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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- | 1950- | 1960-1969 | 1970- | 1980- | 1990- | 2000-1960 65-89, 7th place in the American League, 32 games back of the New York Yankees
April 18, 1960: On opening day in Washington, Camilo Pascual struck out fifteen Red Sox en route to a 10-1 victory.
April 19, 1960: Roger Maris made his Yankee debut, going 4-for-5 (including two homers and 4 RBIs), during an 8-4 victory over the Red Sox.
April 21, 1960: The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 4-0, in New York. It was the 100th time in their history that they shut out Boston.
May 31, 1960: Boston had just come off a ten game losing streak (from May 14-24) and had a 14-21 record at the end of May. Upset with the treatment of the team by the Boston press, Tom Yawkey threatened to move the Red Sox to another city.
May 14-June 28, 1960: The Red Sox played 48 games over this six-week period. They won 12, and lost 36.
August 9, 1960: With the game tied at three in the fifth inning, Indians 1B Vic Power hit a hard drive off of Bill Monbouquette and over the head of Red Sox RF Lu Clinton. Clinton gave chase and the ball bounced off the top of the outfield fence. Before the carom hit the ground, Clinton accidentally kicked it back over the fence. Since the ball never touched the ground, it was a homerun. The two-run homer proved to be the game-winner, as Cleveland won the game, 6-3.
September 26, 1960: Champagne flowed at Fenway Park as the New York Yankees clinched the American League pennant with a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
After the Red Sox started off 17-32, Pinky Higgins returned as manager. Boston allowed 775 runs scored, the most in the American League. The '60 Red Sox went 0-11 in Chicago. Jerry Casale lost nine consecutive games and finished the season 2-9.
1961 76-86, 6th place in the American League, 33 games back of the New York Yankees
April 21, 1961: Boston lost at Comiskey Park, 3-2. They had not won a game in Chicago since August 26, 1959.
May 14, 1961: Washington's Joe McLain shut out the Red Sox (3-0) in the first game of a doubleheader. The Senators tied a major league record when they had three pinch-hit walks in the ninth inning of the second game (which they also won, 2-1). The pair of losses dropped Boston from sixth to ninth place in the American League.
May 30, 1961: During a 12-3 Yankee victory over the Red Sox, New York hit seven home runs; Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Moose Skowron hit two each. Yogi Berra added one more.
June 8, 1961: The Red Sox were down 4-3 in the bottom of the eleventh inning against the Angels. Red Sox OF Gary Geiger tripled in the tying run. Upon reaching third, thinking that the game had been won, he jogged off the field to return to the dugout and was tagged out. The game was called at 1 am, ending in the 4-4 tie. It had to be replayed in its' entirety, and the Angels won the makeup game, 5-1.
June 9, 1961: In the second game of a doubleheader, Angels pitcher Ryne Duren struck out seven consecutive Red Sox batters as Los Angeles beat Boston 5-1. He fanned eleven in 6-2/3 innings. The official Angels lineup, filed before the start of the game, had Ken Hamlin leading off, and Gene Leek batting eighth. Strangely, Leek led off the first inning and was followed by the number two hitter, Lee Thomas, who singled. The Red Sox did not protest either batter (after allowing the number eight hitter to lead off the game, the number nine hitter should have followed). Leon Wagner properly followed Thomas and drove him in (the Sox could not protest at this point). It was not until Hamlin came to bat in the second inning in the eight slot that Boston protested, and Leek (the proper batter at that point) was called out.
July 21-22, 1961: On July 21, the Yankee's Mantle and Maris hit back-to-back homers off of Boston starter Bill Monbouquette. Later, Johnny Blanchard hit a ninth inning, pinch-hit, home run to win the game 11-8 over the Red Sox. On the following day, Blanchard hit another ninth inning, pinch hit, homer to spark a second come from behind victory over Boston. In his next two at bats (against the Chicago White Sox on July 26) he also hit home runs. Four home runs in four consecutive at bats is the American League record.
October 1, 1961: The Yankees beat the Red Sox one to nothing in the last game of the season, their 109th victory. The only run in the game was a home run hit off of Tracey Stallard in the fourth inning. That home run represented Roger Maris' 61st of the year, a record that stood for well over a quarter of a century. The Red Sox had a 5-13 record versus the '61 Yankees.
1962 76-84, 8th place in the American League, 19 games back of the New York Yankees
May 1, 1962: The Washington Senators snapped their thirteen-game losing streak by beating the Red Sox, 2-1.
June 11, 1962: The Indians had the bases loaded against Red Sox pitcher Earl Wilson. As Wilson started his delivery, Cleveland's Tito Francona yelled, "Hold it, Earl!" Boston's pitcher obliged, balking home a run. The Indians won the game 10-0. It was the 100th time that Cleveland shut out Boston in their history.
June 8-11, 1962: Cleveland had 80 hits, 51 runs, and 13 homers as the Indians took four of five games in Boston. Cleveland OF Willie Kirkland had nine hits (including three homers), 13 runs-batted-in, and eight runs-scored over the five game stretch.
The Red Sox finished eighth in the American League, their worst finish since 1932. RF Carroll Hardy batted .215 with a slugging percentage of .345.
1963 76-85, 7th place in the American League, 28 games back of the New York Yankees
Pinky Higgins moved to the Red Sox GM's role. Johnny Pesky replaced him as field manager.
April 11, 1963: Washington Senators pitcher Tom Cheney shut out the Red Sox, 8-0. He struck out ten, and walked one. Boston had two base runners all day, once on Eddie Bressoud's single in the fourth, and the other on Bob Tillman's leadoff walk in the sixth. Senators C Don Leppert had three homers, and five RBI, in four at-bats. He had a total of three other home runs all season (and only twelve others in his career).
April 24, 1963: Battling Earl Wilson in a pitchers duel, Cleveland's Gary Bell struck out Boston SS Eddie Bressoud three times in three at-bats over the first eight innings of the game. Jim "Mudcat" Grant finished the game for Cleveland, and struck out Bressoud a fourth time. Bell and Grant combined for a 2-0 blanking of the Sox.
May 4, 1963: Boston pitcher Ike DeLock gave up five runs before being sent to the showers in the first inning against the Kansas City Athletics. Jack Lamabe relieved DeLock and gave up another run before turning the ball over to Chet Nichols (Boston's third pitcher of the inning). Hal Kolstad took the mound in the second, and gave up eight runs on eight hits and three walks before the 14-3 game was called after six. Athletics SS Wayne Causey had three hits and a walk in his four plate appearances of the six-inning game. He scored two, and drove in four, runs. 3B Ed Charles had five RBI.
August 27, 1963: The Yankees' Jim Bouton pitched a 5-0 shutout in the first half of a doubleheader against the Red Sox. In the second half, Ralph Terry shut out Boston 3-0.
August 28, 1963: New York had a 4-1 lead after four innings against the Red Sox. Three of the Yankees runs were scored on a pair of Earl Wilson's wild pitches. He also tossed a third wild pitch, on which no runners scored. The game ended in a 4-1 Yankee victory.
September 21, 1963: Minnesota's Harmon Killebrew hit three home runs in the first game of a doubleheader against the Sox, and had another in the second game.
The Red Sox had a virtually identical record compared to 1962, and came in seventh place in the American League. Boston pitcher Earl Wilson had a total of 21 wild pitches in the 37 games that he appeared. He led the majors in walks allowed (105). Bill Monbouquette led the league in hits allowed, and the majors in earned runs allowed. 1B Dick "Dr. Strangeglove" Stuart struck out 144 times (including four times on May 7 and six times during a doubleheader on August 25), and committed 29 errors while fielding. His 29 errors at first are the most in the majors between 1920 and present.
1964 72-90, 8th place in the American League, 27 games back of the New York Yankees
May 26, 1964: Senators OF Jim King hit for the cycle against the Red Sox.
August 29, 1964: The Yankees swept a twilight doubleheader against Boston (10-2 and 6-1). Joe Pepitone had three home runs, Mantle had one, and Roger Maris had six hits. The Red Sox lost another game to the Yanks on August 30, finishing the month with a 7-22 record (.241).
September 6, 1964: Boston sold 22-year-old pitcher Wilbur Wood outright to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wood eventually emerged as one of the best pitchers in baseball in the early seventies.
September 23, 1964: Senators pitcher Don Loun beat the Red Sox 1-0 in his major league debut. It was the only victory of his major league career.
September 30, 1964: Indians pitchers Luis Tiant and Sam McDowell shut out the Red Sox at Fenway in both halves of a doubleheader, 5-0 and 3-0.
The Boston Red Sox stole a total of 18 bases over the entire 1964 season. Six players in the American League, and seven in the National League, swiped more bases than the Red Sox team. Boston's Bill Monbouquette led the league in hits allowed (258) and was third in homeruns allowed (34). Jack Lamabe led the majors in earned runs allowed (116).
1965 62-100, 9th place in the American League, 32 games back of the Minnesota Twins
June 15, 1965: Denny McLain came into the game as a relief pitcher in the first inning against Boston. He struck out the first seven batters he faced; setting a ML record and helping Detroit beat Boston 6-5.
July 9-20, 1965: Red Sox pitcher Bucky Brandon struck out four times on July 9, twice on July 15, and in his first at-bat on July 20, for seven consecutive strike outs.
July 20, 1965: Yankee pitcher Mel Stottlemyre hit an inside the park grand slam off of Bill Monbouquette to give New York the 6-3 win over Boston. He was the first pitcher to hit an inside the park grand slam since 1910.
May 31-July 23, 1965: Boston played 52 games over this 7-1/2 week stretch. The Red Sox won 13 games and lost 39. They went 8-21 (.276) in June, and improved to 9-21 (.300) in July.
August 27, 1965: The Red Sox split a doubleheader with the White Sox as they were mathematically eliminated from contention.
September 25, 1965: Boston faced 59-year-old pitcher Satchel Paige, who started the game for Kansas City. Page struck out one, and allowed only one hit (to Yastrzemski) in three innings. At 59 years, 2 months, and 18 days of age, Paige became the oldest person to ever play in the majors.
September 28, 1965: Red Sox pitcher Dave Morehead faced the Los Angeles Angels for the tenth time since the start of his career (in 1963). He lost the game, marking his tenth consecutive loss against the same team, an AL record.
October 3, 1965: On the final day of the 1965, less than five-hundred fans were in attendance at Fenway as the Yankee's Whitey Ford handed Boston their 100th loss of the season.
Boston won 62 games and lost 100 (their most losses since 1932) for a winning percentage of .383. The Red Sox did not have a month in 1965 in which they had a winning record. The Minnesota Twins went 17-1 against the Red Sox in 1965. Boston had four pitchers in the top-ten in the league in losses. Bill Monbouquette and Earl Wilson were among the leaders in both hits and HR allowed; Monbouquette had a seven game losing streak. Wilson allowed 102 earned runs (the most in the league). Dave Morehead gave up 113 walks, second to Cleveland's (perennial walk leader) Sam McDowell. The pitching staff committed twelve balks over the course of the season.
| Earl Wilson | |
| Bill Monbouquette | |
| Dave Morehead | Jim Lonborg |
1966 72-90, 9th place in the American League, 26 games back of the Baltimore Orioles
April 15-17, 1966: Boston batters struck out 42 times while being swept over three games by Cleveland.
April 30, 1966: Rick Reichardt had two homers in the eighth inning against Boston. The 12-run inning erased a 9-3 Red Sox lead, and California won the game 16-9. Boston started off the season by going 3-10 in April.
May 7, 1966: The Red Sox lost, 4-6, to the Twins. They had not beaten Minnesota since May 27, 1965 -- a losing streak of seventeen games.
May 29, 1966: Senators pitcher Phil Ortega struck out seven consecutive Red Sox batters as Washington won 3-2.
May 30, 1966: Chicago's John Buzhardt pitched a 1-0 shutout over Boston in the first game of a doubleheader. Jack Lamabe blanked the Red Sox, 11-0, in the nightcap.
June 14, 1966: Boston sent Earl Wilson and Joe Christopher to the Tigers for Don Demeter and Julio Navarro. Demeter played in 93 games for the Sox for a year before being traded to the Indians for Gary Bell. Wilson went 22-11 for Detroit in 1967 (the only 20-win season of his career), and won his only World Series ring with the '68 Tigers.
June 15-18, 1966: Boston played four games at Fenway between June 15 and June 18. They allowed a total of 48 runs in those four games (losing all four).
June 29, 1966: In the third inning at Fenway, Bobby Richardson, Mickey Mantle, and Joe Pepitone hit back-to-back-to-back home runs amidst a 6-5 New York victory.
August 13, 1966: Detroit pitcher Earl Wilson, hit a grand slam in the (six-run) seventh inning off of Boston's Dan Osinski. Wilson had five RBIs, and three runs, on three hits. He held the Red Sox to four hits, as Detroit won 13-1.
August 26, 1966: While playing Boston, Orioles Vic Roznovsky and Boog Powell came off the bench with consecutive pinch-hit homers to tie the game in the ninth. There have only been three times in the history of the game that there have been back-to-back pinch-hit home runs. Baltimore won the game in twelve innings, 3-2.
The '66 Sox had two regulars finish with batting averages of less than .215; Catcher Mike Ryan (.213) and 2B George Smith (.214). Team pitching allowed 731 runs, the most in the AL.
1967 92-70, American League Champions, lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series
May 17, 1967: Baltimore's Andy Etchebarren, Sam Bowens, Boog Powell, and Dave Johnson all homered in the nine-run seventh inning at Fenway. Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson and Paul Blair also homered for the Orioles in the game. It is the only time that seven teammates have homered in one game. The Red Sox lost 12-8.
Boston had another July through September run. In the season's final days, four teams still had a chance to grab the pennant. Carl Yastrzemski and the Red Sox beat the Twins in the two final games of the season, winning the American League Pennant by one game over both Minnesota and Detroit.
October 4, 1967: The Cardinal's Lou Brock failed to score in the first inning after he led off with a single and stole second on the next pitch. When he led off the third with another single, he made third on a Curt Flood double, and scored on a Roger Maris groundout. St. Louis pitcher Bob Gibson struck out six of the first ten batters he faced, and had the 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third when Boston starter, Jose Santiago, tied the game with a home run. Gibson and Santiago held the offenses in check until the seventh inning. Lou Brock led off the top of the seventh with his fourth hit, and second stolen base, of the game. Curt Flood sacrificed him to third, and Roger Maris sacrificed him home, giving him his second RBI. Gibson went the distance (allowing six hits and striking out ten -- including Rico Petrocelli three times) as the St. Louis Cardinals won the first game of the World Series 2-1.
October 7, 1967: After the Red Sox took game two, Lou Brock tripled on Gary Bell's first pitch of game three. He came home on Curt Flood's single. Bell was sent to the showers in the second inning when Mike Shannon homered with Tim McCarver on base. Bell had given up five hits to the first nine St. Louis hitters, spotting Nelson Briles to a 3-0 lead. Briles pitched a complete game, allowing seven hits, and won 5-2.
October 8, 1967: St. Louis ace Bob Gibson allowed five hits and shut out Boston 6-0. Roger Maris had another pair of RBIs, as did Tim McCarver. The Sox were down three games to one.
October 12, 1967: Boston took games five and six. Jim Lonborg (pitching on two days rest) faced Bob Gibson in the deciding game seven. Both pitchers had already won two games in the Series. In the top of the third, SS Dal Maxvill (.227 1967 regular season, .217 career batting average) tripled to lead off the inning for St. Louis. The next two batters were retired. With two outs, Curt Flood singled Maxvill home. Roger Maris singled Flood to third, and a Lonborg wild pitch allowed Flood to score; St. Louis led 2-0. Gibson homered in the fifth; Lou Brock singled and then stole both second and third. Brock had swiped three bases in the game. Maris sacrificed him home. The Red Sox scored one in the bottom of the fifth, but St. Louis added three more in the sixth to make it 7-1. Gibson struck out ten for the second time in the Series, and allowed only three hits, as Boston lost 7-2. It was Gibson's fifth consecutive Series victory.
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Bob Gibson (who had fractured his leg in July) was named World Series MVP. Lou Brock had seven stolen bases -- six more than the entire Red Sox team. Boston batted .216 in the Series. The 1967 Championship Cardinals featured two former Red Sox players; utility infielder Eddie Bressoud and reliever Jack Lamabe.
December 24, 1967: In 1967, Boston Pitcher Jim Lonborg had went 22-9 and won the Cy Young Award. While skiing at Lake Tahoe, he tore the ligaments in his left knee and then walked a mile on his injured leg to have it attended to. He eventually required surgery, and returned at mid-season the following year to post a 6-10 record.
1968 86-76, 4th place in the American League, 17 games back of the Detroit Tigers
April 27, 1968: Brooks Robinson saved Orioles P Tom Phoebus' (6-0) no-hitter against the Red Sox by snagging a Rico Petrocelli liner in the eighth. Pheobus also led the Baltimore offense, scoring the first run of the game after he singled in the third inning. He finished two-for-four at the plate, with one run and one RBI -- after almost being scratched due to a sore throat.
May 9, 1968: Senators LF Ed "The Creeper" Stroud bunted for a single off of Red Sox pitcher Jerry Stephenson to lead off the bottom of the second. He stole second, and Stephenson balked him to third. He scored the first run of the game (which Washington won 3-1) on Stephenson's wild pitch two batters later.
May 14-15, 1968: On May 14, Washington LF Frank Howard hit a two-run homer of off Boston's Ray Culp in the first inning, and a solo homer off of Lee Stange in the sixth at Fenway. The following day he hit a two-run homer off of Jose Santiago. The three homers were in the middle of Howard's six-game homerun streak in which he belted ten dingers.
May 20, 1968: Angels SS Jim Fregosi completed the cycle by hitting the game-winning RBI single in the eleventh inning against the Red Sox. California won 5-4.
July 15, 1968: Joe Rudi scored four runs, and batted in two, during an Oakland 12-5 win over Boston. He had two singles, a home run, and reached base once on an error.
August 16-17, 1968: The Red Sox (11 games back) met first place Detroit for a three games series in Fenway. Boston needed a sweep to get back into the pennant race. On August 16, Denny McLain pitched a 4-0 shutout. The win improved McLain to 16-0 on the road. Jim Lonborg hit Detroit C Bill Freehan three times with pitches. On August 17, Tigers 1B Norm Cash had five RBI on five hits, as Detroit won 10-9. The Tigers completed the sweep the following day with a 4-1 victory over the Sox.
September 20, 1968: Mickey Mantle hit the final (536th) home run of his career off of Boston's Jim Lonborg.
September 24, 1968: Senators 3B Ken McMullen scored four runs on four hits and a walk during a 10-2 Washington victory over Boston.
After a dismal World Series in '67 (.231, 6 strikeouts), 1B George Scott batted .171 with a .237 slugging percentage during the 1968 season. The Red Sox dropped to fourth place in 1968. Boston pitchers threw 73 wild pitches in 162 games.
1969 87-75, 3rd place in the AL East, 22 games back of the Baltimore Orioles
April 16, 1969: A rain-shortened 11-8 win in Boston moved the Orioles into first place. They stayed there for the rest of the season.
June 14, 1969: Reggie Jackson doubled home a run in the first, hit two-run homers in both the third and fifth innings, singled two more base runners home in the seventh, and drove in three more with another single in the eighth. His teammates added 20 hits for a total of 25 in the game. Jackson had 10 RBI during the 21-7 Oakland victory in Boston. He also had a homer in the opener of the three-game series on June 13. On June 15, Jackson had a double, a triple, a home run and was hit by a pitch, driving in a total of four, as Oakland beat Boston 13-5. He had a total of fifteen RBIs during Oakland's three-game sweep at Fenway. The Athletics had 48 hits during the series.
at Fenway |
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| .643 batting avg, .705 on-base percentage, 2.286 slugging percentage | |||||||||
June 21, 1969: After Boston took a 3-0 lead in the third inning, Yankees LF Roy White led off with a triple in the fourth. He scored later in the inning. His second triple of the game came in the top of the ninth with three men on and gave New York a 5-3 lead. White scored on a Bill Robinson sac fly. Jack Aker pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth, and the Yankees won the game 6-3. White also had a double in the second.
June 29, 1969: In the first half of a doubleheader, Boston had a 4-2 lead over Washington going into the ninth. After walking the leadoff batter, starting pitcher Mike Nagy was replaced by Lee Strange, who gave up a single to Ken Mullen. Bill Landis relieved Strange. Landis' wild throw on Sam Bowens' bunt allowed a run to score. Vicente Romo came in to pitch and walked Ed Brinkman to load the bases. Sparky Lyle (the fifth pitcher of the inning) relieved Romo, and Brant Alyea sacrificed Mullen home to tie the game. Del Uncer's grounder forced Bowens out at the plate, but C Tom Satriano threw wide to first, which allowed Ed Brinkman to slide home, winning the game. Five pitchers in one inning is the AL record. In the nightcap, Mike Epstein, Frank Howard, and Del Uncer homered during an 11-4 victory over the Red Sox.
September 11, 1969: Boston pitchers hit Baltimore's Andy Etchebarren twice in one game for the second time in 1969.
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