit
scoring a walkoff run in the ninth-inning. John Wyatt was on the mound and his
pitch, with two men on, was slammed into distant right-center, without a Red Sox
player within yards of it.
The White Sox, who had been having their pitching problems, brought up a
rookie named Cisco Carlos. The big pitcher went along until the seventh inning
of the second game, blanking the Red Sox. In the eighth-inning the Sox finally
got a run off Bob Locker, when Reggie Smith singled to right, scoring Jerry
Adair from second base.
Berry had hit a home run off Lee Stange in the fifth inning, far into the
seats in left-center field, putting them up front 1 to 0. Carlos then kept the
Red Sox at bay until the seventh.
Petrocelli opened with a single and was sacrificed along by Mike Andrews.
Dalton Jones, who was batting for Mike Ryan, singled to left and Petrocelli
cautiously ran over to third-base. Norm Siebern batted for Stange and with a
checked swing, hit the ball just in front of home plate, with a high bounce.
Petrocelli, not sure of what was going to happen, hesitated before charging
home. He got into a rundown and was finally tagged out.
John Wyatt tried hard to keep things quiet with a blazing fastball in the
eighth-inning. But in the ninth, Ron Hansen singled to right off him. He was
moved over to second on a bunt, before Berry lined a single to right that scored
Sandy Alomar, who had pinch run for Hansen, with the walkoff game-winner.
Gary Peters, the Chicago ace, got the first two men out in the opening inning
of the first game, but then came successive singles by Carl Yastrzemski, George
Scott, Reggie Smith, Elston Howard and Petrocelli for three runs. The second
inning wasn't much more pleasant for Peters, giving up consecutive singles to
Jerry Adair, Yastrzemski and George Scott for one more run.
Lonborg had great stuff and his pitches were low and fast all throughout the
game, while the Red Sox kept tapping singles into the outfield. Yaz finally
broke the monotony in the fifth, when he tripled to right-center, as the Red Sox
scored two more runs.
In the sixth inning, facing former teammate Wilbur Wood, Yaz didn't have it
so easy. Two of Wood's knuckleballs went behind Yaz and another danced close to
his chin. Yaz eventually drew a walk and scored on Reggie Smith's line drive to
left-field, putting the Sox up 7 to 0. The only time Lonborg was bothered at all
by the White Sox hitters, was in the ninth-inning, when Pete Ward unloaded a
home run off him.
The Red Sox also signed free-agent Ken Harrelson and dropped Pete Charton to
make place for him. |
