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BILL JAMES |
BACK-TO-BACK WORLD
SERIES CHAMPS
The Red Sox fail to stop Detroit
July 29, 1916 ...
The Red Sox had an unhappy start to their series with the Detroit Tigers, dropping two games at Navin Field. That the Yankees met with a similar fate in St. Louis does not help the Champions' spirits any, as the White Sox double win accompanied by the
Tigers' sweep materially cuts down the fine work the Sox accomplished in Cleveland.
In the opener, the Tigers four runs in the first inning, off Babe Ruth, and an error by Jack Barry, got them in trouble, and then they whaled our four more runs against Weldon Wyckoff, adding two more in the later innings, to give the Sox their first loss.
The Sox had driven Harry Coveleski from the box, and finally pulled to within two runs of the Tigers. But fine hitting by Detroit and few mistakes limited Sox hitters. When the final opportunities came against Bernie Boland, the Tigers pitcher stopped the Sox with the bases
loaded and one out and later some stupid base running cost the Sox a second chance.
The Sox had only eight hits in the first game against twelve for the Tigers, who however could only scratch out one hit against Rube Foster, who worked the last few innings while his offense tried hard to catch up. Boston's best hitter was Del Gainor, who drove
a home run over the left field fence and also knocked out a double.
In the second game a lucky double by Everett Scott, sent the Red Sox to the lead, but in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, bushels of runs were pounded out against Dutch Leonard. Dutch was not only hit hard, but found himself in trouble with bad
fielding behind him. Bill James went the entire distance for the Tigers, and was as effective as any pitcher has been all season. |
