ON THIS DATE (July 11, 1959) ... Capping an afternoon of wild confusion, acrimonious debate and sheer jubilation, Don Buddin unloaded the first grand slam homer of his major league career in the 10th inning to carry the Red Sox to an 8-4 victory
over the Yankees.
In the bottom of the 10th inning,
Ryne Duren had a 2-1 count on Gene
Stephens the first batter. When Summers called the next pitch a ball.
That made Berra blow his top, so much that he got tossed. Duren came
running in and continued the verbal barrage and he too was sent
packing.
Stephens slapped a single off Jim
Bronstad, who replaced Duren, when play continued.
After Bronstad walked Frank
Malzone, Casey Stengel brought in Bob Turley. Turley got Pete Daley
on a pop-up and Pete Runnels, who came in as a pinch-hitter, beat out
an infield hit to load the bases. This brought up Buddin, who slammed
a line drive into the left field net for the walk-off grandslam game
winner.
Duke Maas and Jerry Casale had
started the game. Casale gave up three runs in the first inning. He
hit Hector Lopez with a pitch, walked Mickey Mantle after throwing a
wild pitch that moved Lopez over to third base. A base hit by Bill
Skowron scored Lopez and after he walked Berra, Elston Howard lined a
single to left, scoring Mantle and Skowron.
Down 3-0, the Sox got one of the
runs back in the second inning on base hits by Vic Wertz and Jackie
Jensen, a walk to Ted Williams and a sac fly by Malzone.
Casale settled down and kept the
Yankees quiet until the seventh inning. He walked Hank Bauer with one
out. Tony Kubek's double off the wall advanced Bauer to third and
Mantle was intentionally passed to load the bases. Leo Kiely came in
and ended the inning by striking out Berra.
Maas was taken out by Stengel in
the fifth inning and Eli Grba pitched effectively until the eighth
when the Sox got three runs to gain a 4-3 advantage. Wertz singled
and moved to second on Jensen's grounder to Bobby Richardson. Ted
Williams scored Wertz with a line drive single to right. Gene
Stephens ran for Williams and moved to second when Grba walked
Malzone. That brought in Duren who got Daley to hit a slow grounder
to Kubek, whose throw to first was way off the mark and got by Marv
Thronberry, bouncing into right field. Stephens and Malzone both
scored to put the Sox up by one.
With the score was 4-3 in the the ninth inning, Kubek slugged a homer
into the Sox bullpen to tie the game.
