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YAZ GREETED
AFTER HR |
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ...
"THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM"
A Red Sox
rebound after losing the first game
August
1, 1967 ... The last-place Kansas City
Athletics battled the Red Sox to a split, in the twi-night
doubleheader. Backed by the five hit pitching from Chuck Dobson, the
A's took the first game, 4 to 3. In the nightcap, the Sox battled
back, with a 15 hit attack, to gain an 8 to 3 victory.
Carl Yastrzemski hit a three run homer in the first game and that was all the
Sox could get off Dobson. Dave Morehead started for the Red Sox and was knocked
out in the third inning after an unimpressive performance. His dreams of a big
come-back turned into a nightmare in the third inning.
Morehead dug his own grave when he started the inning by walking Mike
Hershberger and Phil Roof, the seventh and eighth hitters in the weak hitting
Athletics lineup. Dobson came up and even though everyone in the park knew he
was going to try a sacrifice, to move the runners along, he pushed a hard bunt
by Morehead as he charged in. It went for a base hit and loaded the bases. Bert
Campaneris was the next batter and he lined one of Morehead's curveballs down
the right-field line for a triple, that cleared the bases. Morehead pitched to
one more batter, John Donaldson, who knocked him out of the game with a single
up the middle of the drawn in infield, to score Campaneris and make it, 4 to 0.
Dobson, as it turned out, had just enough to get the win. His only trouble
came in the sixth, when the Red Sox scored all their runs. With two outs, he
walked Mike Andrews and Joe Foy singled to left, to bring Yaz to the plate. On
the one and one pitch, Yastrzemski rifled a home run over the Sox bullpen into
the bleachers, to pull the Sox within a run, 4 to 3. That was as close as they
got as Dobson got Conigliaro to pop out and end the inning. Dobson only allowed
one hit for the remainder of the game.
In the second game, two of the Kansas City players left the field on
stretchers, but neither was seriously injured. Their secondbaseman, John
Donaldson, suffered a pulled leg muscle after he and centerfielder Rick Monday
collided, chasing a fly ball in the fifth inning.
One inning later, one of Jim Lonborg fastball's hit third baseman, Danny
Cater, in the head. He reported that he felt all right when he reached the
Kansas City locker room. Lonborg got the win in the second game and became the
first player in the majors to get 15 victories this year.
Lonborg, who arrived at the park just minutes before he was scheduled to
pitch, did not have one of his better games. He had spent the day on Army
reserve training duty and left Atlanta on a plane that was supposed get him to
Boston by 6:30. But the plane left Atlanta an hour late and Lonborg almost did
not make it in time.
Lonborg pitched scoreless ball through the first three innings, but was
constantly in hot water. In the second inning, a bunt and two walks loaded the
bases but he pitched out of it without a run scoring.
Lonborg, who usually gets ahead of the hitter in the count, had trouble. In
the fourth, he walked three more batters and the Athletics took a 1 to 0 lead,
when Bert Campaneris singled to left.
The A's pulled ahead 3 to 0 in the fifth, by scoring two runs after two were
out. Rick Monday got it going by beating out an infield hit. Jim Gosger singled
in the third and Dick Green pushed a bunt down the first base line, that Scott
bobbled, allowing him to reach on the error. On the play Monday scored from
third. Next, Phil Roof lined a single to center and Gosger raced home from
second, with the third run
In the fifth inning the Sox charged back with four runs to take the lead.
Mike Andrews started the Sox uprising with a single. Jack Sanford walked Joe Foy
but got Yastrzemski on a long fly, for the second out. However Tony Conigliaro
beat out a hit to deep short and Andrews scored on the play, when Campaneris
threw the ball into the Red Sox dugout. Conigliaro went to second on the error
and Foy was at third. George Scott was intentionally walked to load the bases
for Dalton Jones, who came up to hit for Jerry Adair. After falling behind on
the count, Jones lined a sharp single to right that scored two runs and tied the
game at 3 to 3.
Reggie Smith was the next batter and lofted a soft fly ball to right-center
that John Donaldson, Rick Monday and Jim Gosger all when after. They all
collided and John Donaldson was injured in the collision, leaving the field on a
stretcher. He suffered only a pulled muscle but no broken bones. The ball had
dropped between them all, with Smith ended up on second and Scott scored the
go-ahead run, 4 to 3.
Danny Cater joined later when he was hit in the right temple with a pitch. He
was saved from serious injury because the ball struck the batting helmet. But
the Athletics apparently didn't like what had happened, because in the sixth
inning, relief pitcher, Jack Aker, brushed back Andrews, Foy and Yastrzemski.
In the seventh inning, after Conigliaro had singled and Smith was
intentionally walked, catcher Mike Ryan hit a three run homer, the key to the
Red Sox victory, making it 7 to 3. The rally continued as Lyle, Andrews and Foy
singled, to score another run, knocking Aker out of the game.
The net result of the evening, was the Sox losing one half game, in the
pennant race, to the White Sox. |
