 |
WALLY MOSES, TED WILLIAMS
& DOM DiMAGGIO |
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 2 ...
A POWERFUL RED SOX TEAM FAILS
IN THE WORLD SERIES ....
The Sox sweep a doubleheader in NY
and just about sew things up
September 2, 1946 ... The Red Sox tossed a fitting farewell party in Yankee Stadium today and wound up there 1946 business here by
writing farewell to the Yankee dreams of overtaking them, when they swept a doubleheader behind the brilliant pitching of Dave Ferriss and Mickey Harris. The scores were 5 to 2 and 3 to 1. Any combination of the seven Red Sox victories and/or Yankee defeats will now give Boston the American League pennant.
In winning his 12th straight game and 24th of the season, Ferriss might easily have had a shutout in the opener. He gave up eight hits, hit one batsman and walked five men. Perfect support would have given him his seventh shutout victory.
Harris was honored by his friends run nearby Queens Village, before he went out to pitch four hit ball in a game which sent the Sox to a new seasonal high with their 15 1/2 game lead. His friends sprung a real surprise by bringing Harris' invalid father to the game in a special ambulance. As
he was mowing down the Yankees, he didn't know that his father was watching him perform for the first time in five years.
Dom DiMaggio shared the opening game spotlight with Ferriss. His two run homer in the fifth inning broke a 2 to 2 deadlock. Dom also drove in a run in the second game, to give Harris a little extra breathing margin, after a balk by Joe Page had brought home the actual winning run, and
Harris' 16th win of the year. Dom threw himself into the American League batting race, out-hitting both Ted Williams and Johnny Pesky.
Ted Williams scored Boston's first run. He walked in the second inning and raced all the way home on Rudy York's two base blast into right center, just beating a relay throw home with a terrific slide. Wally Moses scored the second run of the inning, getting a double on a drive to left by
sheer leg power. He moved to third when Pesky grounded out and scored after Dom's fly to right.
The Yankees tied the game in the fourth but the Red Sox got two more runs in the fifth. Ferriss opened the inning with a single and stayed on first as both Moses and Pesky flied out. Then Dom sliced a drive that sailed into the right field corner of the grandstand for his seventh home run of
the year, making the score 4 to 2. Boston's final run was scored in the seventh on a walk to Moses, a sacrifice by Pesky, and York's single to right-center.
The Red Sox fell one run behind in the second inning of the second game, when Nick Etten poled a home run into the right field stands. It would be the only run they made against Harris.
Roy Partee started the Sox comeback in the third with a triple to right-center. Tom McBride singled him home and Pesky's single sent McBride to second. The sacks were filled when Dom walked. While pitching to Ted Williams, Joe Page made the balk and McBride was sent home.
The Red Sox scored another run in the seventh inning when Mickey Harris lined a single to start things off. He was forced by Moses, who then proceeded to steal second base. Dom singled and Wally scored the Red Sox last run to make the final score 3 to 1. |
