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BOBBY BROWN |
BOSTON RED
SOX ...
THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 3
A
SUBWAY SERIES DISAPPEARS ...
Yankees win for a triple tie at the top
September 24, 1948 ... A
triple tie for first place in the American League became a reality
today, when the Yankees defeated the Red Sox, 9 to 6, in Yankee
Stadium and when the Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4 to
3, in Detroit. The tightest pennant race in history finds all three
teams having won 91 games and lost 56 games. The Yankees received
outstanding assistance from Billy Johnson, who cracked out a three run pinch-hit
homer and Bobby Brown, who had two triples and a double. Relief pitcher Joe
Page, who came in for starter Vic Raschi, picked up his seventh win. After
coming from behind again, the Red Sox pitching again faltered and four pitchers
were finally used, with Earl Johnson getting tagged for the loss.
Brown knocked in two runs and scored three others, before the Red Sox
pitching could get him out. However the biggest single blow was struck by
Johnson in the fifth inning. Manager Bucky Harris sent him in to face Earl
Johnson as a pinch-hitter for Yogi Berra. On base at the time were Brown and Joe
DiMaggio, with the score standing 5 to 3 in favor of the Red Sox. Johnson hit
the first pitch he saw into the lower left field stands to give the Yankees a 7
to 5 lead. Then Page kept the Red Sox to one run over the last five innings. He
was clutch in the pinches and the seven hits the Sox got off him provided only
one run in the ninth.
The top performer for the Red Sox was Ted Williams who was heckled all day,
but today with the bases full, doubled in two runs and walked to force in
another. He accounted for half the Sox run total. Dom DiMaggio, Vern Stephens
and Birdie Tebbetts brought home the other runs. But they couldn't help the Red
Sox cause because starter Ellis Kinder was banged for three runs, Earl Johnson
for four runs and Dave Ferriss for the other two.
The Yankees got two runs in their half of the first on a triple by Brown that
scored Tommy Henrich and a fly ball by Joe DiMaggio that brought in Brown. The
Sox took the lead in the top of the third on a walk to Tebbets, a single to
center by Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Ted doubled to right to score two of them and Pesky scored on a ground ball by
Vern Stephens.
The Yankees came back to tie it in the third when Brown got his second triple
and Joe D. scored him with a blistering single to left. Then the Red Sox took
the lead again. Vic Raschi started by walking both Stan Spence and Billy
Goodman. Dom singled to score Spence and Page came in to relieve Raschi. Pesky
beat out an infield hit to load the bases and Page walked Ted to force in a run,
making it 5 to 3 in favor of the Sox.
But the Sox pitching couldn't hold that lead either. Trailing by two, Tommy
Henrich walked and Brown doubled him home. Manager Joe McCarthy decided to walk
Joe D. intentionally and pitch to Johnson. That strategy backfired when he
unloaded his tremendous home run, putting the Yankees up 7 to 5. Then in the
seventh the Yankees put it away when Joe D. drew a walk, and Hank Bauer tripled
to score him. Johnny Lindell then hit a dribbler down to Pesky that he couldn't
handle, to score the last Yankee run. Tex Hughson finish the game for the Red
Sox and set down the tail end of the Yankee batting order, one-two-three.
Joe DiMaggio probably shouldn't have played except for what was at stake. He
was suffering from a bad leg and could hardly hobble around. It was an effort
for him to get under fly balls that were hit right at him. Pitchers Willard
Nixon and Mauriece McDermott joined the Sox from the Scranton club of the
Eastern league today.
The Detroit Tigers and Freddie Hutchinson beat the Indians to create the
three-way tie. He experienced two rough innings but managed to pull out of each
one unscathed, in winning his third triumph of the year over Cleveland. Vic
Wertz came up with two on and one out in the seventh and cracked a line drive
over third-base, that broke a 2 to 2 deadlock. |
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