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MICKEY VERNON & TED WILLIAMS |
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 2 ...
A POWERFUL RED SOX TEAM FAILS
IN THE WORLD SERIES ...
The Sox rout Washington as Ted Hits #20
June 28, 1946 ... Celebrating a return to Fenway Park, the Red Sox belted three Washington pitchers as Mickey Harris breezed to his 11th
win with a 12 to 1 triumph before 20,000 Ladies Day spectators. There were severable notable achievements during the game. Ted Williams smashed his 20th homer of the year to put him in front in the league home run derby. It was a towering smash that landed half a dozen rows up in the right field bleachers behind the Red Sox
bullpen.
The home run had other significance as it brought the Kid to within one point of Mickey Vernon for the leagues batting leadership, and regained his RBI advantage over teammate Bobby Doerr. Ted retired from the game after depositing a 3-0 fat pitch into the right field bleachers, and his
batting average went up to .356 Harris took care of Vernon holding Mickey hitless in four tries and reducing his batting average down to .357
Williams home run came with Johnny Pesky on second base. Earlier in the game the Kid's RBI lead melted away by the blazing bat of Doerr. Bobby wrapped home two runs to send him one run and had a Williams, 61 to 60. Ted's Homer into the bleachers gave him the lead back with his 61st and 62nd
RBI.
The Williams smash didn't mean much as far as the game goes, as it had long been iced. Rudy York had delivered a couple of deciding hits. The first one came in the third inning after consecutive singles by Leon Culberson, Pesky and Doerr. Rudy lofted one down the right-field line and Mickey
Vernon had the ball bounce out of his glove for a two base error. Since there was two outs at the time, all the base runners were on the move and Doerr scored all the way from first base.
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DOM DIMAGGIO STEALS SECOND |
In the fifth inning, York hit a tremendous drive. He came up with Doerr on second and none out and ripped one of the few fastballs that knuckleballer Roger Wolff served up. The ball cleared the fence in left-center, and had its flight interrupted by the netting, giving Rudy his ninth home
run of the year. Another good hit came off the bat of Dom DiMaggio. The bases were loaded with two out in the sixth and Dom wasted one deep into the right-field corner for a base clearing triple. So while the Sox only outhit the Senators 12-11, the Sox hits carried much more authority. Five
were for extra bases. The only big hit off Mickey Harris was Stan Spence's home run into the right field grandstand during the eighth inning, robbing Mickey of a shutout.
In Mickey Harris' 11 wins this year, the Sox have scored 88 runs for an average of eight runs per game. Tex Hughson's seven wins have been accompanied by only 19 runs. |
