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THE SOX CAN'T STAY
HEALTHY NOR HAPPY ...
Duffy Lewis sends the Sox fans home happy with
a 13th inning come from behind walk-off win
June 13, 1913 ... The Speed Boys behind Duffy Lewis, who singled home Steve Yerkes with the winning run,
beat the St. Louis Browns by a score of 7 to 6 with a walkoff win in the 13th inning at Fenway Park. The Red Sox showed some of their old form by winning out in a last-ditch effort, when it looked like they were done for.
The Red Sox held the lead by a score of 2-1 until the eighth inning, when Buck O'Brien, passed three men and allowed three sharp singles and a double, good for five runs, to put the Red Sox in a 6 to 2 hole. It was all due to him, as the Red Sox were playing a perfect game in the field. In
fact, Harry Hooper's muff of a sharp low line drive was the only error that Boston made. O'Brien tried to work his men and thus got into too many hole in the counts. This happened no fewer than seven times in the eight innings he pitched, but he was lucky enough to hold up his end up until
St. Louis broke it open in the eighth inning.
The Browns comeback also had the effect of stirring up the Speed Boys, who had been rather lackadaisical at the plate while facing the clever left-hander, Earl Hamilton. The Sox then got down to business and scored two runs on hits by Yerkes, Gardner and a double by Engle in the bottom of
the inning, cutting the deficit down to 6 to 4. Thus the Red Sox went into the last of the ninth now only two runs behind. With one down, Steve Yerkes drove the ball against the left-field banking for a double and scored on Tris Speaker's triple to the fence in right-center. Duffy Lewis came
up next and tied the score on a double to the left bank, scoring Speaker.
Charley Hall had come into pitch for the Red Sox in the eighth inning and turned in a great performance for the next five innings, being backed up by some sharp infielding. The Sox got in two doubleplays. Clyde Engle accomplishing one alone and Larry Gardner starting a second one in the 12th
inning, by making a remarkable one-handed stop on the run, reaching full length, and cutting the ball over to Steve Yerkes for a doubleplay.
As the Red Sox caught up to the visitors, the crowd got more interested, and the boos that the Sox players heard when they lost the lead, started turning into cheers. The volume grew louder and louder as each inning passed. Then came the 13th inning. Harry Hooper led off and was thrown out
at first. Yerkes and Speaker worked Hamilton for free passes, before Duffy Lewis sent in the winning run with his walkoff smash.
The veteran Bobby Wallace was the big noise for the Browns, making some great plays in the field, knocking in three runs, scoring one himself, and smashing out two doubles. One can appreciate what the Red Sox did in the fact that eight of their hits were for extra bases, while St. Louis got
only two extra base hits, both on the doubles by Wallace. |
