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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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FENWAY'S FIRST TEAM July 16, 1912 ... The Red Sox made a strong finish, completing the series against the Tigers by beating them 7 to 2 and sending Detroit on to Philadelphia, having won only one of the five games played at Fenway Park against the Speed Boys. The game was an engagement between two tall left-handers, Ray Collins for the Sox and Harry Moran for Detroit. The Red Sox hit Moran hard throughout the game and the Tigers made outs most of the time with long fly balls to the outfield that were not much to talk about. As in the first three games of the series, the Sox outplayed the Tigers in most aspects of the game, forcing the breaks to come their way and did some hitting which was as much clutch as hard. For the time it looked as if Hughie Jennings would have to put in another pitcher, but he made Moran go the entire distance, which was just as well, considering the way some batters were bunching their hits together. Ray Collins won his second straight game against the Tigers and his fifth straight overall, showing his good form as he did against Philadelphia hardly two weeks ago. He kept the ball over the plate, sending no players to first base on free passes, forcing them to hit the ball all the time. He used his overhand delivery almost continually and worked in a change of pace, that kept the Tigers guessing. His fastball bothered the visitors because they kept swinging under it and lifting it high into the air. The Red Sox got ten hits to the Tigers six, but all of Boston's base hits came in the three innings in which the scoring was done. The Tigers half dozen hits were scattered through four innings, a triple and a single producing one run and two singles coming together in the ninth for the other. The game went off like clockwork, both teams being on their toes in the field. In the second inning Larry Gardner started things off with an infield hit on a bunt. A doubleplay seemed inevitable when Jake Stahl hit a ground ball down to Moran whose throw to second beat Gardner by a couple of steps, but Donie Bush let the ball get away from him, allowing Gardner to make it to third and Stahl down to second. Heinie Wagner hit a sacrifice fly to Jim Delehanty scoring Gardner and Stahl made third on Moran's relay back to Oscar Vitt. Bill Carrigan then singled to left to score Stahl and after Ray Collins sacrificed Carrigan to second, Hooper brought him in with a single to left. That gave the Red Sox a 3 to 0 lead. The Tigers had a man on base in the first three innings, but two runners were left at second base and the other at first for no runs. They went out in order in the third while Boston added another run on the combination of a pass to Gardner, Stahl's single, that put Larry on third, who scored when Stahl stole second drawing the throw from Oscar Stanage. In the fourth inning the Tigers scored when Cobb hit a triple over Speaker's head. Sam Crawford followed with a fly ball and Cobb trotted home easily. In the fourth the Red Sox passed up a chance to score again, as Carrigan began with his second hit and Collins was passed. Hooper advanced the runners with a sacrifice but Steve Yerkes hit the ball to Vitt who got Carrigan at the plate and then Yerkes was forced at second on Speaker's grounder to Bush. In the fifth and sixth, a pass to Carrigan was the only excuse that the Red Sox add to get to first, and he was thrown out trying to steal. But in the seventh, a long triple to right by Hooper and singles by Speaker, Carrigan and Stahl, together with a double steal gave the Red Sox three more runs. In the ninth with the score 7 to 1 against them, a hit by Bush, Crawford's out at first and a hit by Delehanty scored the Tigers second run to make the final 7 to 2. Harry Hooper led the Red Sox batters, getting three nice hits one of which was a triple. He also drew a base on balls and laid down a sacrifice. Jake Stahl got a double and a single, while Bill Carrigan produced two base hits. Tris Speaker did not hit the ball safely until his last time at bat. For the Tigers, Ty Cobb hit the ball harder than Speaker and produced a single and a triple, while teammate Jim Delehanty got two singles. |
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