|
 |
|
GEORGE METKOVICH |
THE SOX STARS LEAVE
TO FIGHT IN THE WAR ...
The Sox score six runs in the last three innings
and split a doubleheader with the White Sox
July
23, 1943 ... The thrills came quickly as the
Red Sox rallied and beat the Chicago White Sox, 8 to 7, in 10 innings
during the first game of a doubleheader at Fenway Park. But then the
pulses slowed down to normal speed as the White Sox took the second
game by a score 5 to 1. The Red Sox scored six runs in the last
three innings of the opener, in which they once trailed 7 to 1. Pete Fox hit a
three run homer with two outs in the ninth-inning to tie the game at 7 to 7. In
the 10th inning, George Metkovich laced a double to right to bring home Bill
Conroy with the winning run.
The game saw Bobby Doerr's consecutive record for errorless chances ended at
342 and 59 straight games played without an error. He camped under Luke
Appling's fly ball behind second base in the eighth-inning, but lost it in the
sun and the ball fell out of his glove. He came back however, to hit his eighth
home run of the season later in the inning and in the ninth, hit a double off
the wall just ahead of Fox's game-tying home run.
The Red Sox come-back in the first game was very exciting. They scored in the
first inning on Metkovich's double, followed by Jim Tabor's single. But then the
White Sox knocked Yank Terry out with a four-run second inning and added three
more runs off Lou Lucier in the fifth.
The Red Sox scored an unearned run on an error by Don Callaway in the fifth
inning, but going into the eighth-inning, White Sox pitcher Johnny Humphries was
coasting with a 7 to 2 lead.
With two outs in the eight, Doerr homered into the screen. The Sox filled the
bases on two singles and a walk, and Joe Cronin, pinch-hitting again, walked to
force in a run. Joe Haynes came into pitch and stopped the Red Sox threat,
leaving the score 7 to 4.
Then in the ninth-inning, Leon Culberson singled and Doerr doubled off the
wall. There were two outs when Fox lined a one and one pitch into the screen for
his second home run of the season to tie the game.
George Woods, the former pitcher from Holy Cross, got credit for his first
big-league victory, when the Red Sox scored a walkoff in the 10th inning. Haynes
passed Conroy for a start and then threw low to second, with Appling getting the
error on Woods' intended sacrifice. Skeeter Newsome popped to Haynes while
trying to bunt, but then Metkovich lined the ball sharply over Joe Kuhel's head
at first base. Conroy scored standing up from second base to end the game. |
