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GEORGE SCOTT |
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ...
"THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM"
George Scott hits two "taters" as Sox win
August
16, 1967 ... George Scott hit two home runs,
to add to this "tater" the night before, and his long drives sent the
Red Sox into third-place, as they defeated the Detroit Tigers, 8 to
3. Lee Stange, who had pitched so well and had been given very
little help at the plate in his last start, was staked tonight to three runs in
the first inning. Scott got the first of his two home runs off Denny McLain
after Carl Yastrzemski had walked with two outs. He lined a drive into the nets
in left-center field and then Reggie Smith slammed another one into the
bleachers in right.
The Tigers picked up two in the second inning, on a home run by Norm Cash,
and when Stange got into difficulty in the third, giving up two quick base hits,
to open the inning, manager Dick Williams brought in Darrell Brandon. Brandon
had been having a difficult season, but his last two appearances were good ones.
In this game he gave up only three singles in seven innings, and no runs.
José Tartabull, filling in for Tony Conigliaro, who was off in the evening
because of reserve duty, started out the third inning by beating out a bunt. Yaz
slammed one off the fence for a single, but tried for two and was cut down, as
Tartabull scooted over to third. Scott then hit his second homer just out of the
reach of Al Kaline, by the corner of the Detroit bullpen. Williams, who had
benched Scott because of his weight, was at the top of the dugout steps to greet
his first baseman.
Brandon was staked to another run in the fifth on a double by Joe Foy, his
steal of third, and an infield fly by Reggie Smith. Two more came in the eighth
when Jerry Adair, Mike Ryan and Brandon singled along with an infield error that
produced another run.
In the eighth-inning, José Tartabull went to the wall in right and reached up
for a long drive off the bat of Jim Northrup. Then in the ninth-inning he went
to the same spot and reached even higher for a drive by Dick McAuliffe, that
would have been a home run had he missed. |