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REGGIE SMITH
SLIDES INTO THIRD |
ON THIS DATE (May
19, 1967) ... The Red Sox scored two runs in
the bottom of the ninth-inning, with pinch-hitter, Tony Horton
singling to right and scoring the deciding run, that defeated the
Cleveland Indians, 3 to 2. At the beginning of the game the jet
stream picked up a fly ball hit by Leon Wagner, with a man on first, and carried
it into the left-field screen. From there on until the ninth-inning, it looked
like Jim Lonborg would suffer one of his most exasperating defeats of the
season.
Joe Foy had hit a home run off Gary Bell in the seventh inning to bring the
score to 2 to 1. But opportunity after opportunity faded for the Red Sox in
between.
The Sox hit safely off Bell in every inning but the fourth. They hurt
themselves in the fifth when Ryan doubled to start and Lonborg's attempt to
sacrifice him wound up with Ryan getting tagged out at third. In the first
inning Yastrzemski at doubled with two outs and didn't move on. Demeter doubled
in the sixth with two outs and didn't score. George Scott open the eighth with a
single and was sacrificed along but neither Rico Petrocelli nor Joe Foy could
bring him home. So it was one failure after another until the ninth-inning.
Bell had given up eight hits in eight innings while Lonborg had given up only
four hits going into the ninth. Lonborg had struck out 11 men, four of them
going in a row, while the Red Sox left men on base to perish.
But in the ninth-inning, José Tartabull came off the bench to bat for Mike
Ryan. He bounced one over the pitcher's head and Pedro Gonzales made a great
effort in throwing across his body to get the ball to first. But Tartabull's
speed allowed him to beat the throw. Then Dalton Jones batted for Lonborg and
dropped down a nice sacrifice bunt. Bell took a look at second but realized he
didn't have a play on the speedy Tartabull, so he had to go to first. Up came
Reggie Smith and twice earlier he had lined the ball to centerfield, only to
have it gobbled up by Chuck Hinton. This time Smith's line drive went to center,
but now little Vic Davalillo was out there and the ball was over his head and
bounced by him for at least 30 feet. Smith was running like mad and made it into
third-base by the time Tartabull had crossed the plate with the tying run.
As the crowd was going crazy, out came Indians manager Joe Adcock to get
Bell. Orlando Pena replaced him and faced Tony Horton, who batted for Mike Ryan.
Against a drawn in infield, Horton lined a single to right to score Smith with
the walkoff winning run. Smith beat the throw to the plate, by his fingertips to
enjoy the biggest hit of his young major league career.
Lonborg had given up the two runs in the first inning when Hinton walked
before the home run by Wagner. But after that only Max Alvis doubled in the
third inning and was stranded at third. Fred Whitfield singled in the fourth and
then again in the ninth and that was it. Lonborg had a powerful fastball and a
good curve working for him. He struck out Alvis, Hinton and Wagner in order in
the eighth-inning, and started the ninth of striking out Rocky Colavito for the
third time during the game. |
