|
THE SOX CAN'T STAY
HEALTHY NOR HAPPY ...
Ray Collins' bat and arm give the Red Sox a win
July 26, 1913 ... The champion Red Sox gave one of their great performances today before 12,000 enthusiastic
fans at Fenway Park and forced the Chicago White Sox to surrender to the tune of 4 to 1. The game was a thriller. Brilliant plays marked every inning of the game. Ray Collins, Harry Hooper, Duffy Lewis and Clyde Engel were cheered several times, but perhaps the loudest was for Collins, the farmer from Vermont.
Collins pitched a remarkable game, and but for a careless throw to third in the ninth by Tris Speaker, when he had no chance to get the runner, Collins would have had a clean shutout. The Sox hitters helped him immensely with timely hitting throughout the game. Five hits were made off
Collins, which is good pitching for Ray, as he forces all the hitters to swing at the ball. No member of the Red Sox team has pitched better ball this season.
With one down, Larry Gardner and Engel both singled in the second inning. After Heinie Wagner flew out to right, Bill Carrigan was passed intentionally to bring Collins up with the bases full. With the count 3 and 2, Collins took a swing at a fastball that went tearing down the right-field
foul line, as three men crossed over the plate. Collins came in himself when the ball got away from Hal Chase on the return throw, to make it 4 to 0.
It was a winning hit, for the home team was unable to score after that and Collins returned to the box and worked as hard as he ever had to win the game. Harry Hooper helped him with a remarkable catching the second inning. Jack Fournier hit one well inside the right-field line heading for
the extreme corner and Harry streaked across the field under a full head of steam and caught the ball as he was leaping through the air. Duffy Lewis pulled down a long drive running up the bank in left field, while Engel made a great one-handed stop of Harry Lord's smash and tossed it to
Collins covering the bag from the ground.
In the third inning, Gardner walked and Engel lined a ball to right-center that dropped in front of Shano Collins and bounced over his shoulder. Gardner, thinking the ball had been caught ran back to first and was doubled up when the throw came into second base.
Reb Russell was sent to the mound by the White Sox and he also pitched a great game. He was taken out for a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning and old friend Buck O'Brien came in to face his friends for the first time. He got the Sox out 1-2-3 by striking out Hooper and Speaker, and then got
Lewis out on a ground ball. The fans in the stands gave him a standing ovation. |
