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THE "GOLD DUST TWINS" AND
A SEASON TO REMEMBER
...
Fred Lynn pinch hits the Sox to a win
July 8,
1975 ...
Fred Lynn had stayed on the bench, nursing his sore
wrist long enough. He had gone 0-14 before jamming his wrist during a
game in Milwaukee. He continued to rest it in this game, until the
ninth inning. Batting for Doug Griffin. His pinch-hit single with the
bases loaded, carried the Sox to a walk-off 6 to 5 win over the
Twins.
With the score tied at 5-5, Tom Johnson, who had come in for the
Twins in the seventh inning, started the ninth by giving up a base
hit to Jim Rice on a squibber that went about 25 ft. Cecil Cooper
sacrificed Rice to second and Johnson intentionally walked Carlton
Fisk to set up the force. But by walking Rick Burleson
unintentionally, he loaded the bases. And so manager Darrell Johnson
had decided that Lynn's sore wrist had enough rest and called for him
to pinch hit for Griffin. Freddy came through with a seeing-eye
single that went into right field. Rice scored, and the 17,500 Sox
fans cheered like mad.
Lynn's heroics saved the Sox from embarrassment in almost losing a
game they seemingly had won earlier. The Sox scored single runs in
each of the first three innings. Rice's single to center, scored
Bernie Carbo, who had reached on a hit in the first inning. Carbo
doubled off the wall in the second inning, to score Bob Heise, who
had got on with a hit before him. And in the third inning, Griffin
grounded into a doubleplay that had allowed Cecil Cooper, who had
started off the inning with a double, to score the Sox third run of
the game.
But in the bottom of the fifth inning, Rod Carew made a two-base
throwing error on Fisk's grounder and both Burleson and Heise
followed with doubles to put up two more runs. The Twins had scored a
run in the third inning, so now the Sox led 5 to 1.
After the Twins got to Luis Tiant for two runs in the seventh inning,
Dick Drago came in to start the eighth. Drago gave up two walks and
two singles and had to be bailed out by Jim Burton, but the Twins had
tied up the game, 5-5. Reggie Cleveland came in to work the ninth and
struck out two of the three batters he faced to pick up his fifth win
of the season. |
