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THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 2 ...
A POWERFUL RED SOX TEAM FAILS
IN THE WORLD SERIES ....
The Sox make a nice comeback for
a doubleheader split
August 18, 1946 ... Teetering on the precipice of their first doubleheader loss of the season, the Red Sox rallied for two runs in the eighth inning of the second game for a 4 to 3 victory and
a split with the Yankees today at Fenway Park. The fans were rewarded when Mike Higgins doubled off the left-field wall
to score Bobby Doerr, who came all the way around from first, with the deciding run in the nailbiter second game.
In that second game, down 3 to 2 in the eighth inning, Ted Williams pushed a towering two bagger that dropped inches short of the fence in left, as Joe DiMaggio, who was playing left field for the Yankees, was positioned so far towards center that he couldn't catch up to it. Bobby Doerr
promptly executed a beautiful bunt along the first base line, and pitcher Joe Page fielded the ball so close to line, that he hit Bobby on the shoulder with his throw to first. The ball caromed toward second baseman Joe Gordon, as Williams kept right on going past third base and scored the
tying run standing up.
It looked for a minute as it Doerr would be stranded on first. Rudy York made a gigantic bid for a home run, but the wind pushed it down toward the waiting Joe DiMaggio within the shadow of the left-center wall. Dom DiMaggio then lofted a fly ball deep to Johnny Lindell. Up next came Mike
Higgins, who had already celebrated his return to the lineup, by hitting a double, which scored the Sox second run in the fourth inning. Mike hit a low line drive that smashed up against the scoreboard. Doerr knowing Joe D. was not used to playing the wall, kept running as the ball scooted
by him. Joe recovered in plenty of time but Bobby was faster and slid in with the go ahead run.
Bob Klinger then came in for his 20th relief appearance and got the Yankees out 1-2-3 in the ninth-inning. Earl Johnson, handling his first starting assignment since the end of June, was ripped for two runs in the fourth inning, to give the Yankees a 2 to 1 lead. But the Red Sox tied it up
in the fourth on a walk to Dominic and Higgins double to left-center.
The Yankees grabbed the lead back in the eighth-inning on Henrich's single, DiMaggio's walk, and Lindell's liner to center.
The Yankees took the opener five to nothing, when Floyd Bevens became the first pitcher to shutout the Red Sox for nine innings at Fenway Park this season. Charlie Keller's three-run homer into the Yankee bullpen wrecked Tex Hughson's attempt to match Bevens. |
