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THE SOX STUMBLE AND
FALL AT THE END ... June 28, 1972 ... Luis Tiant was at his best, with showbiz flair and his competitive urge aroused. He was not only good, but he made the game fun and really, in the last three years, was he any better. So overpowering was he before the enraptured onlookers at Fenway Park, that he stole the show from the likes of Carl Yastrzemski, who had two hits and two RBIs, and Carlton Fisk, who went three for three with two doubles, raising his average to .285. It was truly Tiant's night first and the Red Sox' second, as the hometown team stopped the Detroit Tigers, 5 to 3. Tiant's statistics spoke for themselves. He pitched five innings, giving up one hit, no runs and racked up five strikeouts. But it wasn't just the stats which made the game memorable. He was so swivel hipped, coming from first base, twisting his back around and finally delivering the ball, that he confused the batters. And it was never more so than in the ninth inning, when he struck out Aurelio Rodriguez and Al Kaline, leaving Dick McAuliffe who had reached base for the fifth straight time, stranded on first base. Neither of the starters, Joe Coleman for Detroit, nor Sonny Siebert for the Red Sox, had much. Both were gone by the sixth inning. Siebert was trailing 3 to 1 when he left for a pinch-hitter in the fourth inning. Things look fairly bleak when Tiant came in to start the fifth. Tommy Harper was gone as result of a pulled hamstring in his left leg, while running out of routine grounder. The Sox were behind because Jim Northrup hit a long home run over the Red Sox bullpen. But in the last after the fifth, Doug Griffin started things off with a double. Yastrzemski ripped a vintage line drive to center, which turned into a triple when the ball bounced mysteriously over the left shoulder of Mickey Stanley. Reggie Smith hit the next pitch for a single to right, that tied the score. After Rico Petrocelli struck out, Coleman put Bob Burda on first after he had him behind in the count. When Juan Beniquez reached for an outside pitch and pushed it into right field to break the tie, that was the night for Coleman. The final Red Sox run came in the seventh, on a combination of two hits and three walks, the last with the bases loaded by pinch-hitter Phil Gagliano. The game then belonged to Tiant, who twice got into trouble, but that only made things more interesting. In the sixth, he had two men on and two out, with Rodriguez, who had driven in the first two Detroit runs, up at bat. He struck him out on a good fastball. The ninth-inning was a bit more dramatic. With one out, he walked McAuliffe on four straight pitches and fell behind 3-0 to Rodriguez. But Tiant came back and struck him out, bringing up Al Kaline. Savoring each stretch and turn, he carefully lowered his hands step-by-step before pitching the ball. The crowd was tantalized and responded the way Seņor Tiant loves, as the struck out Kaline on another fastball to win the game. |
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