ON THIS DATE (May 16,
1964) ... Dick Radatz's bat, as well as his
arm, led the Sox to a 6-5 win over the Minnesota Twins in 10 innings.
It was a thriller in which the Red Sox out-homered the Twins, three
to two, and almost out-hit them two to one. The last hit came with
two outs and a bases loaded single, by Radatz himself.
The Sox tied the game in the ninth inning on a hit by Dick Williams.
Tony Conigliaro was on base and Russ Nixon singled to left. Williams
brought Tony C. in with a single to left that tied the game at five
apiece.
Radatz then came on in the 10th inning and rubbed out Tony Oliva, Bob
Allison and Jimmie Hall.
Carl Yastrzemski led off the Sox tenth by drawing a walk from Jerry
Arrigo, the fourth Twins pitcher of the game. Arrigo next struck out
Frank Malzone, who unsuccessfully tried to bunt Yaz over twice. After
Lou Clinton lined a double off the wall, Jim Perry came in to pitch
and intentionally passed Conigliaro to load the bases. Bob Tillman
accidentally checked his swing and knicked the ball down to
firstbaseman, Bob Allison,. who fired to the plate and nailed Yaz.
That brought up Radatz with a .333 BA. He took two quick strikes and
then lofted a bloop single that landed between Oliva and
secondbaseman, Bernie Allen, in short right field, scoring Clinton
with the walk-off game winner.
The hit brought Radatz's average up to .423 and gave him his third
win of the year and fourth over the Twins, going back to last year.
For a change the Sox were the first to jump out front in this game.
Dalton Jones opened the first inning with a base hit and was
forced at second by Eddie Bressoud. Yaz then lofted a homer into the
Twins' bullpen and the Sox were ahead, 2-0.
The Twins came back and scored a run off Jack Lamabe in the second
inning. Bob Allison doubled, went to third on a passed ball and
scored on Jimmie Hall's sacrifice fly.
Conigliaro lined a homer into the left field nets to put the Sox up 3
to 1 in the fourth inning.
In the fifth inning, Lamabe's bad throw allowed the Twins to tie the
game at 3-3. He had walked Earl Battey and Bernie Allen bounced a
ball back to the mound that Lamabe dropped. Pitcher Lee Stange tried
to sacrifice the runners over and dropped a bunt between third and
the mound. Lamabe raced over, grabbed the ball and threw it into left
field, trying to flag down Battey at third. Battey came in to score,
Allen scooted over to third and Stange scampered into second base on
the error. Zoilo Versalles brought home Allen with the tying run with
a single to right.
Harmon Killebrew broke the tie in the sixth inning with a line drive
over the Monster and Bob Allison put the Twins up 5-3 with a homer in
the eighth inning.
But the Sox came back in their half of the eighth when Bressoud
slammed his second homer of the season. The Sox were still trailing
by a run when they came up in the ninth however. Dick Stuart launched
the rally that would tie-up the game by knocking out a base hit.
Felix Mantilla came in to run for Stuart and Conigliaro forced him at
second with a failed bunt attempt. After Bob Tillman popped up, Russ
Nixon got a base hit and Tony C. moved up to second. And so up came
Dick Williams, who was 0-for-7 as a pinch hitter, and he lined a
single to left that scored Tony C. with the game-tying run. |