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Owner Bob Quinn lured one time catcher and manager, Bill Carrigan, away from his retirement in Maine. Carrigan was only 46 years old and the Boston press reacted as if the pennant were a do-able target in 1927 with his return. While Carrigan had earned a well-deserved reputation as a good teacher of baseball, even he could do little for the current Red Sox team. At the end of 1926, the Sox traded pitchers Fred Heimach and Paul Zahniser, along with catchers Alex Gaston and Al Stokes, to St. Paul (American Association) for catcher Fred Hofmann and shortstop, Pee-Wee Wanniger. Their best player was centerfielder, Ira Flagstead, a slick fielder and one of the best hitters on the club. He was considered a phenom when he first came up, but had never fulfilled his promise. However, he was the best centerfielder the Red Sox had since Tris Speaker and until the arrival of Dom DiMaggio. Flagstead reached base 37.4 percent of the time in 1927, batting .285. Had it not been for Flagstead, the Red Sox might have disappeared into oblivion altogether. Quinn was near the end and wanted to sell Fenway Park. But in order to do so, he would've had to pay rent to play at Braves Field. But the Braves didn't want to deal, and whether they played at Fenway Park or Braves field, both the Braves and the Red Sox looked dead to the fans in the city of Boston. The two clubs together, were barely drawing half a million fans per season. The fans were interested in the semipro Park League, where big-time games sometimes drew 20,000 fans and the skill level the players was often equal or better than those players of the two Boston major league baseball clubs. The Red Sox started their 1927 season by losing six straight games, three in Washington and three of four in New York. Their first win at Fenway was a 5-4 victory over the Senators on April 23rd. Young Fred Haney led the Sox going 4-for-4 with two doubles. When the Sox finally saw the Yankees at Fenway Park, Babe Ruth hit his 4th homer off Slim Harriss on April 29th, on the Babe's way to his 60 homer year. The next day was saw one of the few Sox highlights of the season. On April 30th, down 2-0 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Sox rallied for three runs and walked it off, beating the Yankees, 3 to 2.
One of the better Red Sox trades was made with Washington on May 2nd. It sent Topper Rigney to the Nats for Buddy Myer, who proved to be a solid shortstop. Ira Flagstead, proved to be the hero in bating the Philadelphia Athletics on May 5th. Trailing 2 to 1, Flaggy was sent up to pinch hit in the eight inning for pitcher, Hal Wiltse. Against Lefty Grove, with Grover Hartley on base, Flagstead whaled a 3 and 2 pitch into the left field bleachers of Shibe Park, giving the Sox a 3 to 2 victory. Then on May 7th, in Detroit, the Sox scored three ninth inning runs to beat the Tigers 5 to 3. Down 2-1, after Buddy Myer singled, Jack Rothrock tripled down the left field line to tie the game. Grover Hartley got an infield single that scored Rothrock. Pitcher Del Lundgren sacrificed Hartley over and he scored on Jack Tobin's single to left. Lundgren let two Tigers score in the bottom of the ninth, before he got Charley Gehringer to ground out and get the win. Then in Cleveland on May 10th, both "Baby Doll" Jacobson and Buddy Myer banged out three hits apiece in leading the Sox to a 6 to 5 win. The Sox beat the Indians again, the next time they played on May 13th. Myer was 4-for-5 and Del Lundgren pitched a three-hit, 7-0 shutout. In Chicago, the Sox took two of the three games they played, giving them six wins in their last nine games. But they then lost four straight in St. Louis before coming home with a 7-10 record on their road trip. They were 12 games behind the Yankees, still in last place. Buddy Myer made his first appearance at Fenway Park a memorable one. In the second game of a doubleheader with the Philadelphia A's on May 26th. In the ninth inning, with two outs, the game tied and runners on second and third, he crashed a single to right field to bring in Fred Haney and a 4 to 3 Red Sox walk-off victory. In the doubleheader, Myer (.306 BA) went 4-for-9 with a double, in his Fenway debut.
May closed with the Sox 15 games out of first place and a win in Washington. June opened with a second win in DC against the Nats, as both Ted Wingfield and Del Lundgren allowed just one run in each game. The Sox were home for pretty much the whole month of June but only managed just three wins, falling to 33 1/2 games out by month's end. On June 12th Bob Quinn sold one of their best players, "Baby Doll" Jacobsen, to the Cleveland Indians, after he was hitting only .245 in 45 games. A game on June 16th was not for the faint of heart. The Sox beat the Indians, 11 to 10 with practically everything that could happen in a baseball game, happening. There were 31 hits, nine for extra bases and six errors. 29 ball players made an appearance, including eight pitchers. A comeback with four runs in the eighth inning, clinched the win for the Sox. Both Ira Flagstead, (.336 BA) and Phil Todt banged out three hits.
The Yankees came to Boston for five games and swept the Sox. Lou Gehrig (.390 BA, 26HR) hit four homers and feasted on Sox pitching when they came to New York at the end of the month. He slugged three homers in their four game home set. Babe Ruth (.357 BA, 25HR) had just two home runs in the home and away meetings. At Fenway Park, on July 5th, the Sox came back from a run down to the Philadelphia Athletics. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Sox scored two runs and walked-off with a 6-5 win. Again it was against Lefty Grove, who with two outs, gave up three consecutive singles to Wally Shaner, Phil Todt and Bill Regan. It took over a month for the Red Sox to win on the road, when they spanked the White Sox in Chicago, 11 to 5 on July 8th. Then the next day, Red Ruffing won his first game of the season, limiting Chicago to four hits, 2 to 1. Their next victories took place in Cleveland on July 16th. They swept a doubleheader for the first time this season. The first game was a 6 to 3 win, with the Red Sox scoring three runs in the 12th inning. With the bases loaded on a single and two passes, Cleo Carlyle doubled off the right field fence to clear the bases. The nitecap was won when the Sox broke a 3-3 tie by scoring two runs in the ninth inning. With runners on second and third, Buddy Myer lined a single to right, scoring both of them. The Indians could only manage to get one run back in their half of the ninth and the Sox completed a very satisfactory day, winning 5 to 4. The Red Sox continued their onslaught by walloping the Indians, 14-5, in the first game of a doubleheader, for their third straight win the next day. Secondbaseman Bill Regan had three hits in six times up, including two doubles. He brought in three of the runs. The Sox and Indians again split another doubleheader on July 19th, to conclude their stay by the lake. It was the first time they had won a season series by winning four of their six tilts. The Sox outplayed the Indians throughout and should have won more than they did. The Sox met with the Indians a week later and took 3-of-4 from them at Fenway. Winning doubleheaders was not the habit of the Red Sox but they took a second one from Cleveland on July 28th. Danny MacFayden pitched a masterful one in the first game, shutting out his opponents, 3-0. They won the second game by a 4-3 score, with Buddy Myer providing a walk-off ninth inning single, scoring Frank Welch, who had doubled. The Red Sox snatched a 5-to-4 victory from the St. Louis Browns in the first game of a doubleheader on July 30th. Until the fifth inning the Sox batters couldn't get a hit off Milt Gaston while the Browns piled up four runs. Then in the sixth, the Sox scored two runs. The Sox next rallied with two more runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to take the game into extras. Wally Shaner tripled off the left field wall with two men on. They finally won the game in spectacular fashion in the bottom of the tenth inning. Fred Hofmann slashed a line drive double to right center to lead off the inning. Billy Rogell came in to run for him and Jack Tobin laid down a perfect bunt down the third base line and beat it out, while Rogell moved over to second. Jack Rothrock slapped a single up the middle and Rogell scored the walk-off winning run.
Hal Wiltse pitched no-hit ball for the Sox until there were two outs in the seventh inning on August 2nd. At that point Hall-of-Famer George Sisler, got the Browns' first hit, a bloop single into left center. Wiltse threw a 3-0 shutout, the first of six straight wins for the last place Red Sox. Red Ruffing got his second win in a row, beating the Chicago White Sox, 2 to-1 on August 3rd. The next day the Red Sox won again by a 2-1 score over Chicago behind Tony Welzer's fine pitching. Down 1-0 in the seventh, having only gotten one hit thus far, they tied the game. Ira Flagstead, singled, was bunted along, and scored on Phil Todt's base hit. In the seventh they pushed the winning run across on Fred Hofmann's base hit and a double off the bat of Buddy Myer. Slim Harriss dominated the mound in the third game, beating the White Sox, 4 to 1. The run charged to him was unearned. Flagstead's triple in the third inning, followed by a double by Bill Regan, and base hits by Cleo Carlyle and Todt, provide the Red Sox, the runs they needed. Having swept Chicago, the Red Sox turned their attention to the visiting Detroit Tigers. The first game was won by Hal Wiltse, 4 to 2. Grover Hartley knocked out three hits, including a pair of doubles. The next game showed a 3 to 2 win registered by the Sox. Red Ruffing won having given up just five runs in his last three starts. The Sox concluded their homestand, having won 11 of the 14 games they played, but only picked up three games in the standings. But the Red Sox had come back to earth, losing 15 of the 19 games played thru the end of August. Timely hitting helped the Sox come from behind and beat the White Sox in Chicago, 6 to 4, on August 25th. After the White Sox tied the score in the bottom of the eighth, the Red Sox won the game, 6-4, by scoring two runs in the ninth. The Sox did take two-of-three from the Indians in Cleveland. On August 28th they won in the 11th inning when Jack Rothrock knocked in the winning run from second with a base hit. The next day, they massacred the Indians 10-2. Bill Regan collected four hits in six trips. Flagstead, scored five times and knocked in three runs. In New York, the Red Sox concluded the month of August, losing to the first-place Yankees, 10 to 2, seeing the "Babe" connect for his 43rd homer of the season.
Phil Todt smacked two home runs to lead the Red Sox past the Nats in Washington on September 4th. His second one came in the 11th inning to give the Sox a 5-to-3 decision. The Yankees came to town for a Labor Day doubleheader on September 5th. The day was a split but the first game went 18 innings and saw the Sox come out on top 12 to 11. Lou Gehrig homered in the game to tie Babe Ruth in their home run derby. In another doubleheader the next day, on September 6th, Gehrig went one ahead of Ruth by walloping his 45th homer into the right field seats before the "Babe" got going. Then came three savage Ruthian blows, the first of which was one his longest blasts. It went out of Fenway Park, to the right of the flagpole in center field and over Lansdowne Street and on to the rooftops, landing some 560 feet away. The second was into the right field bleachers, and the third went into the seats in center field, in the ninth inning of the second game. The Sox split the day, losing the first game but winning the second, 5 to 2, behind a fine outing by Jack Russell. In their final matchup of the season on September 7th, the Sox and Yankees had a slugfest, with the Sox losing 12-10. Flagstead, Regan and Shaner each had three hits, but Babe was again the star of the day. He was four-for-five with a double a two more home runs, giving him 49 for the year, on his way to the record 60 he would belt. The Sox owned the Cleveland Indians all season, taking two of three in their final Fenway series and finishing the season with a 16-6 record against the tribe. Another September highlight happened on Sept. 13th. The Sox, who had won only three games of the 18 played with the St. Louis Browns, swept a doubleheader at Fenway. Bill Regan's home run in the eighth inning of the first game tied up the game, which the Sox won 5 to 4 in 13 innings. Then Jack Tobin's sacrifice squeeze brought home the winning run in the second game for a 3 to 2 victory. Finally, on September 21st, pinch hitter Red Rollings blasted a ninth inning double to drive home Buddy Myer for a 3 to 2, walk-off win over the White Sox. The next it happened again. In the 10th inning, Cleo Carlyle drove home Myer with the winning run for a 2-1 walk-off. While Babe Ruth was hitting 60 for the Yankees, Phil Todt's six homers led the Babe’s former team. The Red Sox, as a team, hit only 28 four-baggers in the season. Slim Harriss was the Sox best pitcher, winning 14 games, but he also lost 21. Under Bill Carrigan, the team finished in last place again, 59 games out of first with a 51-103 record.
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