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THE SUMMER OF .406 AND "THE STREAK" ...
The Sox beat up the Athletics
August
30, 1941 ... Back in Fenway Park, the Red Sox
loaded up the with an even dozen base hits, to rack up their 13th win
in their last 17 games. This time they beat Connie Mack's Athletics
by a 12 to 3 score, behind the eight hit pitching of Charlie Wagner.
He coasted to his fifth straight victory over Philly, seemingly
easing off a bit in the late innings and permitting three runs after
throwing six scoreless frames. He held the A's hitless through 4 1/3,
when Charley Brancato broke the ice with a single to left field.
The Red Sox, with skipper Joe Cronin making his debut at the hot corner,
lightened Wagner's burden with 12 hits for a total of 23 bases. Ted Williams
rang up his 30th home run, also notching his 118th and 119th base on balls.
While the fans howled as Teddy walked to first base, they also cheered, as his
average held above the 400 mark at .409 Jimmie Foxx chipped in with a sharp 379
foot double off the centerfield wall with the bases loaded in the six run second
inning. And Bobby Doerr slammed a home run and a double.
Lester McCrabb, the rookie right-hander was on the mound for the Athletics
and withstood the bombardment in the second, only to be removed in favor of Bump
Hadley in the fourth inning.
In that second inning, Skeeter Newsome hit one sharply down the first base
line and after making a fine grab, firstbaseman Dick Siebert foolishly tried to
cut Johnny Peacock down at third, only to throw the ball past Dick Suder,
allowing Johnny to score. Wagner sacrificed Skeeter to third and he scored on
Dom DiMaggio's fly ball to center. Then in rapid succession, Pete Fox beat out
an infield grounder and Cronin followed with a lazy pop fly to short left near
the foul line, which fell in and allowed the skipper the leg it into second
base, while Pete pulled up at third. Then Ted received his second intentional
pass and Double-X cleared the bases with a resounding double off the centerfield
wall. Bobby Doerr ended the inning with a fly ball to right, but the Sox were up
6 to 0.
The Sox added another pair of runs in the fourth as Pete Fox singled to right
to open the inning. The Kid belted one high and far to deep center and as Sam
Chapman ran back to the corner near the visitors bullpen, he jumped at the last
minute, only to see the ball pop out of his glove and over the bar giving a two
run homer to Ted.
Then in the sixth inning, Joe Cronin walked to open and hustled to third on
Ted's single to right. After that Jimmie Foxx slammed a ground rule double, with
the ball hopping into the stands in right field, putting Williams on third.
Doerr grounded out to score Ted and both Peacock and Newsome were retired to end
the inning, handing an 8 to 0 lead over to Wagner.
After granting a harmless single to Brancato in the fifth inning for the
first Philly hit of the game, Wagner's hopes of a shutout vanished in the
seventh when Chapman opened with a line drive off the left-field wall for a
single. After two men were put down, Hadley singled to right center, moving
Chapman over to third and McCoy was walked. Chapmann and Hadley scored on a line
drive base hit to left-center by Wally Moses.
The Sox came back with those two runs in the bottom of the eighth when Fox
walked and Doerr slammed one into the screen in left to make the game 12 to 2.
The A's scored one run in the ninth on two hits and a fielder's choice, to end
the scoring. |
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