|
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ...
"THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM"
The White Sox rally to beat the Red Sox
August
31, 1967 ... The weather was chilly and the
Red Sox bats were cold, as the White Sox took the first of the
four-game series, 4 to 2, cutting the Red Sox lead in the American
League, to one half game. Cisco Carlos had pitched six hitless
innings and had a 1 to 0 lead handed to him in the first inning, when Don Buford
tripled and scored on an infield out. Eddie Stanky brought in Hoyt Wilhelm with
men on second and third and one out, after a walk, a single by George Scott and
a sacrifice, to face Ken Harrelson. Harrelson tapped a little roller down to Ron
Hansen, who took a quick look at the plate, saw that he had no chance to get
Carl Yastrzemski, who scored, and threw out Harrelson at first. But then Wilhelm
got one of his knuckleballs up high, and Rico Petrocelli lined it off the fence
in left field, for a double that scored Scott, giving the Red Sox the lead, 2 to
1.
The move of bringing in Wilhelm had backfired, but in the White Sox
eighth-inning, Tommy Agee had gone to a three and two count on Gary Bell. Bell
stuck a fastball down the middle and Agee slammed it into left field, up above
the wall, about 15 feet into the net to tie the game.
Dick Williams left Bell in and it looked like a good move when the next two
batters were handled quite easily. But then Rocky Colavito hit a ground ball
toward Jerry Adair at third-base. Adair, who was been playing like money in the
bank, let the ball dribble between his legs into the outfield. But there were
two outs and the next batter was Pete Ward. After one ball, Ward slammed the
next pitch into the White Sox bullpen to give Chicago the lead, 4-2.
When Wilhelm walked Andrews to open the eighth and had a one ball count on
Adair, Stanky went to the mound once again and brought in old friend, Don
McMahon. McMahon threw two more bad pitches, but after taking a strike, Adair
popped the ball up and slammed his bat on the ground. Yaz was up next and did
nothing more than hit a foul pop to the thirdbaseman and Scott grounded into a
force play.
Nothing resembling a base hit came from the Red Sox bats in the ninth as
McMahon struck out both Reggie Smith and Rico Petrocelli to end the game. |
