September 28, 1974: Red Sox stave off elimination behind Luis Tiant, Dick Pole

On the morning of August 24, 1974, the Boston Red Sox boasted a season-high seven-game lead in the American League East Division over the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles. They possessed the best record in the AL to that point.

By September 4, this lead had dissipated, the Orioles – division winners in four of the five previous seasons – had made a last charge to coincide with a Red Sox collapse. Entering the final weekend of the season and with two series left on the schedule, Boston’s pennant chances now hung by a thread. After besting the Detroit Tigers in the first two games of four at Tiger Stadium, the Red Sox remained four games out with five to be played. The Yankees stood between Boston and Baltimore, a single game behind the leaders and three ahead of Boston.

Starting for the Red Sox on Saturday, September 28, was their ace, Luis Tiant, now in his third season in that role. Already he had made 1974 his best performance in Boston to date – a career-high 306 innings pitched, a league-leading seven shutouts, and 21 victories, which equaled his career-best total from 1968 with the Cleveland Indians. Even as the Red Sox crumbled, the 33-year-old Tiant rose to the occasion, contributing five starts of at least nine innings in September, in none of which he surrendered more than three runs, including a shutout of the Yankees on September 24. His September record of 1-4 exhibited Boston’s offensive collapse rather than any failings of his own.

Detroit, in last place and 15 games out, had comparatively little to play for, especially after Al Kaline achieved his 3,000th career hit on September 24, and it showed with the quality of their starter, Lerrin LaGrow. LaGrow had posted a 1-10 record with a 6.01 ERA since July 101 and had pitched particularly poorly in September. Ten days before, he had been knocked around Fenway Park for less than three innings, an 8-5 loss that dropped his season record to 8-17. Yet LaGrow at least proved one of the better pitchers on a staff carrying the American League’s worst ERA, 4.16.

The top of the first inning followed this recent history. Red Sox first baseman Cecil Cooper walked with one out before Jim Rice – in his 20th major league game after earning Minor League Player of the Year honors – drove him in with a triple. Rice, starting as the designated hitter, owed his place in the lineup to Carl Yastrzemski’s ailing back;2 Cooper, usually Boston’s designated hitter, was starting at first base in place of Yastrzemski, opening time for the 21-year-old rookie Rice. LaGrow worked around the next three batters to limit the damage and strand Rice on third.

Detroit’s half of the first showed a marked exception to Tiant’s recent efficiency. He allowed three straight singles, including a run-scoring knock by Gates Brown and a fielder’s choice by former Red Sox player Ben Oglivie, before setting down the next two men in order. The Tigers led 2-1.

Both pitchers had easy second and third innings, retiring the side in order. The floodgates opened in the fourth. Another Red Sox rookie, 22-year-old right fielder Fred Lynn, hitting .455 through his first dozen big-league games and batting cleanup, tripled to begin events. Bob Montgomery, the starting catcher since a knee injury ended Carlton Fisk’s season on June 28,3 doubled Lynn home, tying the game.

LaGrow retired the next two batters without allowing the ball out of the infield, but Rick Miller, a reserve outfielder making a start in center, singled Montgomery home. Another single and a walk loaded the bases and marked the end of LaGrow’s day; he was replaced by veteran swingman Luke Walker, the Tigers now trailing 3-2.

Walker, in the next to last appearance of a nine-year major-league career, walked Cooper to bring in a run. Shortstop Tom Veryzer flubbed a ball hit by Rice, tacking on another. Lynn took his second at-bat of the inning with the bases loaded and the score 5-2, Boston, and drew the third walk of the inning. Finally, Montgomery grounded out, but the Red Sox had scored five times and opened a 6-2 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Tiant set down the Tigers one-two-three for the third inning in a row, all on groundballs. After three straight singles to open the game, he had retired the last dozen batters and showed only signs of growing stronger as the innings passed.

The Red Sox threatened again in the fifth. Former Tigers star Dick McAuliffe – swapped to Boston for Oglivie the previous October – singled but was erased on rookie infielder Rick Burleson’s double-play grounder. Walker issued the sixth free pass granted by Detroit pitchers to Miller before striking out Doug Griffin to end the half-inning. Tiant continued to cruise and extended his streak of consecutive outs to 15, the last two on strikeouts.

For the third frame in a row, the Red Sox’ leadoff batter reached base in the sixth, this time on Tommy Harper’s single to center. Cooper sacrificed him to second. Walker struck out Rice, but then smacked Lynn with a pitch and Montgomery followed with his second RBI of the game, singling to center to score Harper. McAuliffe flied out to end the inning, but Boston now led by five runs, 7-2.

The Red Sox had not opened the bullpen for nearly a week, not since the Orioles knocked Reggie Cleveland out in the first inning on September 22. Tiant, Roger Moret, Bill Lee, Dick Drago, and Cleveland had thrown five consecutive complete games since then.

With such a commanding advantage however, first-year Red Sox manager Darrell Johnson elected to remove Tiant from the game, saving him for maybe one more start if the Red Sox continued to stave off elimination. On the mound in his stead was young reliever Dick Pole. Pole had the International League’s best ERA in 1973 with Boston’s Triple-A affiliate in Pawtucket.4 He had been up for a three-week stay in June and July before returning to the minors until September.

Pole had made 13 appearances with the big-league club, providing 33 innings of solid if unspectacular mop-up work (4.09 ERA, 26 strikeouts, 9 nine walks). The highlight was a seven-inning appearance in relief of Juan Marichal on September 8 that earned Pole his sole major-league victory in the season and was the last time the Red Sox held a share of first place.5

Pole followed up on Tiant’s good example, allowing only a single to Ron LeFlore to start the sixth and a walk to Jim Nettles in the seventh, preserving Boston’s 7-2 lead into the ninth. Tigers manager Ralph Houk had replaced Walker with Fred Holdsworth to start the seventh. Holdsworth provided the first drama-free innings since the third, retiring the Red Sox in order twice and inducing a ninth-inning-ending double play from Burleson to end a threat.

Pole, now in his fourth inning of work, remained steady at the helm, allowing Oglivie’s single with one out in the ninth, which was nullified by a game-ending double play started by Burleson. This lengthy yet productive outing earned Pole the first and, as it turned out, only save of his career. For Tiant, it was his career-high 22nd victory of the season, and the Red Sox remained in mathematical contention, four games out with as many left to play.

What slender hope endured in Boston died the next day as the Tigers bested the Red Sox, 7-4. Boston dropped two of three games against the Indians to end its season 84-78, seven games behind the Orioles.6 The Red Sox, however, bounced back in 1975; better production from Burleson, Cooper, Rice, Dwight Evans, and Lynn – the American League’s Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player – played a significant role in taking the team to the World Series.

Dick Pole, on the other hand, never matched his prospect pedigree, largely due to a line drive by Tony Muser of the Orioles that broke his cheekbone and damaged a retina in June 1975. He bounced between the minors and the major-league bullpen for three seasons. He ended his playing career still under Darrell Johnson, both by then with the 1978 Seattle Mariners. Pole served as a major-league pitching coach for two decades, including a return to the Red Sox as the bullpen coach in 1998.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Luis Tiant, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the Sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and the box scores.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET197409280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1974/B09280DET1974.htm

Notes

1 Malcolm Allen, “Lerrin LaGrow,” SABR BioProject. Accessed March 10, 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/lerrin-lagrow/.

2 Jim Hawkins, “No Kaline, Bosox Beat Tigers, 7-2,” Detroit Free Press, September 29, 1974: E1.

3 Peter Gammons, “Hurler Lee Leads Critic Chorus in Bosox Swoon,” The Sporting News, September 28, 1974: 19.

4 The 1973 Pawtucket Red Sox won the International League championship and the Junior World Series. Kurt Blumenau, “Jim Rice’s Homer Helps Pawtucket Red Sox to Junior World Series Crown,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/september-21-1973-rices-homer-helps-pawsox-to-junior-world-series-win/. Accessed April 2025.

5 Bill Nowlin, “Dick Pole,” SABR BioProject, accessed March 10, 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Dick-Pole/.

6 As that margin implies, Baltimore continued its own streak, sweeping the Tigers to end the regular season with nine consecutive victories. The Orioles then lost the American League Championship Series to the Oakland Athletics, three games to one. The A’s went on to win their third consecutive World Series championship.