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FRANK ROBINSON |
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ...
"THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM"
The O's take
advantage of Sox mistakes
September
15, 1967 ... The Red Sox beat themselves with
base on balls, three wild pitches, and errors of omission. In doing
so, the Baltimore Orioles beat them, 6 to 2. Dave Morehead couldn't
get the ball over the plate, was wild, and when he had to get the ball over in
crucial spots, he gave pitches that the Orioles took advantage of. The trouble
started as early as the second inning when Morehead walked both Boog Powell and
Dave Johnson with one out. He struck out Andy Etchebarren, but he allowed
pitcher Tom Phoebus to punch a ball to right-field. Ken Harrelson does not have
a strong-arm, but Powell is not a fast runner. His throw to the plate landed
about 30 feet from the plate and skidded past Mike Ryan allowing Powell to score
easily.
In the third inning, Morehead was wild again, walking Paul Blair and Frank
Robinson. Blair went to third on Brooks Robinson's fly ball to right, and with
two strikes on Powell, Morehead threw it past Ryan all the way to the backstop,
for another run. Powell punched a single to left that scored Frank, who had
moved to third on the wild pitch.
The night was bad for baseball, misty and cold with a wind blowing in from
centerfield. The way Tom Phoebus was pitching, it looked like it would be an
easy night for him. In the fourth inning he walked two men after Carl
Yastrzemski had made the second of his three hits in the game. But Phoebus got
Rico Petrocelli to hit a grounder to Aparicio and end the inning.
In the fifth inning there was more trouble when Paul Blair doubled one
off-the-wall and José Santiago, who had come in for Morehead, crossed up Ryan by
thrown a fastball rather than an expected slider. The ball tipped off Mike's
catchers mitt and went to the backstop for a passed ball, with Blair moving up
to third. After Frank Robinson grounded out, Brooks Robinson hit one through the
drawn in infield, to score another run.
In the bottom of the fifth, down 4 to 0, Reggie Smith laced a home run into
the wind. The Red Sox scored again in the sixth on Yaz's double to left and
Harrelson's single up the middle.
The Orioles got one of the runs back when Frank Robinson hit his 29th home
run of the year into the screen off Darrell Brandon in the seventh inning. They
got the other one back in the ninth, off Sparky Lyle. He walked Curt Blefary,
then threw two wild pitches past catcher, Elston Howard. Frank Robinson's fly
ball to left brought in Blefary, making it 6 to 2.
Moe Drabowsky, who had come in in the seventh inning, got the Sox 1-2-3 in
the ninth, and notched up four strikeouts in the 2 1/3 innings he pitched. |
