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Rico Petrocelli rescues the Sox in the 9th inning July 20, 1971 ... The Chicago White Sox and pitcher Tom Bradley found out that if you walked Carl Yastrzemski to get to Rico Petrocelli you might be pressing your luck. In the ninth-inning, with a man on second, and Yaz intentionally walked to set up a doubleplay, Rico slammed a shot past third base to give the Sox a 5 to 4 victory, the fifth win in the last six games. The hit put and end to a rather bumbling game. Control sent Luis Tiant to the showers early, but he got picked up brilliantly by Bill Lee and Bob Bolin. Carlos May got five straight hits, making it seven in two days for the White Sox and Phil Gagliano, filling in for John Kennedy, became a hero. The score was tied at 4 to 4 in the ninth-inning when Gagliano walked. When Luis Aparicio squared around bunt, catcher Tom Egan jumped out, but the ball sailed off Egan's glove to the backstop, putting Gagliano on second . Aparico failed to bunt him to third and struck out. If he had moved him, Gagliano would have immediately scored on Reggie Smith's long fly to right-field. Next up was Yaz and Bradley walked him intentionally. In the seventh inning, Yaz was walked intentionally to load the bases with one out, and Petrocelli bounced into a doubleplay. That move worked out, but this one wouldn't. Rico, who leads the team with nine game-winning hits, drove the first pitch past third and Gagliano crossed the plate with the winning run. It was Rico's third hit of the night, one of which was his 18th homer of the season. The win went to Bob Bolin, who struck out the side in the ninth. He had replaced Lee, who pitched 4 2/3 innings, allowing two hits and striking out five. Tiant struck out seven in 3 2/3 innings, but once again control and the one bad inning, killed him. He went into the fourth with a 1 to 0 lead, extending his scoreless streak to 18 innings, but then came a nightmare in which he threw 37 pitches and couldn't get out of the inning. With one out, Luis walked two men, both on 3-2 pitches. He then threw a bad pitch which Rich Morales looped into left-field to load the bases. Tiant spun around and struck out Chicago starting pitcher Steve Kealey, but on a 3-2 pitch, walked Pat Kelly to bring in the tying run. Then the Red Sox batters went to sleep. Rich McKinney looped what appeared to be an easy fly to short center. Reggie Smith broke back at first and by the time he came in, the ball had dropped in and two runs scored. Carlos May shot the ball into center and the White Sox were winning 4 to 1. Petrocelli's home run, in the fifth, made it 4 to 2 and then the White Sox started to throw the ball game away. With George Scott on first, Joe Lahoud hit a perfect doubleplay ball to Bob Spence at first. Spence booted the ball and only could get Lahoud, while Duane Josephson next brought Scotty home with a single, making it 4 to 3. The Sox tied the score in the sixth. Petrocelli hit a pop fly to short left and shortstop, Rich Morales drifted out after the ball. He finally caught up with it in shallow center, but as he did, Rick Reichardt came running into him. Morales and the ball went bouncing around the ground as Rico strolled into second base. Rico later scored when Spence conveniently made an error.
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