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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ... June 23, 1967 ... The Red Sox, led by the pitching of Lee Stange and the hitting of Joe Foy, topped the Cleveland Indians by an 8 to 4 score. Stange, who has been the biggest disappointment for the Sox pitching staff, tonight shutdown the Indians with a nine hit performance. He was actually better than the score indicates, because he had a two-hit shutout through the first seven innings. Stange, who was 0 and 4, after a poor start, has now won two straight games and has given up just four runs in the last 24 innings he has pitched. Joe Foy was the trigger man in the Sox attack, with four hits, two of which were triples, and he scored three runs. Tony Conigliaro and Carl Yastrzemski gave Foy plenty of help with two hits apiece. The Red Sox have now scored 23 runs in their last three games and Yastrzemski's two hits raised his average to .338. Foy's four hit performance boosted his average 14 points to .244, 50 point above his average just two weeks ago. Conigliaro got the Sox rolling offensively in the second inning. Cleveland starter Sonny Siebert threw a hanging curveball for his first pitch, and Tony drilled it out of the park across Lansdowne Street, behind the left-field wall, for his eighth home run of the season. Siebert finished the inning but then was taken out because he felt ill, and that brought in Orlando Pena. The Sox jumped on Pena for another run in the third inning when Foy tripled off the left-field wall and Yaz brought him home with a single to center. It was for his first triple of the year and Yaz's 51st RBI. They hit also extended Yastrzemski's hitting streak to nine games. Pena held the Sox off in the fourth inning, but they knocked him around with a three run fifth. Stange led off the inning with a single and Mike Andrews sacrificed him to second. Foy followed with a 420 foot triple to right-center, scoring Stange with the Red Sox third run. Yaz was intentionally walked and the Indians brought in George Culver to replace Pena. Conigliaro greeted him with a single up the middle, scoring Foy and chasing Yaz over to third. Petrocelli followed with a perfect squeeze bunt down the first base line that scored Yaz, making it 5 to 0. In the seventh inning, the Sox chipped away a little more for three runs, jumping out to an 8 to 0 lead. Once again it was the top half of the order that started the trouble. Foy opened the inning with his third straight hit, a single to center. Yaz followed with a double down the first base line, moving Foy over to third. Conigliaro was intentionally passed and that brought up Rico Petrocelli. Culver got ahead of Rico by two strikes and then tried to jam a fastball in tight. The pitch struck Rico in the right wrist and he went down to the ground in pain. He later walked off the field and was taken to Sancta Maria Hospital for x-rays. That scored another run, but Culver buckled down and struck out George Scott and Bob Tillman. Reggie Smith then dumped a double down the third-base line and two more runs scored. Petrocelli's x-rays were negative and it is estimated that will be lost to the Sox for a week. The Indians finally reached Stange for a pair of runs in the eighth. He had given up just two singles and one walk going into that inning. Not one Indian had reached second base. But singles by Vic Davalillo, Chico Salmon and Lee Maye accounted for the first run and Chuck Hinton knocked in the other one with a sacrifice fly. The Indians scored two more runs in the ninth when Joe Azcue singled, Larry Brown doubled and Salmon singled them both home. Stange got Maye to pop out to Foy and end the game. |
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