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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ... August 21, 1967 ... The Red Sox won their fifth straight game, 6 to 5, over the Washington Senators, when Jerry Adair crossed the plate with the running run in the ninth-inning. Adair had started the ninth-inning with a double off the wall in left-center, advancing the third while Carl Yastrzemski was being thrown out at first. Senators manager, Gil Hodges, intentionally passed both George Scott and Reggie Smith, to set up a potential doubleplay. Southpaw, Darold Knowles was on the mound for the Senators and the next batter he faced was Elston Howard. With the bases loaded, Howard strolled to the plate as he was talking to his manager Dick Williams. When everything was settled, Howard took the first pitch, that was low, and on the next pitch, he lined one to left-center field. Adair came home with the winning run and the crowd of 26,018 fans walked away from Fenway Park as excited as ever. Washington scored in the first inning. Jim Lonborg, who started for the Red Sox, walked three men and gave up a sacrifice fly, for the first run of the game. The Red Sox came back in the second inning when George Scott led things off with a walk and Reggie singled him to third. Rico Petrocelli bounded one to Tim Cullen at shortstop, and it took a funny hop bouncing over his head for a base hit that scored the tying run. Mike Andrews then grounded one behind second base that Cullen fielded cleanly, as the second run scored while Andrews was being thrown out at first. The Senators scored two more times off Lonborg in the sixth inning when Ken McMullen singled to right and Elston Howard gave up a passed ball. Fred Valentine brought McMullen in with a single to center and went to third on Cap Peterson's single to left. Valentine scored the second run of the inning on Mike Epstein's single to right, putting the Senators in front, 3 to 2. But the Sox came back again the next inning, when Lonborg singled to left and José Tartabull dropped a bunt down the first base line. Camilo Pascual, was now pitching for Washington, got his glove on it and bobbled it for an error. Adair came up next and tried another bunt, but forced Tartabull at second base. Then Yaz came up and lined a clean single to center, that scored Lonborg with the tying run. Baldwin now entered the game and got Scott on a fly ball to left, that was deep enough for Adair to score the go-ahead run. The third run of the inning scored when Smith cracked a drive off the wall in center field that got by Valentine and put Reggie on third with a triple. With a two run lead, Lonborg started the ninth by giving up a double to Frank Howard. Dick Williams then went to the mound and called for John Wyatt to save the game. The only poor pitch Wyatt made, was a ball that Epstein took out of the park, with Howard on, that tied up the game at 5-5, in the eighth-inning. |
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