Page 290 - 1975 BoSox

Boston 2, Baltimore 0
September 16, 1975 at Fenway Park
by Mark Armour
AS THE SUN CAME UP ON September 16, the Red Sox enjoyed a 41⁄2-game lead over the Baltimore
Orioles with 12 games to play, a lead that might ordinarily have led to optimism. But really, the race seemed much tighter than that. e Orioles had won the AL East ve of the past six years, and Boston fans hardly needed reminding of what had happened a year earlier, when the Red Sox let a seven-game late-August lead slip away, taken down by an Orioles team that went 28-6 in the nal ve weeks.
Surprising no one, the Orioles were once again red hot in time for their nal showdown with the leaders, a two-game set in Fenway Park. After starting the year terribly — Baltimore stood in last place as late as June 10 and just 45-45 on July 20—the Orioles had put on a patented late-summer surge to get back in the race, 39 wins in 59 games heading into the two- game series.
e pitching matchup seemed to favor the visitors. Taking the hill for the Orioles would be Jim Palmer, the game’s greatest pitcher, with a record of 21-10 and a 2.17 ERA, including nine shutouts so far this year — the best season of his stellar career. Facing Palmer would be Luis Tiant, the Red Sox’ erstwhile ace who had struggled with a bad back most of the year and was just 16-13. But hope was not lost: Five days earlier Tiant had three-hit the Tigers, losing a no-hitter with two out in the eighth inning. Still, the Tigers were a last-place club, hardly the Baltimore Orioles.
e announced attendance was a season-high 34,724, though some observers believed the standing-room patrons swelled the crowd well beyond that total. “ ey have had these tickets since April,”wrote Peter Gammons in the Boston Globe, “in the eternal and
annual hope that this year, nally, would be the eradica- tion of frustrations past.”1
Truth be told, the game displayed very little action other than on the pitcher’s mound, where every eye was focused, and where the outcome was determined. e Red Sox stranded Denny Doyle after his one-out triple in the rst, but struck pay dirt on two Palmer mistakes — solo home runs by Rico Petrocelli in the third and Carlton Fisk in the fourth — both of which landed in the screen atop the left- eld fence.
e masterful Tiant took it from there. He allowed a single to Royle Stillman in the rst inning and a single to Don Baylor in the second (promptly picking him o ). e rst two Orioles reached in the fourth, but Tiant bore down and got out of the jam easily. He allowed singles in the sixth and seventh, but retired the last eight men to face him. In the game, the Orioles managed just ve singles, striking out eight times. It was Tiant’s rst shutout of 1975, and it took just 2 hours and 13 minutes.
“For all the acts and encores El Tiante has performed,” wrote Gammons, “this was perhaps his nest hour. If pennant races are supposed to come down to the great matchups of great pitchers, this was one we shall all remember years from now. With the perfectly timed comeback of Tiant, it was the matchup of two of the best money pitchers of recent years, won on two Palmer mistakes.”2
“It’s no disgrace losing to a guy who pitched that well,” said Palmer. “Frustrating, yes, but no disgrace. I just made two bad pitches, a fastball to Rico that I wanted a little on the outside and it wound up over the plate, and the fastball starting o to Fisk. Otherwise, I did about as well as I thought I could.”3 Palmer’s manager, Earl Weaver, had to agree: “ at’s about the best I have ever seen Tiant. He made good pitches tonight.
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