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"THE SOX STUMBLE AND FALL AT THE END" ...
Yaz and Luis
complete a sweep of the Yankees
September 8, 1972
...
The costars of the Red Sox winning their third straight game and
sweeping the Yankees, 4 to 2, were Luis Tiant and Carl Yastrzemski.
Tiant missed a shutout after hurling four of them, when Celerino
Sanchez lined a single to score the first Yankee run in the fifth
inning. Felipe Alou had doubled off the wall in center field and
romped home easily. The other run off Tiant came in the sixth
inning, when Bobby Murcer lined a home run into the Red Sox bullpen, but that
was all the Yankees could do, although over the last couple of innings they were
streaking line drives over Luis' head, but right at Rick Miller in center.
The final out came with two Yankees on base and Sanchez at bat again. This
time he hit a fly ball to right, and Reggie Smith trotted in to catch it, while
Yaz raced over to the mound to embrace the weary Tiant.
Yaz hit a two run homer off Fritz Peterson, his sixth of the year. He also
singled in the first run in the first inning, after Luis Aparicio had doubled to
left field. Yaz hit everything hard in this game, including his ground ball
which went past secondbaseman Horace Clarke, to score after Aparicio in the
first inning. His home run came in the third with Tommy Harper on base after
drawing a walk.
As the game wore on, Tiant seem to be an even bigger favorite as the mob of
fans cheered him wildly. His streak had ended at 40 1/3 innings, two thirds of
an inning less than he had done with the Cleveland Indians, when he was rated
one of the best pitchers in baseball. He gave up only four hits, but many of the
smashes, hit by the Yankee batters, were hot and Miller just seemed to be in
their way. What Tiant accomplished is the most important thing in winning his
seventh consecutive game as a starter.
The Sox made six hits in this, their 12th win in the last 13 games at Fenway
Park, and 14th win in their last 17 games total. Aparicio had two of them along
with Yaz, while Doug Griffin came out of a slight slump with a base hit, and
Harper slammed a double for the other hit. |
