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Carl Yastrzemski overhauls Cleveland April 21, 1971 ... The Cleveland Indians and the Red Sox were tied, 7-7, in the eighth-inning. Joe Lahoud was on second base and there were two outs. Carl Yastrzemski, who already had three hits including a home run, came to the plate. Rather than walk Yaz, Cleveland manager Al Dark had his pitcher, Vince Colbert, pitch to him. Yaz responded with a double to left and the Red Sox went on to win 9 to 7. Sparky Lyle previously had come in to pitch the seventh and eighth innings. He shutdown the Indians and gained the win. Neither Ray Culp nor Steve Hargan had done well in their starting roles. Culp had given up five runs in the third inning, in about four minutes. After a bunt single by Larry Brown, to open up the third inning, in order came three doubles and a home run by Graig Nettles, that gave the Indians a 5 to 1 lead. The Red Sox and scored in the first inning on a walk to Reggie Smith and two wild pitches, with Yaz scoring Reggie on a single to center. Then Yaz homered into the bleachers, over the Red Sox bullpen, in the third inning, to make it 5 to 2. The Red Sox fell behind 7 to 2 after the fourth and fifth innings. John Lowenstein singled in the fourth, stole second and went to third when Brown's grounder got by Rico Petrocelli. He scored while Steve Hargan was hitting into a doubleplay. In the next inning, Reggie lost the ball in the sun, with one out, on a hard drive by Ray Fosse. It went for a triple and then Ken Harrelson scored him with a single to right. In the Red Sox fifth inning, Billy Conigliaro homered into the net for three runs. The Red Sox and scored one run earlier in the inning, when Reggie walked and came across on singles by Yaz and Rico, who scored ahead of Billy C's blast. Now behind, only 7 to 6, the Red Sox tied the game in the sixth inning, when John Kennedy doubled into the left-field corner, and Reggie scored him with a line drive single to center. That set the stage for Sparky Lyle. In the eighth, Lahoud walked on a three and two pitch, and Kennedy dropped down a nice sacrifice bunt, to move him over to second. Reggie tapped the ball back to the mound and Colbert turned hoping the get Lahoud caught off second, but couldn't. That brought up Yaz, who hiked up his batting average from .295 to .354 for his days work. The home run Yaz hit, was the first by a Red Sox player the season. It was his third of the year and was followed two innings later by another one from Billy Conigliaro. |
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