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Ben Oglivie's walk-off HR September 4, 1973 ... Luis Tiant and Jim Palmer worked their magic in Fenway Park in front of 18,808 fans. But the game wound up with a wild explosion and gave Tiant, the man with a million wiggles, a much-needed victory over the stylish Palmer, 2 to 1 in 12 innings. The win came with suddenness. Palmer had retired 16 men in a row and most of them quite easily. He went into the final inning and faced Ben Oglivie who had only hit one ball out of the infield. But on the first pitch he saw, Oglivie hit a long fly ball toward left center and Orioles leftfielder, Al Bumbry, stood the wall waiting for it to hit and bounce back to him. But the ball fell barely over the top and Oglivie had his second home run of the year, giving Tiant the victory in the battle of the star pitchers. And so the Red Sox stayed in the pennant race, like the fighter going down for the final time, fighting for his life. They are now five behind and seven in the loss column to these Orioles. Tiant didn't seem to have a chance in the Orioles top of the 10th inning, when he had to escape from a bases loaded and nobody out situation. But he managed to survive it and it was strange how it happened. There was an error by Luis Aparicio involved in the inning and it turned out to be a break for the Red Sox. Bobby Grich started the inning off with a double to left field. The next hitter was Mark Belanger and he tried to hit to right-field and missed. He was then given a bunt sign and laid one down perfectly down the third-base line, but it rolled foul. On the next pitch he bunted again and the Sox let it roll, staying about 10 inches fair until it stopped near the third-base bag. Grich moved over to third and the Sox infield came in to cut off the possible run when Bumbry hit a soft roller to Aparicio. Luis bobbled it to load the bases and Tiant seem to be on the verge of another defeat. But the next batter, Rich Coggins, hit a hard two hopper to Cecil Cooper at first. In the eighth-inning, Cooper had made the best defense of play the game when he took a crazy bounding grounder from Boog Powell and converted into a doubleplay. This time the play called for a fast throw to the plate and Cooper was on target to Carlton Fisk. As Fisk took the ball, Cooper had to scurry back to first base and took the return throw for another doubleplay. There was still more trouble since the Orioles had men on second and third however, and Paul Blair was at bat. Blair had saved a run in the fourth inning when he went into the left centerfield and took Cooper's line drive, sliding on the grass. The second pitch to him he fouled off, but the next time he swung, he hit a grounder to Carl Yastrzemski at third, who threw him out easily. That was it and it had been a long time since anyone had seen a run scored, because after the first inning, nobody scored. They came close but always fell short, because two very good pitchers were very sharp. Yaz had tied the game for the Sox by knocking in Harper in the first inning, after Bumbry had crossed the plate on a hit by Boog Powell that put the Orioles briefly in front. So with the game tied at 1 to 1 it went into the 12th inning. |
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