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THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ...
"THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM"
The Sox bomb the Indians with three homers
June
25, 1967 ... The Red Sox put on a fireworks
display at Fenway Park with another great crowd of 23,719 fans
looking on, in the 90° temperature. The Sox exploded with three home
runs and bombed the Cleveland Indians, 8 to 3.
Bob Tillman, Joe Foy and Carl Yastrzemski were the slugging starts.
Tillman, who had only eight hits all year, collected three in the
game, including his first home run. Foy, in the midst of a very hot
batting streak, also had three hits and blasted his 10th home run of
the year. Yastrzemski hit his 18th home run of the season with a man
on. Gary Bell got the win, his 100th in the big leagues, and his
fourth since joining the Red Sox three weeks ago. He pitched five scoreless
innings but wilted in the sixth, when Cleveland picked up all their runs. José
Santiago took over for him and handled the Indians easily the rest of the way.
The Sox started out looking as though they might be in for a tough day. Luis
Tiant was the pitcher and Tillman started his troubles with a home run into the
screen in the second inning.
In the third, the Sox jumped on Tiant for three more runs. Bell opened the
inning with a double to right. He moved over to third as Mike Andrews grounded
out to second base and scored on a single by Foy. That brought Yastrzemski to
the plate and he promptly lined a home run into the visitors bullpen. Foy joined
the home run parade with a leadoff drive into the left-field screen to start the
fifth inning, making it 5-0.
At this point Bell had been unstoppable. He had given up just two singles in
the first five innings to his former teammates. But they turned on him in the
sixth. Tony Horton came up to pinch-hit and started things off with an infield
single. Lee Maye doubled him to third and Chuck Hinton singled up the middle,
scoring two runs. Leon Wagner flew out and Fred Whitfield singled Hinton to
third. At this point Dick Williams came out and brought in Santiago for Bell.
Santiago made just one mistake on a wild pitch that allowed Hinton to score with
the final Indian run, making it 5 to 3.
The rest of the way Santiago didn't encounter any serious situations while
his teammates were building up a bigger cushion for him. In the seventh the Sox
hit relief pitcher, Steve Bailey, for two more runs. Andrews started off with a
single and Foy followed with a double. Yaz was intentionally passed to load the
bases for Tony Conigliaro. With the count one ball, Bailey hit Conigliaro and
forced in a run. George Scott then lifted a sacrifice fly to right, to score
Foy, making the score 7 to 3.
The final Boston run came in the eighth when Tillman walked and was replaced
by José Tartabull, who advanced to second on a wild pitch. Reggie Smith brought
him home with a double to left to wrap things up.
Bob Tillman homered, singled twice and walked, to raise his batting average
54 points to .244. |
