September 14, 1949: Red Sox get 1-0 win over Tigers on a sixth-inning home run by Ted Williams

The race for the American League pennant had tightened considerably. The Boston Red Sox came into the game just 2½ games behind the New York Yankees. It truly was a race. The Red Sox had been 12 games behind on the Fourth of July, seven back at the end of July, and as close as just one game back on September 10.

They didn’t know it yet, but this win was the second in a stretch of 11 consecutive wins that ran from September 13 to September 27, and they were either in first place or tied for first from September 25 to the final game on October 2, when the Yankees took the pennant. Suffice it to say that every game was crucial at this point.

Ellis Kinder was starting for the Red Sox against the Detroit Tigers. He was on his way to a 23-6 record that proved the best won-lost percentage in either the American or National League. He started 30 games in the 1949 season and, in the year he turned 35, threw 19 complete games. He threw six shutouts, also leading both leagues, tied with Detroit’s Virgil Trucks in the American League.

On this day, Kinder was going for his 20th win.

It was a day game, on a Wednesday afternoon. Given the import of the game, one might have thought Fenway Park would have drawn more patrons but it was far from half-full. The attendance was 13,196. They saw a superbly pitched game, with only 10 base hits total and no errors.

Bases on balls were almost as much of a problem as base hits. Tigers starter Hal Newhouser walked five Boston batters. Kinder walked three. None of the walks resulted in any runs, though. Each team left five men on base.

The first batter Kinder faced was the leadoff man, third baseman Eddie Lake, who singled to left field. Lake was erased on the next play, a 6-4-3 double play hit into by Tigers first baseman Don Kolloway. Center fielder Pat Mullin hit the ball back to Kinder, who threw to Billy Goodman at first base for the third out.

Veteran left-hander Newhouser was 16-9 coming into the game, with a 3.31 ERA. His last start had been a shutout of the Cleveland Indians on September 8. The Tigers were in third place, 3½ games behind the Red Sox with this game and 12 others to play. They had a fairly good shot at second place, and an outside chance at first. They had good pitching: At season’s end, the highest ERA among their five regular starters was 3.71.

Newhouser disposed of the three Red Sox batters he faced in the first inning. Center fielder Dom DiMaggio had a 34-game hitting streak that had ended in August; he flied out to Vic Wertz in right field. Third baseman Johnny Pesky took a called third strike. And Ted Williams flied out to Mullin in center.

In the second, the Tigers once more got a leadoff single (by Wertz) erased by a double play. It was hit into by left fielder Hoot Evers, on a comebacker to Kinder, 1-4-3. Catcher Aaron Robinson then singled, but Kinder struck out shortstop Johnny Lipon.

Red Sox shortstop Vern Stephens fouled out to third base. After Al Zarilla grounded out to second base, Billy Goodman drew a walk, but second baseman Lou Stringer grounded into a force play.

Kinder pretty much took care of the three Tigers he faced in the top of the third. He struck out the second baseman, Neil Berry, then struck out Newhouser, and got Lake to hit the ball back to him, throwing the ball to first for the final out.

Newhouser saw a couple of Red Sox get on base when catcher Birdie Tebbetts led off with a single to center. He stole second base while Kinder was batting. Kinder struck out. DiMaggio grounded out to second base, and Tebbetts took third. Pesky walked, giving Boston runners on first and third and Ted Williams at bat, but Williams flied out to right field.

Kinder retired the side in order in the top of the fourth. The Red Sox mounted a bigger threat than in the third, but to no avail. Vern Stephens walked. Zarilla dropped a Texas Leaguer into left field. Goodman bunted to third base, sacrificing so both runners could get into scoring position. Stringer was walked intentionally, loading the bases with one out. Tebbetts, however, grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.

There was still no score at the halfway point. In the Tigers’ fifth, Evers singled to right, but Aaron Robinson grounded into a 3-6 double play nicely executed by Goodman and Stephens. Lipon walked, but Berry flied out to right.

Kinder took a called third strike to start the Red Sox’ fifth. DiMaggio doubled, but Pesky lined into a 6-4 double play. At this point, Newhouser had completed a string of 18 consecutive scoreless innings.

Kolloway hit a two-out single in the Tigers’ sixth but was left stranded on first base.

The first Boston batter in the bottom of the sixth was Ted Williams. On a 2-and-2 count, he hit an opposite-field home run – “a high fly to the right of the scoreboard in left.”1 It was “a 370-foot homer against the portside screen,” wrote the New York Times.2 With the home run, Williams tied two career marks. It was his 38th home run of the season, matching his total of 1946. It was also his 145th run batted in of the year, tying his personal best from 1939.3

There was a dispute; the Tigers argued that the ball had hit the top of the left-field wall and bounced back onto the field. The umpires huddled and all “agreed that it had hit a girder, bounced into the screen and then out on the diamond.”4 It was infrequent that Williams hit a home run to left field.

There was nobody on base, but it won the game. Stephens walked, Zarilla flied out, and Goodman lined into a double play.

Vic Wertz set the Tigers up to at least tie the score with a leadoff double in the seventh. Evers sacrificed him to third base, but Robinson grounded out to first, unassisted, and Lipon hit a fly ball to Stringer.

The Red Sox went down in order in their half of the inning.

Manager Red Rolfe sent up two pinch-hitters in succession in the top of the eighth, and employed a pinch-runner, too. Fred Hutchinson (batting for Berry) flied out to second. Dick Wakefield hit for Newhouser, and he walked. Paul Campbell ran for Wakefield. Eddie Lake hit into a 4-6-3 double play, the fourth double play of the game hit into by Detroit batters. (The Red Sox hit into three.)

Hal White was the new Tigers pitcher in the Red Sox’ eighth. He got DiMaggio to ground out to short and Pesky to fly out to center, and struck out Ted Williams on a called third strike.

Kinder had just the one-run lead. The first two balls hit off him in the top of the ninth both threatened the lead. Kolloway hit a fly ball to right-center for which “DiMaggio raced a country mile to make a spectacular catch.”5 Mullin hit a fly ball that Zarilla had to leap for to prevent it from going into the right-field bullpen for a home run.6 Wertz walked. Hoot Evers connected but he just hit a pop fly to Goodman for the final out of the game.

Kinder threw a six-hit shutout. Newhouser credited him after the game: “We got the lead-off batter on base in four of the first seven innings and couldn’t score. Boy, when a pitcher throws so a batter grinds the ball into the dirt and grounds into a double play, that’s pitching.”7

Newhouser had thrown a four-hitter but one of the hits was the Ted Williams home run.

The Red Sox clearly gained a game on the Tigers, but they lost ground to the Yankees, who swept two from the St. Louis Browns, 2-0 and 13-7.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Victoria Monte and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Ted Williams, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS194909140.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1949/B09140BOS1949.htm

Notes

1 Hy Hurwitz, “Sox Win, but Yanks Take Two,” Boston Globe, September 15, 1949: 1, 16.

2 Louis Effrat, “Kinder of Red Sox Takes 20th, 1-0, on Williams’ Blow Against Tigers,” New York Times, September 15, 1949: 36.

3 Williams ended the season with 43 homers and 159 RBIs, leading both leagues in both categories, though tied with teammate Vern Stephens in runs batted in.

4 For what it was worth, all in the press box thought it had gone into the screen, too. See Hurwitz, “Sox Win, but Yanks Take Two.”

5 Leo MacDonnel, “Hal Victim on 4-Hitter,” Detroit Times, September 15, 1949: C-31.

6 See Vic Johnson’s cartoon, Boston Herald, September 15, 1949: 18.

7 Will Cloney, “Ted Great Hitter, Says Hal,” Boston Herald, September 15, 1949: 17. Newhouser was also quoted at length about Williams as a hitter, saying he thought Williams could “hit about .390 or .400 every year if he wanted to” – and explained how.