July 26, 1956: Red Sox beat Athletics, Shantz on Ted Williams’s homer in 10th

The Boston Red Sox had won one and lost one at Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium on their late July 1956 visit to the city. This Thursday afternoon game on July 26 was the third and saw them solidify their temporary hold on third place. The Athletics were in last place, neck and neck with the Washington Nationals.1

Troy Herriage was the starter for Kansas City, a right-hander working in what proved to be his only season in major-league baseball. He came into the game with a record of 1-9 and he had an ERA of 6.45. He improved on that significantly in this game.

The Red Sox starter was Frank Sullivan (9-4, 3.31 ERA). He was a right-hander too, a year older than Herriage at age 26.

Both were pitching in near-100-degree heat.

Herriage got off to a good start in the first, getting groundballs to second base by Billy Goodman and Ted Williams with a fly ball to third base by Billy Klaus in between. He allowed a leadoff single to Red Sox first baseman Mickey Vernon in the top of the second inning, but Vernon was erased on a 5-4-3 double play ball hit by right fielder Jackie Jensen. Jimmy Piersall then popped out to Clete Boyer at second base.

In the meantime, Herriage’s teammates had staked him to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. With one out, center fielder Al Pilarcik doubled to left-center off Sullivan. A second out followed but right fielder Harry Simpson singled to right field, scoring Pilarcik. First baseman Vic Power popped a single into right field behind second base, Simpson taking second base. Catcher Tim Thompson hit a third single to right field. Simpson scored, but Power was thrown out at third base.

Athletics shortstop Joe DeMaestri singled to lead off the second but three groundouts followed.
With two outs in the top of the third, Sullivan singled. Goodman then singled and Klaus walked, loading the bases for Ted Williams. Williams hit a fly ball to Pilarcik in center.

In the bottom of the third, Kansas City increased its lead to 3-0 when Pilarcik hit a leadoff home run over the fence in right field. The next three batters made outs.

Herriage walked Vernon in the fourth. Jensen singled. Two on, nobody out, but a fly ball, a strikeout, and a foul fly to left field ended the threat. Sullivan retired the Athletics in order.

The Red Sox scored one run in the top of the fifth. After Sullivan made the first out, Goodman walked and Klaus singled, sending Goodman to second. Williams was up once more; this time he singled and drove in Goodman, cutting the deficit to 3-1. The next two batters flied out.

Herriage singled as leadoff batter in the fifth inning. Third baseman Hector Lopez hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Pilarcik singled, but left fielder Lou Skizas flied out to Piersall in center field.

Herriage breezed through the sixth and seventh innings, not allowing a baserunner. He got three outfield flies in the sixth and two strikeouts and a fly ball in the seventh. The first strikeout was of Gene Stephens, batting for Sullivan.

Ike Delock took over pitching in the bottom of the seventh. He got a couple of fly-ball outs from Boyer and Herriage and a strikeout of Lopez.

Ted Williams led off the top of the eighth inning and lined out to Power at first base. Vernon walked and Jensen singled.

Piersall, who was 0-for-11 in the series to this point, was due up; manager Lou Boudreau called on Bobby Shantz to relieve Herriage. Piersall swung at Shantz’s first pitch which he “slammed off the center-field fence for a double,”2 driving in both baserunners and tying the game, 3-3. He was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple. Catcher Pete Daley fouled out to first base.

The Athletics mounted a threat in the bottom of the eighth. Pilarcik walked. Skizas hit into a force play at second base. Simpson singled, Skizas going first to third. Vic Power hit the ball to Klaus at third base, and Klaus threw home to Daley. Skizas was out at the plate. Simpson took second base on the play. Tim Thompson hit one back to Delock, who threw him out at first base.

Neither team got a runner on base in the ninth inning, and the game went into extra innings.

With Shantz still on the mound, Ted Lepcio pinch-hit for Klaus, leading off the top of the 10th. He drew a base on balls. Ted Williams also saw the count run to 3-and-2. Shantz’s pitch came in. As the Boston Globe reported, a “flick of Williams’ wrists … clipped the next pitch right on the button” produced “a lofty smash that cleared the center-field wall better than 400 feet from the point of origin.”3 The ball, noted the Boston Herald, “soared so far over the regular fence a little bit to the right of dead center that it landed at the base of the huge electric scoreboard that was transported from Braves Field.”4

After the Red Sox slugger had crossed the plate, a fan in a white T-shirt jumped out of the stands, ran to shake Williams’s hand, and then kept running and hopped back into the stands on the other side.

The home run was Williams’s ninth of his career hit on the date July 26. It was also his ninth home run of the 1956 season. Five of the nine were against Kansas City.

The Red Sox led 5-3 and Delock – working his fourth full inning in relief – put down the A’s one-two-three to close out the win, inducing two fly-ball outs sandwiched around a strikeout.

The loss went to Shantz, on his way to a 2-7 season (4.35 ERA). In 1957, after a multiplayer trade that landed him with the New York Yankees, he led the both the American and National Leagues with a 2.45 ERA (his record was 11-5). In 52 at-bats against Shantz, from 1949 through 1960, Williams hit .308 with 2 homers and 9 RBIs. He also drew 14 walks against the Pennsylvania-born left-hander.

Herriage finished the season with record of 1-13 and a 6.64 earned-run average. 

Ted Williams led both leagues with a .479 on-base percentage in 1956.

Even with the extra inning, the game lasted only 2 hours and 25 minutes. Paid attendance was 9,511, but it was Ladies Day and an additional 2,038 attended on that basis. It was also Mayor’s Playground Baseball Day, and an estimated 5,000 children attended free of charge.5 

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Madison McEntire 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/KC1/KC1195607260.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1956/B07260KC11956.htm

Notes

1 The Athletics finished the season last in the American League, 45 games behind the New York Yankees. The Red Sox finished fourth, a game behind the White Sox and two games ahead of the Tigers. They were 13 games behind the Yankees.

2 Joe McGuff, “Ted’s Homer Jolts A’s,” Kansas City Times, July 27, 1956: 28.

3 Bob Holbrook, “Sox Overcome A’s in 10th, 5-3,” Boston Globe, July 27, 1956: 31.

4 Arthur Sampson, “Sox Bound Back, 5-3,” Boston Herald, July 27, 1956: 35.

5 “Youthful Roar for A’s,” Kansas City Times, July 27, 1956: 3.