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ON THIS DATE (August
20, 1967) ... Jerry Adair hit a home run in the
eighth-inning of the second game of the doubleheader between the Red
Sox in the California Angels, to win it 9 to 8, and sweep the series.
It was one of the best comebacks of the year to get the Red Sox into the spot
where Adair could hit his long fly into the left-field net off Minnie Rojas. The
Angels were beaten, 12 to 2, in the first game with Lee Stange getting the win.
When Reggie Smith hit his third home run of the afternoon, two left-handed
and one right-handed, making Red Sox history, there was hope for the 33,840 fans
who filled the stands. His third home run happened in the fourth inning while
the Sox were behind, 8 to 0. Then an inning later, Carl Yastrzemski hit a three
run homer, his second of the afternoon and his 31st of the year, to make it 8 to
4.
The Red Sox erupted for four more runs in the sixth. It started with a walk
by the now notorious, Jack Hamilton, to Mike Andrews. Joe Foy then doubled down
the right-field line and after a walk to Mike Ryan, manager Bill Rigney came out
and called in Minnie Rojas, his top reliever.
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ADAIR HOMERS |
Dalton Jones greeted him with a pitch off the centerfield wall for a double
and two more runs batted in. Then José Tartabull lifted a sacrifice fly to score
Ryan and send Jones over to third-base. Now the Sox were only a run behind and
up came Jerry Adair. Adair lined a single to score Jones and tie the game as
Fenway started to rock. Rojas was still working when he faced Adair again in the
eighth, and this time Jerry lined one over the left-field wall to give the Sox a
9 to 8 lead, raising bedlam at Fenway.
There was trouble in the ninth as Jose Santiago gave up a leadoff single to
Don Mincher. Rick Reichardt followed with a double that sent pinch runner José
Cardenal over to third, with no outs. The infield came in and Bob Rodgers hit
one down to Andrews, at second, who was able to hold both the baserunners. Then
Santiago got Bobby Knoop to strike out with a big roundhouse curve.
Sal Maglie the pitching coach, then went to the mound and conferred with his
pitcher, agreeing to walk Tom Satriano and load the bases. That brought up Bill
Skowron, pinch-hitting for Rojas. Skowron's old teammate, Elston Howard was
behind the plate and he told Santiago to keep the ball low, which Jose did,
getting Skowron to hit one to Rico Petrocelli, who forced Satriano at second
base, to end the game.
The first game was pure torture for the Angels but great for Lee Stange, who
only had trouble in the third inning, when he had a runner at third with one
out, but got a groundout and struck out Roger Repoz to get out of it.
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REGGIE SMITH'S THIRD HOMER |
The Red Sox had a 5 to 0 lead at the time, having scored all their runs in
the first inning off George Brunet. Adair had singled, George Scott had walked
and Reggie Smith unloaded a home run, right-handed, into the net in left. After
a base hit by Howard, Rico Petrocelli slammed one into the net also.
In the sixth inning the Red Sox climbed all over Angels pitching. George
Thomas led off with a single to left and was sacrificed to second by Stange,
coming in on a base hit by Andrews. Then, Yaz hit probably one of his longest
home runs, to right-field after a base hit by Joe Foy. Reggie followed that up
by hitting his second home run and scoring José Tartabull, who had run for
Scott, after he drew a base on balls.
Down 12 to 0, the Angels did score a run in the seventh inning and another in
the eighth. The two victories enabled the Red Sox to move to 1 1/2 games of the
league-leading Minnesota Twins |
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