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McAULIFFE SLIDES IN
UNDER MIKE RYAN'S TAG |
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ...
"THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM"
Jim Northrup's grand slam sinks the Sox
May
25, 1967 ... Earl Wilson picked up his sixth
win of the year and the fourth over the Red Sox, since being traded
for Don Demeter. He had a 9 to 1 lead to work on after six innings,
and when things finally ended, he had beat the Sox, 9 to 3. José
Santiago started for the Red Sox and had a little hard luck in the first inning
when the Tigers got two runs but deserved only one. Rico Petrocelli contributed
to the unearned run with a bobbled ground ball.
But there was no reason to think that Santiago got hurt by that in the fifth
inning. He lost his control, walked two hitters, and Al Kaline singled home two
runs, before Dick Williams decided he had seen enough. Lee Stange came in and
walked Willie Horton to have a crack and Jim Northrup with the bases loaded.
Northrup cleaned out the bases with a grand slam home run into the left-field
seats, making it 8-1.
Mike Ryan had caught hold of one of Wilson's pitches in the third inning and
sent it into the seats. It was his sixth big-league home run in three years, and
three of them have been hit in Tiger Stadium.
Santiago had retired 11 straight hitters going into the fifth inning and was
some hope of sweeping the three-game series here with the Tigers. But after Ray
Oyler had been thrown out, he walked Wilson and Dick McAuliffe singled to right
field. Don Wert also walked and Kaline went to a two and two count before he
lined a pitch into right.
Dick McAuliffe hit his eighth home run of the year off Dan Osinski in the
sixth inning and that put things beyond reach, 9-1. The Red Sox got two in the
eighth however, as Mike Ryan walked and Joe Foy singled up the middle. After
José Tartabull had flied out, Reggie Smith hit a long triple to center for two
more runs, making it 9 to 3.
Wilson had three sensational plays made behind him. In the fourth inning,
Smith hit a hard ground ball to the left of McAuliffe. The secondbaseman's
tumbled, stopped the ball and from a sitting position, threw him out. The next
hitter was Carl Yastrzemski and he lined to the left of Ray Oyler, the
shortstop. The little man leaped and made a sensational catch of the ball,
robbing Yaz of a base hit.
In the seventh inning, George Scott singled down the third-base line and
Dalton Jones hit a line drive to right field. Scott only went about 30 feet down
the line, not knowing whether the catch was going to be made, and Kaline, in one
motion threw him out on a one hopper to second base. |
