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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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FENWAY'S FIRST TEAM June 26, 1912 ... A wildly excited group of close to 12,000 spectators watched a twin bill encounter here this afternoon between the Boston Speed Boys and the scrappy Washington Nats at National Park. At the close of the warmest day of the year, that the team has experienced this season, each club won a game and the honors were easy to hand out evenly, with the single exception that Joe Wood, bested the Walter Johnson in the second game of the doubleheader. The first game had Buck O'Brien matched against Bob Groom and went ten innings, with the final score being 3 to 2 in favor of the Nationals. The Sox won the second game by a score of 3 to 0, with only one Washington base runner reaching third base and only two finding their way to second. The Red Sox scored their two runs in the first game during the first inning. Steve Yerkes tripled and Tris Speaker drove him in with a double, scoring himself on Larry Gardner's single. The Red Sox were held to three singles scattered through the next nine innings. There were no fewer than seven times when the Red Sox could have scored on a hit, but not a man came across the plate as Groom pitched clutch baseball. The first run for Washington came in the bottom of the first. Down 2 to 0, Danny Moeller opened with a single and went to third when he got a gift from O'Brien, who threw past Hugh Bradley at first, in trying to catch Moeller napping. Kid Foster came up and walked, and Clyde Milan hit one to Wagner for the force out at second, that allowed Moeller to score the first run. Their second run was scored in the sixth inning on successive hits by the head of the batting order, Dixie Walker, Foster and Milan. The winning run came in the tenth when, with Walker at first, Foster singled to left and then saw the ball go through Duffy Lewis' legs allowing the Walker to come jogging in over the plate, winning the game 3 to 2. In the last three innings of the first game, O'Brien passed five men, making it eight during the game in total. Groom passed three men, but no damage was done. In the first game Lewis did some great fielding while Speaker covered an immense amount of ground in the outfield. The Red Sox infield gave Buck grand support, but they failed to connect and went down for the lack of clutch hitting.
As the second game was about to start, Walter Johnson walked across the field and was given a round of cheers. Manager Clarke Griffith had given out a statement in the morning newspapers, to the effect that he did not believe Johnson could lose another game this season. But the Boston players knew that Joe Wood was going as good as ever, and was hungry for a little glory and the scalp of one the biggest names in baseball. Both pitchers were dead on the mark throughout the game with a lot of confidence. The first man to reach first base was Johnson himself in the third inning with two outs. Harry Hooper misjudged his fly ball, but no damage was done however. Thirteen Red Sox batters went down in succession up to one out in the fifth inning, when Larry Gardner spanked a fast single to right field. The ball broke away from Dixie Walker and Larry kept on to third, and then finding the ball being thrown wide to George McBride, he took off for home. Eddie Ainsmith had Larry blocked off at the plate, but he dropped the ball and Gardner scored the first run of the game. The run looked very large indeed. With two down in the fifth inning, McBride got in one of the two singles made off Wood and went to third on a passed ball, but the next man was thrown out at first. Then came the top of the sixth and Johnson's chances of winning the game were killed, as he passed Hick Cady, followed by Harry Hooper shooting one past Foster. Speaker came up next and Johnson tried to shoot a fast one over for a strike, but Speaker met the ball in the center of the bat and it went tearing down the field into left-center, hitting the center bleacher fence on the first bounce and sending two more men over the plate. It was as pretty a triple as ever went off a bat and the shout from the So dugout boys was a signal that they in all probability would win the game. Wood passed one man, was hit safely three times, struck out nine and was never in trouble from start to finish, ending the game as strong as he started it. Johnson passed two men, was hit safely four times and struck out nine men also. It was a great duel between two of the great pitchers of the game and Joe Wood is the proudest man in town tonight. Manager Jake Stahl remained in his room today, suffering from a stomach bug. He felt better this evening but will make no attempt to play tomorrow. Stahl mentioned that some time ago, Cleveland had asked for waivers on newly acquired Neil Ball, and he had told President MacAleer to get the player if possible. Tonight, the Speed Boys have won 17 of the 24 games played on this trip. |
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