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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO ... August 30, 1967 ... Call Yastrzemski was not in the starting lineup and George Thomas was playing left field when tonight's game started. But in the eighth-inning, Yaz went out to left and then popped up in the top of the ninth, to make the first out. But in the bottom of the 11th, on the first pitch by Al Downing, Yaz hit his 35th home run into the seats in right-center. It went 420 feet and put the Red Sox ahead to stay, 2 to 1. Yaz has hit home runs for his last three hits, and now is 3 for 21, with all of the hits going out of the ballpark. John Wyatt was the winning pitcher, digging himself out of trouble in the last of the 11th. He walked Bob Tillman, with one out, and gave up a single to Jake Gibbs, before getting Roy White on a ground ball out to end the game. Wyatt had been brought in, in the eighth-inning, after starter, Jerry Stephenson, trying for third straight victory, wore out after seven innings. Stephenson was locked in a 1 to 1 game with Downing who looked like he was going to make it a miserable day for the Red Sox. He had blazing speed and a change up that had netted him five strikeouts in the first three innings. But the Red Sox finally got to Downing in the fifth, when Reggie Smith got a double on a softly hit line drive over secondbaseman, John Kennedy's head. The ball took a crazy bounced toward Steve Whitaker and Smith turned on the speed, getting to second base on the play. Rico Petrocelli popped a single to center that moved Reggie over to third and he scored on Thomas' bloop single into left, giving the Sox a 1 to 0 lead. In the next inning, with his uniform soaking wet, Stephenson allowed a single to Ruben Amaro and a hit and run single to Kennedy. With nobody out, Downing tried to tap the ball over Stephenson, but Jerry grabbed it and got Amaro in a rundown between third and home. Eventually Amaro was tagged out, but there were Yankees on second and third. Dick Williams had his infield play back and Mike Hegan lined a hard shot at George Scott, who had to make the play at first while the tying run scored. Wyatt got into a mild jam in the tenth, with the score tied, when Steve Whitaker singled to right and was sacrificed over to second. But he got Bill Robinson and Amaro on pop outs to set up the 11th inning for Yaz. The 11th started badly when Robinson made a spectacular leaping high back-handed catch off Reggie. After Petrocelli looked at a third strike, Yaz came up to the plate and stepped into the first pitch he saw, sending it into the seats. The Sox ended their road trip with a record of six wins in three losses. It boosted their American League lead to 1 1/2 games, as both the Twins and Tigers lost. The last time the Red Sox returned to Boston in first place, was in 1949. |
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