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MIKE RYAN GETS
TOVAR AT HOME |
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ...
"THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM"
Yaz slams two homers in a wild night
May
31, 1967 ... Carl Yastrzemski hit his ninth
home run of the season into the centerfield seats in the fourth
inning. Then he hit his tenth home run on top of the Twins bullpen
roof and the Red Sox got a 3 to 2 victory over Minnesota before
12,335 ecstatic fans. Going into the eighth-inning the Red Sox had
a 3 to 0 lead, but the Twins loaded the bases and scored two runs in a wild
scene around home plate. Billy Rohr was supposed to start but Darrell Brandon got the call to pitch. He
could have had a shutout except for a bad fielding error by Rico Petrocelli in
that eighth-inning.
Jim Perry started for the Twins and when three scoreless innings, but with
the count one strike on Yaz in the fourth, he slammed his first home run about
five rows up into the centerfield seats. The teams went scoreless after that
until Yaz came to bat again in the sixth inning. This time with the count at
2-2, he hit his second home run into the Twins bullpen.
The next run the Sox got in the eighth-inning took about 10 minutes to
happen, but it was marvelous as far as the fans were concerned. George Scott
took a mighty swing but could only bounce a dribbler down the third-base line
and beat it out. Reggie Smith walked and then Rico Petrocelli bunted one
perfectly down the first base line to advanced both men. Twins manager Sam Mele
then ordered his pitcher to intentionally walked Joe Foy to load the bases. That
brought up Mike Ryan and he dumped a perfect bunt back to the pitcher, but there
was no play for Perry to make but to first base, as Scott came lumbering across
the plate.
With a 3 to 0 lead the Twins came to bat in the eighth. Brandon, who had
pitched so well for seven innings, gave up a single to Russ Nixon. Sandy
Valdespino pinch-hit and lined a single off the left-field wall. With runners on
first and second, Cesar Tovar hit a perfect doubleplay ball down to Petrocelli,
but Rico booted it and everyone was safe. With nobody out, the count went to
three and two on Rod Carew. Brandon struck him out, but then gave up a walk to
Zoilko Versalles to force in a run. That brought out Dick Williams and in came
John Wyatt, with the game at 3 to 2.
Wyatt threw a strike to Harmon Killebrew and he slammed it to left.
Yastrzemski grabbed it as Valdespino headed for the plate. When he saw Yaz's
strong throw, he moved back toward third, but the throw was high and off Ryan's
glove. Home came Valdespino, and when Wyatt, who was backing up the play at the
plate, fell down and seemed to have lost sight of the ball, in came Tovar. Ryan
was yelling where the ball was and finally Wyatt got it and threw to home and
Tovar slid wide trying to avoid the tag. He tried to kick the ball out of Ryan's
hand, but Mike got him out. The inning was over, and Wyatt was out of the jam.
In the ninth-inning Bob Allison singled, with one out, but was doubled up by
Petrocelli, who grabbed a line drive off the bat of Rich Rollins and threw a
strike to George Scott to complete the doubleplay and end the game. |
