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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 6 ... September 19, 1967 ... The Red Sox pulled out a 4 to 2 victory against the Tigers and until the end, when they scored three runs in the ninth-inning, they were never really in the game. The winning pitcher was José Santiago and the loser was Mickey Lolich, who pitched another outstanding game until the last inning. Lolich had 13 strikeouts, getting the Red Sox, in order, twice. The only time the Red Sox ever threatened to do anything, they scored. In the second inning they had two singles. One was by Reggie Smith who went to second base on a wild pitch and then scored on another single by Russ Gibson, to give the Sox a quick 1-0 lead. The Tigers, on the other hand, had Lee Stange on the ropes many times. In the bottom of the third the Tigers had three men on base with only one out and couldn't score. After one out, three consecutive singles by Don Wert, Lolich and Dick McAuliffe, preceded a doubleplay grounder by Jerry Lumpe. Then in the fourth inning, the Tigers had men on first and third with nobody out. Al Kaline had walked and Willie Horton singled to right to move Kaline over to third. Stange got Jim Northrup to pop up, struck out Norm Cash and got Bill Freehan on a ground ball force out at second. In the sixth inning, Stange's luck finally failed. The Tigers finally took the lead after Kaline doubled to open the inning. Jim Northrup then laced a long home run into the third deck, putting his team up 2 to 1. In the seventh inning Don Wert and Lolich led off with singles. Stange was yanked for Sparky Lyle who got a groundout to Petrocelli that moved Wert to third and a line drive doubleplay down to Adair at third, who caught Wert off the bag. Finally, in the eighth-inning, with Santiago on the mound, Kaline got to first on a base on balls and Horton reached on a ball that was bobbled by Jerry Adair at third. Jim Northrup topped the ball to the left of the mound and was safe at first, when Santiago's throw pulled Scott off the bag. But José got Cash to hit a pop foul to Gibson and then Freehan grounded down to Adair, who turned the double-play and end the inning. And so things looked bleak going into the ninth, with the way Lolich was pitching. But Adair started it off with a single to right. Lolich was not about to give Yaz anything good to hit and walked him on four curveballs. Scott fouled off a bunt attempt, took a ball, and then fouled off another pitch. He fouled off two more pitches before lining a single to center to score José Tartabull, who had run for Adair, and tie up the game. That ended it for Lolich and Earl Wilson came out of the bullpen. It was his first relief appearance of the year and Reggie greeted him with a sacrifice bunt back to the mound. Yaz went to third and Scott went down to second. Dalton Jones came up to pinch-hit for Harrelson and was put on first to load the bases and set up a force. Dick Williams sent up Norm Seibern to pinch-hit for Petrocelli, and the first pitch to him went by Freehan in the dirt, allowing Yaz to come home with the lead run. Scott moved to third and Jones moved to second, forcing Wilson to intentionally walk Seibern to, again, set up a force play. Wilson got Gibson to hit a fly ball out to Kaline in right, and Scott beat his throw to the plate, putting the Sox up 4 to 2. It was far from over in the ninth-inning. Santiago got Wert to hit a fly ball out to Yaz who had to run in quite a way and made a nice sliding catch for the first out. Then Lenny Green batted for Wilson and worked José for a walk. Santiago also walked Dick McAuliffe to put runners on first and second. Eddie Mathews came to the plate as the potential winning run, and Williams brought in Bill Landis to pitch to him, and Landis got him on strikes. Now Gary Bell was brought into pitch to Kaline, who hit a hard liner to center, but on came Reggie and took the line drive knee-high and joined his teammates in a wild dash to embrace Bell on the mound. The come from behind victory enabled the Sox to keep pace with the Minnesota Twins, who beat the Athletics, 8 to 2 and remain tied for the American League lead. |
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