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A NEW
ERA BEGINS WITH YAZ ...
Yaz throws out a man at home then
gets a base hit in his first
major league game
April 11, 1961
... The Red Sox in a mess of errors and walks,
combined with the failure of timely hits, lost their Opening Day
performance to the Kansas City Athletics at Fenway Park, 5 to 2.
Jackie Jensen hadn't played for nine days and was rusty. He struck
out twice, once with two men on base and once with the bases loaded.
Pete Runnels, playing at third base, got three base hits in four
times up.
Both starting pitchers, Bill Monbouquette for the Sox and Ray Herbert
for the A's, often lost their control in the chilly 45 degrees and 20
mph wind. Mombo walked six batters and gave up six hits, and three
errors were made behind him.
Kansas City started the scoring and posted two runs in the second
inning. With one out, Leo Posada reached on Pumpsie Green's throwing
error. Bill Tuttle grounded a single thru the hole into left and Andy
Carey smashed a drive down the third base line into left. Carl
Yastrzemski got the ball and quickly fired a strike to home, nailing
the sliding Posada at the plate to save a run. But then Mombo walked
the next batter and Herbert plopped a single to left center that
scored Tuttle and Carey.
After throwing the runner out at home, something Sox fans were not
used to seeing from previous left fielders, Yastrzemski came to the
plate, in the bottom of the second inning, and lined the ball into
left field, for his first major league base hit.
The Sox later scored their first run of the season in the third
inning. Herbert, with two outs and a man on base in the second
inning, proceeded to walk the next three batters, making the score
2-1.
Then in the sixth, the A's got two more runs when Haywood Sullivan
doubled home a runner and then scored himself on Chuck Schilling's
error on the relay throw from right field. Chuck took the throw from
Jensen and held up, only to see the wet ball slip out of his hands
and roll into the Sox dugout for a two-base error.
Another throwing error by pitcher Ted Wills gave Kansas City their
fifth run in the ninth inning. After walking a batter, he allowed him
to score when a ball that was hit back to him, he threw away. |
