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BOSTON RED SOX
...
THE
CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 3
A
SUBWAY SERIES DISAPPEARS ...
Ted
Williams homers in each game,
but the Sox lose two to the Indians
May 9, 1948 ... Lou
Boudreau's Cleveland Indians dished out a double defeat on the
floundering Red Sox at Fenway Park, by scores of 4 to 1, in 10
innings, and the second game by a score of 9 to 5. The Indians had
beat the Sox seven out of 11 games at Fenway Park last year.
Averting some complete humiliation was Ted Williams, who belted his sixth and
seventh home runs, driving in four of the Sox six runs for the day, and Joe
Dobson, whose fine first game performance fell short of the combined talents of
Bob Feller and Russ Christopher of the Indians.
Standouts for the Indians were Ken Keltner, with three home runs to lead the
league with nine, Larry Doby, Feller, Christopher and rookie catcher Joe Tipton.
Thurman Tucker was ball hawking all over the park and Lou Boudreau was a maestro
at short.
Keltner had two home runs in the first game that sewed up the contest. The
first one tied the Sox at 1 to 1 and the second one sparking a three-run rally
in the 10th inning.
Down 5 to 2 at the end of six innings in the second game, Sox hurler Ellis
Kinder giving evidence of staying the distance, but the Indians broke loose in
the seventh inning. They clubbed Kinder and Fritz Dorish, who relieved him, and
knocked across seven runs in two innings. Larry Doby hit a two run homer into
the centerfield bleachers at the 420 foot marker and rookie catcher Joe Tipton
had a three-run blast tie into the left centerfield net.
Meanwhile, Specs Tucker was running all around centerfield, dragging down
flyballs, including a pair of drives hit by Bobby Doerr that were headed for
extra bases. Russ Christopher was summoned in each game to protect the leads for
Feller in the first game and Roy Kleiman in the second game. He beat the Red Sox
four times last year as a member of the Athletics and held them down again
today. Boudreau, in addition to managing his team smartly, played a superb game
at shortstop and smacked out four hits in nine at-bats.
Ted Williams set the Sox off to a 1 to 0 lead in the first game as he slapped
a Feller one-one serve into the Red Sox bullpen in the fourth inning. The homer
briefly tied Williams with Keltner for the league lead. But in the next round
Keltner excepted the challenge and hit one over the left-field wall. Keltner was
down two strikes and one ball, when he belted Dobson's offering into left field
screen.
The two teams were tied at the end of the game and went into the 10th at 1 to
1. Then Keltner went to work again. After being jeered and hooted at by a noisy
spectator, he looked in his direction and then slapped the two-two pitch into
left field screen to quiet the noisy Red Sox fan. The blast quieted not only his
tormentor, but the whole ballpark (except for the Indians bench).
Although the blast was all that needed to win the game, Dobson gave up two
more runs on Dale Mitchell's single, Feller's sacrifice, a walk to Tucker and
Doby's base hit. With one out in their half of the last of the 10th, the Sox
started a rally which was quickly snuffed out by Christopher. Dom DiMaggio
doubled to deep center and Feller was removed from the game to make room for
Christopher. He came in and side-armed left-handed hitters Johnny Pesky and
Williams, snuffing them out to end the game.
In the nightcap, the fans had visions of no worse than an even split as the
Sox came up with three runs off starter Don Black in the first inning. Dom
DiMaggio walked and Pesky slammed a double, followed by hard singles off the
bats of Williams and Stan Spence. Vern Stephens then hit into a doubleplay, as
three runs came across the plate, making it 3-0 at the end of the inning.
But Cleveland hopped back into the ballgame against Kinder in the fourth
inning. Ed Robinson scored ahead of Keltner, who unleashed a terrific drive into
the centerfield seats.
The Sox got one back in their half when Sam Mele doubled with two outs and
Matt Batts singled. The Sox picked up their fifth and final score in the fifth
inning when Williams clipped a high fastball directly on a line off the back of
the visitors bullpen. That made the score 5 to 2 in favor of the Red Sox.
The Indians tied up the game in the seventh, when Kinder started his own
downfall by walking the leadoff man Dale Mitchell. He then got Tipton and
pinch-hitter Allie Clarke, but Tucker kept the rally alive with a ground single
to left. Larry Doby showed his prodigious ability to clout a baseball by
homering into the centerfield seats. Dorish came on to eliminate Boudreau but
the game had been tied at 5 to 5.
The Indians won the game in the eighth-inning. Robinson opened with a base
hit but was forced at second by Joe Gordon. Keltner was not given anything good
to pitch and drew a base on balls. Mitchell next singled to score Gordon and
Tipton homered to make it 9 to 4.
In the ninth-inning successive passes were given to Red Sox pinch hitters
Billy Goodman and Wally Moses. Christopher came in the game again and struck out
DiMaggio and got Pesky to force out Moses at second, completing the sweep. |
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