Ending the Slump?
Yankees at Athletics Game 2, May 15, 1949
Ending the Slump?
The Yankees haven’t been playing well lately. However, they were able to figure out a way to turn this one around.
I kind of feel bad for the Athletics. They went into the top of the 8th with a slim 3-2 lead. Philadelphia had been hitting the ball all over the park, and had left the bases loaded a few times up to this point.
However, Phil Rizzuto came up with runners on 1st and 3rd with one out in the top of the 8th, and did this:
That tied the game up, and led to a pretty eventful top of the 9th.
9th Inning
After Jerry Coleman walked to lead off the top of the 9th, Hank Bauer came up with a chance to get a rally going:
That set things up for Yogi Berra. Berra’s 2 run homer in the top of the 5th had given the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Was it time for Yogi to do something special again?
Well, apparently not.
Now it was up to Bill Johnson, who isn’t exactly the best hitter the Yankees have ever seen:
With that, New York took a 4-3 lead — a lead that it would not relinquish.
This was a frustrating game from Philadelphia’s perspective. The Athletics had runners on base all afternoon long, but simply couldn’t drive anybody in.