“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ... August 8, 1967 ... The Red Sox rallied for a 7 to 5 victory over the Athletics in the second game of a twi-night doubleheader at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, to end a four-game losing streak. The Athletics won the first game, 5 to 3. A two run homer by Tony Conigliaro, his 20th of the year, in the ninth-inning with Carl Yastrzemski on first, made the first game close. A single by George Scott finished starter Catfish Hunter, who going into the ninth-inning, had a four hitter. Jack Aker came in and got Rico Petrocelli on a groundout that gave Hunter his 10th victory. The Red Sox had scored their other run on Petrocelli's 11th home run of the year, to lead off the eighth-inning. The Athletics jumped out into the lead by scoring single runs in each of the first two innings off starter Dave Morehead. They knocked him out of the game amid a three run sixth inning. Three singles, a walk and a throwing error by Joe Foy did the damage. Manager Dick Williams shuffled his lineup for the second game trying to inject some punch into the lineup which had not been hitting well. He shifted Yaz to center and put Norm Siebern in left, benching Reggie Smith, who had gone over three in the opener. He replaced Joe Foy at third with Jerry Adair, who got three hits in the second game. In the night game, Kansas City scored all their runs in the first three innings and disposed of starter Gary Bell in the second inning. A's leftfielder Danny Cater, who had four hits and five RBIs during the doubleheader, doubled in a pair of runs in the first inning. A single and two walks loaded the bases and ended Bell's tenure with one out in the second inning. A sacrifice fly off reliever José Santiago produced another run. The Athletics boosted their advantage to 4 to 0 in the third inning, on three straight singles. That set the stage for the Red Sox. A single by Rico Petrocelli, an infield out by pinch-hitter Dalton Jones, and a single past Dick Green by Adair, after a walk to Mike Andrews, scored Petrocelli to cut the lead to 4 to 1 in the fifth inning. The Sox tied it in the seventh as starter Blue Moon Odom was sailing along, getting two outs before he walked Reggie Smith. Adair lined a single to right-center for his third hit of the game, moving Reggie over to third-base. Kansas City manager, Alvin Dark, then brought in lefty, Tony Pierce to replace Odom and pitch to Yastrzemski. Yaz singled up the middle on a three and one pitch, to drive in Smith and send Adair to second, making it 4 to 2. That was all for Pierce, as Dark brought in righty Jack Aker, to pitch to Tony Conigliaro, who slapped his second pitch to left-center for a double, that drove in Adair and Yaz to tie up the game. While relievers Dan Osinski, Hank Fischer and John Wyatt stopped the A's, the Sox won it in the ninth against another reliever, Bill Stafford. With two outs, Yaz slammed a double off the left-field wall. Conigliaro was intentionally walked, and Joe Foy, batting for Wyatt, unintentionally also received a base on balls. That loaded the bases and Norm Siebern lined a hit past short, to drive in two more runs. A third run scored while Siebern wound up at third-base, because Jim Gosger threw the ball into the Red Sox dugout. The Red Sox had to sweat it out in the ninth as Sparky Lyle came in and walked John Donaldson to start off the inning. After he got a fly out, Ken Harrelson singled to center and Gosger followed with another single that scored Donaldson. Dick Williams had seen enough and brought in Darrell Brandon to pitch to Mike Hershberger, who flew to center. But Brandon walked Green to load the bases. He finally got pinch-hitter, Ted Kubiak, on a ground ball hit back to him, to end the threat and the game. Yastrzemski had three singles and a double during a doubleheader to boost his batting average to .321, while Conigliaro had three singles, a double and a home run to hike his average up to .305, while also driving in four runs. Before the game, Bob Tillman was sold to the Yankees for the $20,000 waiver price. Hank Fischer was removed from the disabled list and put on the active roster to replace Tillman. Fischer had not pitched since May 27th. In a separate move, the Red Sox sent right-handed hitter Ron Klimkowski from their Pittsfield club to the Yankees' Syracuse club as one of the two players Yankees would receive for Elston Howard. |
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