July 13, 1962: Boston’s Lou Clinton hits for the cycle, drives in game-winner in 15th

On July 13, 1962, more than halfway through the regular season, all but one of the 10 teams in the American League standings were separated by only 8½ games. Sitting in eighth and ninth places respectively were the Boston Red Sox and the Kansas City Athletics. The two teams were in the midst of a four-game series played at Municipal Stadium. They had split a doubleheader the day before, with the final out occurring at 12:45 A.M.1

A crowd of 6,905 turned out for Friday night’s Game Three. How many remained to the end is unknown, as the 4-hour, 53-minute game wrapped up minutes before 1 A.M.2 The two teams combined for 21 runs and 41 hits (and only one error), as Boston rallied from an early seven-run deficit to win the 15-inning marathon, 11-10.

Lou Clinton, labeled by the Kansas City Star as “a Boston bench-warmer,”3 participated in all of Boston’s key offensive moments in the game. The 24-year-old, in his third season in the majors, scored Boston’s first run in the second inning, homered in the fifth to cut into Kansas City’s lead, scored the tying run in the ninth, and drove home the winning run in the 15th. Along the way Clinton had five hits and hit for the 12th cycle in Boston franchise history.

Jerry Walker made his 19th start of the season for Kansas City, in search of his ninth victory. Walker had pitched only two complete games, with just one shutout, and his ERA was an unhealthy 5.32. Bill Monbouquette started for the visiting Red Sox (also his 19th). He had won four of his last five decisions, but his ERA stood at 3.88.

The scoring began in the second inning. Boston’s Frank Malzone worked a leadoff walk but was erased when Pete Runnels lined into a double play. Clinton, who had homered twice the night before, lined a triple and scored on Jim Pagliaroni’s single.

In the bottom of the second, Dominican rookie Manny Jiménez singled and advanced to third on Wayne Causey’s double. Monbouquette retired two of the next three batters, but his walk to Haywood Sullivan had loaded the bases. Rookie José Tartabull, a native of Cuba, drove two runs home with a single. Jerry Lumpe also singled, and center fielder Carroll Hardy’s error allowed both Sullivan and Tartabull to score. The inning ended with KC in front, 4-1.

The Red Sox loaded the bases in the third on singles by Chuck Schilling and Hardy and a walk to Carl Yastrzemski. Malzone rolled a grounder to short and Yastrzemski was forced at second, but Schilling scored.

Kansas City answered when Norm Siebern opened the bottom of the third with a blast over the fence in right-center, his 12th home run of the season. The run batted in gave him 66 for the season, tops in the American League. This made the score 5-2. Three of the next four batters (Jiménez, Gino Cimoli, and Sullivan) reached on singles, and Kansas City had another bases-loaded threat. Walker rolled a grounder to third baseman Malzone, whose only play was at first. Jiménez scored on the play.

With the Athletics up by four runs, this prompted a pitching change by Boston; Chet Nichols made his third relief appearance in three days.4 He was not effective, either, allowing a two-run triple to Tartabull and an RBI single to Lumpe before closing out the inning with Kansas City ahead, 9-2. Monbouquette went into the books with only eight outs recorded, while yielding eight hits, two walks, and eight runs (seven earned).5

After three innings, the A’s had built a seven-run lead, but “the big margin melted away.”6 Clinton led off the fourth with a double and scored when Russ Nixon, pinch-hitting for Nichols, also doubled.

An inning later, Walker’s troubles continued. He walked Hardy but seemed to regain some control as both Yastrzemski and Malzone flied out. Runnels then singled to continue the inning. That brought up Clinton, who sent Walker’s offering beyond the wall for a three-run home run. Suddenly, the Red Sox trailed by only three, 9-6.

Pagliaroni doubled, and when Eddie Bressoud singled him home, Kansas City manager Hank Bauer made a change on the mound. Norm Bass struck out Hal Kolstad, but the gap had been closed. Kansas City’s lead was now just two runs.

That advantage vanished in the top of the sixth. Bass walked both Schilling and Hardy. Yastrzemski singled, bringing home Schilling. John Wyatt entered as Kansas City’s third pitcher. He struck out Malzone, but Runnels singled again, and Hardy’s run tied the game. The Red Sox had erased a seven-run deficit.

Ed Charles—a 29-year-old rookie who had joined the A’s in the trade that brought Jiménez from the Milwaukee Braves in December 1961—opened the Kansas City sixth with his 11th home run of the season, giving the Athletics the lead once again, 10-9. The Boston Globe reported that the ball traveled about 430 feet, hitting “the roof of a goat barn back of center field.”7

That score stood until the top of the ninth, when Clinton led off. He had already had three extra-base hits (triple, double, and home run) and had been intentionally walked in his last plate appearance.

Wyatt, in his fourth inning of work, lost the battle, yielding a single to Clinton. This meant that the Boston right fielder had hit for the cycle. The next batter, Pagliaroni, wasted no time in driving a ball into the gap for a run-scoring double. Boston had tied the game again.

Nothing but zeros covered the scoreboard for the next 5½ innings. Ed Rakow entered in the bottom of the ninth and pitched the final 6⅔ innings, even though he was the starting pitcher for Kansas City the night before.8 Dick Radatz pitched the final seven innings for Boston. From the 10th inning to the 12th, both teams had runners on base but could not score. The 13th and 14th frames consisted of three-up, three-down baseball.

Then, with one out in the top of the 15th, Yastrzemski doubled into right-center. Malzone flied out to left. With first base open, the A’s intentionally walked Runnels to bring Clinton up to the plate.

Clinton had completed the cycle but struck out in both the 10th and 13th innings. According to the Globe, “the A’s thought they had his number.”9 Clinton “hit a roller into the dirt”10 toward third baseman Charles and beat it out. Yastrzemski never stopped running and rounded third, heading for the plate. Siebern, the A’s first baseman, threw the ball to Joe Azcue at home, but the throw was “a mite tardy,”11 allowing Yastrzemski to slide safely with the go-ahead run.

Lumpe knocked a two-out single in the bottom of the 15th, but Radatz got Charles to fly out to center for the final out of the game. Radatz had held the A’s scoreless on just five hits, earning his fourth win of the season. Kansas City’s Walker was banished to the bullpen after this outing, and the Athletics traded him in the ensuing offseason.

After the game, Bauer recalled a game that was played two weeks earlier, when the Athletics visited Fenway Park. In the sixth inning on June 29, with Boston holding a one-run lead, Malzone had tripled with two outs. Bauer ordered the next batter, Runnels, to be intentionally walked. Pagliaroni also walked, bringing up Clinton with the bases loaded. Clinton entered that contest batting .100. Bauer told reporters, “So Clinton hits a grand slammer and has been the hottest hitter in baseball ever since. I wonder if he realizes what I did for him giving him that chance to hit.”12

Clinton’s 5-for-7 performance was supplemented with four runs scored and four runs batted in. Since the June 29 game, Clinton collected 30 hits in 54 at-bats (a .556 clip), raising his batting average to .316. He belted 16 extra-base hits, including nine homers. He scored 20 runs, drove in 26 during that span, and put together a 10-game hitting streak. After the game, Clinton said, “I can’t explain it any better now than I could two weeks ago. It may be that I am picking up confidence every game.”13

In seven games against the A’s to this point, Clinton was 14-for-28, with 6 homers and 17 runs batted in. He finished the 1962 campaign batting .381 and slugging .825 against Kansas City pitching. It turned out to be the best overall season of his eight-year major-league career, with a .294 average, 62 extra-base hits in only 114 games, and a .540 slugging percentage. The Red Sox finished eighth, five games ahead of the ninth-place Athletics.

Clinton was the only player in the majors to hit for the cycle in 1962; he was also the first American Leaguer since 1960 to hit for the cycle, following Baltimore’s Brooks Robinson (July 15, 1960). Clinton was also the first Red Sox player to cycle since Bobby Doerr, who accomplished the rare feat 15 years earlier, on May 13, 1947.14

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources  

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KC1/KC1196207130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1962/B07130KC11962.htm

Notes

1 Bob Holbrook, “Radatz, Runnels, Clinton Sparkle as Sox Divide,” Boston Globe, July 13, 1962: 18.

2 Fans listening on Boston’s WHDH, with the two-hour time difference between Boston and Kansas City in July 1962 heard the final pitch at “six minutes before three o’clock, Boston time.” Bob Holbrook, “Yaz’ Speed, Clinton’s Bat Leave ’Em Blue in K.C.,” Boston Globe, July 14, 1962: 5.

3 “Yanks Hang On to First Spot,” Kansas City Star, July 14, 1962: 6.

4 Nichols appeared in both games of the previous day’s doubleheader, pitching one inning in the opener and one-third inning in the nightcap. He also appeared in the final game of the series, pitching two-thirds of an inning on July 14.

5 Better days were ahead for Monbouquette. Although he also lost his next two decisions, he pitched a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox on August 1. See Gregory H. Wolf, “Boston’s Bill Monbouquette throws no-hitter at Comiskey Park,” found online at sabr.org/gamesproj/game/august-1-1962-monbo-was-unhittable/. Monbouquette finished the 1962 season with 15 wins, 11 complete games, and 4 shutouts.

6 Joe McGuff, “A’s Lose in 15th Inning,” Kansas City Times, July 14, 1962: 20.

7 Roger Birtwell, “Clinton Hits For Cycle; Sox Beat Athletics, 11-10, in 15th,” Boston Globe, July 14, 1962: 13-14. The Globe’s Bob Holbrook estimated the homer to have traveled 475 feet, while Joe McGuff of the Kansas City Times reported a distance of 440 feet.

8 Rakow started and pitched 6⅓ innings in the second game of the July 12 doubleheader.

9 Holbrook, “Radatz, Runnels, Clinton Sparkle as Sox Divide.”

10 Holbrook.

11 Holbrook.

12 “Seems Anything Lu Clinton Swings at Falls Safely; Had His Greatest Night in a Boston Sox Uniform,” Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript-Telegram, July 14, 1962: 10. Clinton hit three grand slams in his career, but two of those came in 1962. His first grand slam came on April 19 against the Detroit Tigers.

13 Holyoke Transcript-Telegram.

14 That was Doerr’s second career cycle. He hit for the cycle for the first time on May 17, 1944. Doerr hit for both cycles at Fenway Park.