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A Chronological History of Amazing Boston Red Sox Losses, Remarkable Collapses and Other Record Breaking Feats
1900- | 1910- | 1920- | 1930- | 1940-1949 | 1950- | 1960- | 1970- | 1980- | 1990- | 2000-1940 82-72, tied for 4th place in the American League, 8 games back of the Detroit Tigers
May 20, 1940: Tigers 3B Pinky Higgins hit three home runs and drove in seven, leading Detroit to a 10-7 victory over Boston.
July 13, 1940: Chicago's Ted Lyons shutout the Red Sox at Fenway, 5-0, in the first game of a doubleheader. In the second game, Jack Knott followed with a 7-0 blanking of Boston.
September 8, 1940: Yankees 2B Joe Gordon completed the cycle in the fifth inning against the Red Sox. He was walked in his final two plate appearances. New York won the game 9-4.
September 21, 1940: A 5-4 loss to New York mathematically eliminated the Sox from the pennant race.
December 3, 1940: The Red Sox sold Denny Galehouse to the St. Louis Browns. Galehouse helped the 1944 Browns go to the World Series, where he pitched in two complete games, going 1-1 with a 1.50 ERA.
1941 84-70, 2nd place in the American League, 17 games back of the New York Yankees
June 8, 1941: The Red Sox were playing a doubleheader in Chicago while the Yankees were doing the same in St. Louis. Both Boston's Ted Williams and New York's Joe DiMaggio had hit in every game that they had played since May 15. DiMaggio homered in his first game, and doubled in the second game, extending his hitting streak to 24 games. Williams went 0-for-5 against the White Sox as his streak stopped at 23.
July 2, 1941: During a Yankee (8-4) victory, Joe DiMaggio extended his hitting streak to 45 consecutive games (breaking Willie Keeler's record of 44) with a homer off of Boston's Dick Newsome. DiMaggio would ultimately hit in 56 consecutive games, a record that still stands. The victory completed a three-game sweep of the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.
July 19, 1941: Browns 1B George McQuinn hit for the cycle in the first game of a doubleheader against the Red Sox. St. Louis won that game 9-3, as well as the second game (4-3).
September 4, 1941: A Yankee 6-3 victory at Fenway clinched the pennant for New York. It is the earliest date that the league pennant has ever been clinched.
December 13, 1941: Boston traded Stan Spence and Jack Wilson to the Washington Senators in return for Ken Chase and Johnny Welag. Welag never appeared in a game for the Sox, and Chase started fifteen games over two years. Spence did not play in 1945, but was an All-Star outfielder for Washington in 1942, 1944, 1946 and 1947. He was in the top-ten in MVP voting in both 1942 and 1944. The Senators traded him back to the Red Sox after the 1947 season. Spence played in 111 games for the '48 and '49 Sox, batting .231 (over fifty points below his career average).
1942 93-59, 2nd place in the American League, 9 games back of the New York Yankees
June 1, 1942: Boston released Jimmie Foxx (the greatest right handed hitter the team has ever known) after he started the season batting .270 and lacked power. The Chicago Cubs claimed him off waivers, and he finished his Hall of Fame career in the National League with the Cubs and the Phillies.
June 21, 1942: Ted Lyons won his 250th career game as the White Sox beat the Red Sox (6-5) at Comiskey Park.
St. Louis Browns knuckler Johnny Niggeling had seven starts against the Red Sox in 1942, beating them six times. He started five times against the Yankees, losing all five games. Niggeling's six victories over the Sox and five losses to the Yanks account for an eleven game differential in the standings. New York won the American league by nine games over second place Boston.
1943 68-84, 7th place in the American League, 29 games back of the New York Yankees
June 13, 1943: Ken Chase came into the game in the sixth inning against Washington, down 6-1. He walked eleven batters (and threw a wild pitch) in the final four innings as Boston lost 16-5.
September 12, 1943: The first-place Yankees won both halves of a doubleheader (1-0 and 9-6) against the Red Sox, mathematically eliminating Boston from contention. The pair of victories completed a five-game sweep of the Red Sox at Fenway.
The '43 Red Sox had a 5-17 record against the New York Yankees. Jim Tabor committed 26 errors while playing third base, leading the league for the fifth consecutive year. Tex Hughson gave up 23 home runs, the most in the majors.
1944 77-77, 4th place in the American League, 12 games back of the St. Louis Browns
April 18, 1944: New York had beaten Boston the last eight times they met in 1943. The Yankees shut out the Red Sox in their first game of 1944, extending their winning streak over Boston to nine games.
May 1, 1944: Senators 2B George Myatt had six hits in six at-bats, and Washington had a total of twenty hits as they beat the Red Sox 11-4.
July 30, 1944: Boston pitcher George "Pinky" Woods walked ten, and hit two, Cleveland batters as he lost 3-2.
September 2, 1944: The Red Sox were ten games over .500, and 1-1/2 back, in the middle of a four-team fight for first place. Boston went 8-16 over their final 24 games finishing twelve games back of St. Louis.
games in the standings during the final fifteen days of the season |
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1945 71-83, 7th place in the American League, 17-1/2 games back of the Detroit Tigers
The Red Sox opened the 1945 season by losing three straight at Yankee Stadium. It was the start of a 0-8 beginning; by April 27, Boston was down by 6-1/2 games in the AL.
June 21, 1945: Boston pitcher Dave Ferriss sought his tenth victory of the season. Tied at one, the Yankees scored thirteen runs in the fifth inning (nine off of Ferriss) en route to a 14-4 victory. Every Yankees batter had at least one hit in the game.
| ab r h bi | ab r h bi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stirnweiss, 2b | 5 2 2 2 | Lake, ss | 3 0 1 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crosetti, ss | 3 2 1 1 | Newsome, ss | 2 1 2 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Martin, lf | 4 1 1 1 | Steiner, 2b | 2 1 0 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Etten, 1b | 5 2 1 2 | Tobin, 2b | 2 0 0 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Metheny, rf | 5 1 1 2 | Metkovich, 1b | 5 0 0 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Grimes, 3b | 5 1 1 1 | Johnson, lf | 2 0 0 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Steinback, cf | 5 0 2 0 | McBride, lf | 0 1 0 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Garbark, c | 3 2 2 2 | Lazor, rf | 3 1 1 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dubiel, p | 3 3 1 1 | Bucher, 3b | 4 0 1 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Culberson, cf | 3 0 2 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Walters, c | 4 0 0 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ferriss, p | 1 0 0 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Barrett, p | 0 0 0 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Heflin, p | 3 0 0 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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For the second year in a row, Boston pitching allowed more runs than any other team in the American League. Dave Ferris led the league in hits allowed (263).
1946 104-50, AL Champions, lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series
July 14, 1946: Cleveland SS Lou Boudreau hit four doubles and a homer against the Red Sox, the only time in AL history that a player had five extra-base hits in one game.
In one of their greatest seasons (as Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr, and Dom DiMaggio returned from wartime service), the Boston Red Sox amassed 104 wins, winning their first American League pennant since 1918. Odds makers had Boston as two-to-one favorites to win the 1946 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
October 7, 1946: After St. Louis lost game one in extra innings, Harry "The Cat" Brecheen was on the mound for the Cards in game two. Tom McBride led off the game for the Sox with a single, but failed to score. Boston threatened in second when Roy Partee grounded out to end the inning with runners on first and second. Breechen drove in the first run of the game in the third. St. Louis added two more in the fifth, and Breechen gave up only four hits (all singles) in game two as the Cardinals shut out Boston, 3-0.
October 10, 1946: Boston took back the lead on October 9, but on October 10, Johnny Pesky, Tex Hughson, Mike Ryba, and Pinky Higgins all committed errors during a 12-3 Boston loss. Boston's Mace Brown (2.05 regular season ERA) pitched the eighth inning, giving up three earned runs on four hits and a walk. St. Louis had twenty hits in the game, a World Series record. Enos Slaughter, Joe Garagiola, and Whitey Kurowski had four hits each for the Cards.
October 11, 1946: A 6-3 victory put Boston up three games to two -- they needed only one win for the Championship.
October 13, 1946: Harry Brecheen was on the mound again for St. Louis. Joe Cronin oddly chose Mickey Harris (who had lost game two) to pitch instead of either Tex Hughson or Dave Ferriss. Boston had the bases loaded with one out in the first, but 1B Rudy York grounded into a double play. In the second inning, Cardinals LF Erv Dusak threw out Bobby Doerr at the plate. St. Louis scored three in the third -- driving Harris out of the game. Hughson came in to the game in relief for the Sox. Brecheen held Boston scoreless until giving up one run in the seventh, and the Cards won game six 4-1.
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October 15, 1946: In the first inning of the deciding game seven, Boston had one run in with runners on the corners and one out. Ted Williams flew out to center, and Rudy York popped out. The Cardinals tied it in the second and took the lead on four hits in the fifth, 3-1. Dom DiMaggio hit a 2-run double in the top of the eighth. Leon Culberson replaced DiMaggio, who had pulled a muscle, as a pinch runner. With Culberson representing the go-ahead run at second base, Williams popped out to second to end another rally; the game was tied at three.
"Country" Enos Slaughter started the bottom of the eighth with a single. He was stuck on first as Whitey Kurowski and Del Rice were retired. With two outs, Harry "The Hat" Walker hit a line drive to left-center. Slaughter got an early jump as Boston pitcher Bob Klinger failed to hold him on the bag. Culberson (now playing in center) bobbled Walker's double and SS Johnny Pesky hesitated on the cutoff. Ignoring third base coach Mike Gonzalez, Slaughter rounded third. Pesky's throw was off the mark (drawing C Roy Partee up the line) as Slaughter scored. St. Louis manager Eddie Dyer left Harry Brecheen (pitching in relief) in the game to hit, and he grounded out.
Returning to the mound in the ninth, Brecheen gave up back-to-back singles to Rudy York and Bobby Doerr; the Red Sox had men on first and second with no outs. A Pinky Higgins bunt moved pinch runner Paul Campbell to third; Boston had runners on the corners with one out. Cronin left the slow-footed Higgins on first although Don Gutteridge was available to run. Partee fouled out, and Tom McBride came in to hit for Earl Johnson. McBride hit the ball up the middle. 2B Red Schoendienst had a tough time fielding, but was able to get the ball to SS Marty Marion, beating Higgins by a foot. St. Louis won the game 4-3.
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The '46 Series will always be remembered in Red Sox lore as the one in which "Pesky held the ball." Johnny Pesky claimed that Enos Slaughter later told him that he would not have gone home if the stronger-throwing DiMaggio were still in center. Harry Walker, who batted .237 during the regular season, finished the Series with a .412 average.
1947 83-71, 3rd place in the American League, 14 games back of the New York Yankees
May 2, 1947: Indians pitcher Bob Feller struck out ten, while pitching his second one-hitter in ten days, beating the Red Sox 2-0.
September 3, 1947: In the first game of a doubleheader, the New York Yankees had eighteen hits (all singles) against the Red Sox at Fenway. New York won the game 11-2. In the second game, they had sixteen hits, winning 9-6.
On the heels of their first World Series appearance in 28 years, Tom Yawkey had confidently predicted a Championship in 1947. Boston's lack of depth hurt as they won 83 and lost 71, placing them third -- fourteen games behind the Yankees.
1948 96-59, 2nd place in the American League, 1 game back of the Cleveland Indians
May 20, 1948: The Cleveland Indians tied the AL record with 18 walks in one game while beating the Red Sox 13-4. Boston pitcher Mickey McDermott walked eleven. Bob Lemon, Jim Hegan, and Ken Keltner all earned RBIs without getting a hit.
September 10, 1948: New York's Joe DiMaggio broke a 6-6 tie with a tenth inning grand slam off of Boston pitcher Earl Caldwell. The ball landed in the centerfield bleachers at Fenway. New York scored another run on two singles and an error, winning the game 11-6.
September 22-28, 1948: After a pair of victories in Detroit, Boston stood alone in first place of the American League with five of their remaining nine games to be played at Fenway. On September 22, Cleveland's Bob Feller beat Joe Dobson, and the Indians were now tied for first place. Two days later, Boston lost to New York, deadlocking the Yankees, Indians, and Red Sox atop the American League. League President Will Harridge held a coin toss to determine where a possible tiebreaker between Boston and Cleveland would be played. The Red Sox won the flip; Fenway would be the park where the tiebreaker would take place if Boston and Cleveland ended up with identical records. Both New York and Boston lost two of their next three, dropping to two back of Cleveland on September 28 -- with four games remaining.
September 29-October 3, 1948: It took winning their final four games of the season to tie Cleveland for the best record in the AL. Boston was poised for their first cross-town Series; the winner of a one game AL tiebreaker (held at Fenway Park) would face the Boston Braves.
October 4, 1948: Cleveland sent rookie knuckler Gene Bearden to the mound on one day's rest. Boston manager Joe McCarthy started Denny Galehouse instead of their best pitcher, Mel Parnell -- a decision questioned by many (including most of his players). Even Galehouse was caught off guard; he was shagging balls in the outfield when an attendant was sent to inform him of the assignment. Cleveland's Lou Boudreau jacked one over the Green Monster in the first, and the Red Sox tied it in the bottom of the inning. In the fourth, Boudreau singled and moved on to second when Joe Gordon followed suit. 3B Ken Keltner hit a three-run homer over the left field fence to make it 4-1. Ellis Kinder relieved Galehouse and surrendered a double to Lary Doby, who later scored on a Jim Hegan grounder. Boudreau hit his second homer of the game in the fifth inning, prompting Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey to leave the ballpark in disgust. Boston scored two in the bottom of the sixth to make it 6-3. Lary Doby doubled again in the eighth, scoring when Ted Williams failed to handle a Gene Bearden fly ball. The Indians added their eighth run in the top of the ninth, and went on to win the World Series (four games to two) over the Braves. Lou Boudreau had four hits (including the two homers) in the game.
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1949 96-58, 2nd place in the American League, 1 game back of the New York Yankees
May 11, 1949: The Chicago White Sox scored in every inning while playing against the Red Sox. This rarity has only occurred five times in the history of the American League (including one other time against Boston, in 1923). The White Sox had fifteen hits and five walks. In addition, Boston helped the White Sox offense by committing four errors (three by 2B Bobby Doerr) and a balk (by Jack Robinson). John "Windy" McCall also threw a wild pitch. Chicago won the game 12-8.
June 24, 1949: Ted Williams was on first and Johnny Pesky on third with a 19-2 lead in the eighth inning against St. Louis. The Red Sox pulled off a double steal to increase the lead to 20-2.
June 28-30, 1949: The Yankees came to Fenway for a three game series. Joe DiMaggio returned from a foot injury to play his first game of the season. On June 28, DiMaggio led the Yankees to a 5-4 victory when he singled in his first at bat and hit a two-run homer in his second at bat. On June 29, he hit a three-run homer as well as another dinger to break a 7-7 tie; New York won 9-7. In the final game he hit another three-run homer as the Yanks swept the Sox with a 6-3 victory. Over the three games, Joe DiMaggio had nine RBIs, four homers, and a single. The Red Sox moved onto face Philadelphia, and were swept again. Their following series was in New York, where they lost the first two out of three.
August 9, 1949: Without a hit in his first four at bats facing New York's Vic Raschi, Dom DiMaggio was robbed by his brother Joe's shoestring catch in the eighth inning. Dom DiMaggio would not have another opportunity at the plate, and his 34-game hitting streak was broken.
September 13, 1949: Johnny Pesky was picked off second in the third inning by Detroit centerfielder Hoot Evers, who snuck in from the outfield.
On July 4, Boston's record was 35-36; they were behind the Yankees by twelve games. The Red Sox won 18 out of 30 in July and 24 of 32 in August. On September 1, they trailed by only two. After taking a pair of games from New York on September 24 & 25, Boston was tied for first. By the end of September, the Red Sox held a one game lead with two games remaining against second place New York; one win would clinch the pennant.
October 1, 1949: Going into the bottom of the fourth, Boston had a 4-0 lead and Mel Parnell (the league's best pitcher) on the mound. But, Red Sox catcher Birdie Tebbetts' catcalls incensed the Yankees as they were batting. Joe DiMaggio hit a ground rule double and Hank Bauer drove him home on a bloop single. Johnny Lindell singled, and Bauer scored on a sacrifice fly; the score was 4-2. Joe Page had relieved Allie Reynolds in the third, and his fastball held the Red Sox in check. In the fifth, Phil Rizzuto (who earlier had thrown a bat and attacked a water cooler in reaction to Tebbetts' needling) singled. Parnell missed a Tommy Henrich grounder for a double play, which allowed Rizzuto to advance to second. On the next pitch, Yogi Berra drove Rizzuto home. DiMaggio loaded the bases on a liner off of reliever Joe Dobson. Henrich scored from third to tie the game when Billy Johnson hit into a double play. In the eighth inning, New York took a 5-4 lead on a Johnny Lindell two-out homer to left. Neither team scored again; both teams had a 96-57 record going into the final game of the season.
October 2, 1949: Boston's Ellis Kinder (who had fifteen straight wins going back to June 6) faced the Yankee's Vic Raschi. Kinder was 5-0 versus New York since the beginning of the '48 season. Raschi's game plan was to pitch around (or walk) Ted Williams. Boston did not score in the top of the first, and Phil Rizzuto led off the bottom of the inning with a triple. With the infield playing back (giving up the run), Tommy Henrich drove him in on a grounder to second. The score remained 1-0 going into the eighth.
Raschi got Birdie Tebbetts out, but Tom Wright (pinch hitting for Kinder) drew a walk. Dom DiMaggio hit into a double play to end Boston's inning. Mel Parnell came in to face the Yanks. Henrich led off with a homer, and Yogi Berra followed with a single. Tex Hughson replaced Parnell on the mound. After Joe DiMaggio grounded into a double play, Johnny Lindell singled. As Ted Williams bobbled Billy Johnson's single, Hank Bauer (running for Lindell) took third. Cliff Mapes was walked and Jerry Coleman came to bat with the bases loaded. Coleman hit a blooper to short right. RF Al Zarilla tried to dive for, but dropped, the ball. By the time 2B Bobby Doerr threw Coleman out at third, three more runs had scored; the Yankees led 5-0.
In the top of the ninth, Johnny Pesky fouled out, and Raschi walked Williams. Vern Stephens singled, and Doerr hit a triple to score two. After Zarilla flied out, Billy Goodman singled Doerr home; the score was 5-3. With two outs, Goodman on first, and Birdie Tebbetts representing the tying run at the plate, Tebbetts fouled out to 1B Tommy Henrich for the final out.
Ted Williams was hitless in the game. Meanwhile, Detroit's George Kell went two-for-three to win the batting crown, .3429 to .34275. Kinder publicly questioned Joe McCarthy's decision to pinch-hit for him in the eighth. The Yankees continued on to beat Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Series.
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against second place New York; one win would clinch the pennant. |
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December 14, 1949: William Joseph Buckner was born in Vallejo, California.
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