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THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 4
FALLING SHORT AT THE END AGAIN
...
Lou Stringer
hits a clutch double to win the game
September 17, 1949
... Joe Dobson pitched a clutch game and Bobby
Doerr's replacement, Lou Stringer, hit a sixth inning double that
kept the Red Sox in the pennant race before 17,467 at Fenway Park.
Dobson won his 13th game beautifully in beating the Browns, 3 to 2,
keeping the Red Sox 2 1/2 games behind the Yankees, who beat Detroit.
Dobson permitted 13 Brownies to reach base, but only seven were left on base, as
the Red Sox made four doubleplays. The final one ended the game when Whitey
Platt lined out to Ted Williams, who threw out Dick Kokos, trying to get back to
second base.
Billy Goodman knocked in the first two runs, scored the winning run, and
started a pair of doubleplays. He walked with one out in the sixth and sprinted
home on Stringer's double.
The Browns were tough customers and were the first to score. In the second
inning Roy Sievers doubled off the wall in left-center with one out. He scored
on a single by Kokos. In the bottom half of the inning, Vern Stephens drew a
walk from starting pitcher Cliff Fannin. Al Zarilla doubled to right-center and
sent Stephens over to third. Billy Goodman lined an inside pitch down the
right-field line for two bases, that scored Stephens and Zarilla, putting the
Sox up by one run.
But the Browns tied it up in the fourth when Dobson passed Sievers with one
out. Kokos singled to right and Les Moss lined one to left to score Sievers with
the tying run. Dobson settled down after that to pitch three-hit shutout ball
over the final five in two thirds innings.
The Red Sox went ahead in the sixth. Goodman walked with one out. Then
Stringer hit a line drive that went off the wall in left-center and the Sox were
ahead 3 to 2.
While Dobson was preserving his game, the scoreboard showed that the Tigers
were beating the Yankees, so that was and so I the on every one of the pitches
that Dobson threw. When the Browns came up in the ninth-inning, the Yankee lead
was cut from 5 to 0, to 5 to 4. With the tension mounting, Kokos drilled a
double by Goodman and pinch-hitter Sherm Lollar walked on a three and two count,
to put the potential tying and winning runs on base.
After one ball was thrown to pinch-hitter Whitey Platt, manager Zach Taylor
decided to bring in Eddie Pellagrini to run for Lollar. On the next pitch, Platt
hit the ball on a line toward left-field and Kokos took off for third. Ted
Williams ran after the ball caught it, adjusted himself and threw a strike to
Stringer for a game ending double play at second base.
The win was the 16th in a row at Fenway Park. The Sox have won 27 of the last
29 games at home. |
