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STEPHENS HOMERS
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ON THIS DATE (September 16,
1949)
... Mel Parnell chalked up his 23rd win of the
season, as the Red Sox trounced the St. Louis Browns by a score of 12
to 4. Parnell has now won 33 of
his last 40 starts for the Red Sox. The 23rd win for Parnell
equaled a record set by Babe Ruth for left-handed pitchers. The Babe won 23
games in both 1916 and 1917. In 1935, Lefty Grove was a 20 game winner for the
Red Sox. Carl Hubbell of the Giants is the only National League lefty, in the
last 20 years, to win as many as 23 games.
Vern Stephens furnished the power for Parnell's win. He belted two of Tom
Ferrick's best pitches for home runs. His first one cleared the net in left
field, to break a 3 to 3 tie. His second one, with Ted Williams aboard, was a
slashing line drive, that was still going up when it made contact with the
screen in left-center. It broke up the game in the seventh inning. The two home
runs were Stephens' 37th and 38th of the season and brought him into a deadlock
with Ted for the American League home run derby leadership.
A pair of gift runs, put the Red Sox out in front, 2 to 0, in the second
inning. Al Zarilla, who with Lou Stringer enjoyed a perfect four for four
afternoon, opened up the inning with a single. Billy Goodman flied out and
Stringer doubled down the left-field line. Birdie's Tebbetts slapped the ball at
Jerry Priddy, who in his haste to nail Zarilla at the plate, failed to catch the
line drive. It went of his glove for an error, as Zarilla scored and Stringer
took third, and put Tebbetts on first.
Parnell was up next and fouled out to the catcher, while Stringer tagged up
and tried to score from third after the catch. Tebbetts also tagged up and broke
for second base. Catcher Les Moss, not expecting to have to throw the ball after
the catch, threw and hit Priddy, who had come in and was standing between the
mound and second base. Tebbetts after breaking for second, stopped
intentionally, daring Moss to try and get him. It worked. The ball bounced away
and Stringer raced home also.
Priddy's double and Roy Sievers' single got the Browns a run in the fourth
inning. The Sox got that back on singles by Zarilla, Billy Goodman and Stringer
in the bottom half of the inning. But the Browns bounced back to tie it at 3 to
3 in the fifth. A single by John Sullivan, a double by Stan Spence scored him,
and a base hit by Priddy scored Spence.
Stephens broke the tie with his 37th homer over the screen to the left of the
first light tower. But a walk, a single and a ground ball out tied it up for the
Browns, once again, in the sixth, 4 to 4.
Stringer walked to open up the sixth inning and Tebbetts followed him with a
single. Parnell lofted a fly ball to deep right, permitting Stringer to scamper
over to third. He scored when Dom DiMaggio flew out to Sievers in center field,
giving the Sox a one up lead, 5 to 4. The Sox never looked back because after
that. In the bottom of the seventh, Ferrick walked Williams and it was followed
by the second home run by Vern Stephens.
Five runs were scored in the eighth off Joe Ostrowski. A single by DiMaggio
and two doubles, by Pesky and Williams accounted for the first run of the
inning. After Zarilla singled and Williams moved over to third, Goodman's force
of Zarilla, at second, allowed Williams to score. Stringer then slammed one into
the left-field net, to score himself and Goodman. That made it 12 to 4.
Williams kept on Stephens' heels in the RBI race. He drove in two runs during
the eighth-inning uprising, to put him two behind Stephens with 147. Stephens
with his home runs, picked up three RBIs for a total of 149. Ted might have had
more when he belted one out for the Sox bullpen in the third inning, only to be
robbed of extra bases on a spectacular running catch by Dick Kokos. |
