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BOBBY DOERR |
Bobby Doerr's two home runs
first tie the game
and then win it in the overtime
May
6, 1942 ... Bobby Doerr belted two home runs
over the left-field fence at Fenway Park, explaining how the Red Sox
pinned a 3 to 1 defeat in 10 innings, over the Chicago White Sox and
Ted Lyons. The game was a two-man show with Doerr hitting the jackpot
with his fourth and fifth home runs of the year accounting for all
the runs. He powered a three and two fastball high up into the
screen to tie the game at one all in the eighth-inning. He then got the barrel
of his bat on a curveball and skied it into the left-field net down the
third-base line in the 10th inning.
Lou Finney, who pinch-hit for Pete Fox and forced pinch runner Paul Campbell
at third for the second out, was aboard when Doerr closed in on the final pitch.
His poke was so well labeled that the White Sox pitcher was heading for the
locker room before the ball even landed.
Joe Dobson pitched the distance for the Red Sox. He matched the veteran Ted
Lyons six hit pitching and passed nobody. The one run he gave up was a home run
by shortstop Leon Wells in the sixth inning. The ball hit one of the uprights
supporting the nets in left field and bounced back into the outfield.
It was the sixth consecutive defeat the White Sox and the 13th in their last
14 games Ted Lyons had been given just two runs in his last four starts. He
pitched a superb game and with any kind of offense behind him, probably would
never have been pitching against Doerr in the 10th inning.
Until the eighth-inning he only faced 22 batters and the Red Sox were looking
very weak against him. Dom DiMaggio tagged him for a double in the fourth inning
and the first hit of the game, and next bounced a double off the ribs of the
thirdbaseman in the seventh inning. After he doubled in the fourth, he attempted
to score from third base on a fly ball that Ted Williams had popped up to short
left field and was thrown out.
After his seventh-inning single and a wild pitch, DiMaggio was left stranded
at third when Lyons forced Johnny Pesky to fly out and then struck out both Ted
Williams in Jimmie Foxx. This is how matters looked until with two outs, Doerr
took hold of the fat one in the eighth-inning to tie up the game.
In the 10th inning for a minute, it looked like the game might be rescued
before Doerr even came up. Jimmie Foxx led off with a single to right and Joe
Cronin inserted Paul Campbell to run for him at first. Jim Tabor bunted him over
to second and then Lou Finney pinch-hit for Pete Fox. Unfortunately Lou rolled a
ground ball that forced Campbell third. Then Doerr came up with his game-winning
home run. |
