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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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FENWAY'S FIRST TEAM May 23, 1912 ... The Red Sox made it three straight from Cleveland by taking the final game of the series 6 to 5, but having to go to the 10th inning before becoming the winner. It looked like a sure thing for the Speed Boys when Cleveland went to bat in the ninth-inning, with the score 5 to 2 against them. The game started with the first four innings showing the starters both pitching very strong. A fast doubleplay by Cicotte, Wagner and Bradley in the fourth inning killed off to base hits made by the boys from Cleveland. Heinie Wagner opened the fifth with a single and after Les Nunamaker fouled out, Eddie Cicotte drew a pass. Harry Hooper knocked out a base hit to score Wagner, and Speaker cleared the bases with a home run past Buddy Ryan in right field to give the Red Sox a 4 to 0 lead. Cleveland got one run back in the sixth on a double by Joe Jackson against the bank and a single by Art Griggs. One more was added in the eighth when Jack Graney reached first with a base hit. Ivy Olson followed with another one but Jackson smashed a ground ball down to Steve Yerkes at second base who ran over to second for the force. Jackson was forced at second on a duplicate ground ball to Yerkes, but on the play another run scored to make it 4 to 2. The Red Sox added a fifth run in their half of the eighth when Graney dropped a short fly to left field by Duffy Lewis. Larry Gardner sacrificed them over and Hugh Bradley was thrown out at first. Wagner came along and got his third hit of the afternoon to score Lewis with the fifth Boston run. After the fifth inning Cicotte had been hit easily and was evidently losing his effectiveness, with a lead of three runs to fall back on his apprehension was eased because he was facing the end of the Cleveland batting order. Up 5 to 2 in the ninth-inning, Ryan started off with a single and Neil Ball smashed a double to center putting runners on second and third. Roger Peckinpaugh came up and knocked out a single to left that Lewis gathered up and threw it like a shot to the plate, but it hit a yard in front of Nunamaker and bounced all the way to the grandstand, allowing two runs to score and Peck making it to third with only one out. Joe Wood had been warming up in the bullpen and he was called into pitch. He first got Lefty George, while holding a man at third. Graney went down to strikes, but then he rapped a single to center to tie the score at 5 to 5. Ivy Olson slapped a fast ground ball down to Wagner that he made a great stop of and threw the ball to second for the force. Jackson sent a long fly out to Lewis that easily got the final out. The Red Sox went out in order and the game went into extra innings. Art Griggs started things off for the Naps with a Savage drive to the bank good for two bases. Bert Adams hit one back to wood who played the ball over to Gardner and Griggs was caught in a rundown. On the play Adams took second, but Wood turned it up a notch and fanned Ryan. Deal ball hit a fast grounder that Wagner made another clever stop of and threw to Bradley for the third out to end the threat. The bottom of the tenth Tris Speaker was the first man up. He led off with a single and Duffy Lewis bunted him along with a sacrifice. Speaker noticed that thirdbaseman Ivy Olson was not on the bag so he took off for third as Olson and Peckinpaugh both made their way over to head him off. Eddie Hohnhort, who went the first as a defensive replacement in the 10th inning, relayed the ball back over to third they tried to head off Speaker, but the throw went high, and Speaker never stopped running, heading for home with the winning run. The Red Sox gave Cicotte remarkable support in the field especially by Wagner and Yerkes. In the three games the Red Sox clearly played better than Cleveland, with Tris Speaker coming to the front in every game. His home run today and scoring the winning run in the tenth inning were the ingredients that the Red Sox needed to sweep the series. |
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