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TEX HUGHSON |
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 2 ...
A POWERFUL RED SOX TEAM FAILS
IN THE WORLD SERIES ....
Tex Hughson shuts out the Athletics
August 6, 1946 ... Tex Hughson hurled a five hit shutout that bolted him to his 12th victory with a 5 to 0 decision over the last place Philadelphia Athletics. Ted Williams sat this one
out, much to the disappointment of the 21,000 fans who came to the game. But if it was a relief to the Philly boys, it was short-lived because they forgot to keep away from the swinging bat of Bobby Doerr. Ted came to the park intending to play, but manager Joe Cronin kept him on the bench, after seeing that he was woozy after
batting practice.
Bobby quickly won the contest for Tex by piling into one of Dick Fowler's choice pitches in the first inning and driving it into the net above the amplifiers on the left field wall. The were two down and Wally Moses was aboard with a hot ground single from second base. It was his 15th homer
of the season and hoisted his RBI total to 91. Bobby's home run gave the Red Sox a 2-0 margin in the first inning. The way Hughson was pitching, it turned out that that would be enough. However to make sure, the Sox added a third run in the third inning. Pesky scratched a hit and stole
second base, advanced to third on an infield out, and scored on Hank Majeski's error at third base.
Don Gutteridge doubled down the left-field line to lead off the fifth inning and subsequently sprinted home on Wally Moses low liner to right. The fifth Red Sox run was forced in during the eighth inning, when relief pitcher Lee Griffeth plunked Hal Wagner with a pitch ball to fill the
bases. He then passed Hughson on four pitches to force in Rudy York from third base.
Tex was on top of his game. His control was perfect and he didn't pass a batter. The only time he had three balls on a batter, was on Barney McCloskey in the sixth inning and Pete Suder in the ninth inning. He was ahead in the count of the 22 batters he faced, making only102 pitches, only 20
of which were balls.
Johnny Pesky jammed his left ankle going over the bag in a freak but futile bid to beat out an infield ball in the fifth inning and was replaced by Eddie Pellagrini. It allowed Eddie to participate in a game for the first time since June 26th and he responded by ripping a double to
right-center in his one appearance at the plate. Although Dom DiMaggio was wearing a heavy bandage on his left wrist he was the only member of the Red Sox to get two hits. |
