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AL SIMMONS |
THE SOX STARS LEAVE
TO FIGHT IN THE WAR ...
The Red Sox beat the Browns
when Al Simmons
comes through with a game winner
May
31, 1943 ... The Red Sox won both games of a
doubleheader in extra innings. In the first game it took 13 innings
to beat the St. Louis Browns by a 2 to 1 score. The Browns were again
victims of the Red Sox in 10 innings, by a 7 to 6 margin. There were
23 innings of red-hot baseball. Nine runs were scored on 25 hits for
the Red Sox and seven runs with 17 hits for St. Louis. When the Red
Sox came to bat in the 13th inning of the first game the score was tied at 1 to
1. The Sox had scored their only run in the sixth inning and the Browns got
theirs right after that in the seventh inning against Tex Hughson.
With two outs Leon Culberson opened the 13th with a double to left field, his
second one of the game. He advanced to third on Pete Fox's bloop single to
center field. Bobby Doerr was passed to face Al Simmons and he broke things open
with a line drive single to center, that won the game. It was his 2912th career
hit. He had failed to come through with anything valuable and fanned three times
before becoming the day's hero.
Simmons did his bit in the second game also. The Sox went into the
eighth-inning trailing the Browns 5 to 4. With two outs, Browns pitcher Steve
Sundra threw a wild pitch after Joe Cronin's double. Pinch runner Skeeter
Newsome went over to third-base. Simmons hit a ground ball to shortstop Floyd
Baker and sprinted to first base. Baker throw was wild, Simmons was safe, and
Newsome scored the tying run.
Nothing happened until the ninth-inning and the look was bleak for the Sox
when the Browns scored a run in the 10th on a two bagger by Frankie Hayes, a
sacrifice, a pair of free passes, one of which was intentional, and then
Sundra's shot to centerfield. Two runs should have scored, but the runner was
held at third-base.
Now down by a run in the bottom of the 10th, the Red Sox came through. Jim
Tabor opened up the frame with a blast over the left-field wall, that tied the
game. It set the stage for Tony Lupien, who singled to right, his fourth hit of
the game, and fifth of the day. Newsome sacrificed and put Lupien on third.
Johnny Peacock, pinch-hitting, was passed to fill the bases. Then came the
second walkoff. Dee Miles hit an easy grounder to shortstop Baker, who again
pegged the ball far to the right of George McQuinn at first base. Miles was safe
and Lupien sprinted home with the game-winner. |
