Page 296 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 289
rough six innings, Holtzman, who had won 18 games in 1975, had nearly matched Tiant’s performance, surrendering just three hits and no earned runs, but trailed 2-0 because of the rst-inning defensive lapses.
e Red Sox drove him from the mound in the seventh. Evans opened the inning with a double. After Cooper sacri ced him to third, Burleson doubled past third base through the drawn-in in eld to expand the lead to three runs.
Oakland manager Alvin Dark called on Jim Todd to relieve Holtzman. Beniquez greeted him with a single that scored Burleson. Paul Lindblad replaced Todd, and Beniquez stole second and third and scored when North dropped Doyle’s y ball for Oakland’s fourth error of the game. After Yastrzemski popped out, Fisk singled to move Doyle to third, and Lynn plated both with a wind-aided double that Washington couldn’t catch against the wall. Dark turned to his fourth pitcher of the inning, Dick Bosman, who retired Petrocelli on a popup, but the damage had been done, ve runs on ve hits and an error.
Armed with a 7-0 lead, the Red Sox struggled defen- sively behind Tiant in the eighth. Campaneris reached on an error by Burleson, pinch-hitter Jim Holt doubled, and the Athletics recorded their lone run of the game when the speedy North reached rst on an error by Cooper. Tiant then took matters into his own hands, striking out Washington and Bando, and inducing Jackson to ground out.
After Glenn Abbott, Oakland’s fth pitcher of the night, retired Evans, Cooper, and Burleson in order in the bottom of the eighth, the Athletics entered the nal frame trailing by 7-1.
It was an insurmountable lead with Tiant dealing to the ascending chants of “Loo-ee, Loo-ee.” After issuing his third walk of the day, to Tenace, he retired Rudi on a y to center, induced pinch-hitter Don Hopkins to force Tenace on a pitcher-to-shortstop grounder, and completed the game by getting Campaneris to foul out to Petrocelli at third.
After the game, Jackson compared Tiant to a great American dancer. “Luis Tiant is the Fred Astaire of baseball.”
ALCS Game 2 — Boston 6, Oakland 3
Sunday, October 5, 1975
Fenway Park (attendance 35,578)
Boston captain Carl Yastrzemski led Boston to a 6-3 come-from-behind victory over Oakland on a beautiful fall afternoon at Fenway Park. He smacked a double and a homer, scored twice, drove in two runs, and cut down a baserunner in Boston’s 6-3 win over Oakland to take a 2-0 lead in the American League Championship Series.
e three-time world champion Athletics built a 3-0 lead by the middle of the fourth inning, but from that point on, starter Reggie Cleveland and relievers Roger Moret and Dick Drago shut down the potent Oakland attack, while Yaz, Carlton Fisk, Fred Lynn, and Rico Petrocelli clubbed the Red Sox to six unanswered runs.
e A’s jumped on top early in the game. After Cleveland retired Bill North and Bert Campaneris to open the game, Sal Bando smacked a double and Reggie Jackson followed with a two-run homer — the only Oakland round-tripper of the series — over the right- eld bullpen. Cleveland struck out Gene Tenace to end the inning, but the A’s led 2-0.
Vida Blue, the 1971 AL Cy Young winner and Most Valuable Player and a 22-game winner in 1975, started strongly, setting down the Red Sox in order in the rst inning. Both pitchers pitched perfect second innings, and the A’s led 2-0 after two.
Cleveland escaped a jam in the top of the third when the speedy Bert Campaneris drew a two-out walk, but was gunned out at third when Yastrzemski smoothly elded Bando’s single o the wall and threw a strike to third baseman Petrocelli. Blue worked out of a jam of his own in the bottom half of the inning when Cecil Cooper doubled with one out and Rick Burleson singled to put runners on the corners. But