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Joe Cronin and Dom DiMaggio lead the
Sox in
a walk-off win against the Yankees
August 8, 1940
... The Red Sox made a great come back to the
delight of 15,000 Ladies Day fans assembled at Fenway Park, beating
the New York Yankees by a score of 6 to 5. Although the climactic
clout came off the bat of Joe Cronin with two outs in the
ninth-inning, Dominic DiMaggio was very much in there as the darling
of the fans. It was he who started the Sox come-back in the
eighth-inning with his third hit of the day. He then drove in the
tying run in the ninth and set the stage for Cronin to drive home the
winning run. DiMaggio belted out four hits to lead the Red Sox
bombardment of three Yankee pitchers, but he also made an amazing catch of a
long drive near the Yankees bullpen in the eighth-inning, to rob Tommy Henrich
of what looked like a sure triple. He caught the ball over his shoulder while on
the dead run and did it with such ease that making the catch was not a surprise
to him.
Johnny Murphy was a surprise starter for the Yankees and he handcuffed the
Red Sox for seven innings, that is all except DiMaggio who was on first base in
the fifth inning, when Jimmie Foxx belted his 26th home run into the centerfield
bleachers. Those were the only two Red Sox runs until the eighth-inning. In the
meantime the Yankees pecked away at Emerson Dickman to compile a 5 to 2 lead.
The Red Sox chances of winning the game seemed remote when they came to bat
in the eighth. DiMaggio was up first and lined a single. Doc Cramer duplicated
that and put Dominic on second. Murphy was yanked and Bump Hadley came in to put
out the fire. It looked like he was going to do just that when he struck out
Cronin and retired Foxx on a fly ball to Joe DiMaggio. But then Lou Finney
slammed a double to center that scored Dominic and sent Cramer over to third.
Stan Spence came up next and singled to left to score Cramer, but Finney was
erased at the plate attempting to score. However the Sox and cut the Yankees
lead down to one run at 5 to 4.
In the ninth-inning, Dickman retired the Yankees in order, aided by Dominic's
great catch of Henrich's line drive. Jim Tabor was the Red Sox leadoff hitter in
the ninth and he popped out. Bobby Doerr looked over four pitches and took a
walk. Johnny Peacock came in to bat for Dickman and rapped a line drive to right
for single, as Doerr scampered over to third-base.
Dominic came up next and blistered a line drive over second base that enabled
Doerr to come home with the tying run. Tommy Carey, who had come in to run for
Peacock, made it over to third-base on the play. Held hitless in the last four
at-bats, Joe Cronin slapped the first serve off Lefty Gomez past Red Rolfe
sending Carey over with the winning run, 6 to 5. |
