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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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FENWAY'S FIRST TEAM May 14, 1912 ... The Red Sox continued their winning streak today defeating the St. Louis Browns by a “Garrison finish” in the eighth inning, Both pitchers were hit hard when they were hit at all. Up until the eighth-inning today at Fenway Park, St. Louis Browns looked like they were going to be easy winners, by bunching runs off Eddie Cicotte. George Baumgardner was not afraid of the Speed Boys' reputation and pitched a good game until the eighth-inning, where things started to go wrong and completely fell apart for St. Louis. The eighth-inning was one of those instances that the fans will remember for a long time. There was one man out when Tris Speaker lined one against the bank in left center for two bases. Duffy Lewis cracked out a fast grounder that Ed Hallinan gathered in and ran to a third-base trying to get Speaker, but didn't get there fast enough. Larry Gardner followed with a single to center to score Speaker from third and Lewis went to third on the throw, scoring on Hugh Bradley's ground ball that took a funny hop and allowed him to reach first safely. Heinie Wagner came to the plate and found a pitch he liked, and shot it over Bert Shotton's head, scoring Bradley with the tying run and making it to third-base when the ball was returned to the infield. When Pinch Thomas hit a fly ball out to Austin, Wagner scored the fifth run of the inning to put the Red Sox out in front by a score of 6 to 5. Then came the ninth-inning Cicotte passed the first batter, but got Austin on strikes and Shotton out at first. It was all up to Del Pratt, who came up with a runner on second, and the best he could do was lift a fly ball out to Harry Hooper in right, to end the game and give the Red Sox a great come from behind victory. The Browns opened up the game with two singles by Shotton and Austin, a sacrifice by George Stovall, and a run producing grounder down to Larry Gardner by Del Pratt. They then added four runs in the fourth inning, when Pratt opened with a single but was thrown out by Thomas. Cicotte passed Frank Laporte and Hallinan singled, sending Laporte to third. Hallinan then stole second base, but the throw got away and went into centerfield, allowing Laporte to come in with a run. Earl Hamilton smashed out a single that scored Hallinan and Baumgardner followed with another hit to score Hamilton. Austin singled past second and Thomas shot the ball to Clyde Engel to nail Shotton. But the visitors now had a 5 to 0 lead. The Sox came back in their half of the fourth inning with one run on Lewis' double and a base hit by Gardner. Outside of the first and fourth innings, Baumgardner pitched effective baseball, although the scoring was done on line drives that made it to the outfield. The Red Sox could have made the game a lot closer if they were more aggressive on the base paths. It was the first game that Pinch Thomas had caught in the major leagues and he did a great job handling the pitching. |
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