April 8, 1973: First hit by the first Red Sox DH, Orlando Cepeda, is walk-off homer over the Yankees

In 1972 the Boston Red Sox finished a half-game behind the Detroit Tigers in the American League East. It was a strike-shortened season and Detroit played one more game than Boston, finishing 86-70 to Boston’s 85-70, the win in that one extra game making all the difference.

The Red Sox had lost 16 one-run games in 1972.1 With the margin between first place and second so slim, even the slightest improvement could be enough to change the division’s outcome.

For 1973, the first season in which AL teams employed a designated hitter, the Red Sox brought in a significant upgrade over their .161-hitting pitching staff: a former National League Rookie of the Year, MVP, and home-run champion whose career batting average was nearly .300.2 On January 18 the Red Sox signed Orlando Cepeda to serve as their first DH.

A 15-year veteran who had played almost exclusively in the NL, the 35-year-old Cepeda entered 1973 with a .298 career batting average with 358 home runs and 1,261 runs batted in. He had been NL Rookie of the Year with the San Francisco Giants in 1958 and 1967 National League MVP with the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, and was named to 11 All-Star teams.3 He had missed a considerable part of the 1972 season after knee surgery (his fourth such surgery), appearing in only 31 games with the Atlanta Braves and Oakland A’s.

One writer proclaimed, “It is hard to think of anyone better suited to the role of designated pinch hitter at Fenway Park than Cepeda.”4

Cepeda’s first game as a DH was against the New York Yankees on Opening Day in Boston on April 6. He was slotted fifth in the batting order. The pitching matchup was Luis Tiant for the Red Sox against Mel Stottlemyre for the Yankees. The Red Sox won the game, 15-5. Ron Blomberg, New York’s DH, was 1-for-3 with an RBI. When Blomberg walked with the bases loaded in top of the first, giving the Yankees a short-lived lead, he became the first DH to bat in an AL game.

Cepeda’s first time at DH was leading off the second inning; he struck out. He came to bat six times in the game, hitting a fly-ball out in the third, striking out again in the fourth, flying out in the fifth, grounding out in the seventh, and flying out to the shortstop in the eighth. He was 0-for-6, the only player in the Red Sox starting nine without a base hit.

In his second game, on Saturday afternoon, April 7, Cepeda was again hitless, but this time he drove in two runs in Boston’s 10-5 win over the Yankees – on a first-inning sacrifice fly to left and another sacrifice fly in the sixth. Cepeda also grounded out, third to first, walked, and struck out.

For the Sunday series finale on April 8, Cepeda was again at DH and batting fifth. There was some thought that Ben Oglivie might serve as Boston’s DH when the team traveled to Milwaukee for its next series of games.5

The game featured Red Sox left-hander John Curtis (13-10 over parts of three seasons with Boston) against New York rookie righty George “Doc” Medich, a medical student during the offseason. Medich had appeared in one game for the 1972 Yankees and bore a career ERA of infinity, having started once and giving up two runs in the first inning without recording an out.

The Yankees scored one run in the top of the first on a two-out walk to Cepeda’s former Giants teammate Matty Alou, a single by Bobby Murcer, and a single by Graig Nettles. They scored a second run, in the second inning, on a leadoff homer by Thurman Munson.

The Red Sox had one hit in the first inning, by Luis Aparicio with one out. After that, Medich retired 14 batters in a row through the fifth, stalling an offense that had scored 25 runs on 33 hits in the first two games. Cepeda led off Boston’s second inning by grounding to third baseman Nettles, who threw to first for the out. He grounded out to second in the bottom of the fifth.

Murcer hit another single in the top of the third and took second on Nettles’ fly out, but Curtis stranded him, then pitched perfect innings in the fourth and fifth. Two Yankees reached base in the sixth on a pair of two-out errors by Red Sox shortstop Mario Guerrero, who made his major-league debut by replacing Aparicio after the third inning.6 But Curtis left them there by inducing Yankees DH Ron Swoboda to hit into a force at second, keeping it a 2-0 game.

The Red Sox rallied to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth. Second baseman Doug Griffin led off with a single to left, snapping Medich’s perfect string. Dwight Evans popped up to right. Tommy Harper singled up the middle into center, and Guerrero loaded the bases with his first big-league hit, a single behind second base.

Yankees manager Ralph Houk brought in lefty Sparky Lyle to relieve Medich. Carl Yastrzemski grounded out on a ball slowly hit to second, Griffin scoring. Center fielder Reggie Smith hit a high, arcing “fly-ball double off the left-field scoreboard,” driving in both Harper and Guerrero.7 Smith reached third base safely on an error by Nettles.  

That brought up Boston’s designated hitter, but Cepeda grounded out, third to first, ending the inning. The Red Sox led, 3-2.

Curtis retired the Yankees in order in the seventh. Lyle retired the Red Sox in order in the bottom of the inning.

In the eighth, Curtis retired the Yankees in order again, his fourth one-two-three inning of the day. Seeking insurance in their in their half against Lyle, the Red Sox saw Harper work a one-out walk and Guerrero hit a single, Harper stopping at second. With Yastrzemski batting, the runners executed a successful double steal. Yaz then grounded the ball to Horace Clarke at second, who threw to Munson for a tag on Harper at the plate. Smith flied out to left.

With the Yankees three outs from getting swept, Felipe Alou – like his brother Matty a former Cepeda teammate in San Francisco – singled to lead off the top of the ninth. Then Munson singled to left, Alou holding at second.

Red Sox manager Eddie Kasko brought in Bob Veale – a veteran of 11 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, now in his second season in Boston – in relief of Curtis. Swoboda hit a foul popup to Sox catcher Carlton Fisk for the first out.

Gene Michael then hit a groundball to Guerrero at short, who got a force out at second, but Munson slid into second base so hard that Griffin’s throw – which could have ended the game on a double play – sailed into the Red Sox dugout. An error was charged to Griffin, and Alou scored on the play, costing Curtis his chance at a win. The Yankees had tied the game, 3-3. Clarke made the third out with a foul popup to Yastrzemski at first base.

The game went to the bottom of the ninth. The first batter up was the righty-batting Cepeda. With 35 saves leading the league in 1972, Lyle seemed like a good man to have on the mound. He’d placed third in the American League MVP balloting in 1972. This was his first time pitching at Fenway for the Yankees; he hadn’t done so in 1972. Cepeda at this point was 0-for-11 at a designated hitter.

Lyle’s 1-and-1 pitch to Cepeda was hit to left field, a home run, “a vicious liner through a heavy north wind.”8 It was hit so hard “it streaked through the adverse wind and into the mesh in left as though shot from a gun.”9

Lye hadn’t lost a game in 1972 until June 4, but the Yankees had to return to Yankee Stadium for their home opener after being swept by Boston in the first series of 1973, winless in their first three games under new owner George Steinbrenner, who had remained in New York for the weekend.10

It was the first time since Tom Yawkey bought the team 40 years earlier that Boston had started a season with a sweep of the Yankees.

Ralph Houk said, “This really hurts. If you lose three straight in mid-season, you shrug it off, and say, ‘It’s one of those things. We’ll make it up.’ But at the beginning of the season, it seems worse than it really is.”11

Cepeda had won the game. “The designated hitter became the designated hero,” wrote Fred Ciampa in the Boston Herald.12 “That gives me one of the biggest thrills of my career,” Cepeda said, “That was one of the happiest hits of my life.”13

By season’s end, the Red Sox were again second in the AL East, this time behind the Baltimore Orioles, but Cepeda had 86 RBIs – second on the team only to Yastrzemski’s 95. He had 20 home runs and a .289 batting average.14 The voting for the AL’s first-ever Designated Hitter Award (since renamed the Edgar Martinez Award) resulted in the honor going to Orlando Cepeda.

Acknowledgments 

This article was fact-checked by Mike Huber and copy-edited by Len Levin.

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/BOS197304080.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1973/B04080BOS1973.htm

Notes

1 The Tigers lost 24 one-run games in 1972.

2 The DH position (initially called the designated pinch hitter) was adopted for an initial three-year trial period on January 11. One week later, the Red Sox hired Cepeda. The plan was to use him when a right-handed hitter was called for, such as in home games at Fenway Park, and likely batting him fourth. “Without having to play in the field, Cepeda can protect his legs,” wrote the Boston Herald’s Larry Claflin. “He will have to run the bases, but not having to play nine innings in the field should benefit him greatly.” Claflin pointed out that Cepeda had five seasons of 100 or more RBIs and that nine times he had hit .300 or better. Larry Claflin, “Cepeda to Bat Cleanup for Sox,” Boston Sunday Herald Advertiser, January 21, 1973: 63.

3 Though the Cardinals beat the Red Sox in the 1967 World Series, Cepeda had not been that effective, with only three hits in the seven games. His 111 RBIs during the regular season, however, led the league.

4 Claflin.

5 Harold Kaese, “Sox Open Season Like Bottle of Champagne – Pop,” Boston Globe, April 9, 1973: 26.

6 Guerrero had been in the Yankees’ farm system but was sent to the Red Sox on June 30, 1972, as the player to be named later in the March 22 trade that sent Danny Cater from the Yankees to Boston and Sparky Lyle from Boston to New York. Aparicio had had to leave the game because he got some dirt in his eye.

7 Murray Chass, “Red Sox DH Homer Downs Yanks,4-3,” New York Times, April 9, 1973: 53. It was said the wind was so strong it had kept the ball from being a home run. See Fred Ciampa, “Sox Nip Yanks on Cepeda HR, 4-3,” Boston Herald American, April 9, 1973: 21.

8 Cliff Keane, “HR off Lyle in 9th Sweeps Yanks,4-3,” Boston Globe, April 9, 1973: 25.

9 Kaese. The mesh referred to the netting above Fenway’s left-field wall.

10 Steinbrenner and co-owner Gabe Paul had attended the New York Mets-Philadelphia Phillies opener at Shea Stadium on April 6 as guests of Mets’ management. Joe Gergen, “The ‘New Man’ at Third Base Was Nervous,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), April 7, 1973: 31.

11 Kaese.

12 Ciampa.

13 George Bankert, “Lyle Was Designated to Feel Designated Swing,” Quincy (Massachusetts) Patriot Ledger, April 9, 1973: 23.

14 Other game-winning hits by Cepeda in 1973: a May 2 grand slam in a 6-2 win over Texas; May 14 walkoff single in bottom of 11th in a 1-0 win over Baltimore; May 29 two-run homer off Nolan Ryan in 2-1 win over the Angels; June 4 hit by pitch forcing in fourth run in 9-3 win over Kansas City; June 12 sacrifice fly in 6-5 win over Angels;  June 24 home run in 1-0 win over Baltimore; June 28 drove in go-ahead run in 16-7 win over Cleveland; July 1 two-run double in second game 4-2 win over Milwaukee;  July 14 singled in final run in 6-5 win over Texas; August 2 three-run first-inning homer in 10-0 win over Yankees; August 27 doubled in 5-2 win over Oakland;  September 7 two-run single against Detroit; September 25 first-inning homer drove in all three runs in 3-0 win over Cleveland.