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ELLIS KINDER |
THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 4
FALLING SHORT AT THE END AGAIN
...
Ellis Kinder beats the Yanks as Dom DiMaggio's
hitting streak ends at 34 straight games
August 9, 1949 ... The
Red Sox outscored the Yankees, 6 to 3 before a capacity crowd of
35,691. Each club hit a pair of home runs but the Sox won the game
because their home runs came with men on board. Ellis Kinder
chalked up his 13th win and Ted Williams slammed his 28th homer with one man on.
Birdie Tebbetts hit his fourth home run of the year, also with a man on base.
Hank Bauer of the Yankees hit two home runs, his sixth and seventh. The home
runs that Williams and Tebbetts hit won the game for the Sox before it was four
innings old. Al Zarilla came through going three for four, including two doubles
and the first RBI the ballgame.
Vic Raschi, the leading Yankee right-hander, lost his fourth straight game,
but was there at the end and had enough to stop Dom DiMaggio's run of hits in
consecutive games at 34. Dom came up to the plate five times. Having gone down
four times it appeared that Dom might have a chance on his final attempt. But
his fairly hard-hit line drive was right at his brother Joe for the last out of
the eighth inning. And so his streak ended at 34 games, just three short of the
National League mark set by Tommy Holmes.
The win was Kinder's second consecutive one over the Yankees this year
without a loss, while it was the first defeat inflicted to Raschi this season by
the Red Sox, as he had won all three of his previous starts against them.
The scoring started in the second inning when Vern Stephens worked Raschi for
a walk on four pitches. He was forced at second by Billy Goodman, who scored on
Zarilla's double off the left centerfield wall. Zarilla scored ahead of
Tebbetts' rising line drive into the left-field screen, putting the Sox up 2 to
0.
In the third inning after Dom flew out to Joe, Johnny Pesky dropped a Texas
Leaguer at Johnny Lindell's feet. Then Ted Williams drove his 28th home run on a
direct line into the Red Sox bullpen, scoring Pesky ahead of him and the Sox
were up 5 to 0.
The Yankees came back in the fifth and scored their first run on Lindell's
single and Raschi's double. Bauer homered to start off the sixth inning and then
launched another one to start off the eighth-inning, cutting the Red Sox lead to
5 to 3.
The Red Sox final run in the eighth-inning was comical. With two outs and
Raschi rolling along after his rocky start, Goodman walked on four straight
pitches. Zarilla doubled to right-center and Goodman held at third. Tebbetts
received an intentional walk to load the bases, but didn't like it, and threw
his bat and one wide pitch for a strike. Kinder came up next and smashed the
ball hard off Raschi's leg, and it came back bounding halfway toward the plate.
It was recovered by Charley Silveira, the Yankees catcher, who was too late in
his diving tag attempt to get Goodman as he scored the Red Sox sixth run. All
this permitted Dom to get another chance at bat and extended the streak. But the
best he could do was hit a line drive out to his brother.
Joe DiMaggio was kept well in check by Kinder, just getting one single in
four trips to the plate. The Yankees were without the services of Yogi Berra and
Tommy Henrich. By winning, the Sox cut the margin of the Yankees to 5 1/2 games,
while the second-place Indians won over the Browns to remain a full game ahead
of the Sox. |
