BOSTON RED SOX ...
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 3
A SUBWAY SERIES DISAPPEARS ...
Sloppy play by the Yanks
gives one to the Sox

May 1, 1948 ... Just one everybody was wondering when it would happen, as the Red Sox finally won a ballgame here at Fenway Park. The Sox hammered four Yankee pitchers with Jack Kramer and Denny Galehouse pitching for the Sox and giving the them an 8 to 6 victory before 32,720 happy fans. The Sox had gone through four consecutive losses in home before finally finding the win column.

It was Kramer's first victory in a Red Sox uniform. He pitched eight innings and stayed out front in spite of being tagged for a pair of three run homers by Joe DiMaggio and George McQuinn. Ed Lopat, who had defeated the Sox in New York last week, lasted less than one inning in this one.

The wind and some faulty fielding aided the Sox in knocking him out of the game. Joe DiMaggio was charged with an error when a single took a bad hop over his shoulder. By the time Lopat had finally been taken out, the Sox had four runs cross the plate. DiMaggio's error came with three men on base and all scored when Bobby Doerr's single hopped over him and rolled all the way to the wall. In the fifth inning. However, DiMaggio compensated for his miscue by drilling a towering fly into the left field screen on Kramer's first pitch after Tommy Henrich and Charlie Keller both had walked. That made the score 4 to 3 at the time.

Ted Williams, with three vicious hits, got two of the runs back when he doubled home Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky in the last half of the same inning. Yankee rightfielder Tommy Henrich also had trouble on Ted's smash. The ball bounced off him into the air after he was running into the field it. Red Embree, then replaced Lopat, and had done a good job until Ted's double and a streak of wildness in the sixth inning, forcing in a run on three consecutive base on balls. His replacement, Vic Rashi forced Vern Stephens to foul out with the bases loaded, but the Sox came back again in the seventh to score in the lead 8 to 3. Bobby Doerr singled and went to second on a passed ball. After Jake Jones had walked, Raschi tried to force Doerr at third on Sam Mele's bunt, but Bobby was cleaning off his spikes standing on the base, by the time Raschi got the ball over there. Kramer's fly to left eventually scored Doerr from third.

George McQuinn however kept the Yankees' hopes alive in the eighth-inning. Yogi Berra and Bill Johnson singled with one out. Then McQuinn clouted a long drive into the Red Sox bullpen that made it 8 to 6. Rather than take a chance on Kramer in the last inning, manager Joe McCarthy brought in Denny Galehouse. After retiring Bobby Brown on an easy pop fly to Dom DiMaggio, Galehouse promptly set down and Henrich and Keller on called third strikes.

The Yankees play was slipshod the first inning and led to four Boston runs. Johnny Pesky sliced a fly ball behind shortstop Phil Rizzuto, who ran one way and then the other, only to see the ball finally drop his feet. Ted Williams was then hit by a Lopat fastball in the back and Vern Stephens came to bat with the bases full when he walked. Bobby Doerr lined the ball to centerfield and the fabulous Joe DiMaggio knelt waiting for only to have it hop over his shoulder. With any other outfielder making the play probably would've been called the three base error but Joe isn't supposed to do those things. It was called a single and a two base error with Pesky, Williams and Stephens coming home on the miscue. Jake Jones then sent a sinking liner to left that Keller charged in and tried to snatch at his shoe tops, but he was short on his attempt and Doerr skipped home with the fourth Sox run while DiMaggio retrieved the ball.