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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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FENWAY'S FIRST TEAM August 16, 1912 ... The St. Louis Browns left town a happy looking lot of ballplayers after they had beaten the Red Sox in the final game of their series at Fenway Park by a 3 to 2 score. They put up a very good ballgame in the final of the series, although they were not very strong with their bats. The left-hander Earl Hamilton pitched a superb game and got good support from his fielders, as the Sox players hit the ball hard at times. Hamilton was clutch and kept the ball over the plate for St. Louis while Buck O'Brien worked the first seven innings for the Sox but was taken out for a pinch-hitter in the person of Jake Stahl. In the opening inning, Shotton sent a fly ball to right-field that went for three bases, as Hooper lost the ball in the sun. Hooper return the ball to third base and threw it by Gardner, but O'Brien was backing up and threw Shotton out at the plate. In the third inning with one out, Bill Carrigan singled and stole second. He scored on Harry Hooper's double that hit the left-field foul line. That gave Boston a 1 to 0 lead. St. Louis scored two runs in the fifth inning. With one out and men on third and first, Paul Krichell set up a pop up for Clyde Engle. Engle took the ball and threw it to the plate, where Carrigan had to reach over his head and turned the wrong way to get the man taking a long chance on trying to score from third. In the mix up, the player was called safe. Two singles followed and St. Louis had the lead, 2 to 1. In the sixth inning they scored another when Jimmy Austin walked and Del Pratt singled. They were both moved along with a sacrifice and Austin scored on Gus Williams' sacrifice fly to Duffy Lewis. In the seventh inning down 3 to 1, Heinie Wagner led off with a single, and after Carrigan was thrown out, Jake Stahl came up to pinch-hit for O'Brien and singled himself, scoring Wagner. Marty Krug came in to run for Stahl and Harry Hooper was then hit by a pitch ball. A pop fly to first was the best that Neil Ball could do and then with two on base and two out, Tris Speaker made a fine bid, but Shotton, playing deep in center field, pulled down the ball against the bleacher fence. Joe Wood came in to pitch in the eighth-inning and with two outs, passed Williams, who then stole second. Heinie Wagner made a great one-handed running catch on Compton's drive to save another run. In the ninth-inning Wood struck out the side. In the bottom of the ninth, with two outs, Wood lined a double to right-field. It was now up to Harry Hooper to bring him home with a single, but Harry walked, leaving it up to Neil Ball. With two outs and two on base, he hit the ball on a dead line to right-center. It looked good for the money but a clever running catch by centerfielder Bert Shotton robbed him of a hit, to end the game and give St. Louis a 3 to 2 win. It was one of those games where the home team had a dozen chances to win with a base hit. Two doubleplays by St. Louis proved to be quite a blow to the Red Sox opportunities for scoring. The usual pepper displayed by the Sox seem to be lacking until after St. Louis had taken a 3 to 2 lead, and then they put on their steam and hustled to pull it out. |
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