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JIM KAAT |
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ...
"THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM"
Jim Kaat holds
down the Red Sox
June
26, 1967 ... Good pitching by Minnesota Twins
left-hander, Jim Kaat, and poor fielding by Tony Conigliaro, led to a
Red Sox loss in Minnesota, 2 to 1. The victory pulled the Twins into
a third-place tie with the Red Sox. Kaat gave up just one tainted
run in 7 2/3 innings to the Red Sox, who were missing Carl Yastrzemski and Rico
Petrocelli. Yastrzemski was back at the hotel in his bed with the flu and
Petrocelli is still recovering from a bruise wrist. So Kaat and relief pitcher
Al Worthington, who got the final four outs, had it easier than usual against
the Red Sox.
It was a tough loss to take for Jim Lonborg, who might have had his 10th win,
had not Conigliaro misplayed a fly ball that set up both of the Twins runs in
the fourth inning. Instead Lonborg suffered his third loss against nine wins and
will have to wait a little longer to beat the Twins, a team he has not beaten in
his career.
The Red Sox had their chances to pull it out in the final three innings but
failed. They scored their only run in the first and it was a cheap one. Mike
Andrews, who had three of the eight Boston hits, led off with a single and moved
to second on a groundout by Joe Foy. With two out, George Scott hit a grounder
that Twins secondbaseman, Rod Carew, booted, allowing Andrews to come all the
way around from second to score.
Lonborg attempted to protect his one run lead by striking out the side in the
first inning. But in the fourth, the Twins put together, what proved to be, the
winning rally. Tony Oliva led off with a line drive to right that Conigliaro
misplayed into a double. Conigliaro appeared to lose track of the ball in flight
and missed it. Lonborg then struck out Bob Allison, but Zoilo Versalles singled
to center to score Oliva and tie the game. After Lonborg struck out Russ Nixon,
Ted Uhlaender tripled to left-center and scored Versalles, with what would prove
to be the winning run, 2 to 1.
Kaat meanwhile, was toying with the Red Sox, giving up just three hits from
the second to the seventh innings. Scott led off the seventh with a double, but
died there as Kaat struck out George Thomas, Jerry Adair and Bob Tillman.
In the eighth the Sox had men on first and second with two out, when Kaat was
finally lifted in favor of Worthington, who got Conigliaro ground out and end
that threat.
That took into the ninth and the Sox gave it another try. George Thomas, who
was playing left field in place of Yaz, beat out an infield hit with one out.
Adair, playing shortstop for Petrocelli, singled him to third with a base hit to
center. Dalton Jones came into pitch hit for Tillman and Worthington got ahead
of him with two strikes. He then fed Dalton a sinker, which he hit to second
base, resulting in a doubleplay that ended the game. |
