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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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FENWAY'S FIRST TEAM August 2, 1912 ... Boston's Speed Boys were on their game today and had no trouble in attacking the Browns in a 9 to 0 route. The Kansas Cyclone, Joe Wood was in perfect form, having pitched only a little more than four innings on this trip. He never gave a better performance, holding the Browns batters to just three hits. He had remarkable speed, perfect control of his curve and breaking balls, and was handled nicely by Hick Cady. It was Jake Stahl who had the honor of putting the game away for the team today. It was in the fourth inning and neither team had found their way around the bases. But now the bases were loaded for Stahl when he came to the plate. Earl Hamilton, a young left-hander, started to feed the Boston manager with a fast one on the outside corner of the plate. Jake smashed away at the first ball that he sent and nailed it in the center of his bat and you could hear the retort all over the park. When last seen, the ball was flying over the left-field bleachers, clearing the wire screening and sailing over the seats, while four Red Sox players jogged around the base paths for the grand slam. Cady and Wood followed with doubles and Hooper finally contributed a single, all being good for six runs and Boston, for the first time in many days, had the prospect of a very easy afternoon, with very little to worry about. Speaker scored the seventh run in the fifth inning, being passed, stealing second and third, and then trotting home when the catcher tried to nail him at third and threw the ball into left-field. Hooper found relief pitcher Jack Powell to his liking in the seventh and cracked the ball into the right-field bleachers for another home run. The last run of the game was produced by Stahl's double and Wood's single in the eighth inning, giving the Red Sox their nine runs.
The Browns came very close to scoring a run in the second inning. Joe Kutina led off with a pass and was at second with two outs when Pete Compton singled to left. Duffy Lewis was playing in close and held the man at third. Compton started for second to work a double steal, and Cady threw a perfect strike down to Heinie Wagner, who shot it back to the plate in time to get Kutina. Wagner and Stahl got in a fast doubleplay in the seventh inning, and again with Pratt at third and two down in the ninth, when Frank Laporte hit a grounder down to Jake. Only two of the St. Louis players ever reached third base, and only four found their way to second. In the fourth inning, though Pratt drove a fierce liner that Joe Wood just managed to see in time, getting his hand in front of his face The ball hit him on the wrist and rolled out to Larry Gardner at third, who threw out the runner at first. At the time it was thought that Joe was badly injured and the players gathered around their pitcher with anxious faces. Although his wrist had a big bruise, he decided to finish the game, but Stahl had Charley Hall warming up, just in case. Steve Yerkes made way for Neil Ball in the ninth-inning to give the utility infielder a little work, and on his only chance he made an error. The weather was delightful and the Red Sox players were at the ballpark early taking some good batting practice, including working on their bunting. Harry Hooper was very pleased to find out there were still some base hits left in his bat. |
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