Wild Ride In Boston

Highlanders at Red Sox, May 9, 1908

Wild Ride In Boston

Every now and then I play one of those games that just defy description.

This was absolutely one of those.

The Red Sox were up 9-1 at one point, and I thought the Highlanders were done.

And, well, they came back — big time.

I know I don’t usually do this, but I’m actually going to start with the boxscore instead of a description of the game:

Boston’s 9th inning ralley was pretty simple. Heinie Wagner singled, after which came Gavvy Cravath:

I actually thought that calling for a bunt here was a big mistake, since Cravath rolled a 2 in double columns. A triple would have tied the game.

Anyway, Wagner was fast, which meant he was amazingly able to get to third on that bunt. There’s a rare one!

Harry Lord was next:

The game was now tied on an error, of all things.

After Bill Carrigan managed to reach base, up came pinch hitter Jack Thoney:

And that ended it. We had 25 hits, 7 errors, and 21 runs in a game that looked more like a 1900 game than anything from 1908.

There weren’t many sacrifices, and there’s a good reason for that. After all, playing for one run is foolish when you’re down by 8.

The biggest news, though, is that George Moriarty played well. I started him at third base in place of Wid Conroy for the Highlanders. Conroy was hitting .125 before the start of this one. Moriarty, meanwhile, went 2 for 5 with 2 RBIs.