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A YEAR OF REBUILDING
...
Yaz hustles
all the way around
from first base,
to score the walk-off winning run on
Don Demeter's double
June 22,
1966 ... Don Demeter's double in the ninth inning,
that scored Carl Yastrzemski, gave the Red Sox a split in the
doubleheader with the Cleveland Indians, losing 3 to 2 and then
winning 6 to 5 in the second match-up.
Rocky Colavito slugged three homers and Tony Conigliaro knocked out
two. Don Demeter homered also in the first game.
Bob Sadowski started the second game for the Red Sox and wasn't
pitching sharply, but the Sox gave him a run in the second inning.
George Scott tripled to center and scored on a single by Joe Foy.
The Indians came back with two runs in the second inning. Larry Brown
singled and went to third on a single by Vic Davalillo. Chico
Salmon's double scored Brown and Sadowski walked Leon Wagner.
Colavito hit a high foul pop behind first base which Scott caught,
but Davalillo decided to break for home after the catch, when he saw
that Scott wasn't paying any attention to him on third. The throw was
late and the Indians were up 2 to 1.
Conigliaro's homer off Sonny Siebert tied the game back up in the
fourth inning, and Colavito's homer put the Tribe back ahead in the
sixth inning.
In the bottom half of the sixth, Lenny Green doubled. Jose Tartabull
hit a grounder to Brown, the shortstop, and he decided to cut down
Green, who was going to third base. But he threw the ball into the
Indians' dugout and Green walked home, while Tartabull jogged into
second base. Siebert then tried to pick-off Tartabull off second and
threw the ball into centerfield. Tartabull sprinted all the way
around and scored the go-ahead run, 4 to 2.
But the Sox couldn't keep the lead. In the seventh inning, Siebert
reached on a base hit and Salmon blooped a single to right. Tony C.
bobbled the ball and Siebert broke for home. The throw home had
Siebert dead, but he ploughed into Bob Tillman and the ball came
loose. John Wyatt now came in to replace Sadowski and Wagner lined a
single that scored Salmon with the go-ahead run.
So now down 6-5 in the eighth inning, Demeter popped up to Fred
Whitfield, the firstbaseman. But he dropped the ball and Demeter
found himself on second base. Tartabull sacrificed him over and
Conigliaro brought him home with a base hit to tie up the game.
Dick Stigman got the Indians out in the ninth and now the stage was
set in the bottom of the ninth. Tom Kelley had replaced Siebert in
the eighth, and got George Smith on a pop-up, and Mike Ryan on a
ground-out. But he then walked Carl Yastrzemski, who had pinch-hit
for Wyatt in the seventh, and stayed in the game.
Demeter lined a drive toward the wall and Leon Wagner went back
hoping to make the catch. Instead, the ball banged off the scoreboard
and bounced back toward the infield. Yaz in the meantime was
sprinting around the bases and by the time Wagner got the ball, Yaz
was getting to third and didn't stop. Wagner's throw wasn't even
close to getting Yaz at the plate, scoring the winning run. |
