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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ... July 8, 1967 ... The Red Sox suffered another one of their tough losses. This time they were put down, 2 to 0, by the four hit pitching of Denny McLain at Tiger Stadium. It was McLain's first shutout of the year and it gave the Sox their fourth consecutive loss. Lee Stange, the starting pitcher for the Red Sox, gave up only one unearned run before leaving the game in the sixth. Former Red Sox outfielder, Lenny Green, was the batting star for the Tigers. He had three hits, driving in the first Tiger run and scored the other one himself. The Red Sox once again, put together a threat in the ninth. Carl Yastrzemski singled, for his second hit of the game, and after Tony Conigliaro flew to center, George Scott walked. With the tying runs on base, McLain got tough and pitched out of trouble by getting Rico Petrocelli to pop out and Reggie Smith on a grounder. This Tigers picked up a run in the third inning off Stange and it was a gift. Petrocelli bobbled an easy grounder from Ray Oyler for an error with one out. McLain, after failing to sacrifice, singled to right with Oyler stopping at second. Green and slapped an outside pitch into left field for a base hit that scored Oyler with the first Tiger run. That was the only scoring in the game until the eighth inning, when the Tigers picked up their second run against Darrell Brandon. After one out, Green got his third single of the game. The next batter, Jerry Lumpe, hit a long drive to center which Reggie Smith tracked down to make a fine catch, over his shoulder, on the warning track. However Brandon then walked Dick McAuliffe and Norm Cash singled to right, to score Green, making it 2 to 0. The Red Sox threatened in the first inning when Mike Andrews opened the game with a single and Joe Foy walked. Yaz hit a line smash toward right-field, but Cash, the firstbaseman, jumped high in the air and was able to pick off the drive, turning it into a doubleplay by catching Andrews off second base. Another threat came in the fourth when Yaz doubled to right and Tony Conigliaro's long fly to center was deep enough for him to tag up and move over to third. With just one out. McLain struck out George Scott on three pitches, all called strikes. Petrocelli walked, putting men on first and third, and McLain got out of it, by getting Smith on a soft fly the left-field. From the fifth through the eighth innings, the Sox had just one base runner, Smith, who doubled after two were out in the seventh. Tony Conigliaro will be starting in right field of the American League All-Stars. Conigliaro, who is only 22 years old, in his fourth year as a regular in the majors, was 10th in the All-Star voting for outfielders. He will be replacing Frank Robinson, who was out with a concussion. |
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