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GARY WASLEWSKI |
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ...
"THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM"
Gary Waslewski outduels Catfish Hunter
with a Sox win
July
2, 1967 ... Gary Waslewski, with a three-hit
performance, outdueled Kansas City Athletics ace, Catfish Hunter, in
a tight 2 to 1 Red Sox victory, that gave them a sweep of the series.
Joe Foy slammed a home run in the eighth-inning, that provided the
winning run. From start to finish this was a pitcher's duel.
Waslewski, in picking up his second major league victory against no losses since
coming up from Toronto a month ago, gave up just three hits. Singles by Mike
Ryan, Reggie Smith and Joe Foy's mammoth home run in the eighth were the only
hits off Hunter.
Kansas City had opened the scoring in the first inning, when Waslewski was
having some control trouble and looked as though he might be in for a long
afternoon. He walked Mike Hershberger with one out and then secondbaseman, John
Donaldson, singled Hershberger to third. Rick Monday's sacrifice fly scored the
first run.
After the first inning, Waslewski yielded just one single to Dick Green in
the fifth, until Hershberger led off the ninth with a bloop single to center. He
then erased John Donaldson on a ground ball to Mike Andrews, with Hershberger
moving over to second. Manager Dick Williams with a man in scoring position, now
decided to bring in his closer, John Wyatt. Wyatt struck out the dangerous
Monday for the second out and then got Ramon Webster to ground out and end the
game. It was Wyatt's 10th save of the year. Waslewski, in his last 24 1/3
innings of pitching as allowed just two runs. During that stretch his allowed
only nine hits.
Hunter, who will pitch in the American League All-Star game, pitched great in
defeat. Some better fielding by thirdbaseman Dick Green could have changed the
course of the entire game. In the second inning, after George Scott and Reggie
Smith had walked with two out, Mike Ryan slammed a hard one hot line drive at
Green. The ball skipped right between his legs into left-field for a hit that
scored Scott and tied the game at 1 to 1. That's the way it stood until Foy
unloaded on Hunter with a home run. In the eighth inning, with the score tied at
1 to 1 and two out, Foy slammed a high fastball over the wall in dead
centerfield for his 11th home run of the year.
Hunter stopped Carl Yastrzemski's streak for reaching base at 56 straight
games. Yaz struck out twice, popped to short and flied to left. So far this
year, Yaz has only failed to get on base in three games and each time it has
been against the Athletics.
Mike Ryan, who dislocated a finger trying to glove a Jim Lonborg fastball the
other night, has driven in four runs in the last two games. The game-winning
hits in all three games of the series were home runs, the other two by Tony
Conigliaro.
In the last six games, the Red Sox have allowed just 13 runs and no team has
scored more than three in the game. The Sox have won four games of the six games
played on the trip and the win put them in a deadlock with the Tigers and Twins
for second place in the American League, 4 1/2 games from league-leading
Chicago. |
