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TED WILLIAMS HOMERS |
THE SUMMER OF .406 AND "THE STREAK" ...
Williams and Newsome lead the Sox ...
May
29, 1941 ... With Jimmie Foxx pitching batting
practice and just catching Joe Dobson between innings, Ted Williams
and Skeeter Newsome took care of all the home run hitting needed by
the Red Sox, to turn back the A's by a 6 to 4 score, and thus earn an
even split in the four-game series before a 3200 Ladies Day crowd at
Fenway Park. Ted hit his seventh round tripper, which was a mighty
clout that cleared the Red Sox bullpen and landed in the runway of
the right-field bleachers. It was a game breaker coming as it did,
with the score knotted at three all in the seventh inning. Dobson was
on base and there were two out in the last half of the inning at the
time. It also climaxed another great day for Williams as the Kid had
singled twice off the veteran Jack Knott, to boost his league-leading
batting average to an imposing .421 figure. Little Skeeter Newsome
had a four bagger for the Sox was the third homer of his major league career.
The sensational stand in for Bobby Doerr propelled a Luman Harris fastball, with
nobody aboard in the eighth-inning, into the left-field screen with one out. His
blast propelled the Sox into a 6 to 3 lead and it was just the one that Dobson
needed to register his first win of the year, although he needed help from Mike
Ryba, when Sammy Chapman singled and Frankie Hayes doubled to open up the ninth.
Ryba proceeded to get the A's out with only a single by pinch-hitter Dee Miles,
who knocked in the final Philly run.
After a single by Ted had been wasted in the first inning, the Sox pushed
over a run in the second when Pete Fox, back in right field, led off with a
single, moving around to third on the first of three straight base hits by Jim
Tabor, and scoring while Skeeter was being thrown out on a ground ball, putting
the Sox up 1 to 0.
The Sox added two more runs in the third when after Dom DiMaggio had grounded
out and Lou Finney had walked, racing to third on a Williams single. Joe Cronin
then lined one to Wally Moses in right-center that had enough to score Finney.
Pete Fox kept things going by beating out a hit down to firstbaseman Dick
Siebert, allowing Ted to move over to third-base, and scoring on Tabor's base
hit to right.
With his team up 3 to 0, Dobson was moving right along until the fifth inning
when Frankie Hayes slammed a triple up against the left centerfield wall and
came home after Ted had made a nice grab of a line drive up against the wall,
hit by Pete Suder.
In the sixth the A's tied up the game when Moses slashed a single into right
and took second on a ground ball out. Then Bob Johnson unloaded on the first
pitch he saw for a double against the wall near the flagpole and after Siebert
walked, Sam Chapman slammed another two base hit down the third-base line. An
intentional walk to Frankie Hayes loaded the bases before Suder lined out Fox in
right.
Then in the seventh Dobson started things in his own behalf with a single
before Williams and Ryba took care of the rest of the game. |
