FRED THOMAS

THE LAST ONE FOR 86 YEARS
The Sox sweep the Tigers series

May 18, 1918 ... Babe Ruth, Amos Strunk, and  several others of manager Ed Barrow's Red Sox prevented Erick Erickson for winning at Fenway Park, with the Sox winning their fourth consecutive game from the Tigers.  The score was 3 to 1. They have now won five games in a row and close the week with a clean slate. Yesterday, 10,230 fans saw them twist the Tigers tail.

The Sox landed on the tall Swede from the West Coast for 10 fine hits, banging him safely in every inning except the eighth. Erickson was unable to extricate himself from the jam into which he projected himself in the seventh inning yesterday.

Joe Bush pitched for Sox and had a good day, except for the third inning when one Tiger tallied on a wild pitch. Bush improved as he went along, just blazing the ball over in the ninth inning after Harry Heilmann opened with a double.

The Sox smashed Erickson safely, but could not get the men around until the sixth inning when Babe Ruth started the inning with a double. It struck the advertising sign in extreme left-field and ordinarily would've been a home run. Ty Cobb was playing very deep for Ruth and made a futile stab for the ball.

That was Babes only hit but the other times he stung the ball hard, giving Bobby Veach, a couple of long runs and hitting a wicked one back at the pitcher Erickson, who turned it into a force play. In left field Ruth looked like a ready money.

Cobb did not hit safely. Once he hit into a force out, and another time he was passed, but fell down in the fifth inning with two out and men on third and second, when he whacked one to Fred Thomas.

The other Tigers had an uncomfortable afternoon. When they were not riding the Sox they were being ridden. They were snarling all the time, protesting the delivery of Joe Bush and calling for an examination of the ball.

Besides handling himself superbly at the hot corner, young Fred Thomas laced out two fine hits and drove in a run. Otis Strunk's fine wallop produced the runs that gave the Sox the game, and Harry Hooper and Joe Bush also had a good eye on the ball. Donie Bush and Ossie Vitt made some nice plays and Lee Dressen went over to the Sox dugout for a high fall.

Aided and abetted by Sam Agnew, Joe Bush presented the Tigers with a run in the third inning.  With one gone, Erickson shot a single to right, taking second when Donie Bush lined a single to left.  Trying to catch Donie off first, Sam Agnew threw the ball into right allowing Erickson and Donie to take an extra base.  The pitcher scored when Joe Bush turned in a wild pitch giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

Babe Ruth's double, Stuffy McInnis' sacrifice, and a sharp smash by Fred Thomas to Ralph Young knotted the count in the sixth inning.  In the seventh, after Sam Agnew walked and Joe Bush singled through the box the center, Harry Hooper forced Sam Agnew at third. Dave Shean was then passed, loading the bases. Joe Bush and Harry Hooper both scored when Otis Strunk walloped one to center field for a hit, making the game 3 to 1 in favor of the Red Sox.