Sox 67

As the 67 Sox approached the all-star break, they were in the midst of a losing streak, one of the few they had in the Impossible Dream season. Following two 4-3 defeats in California, the team traveled to Detroit and lost three more to the Tigers. Still only two games behind the first place White Sox despite the absence of Al Kaline, they dealt the Townies a heartbreaker, 5-4 in 11 innings in the series opener.

Gary Waslewski started for the Sox but was pulled after surrendering 4 hits and two runs in the first two frames. Reliever Bill Landis kept it at 2-0  with three shutout innings, but after the Sox cut the lead to one, Norm Cash homered off Galen Cisco for a 4-1 advantage.

Tiger starter Joe Sparma was one out away from a complete-game victory when Boston suddenly exploded. Tony Conigiaro smashed his 13th homer and George Scott and Rico Petrocelli singled. Rookie reliever Mike Marshall came in and was met by a Reggie Smith single and Jerry Adair double to tie it at 4. It remained tied until the 11th, when a Jim Northrup single and Bill Freehan double off John Wyatt produced the walkoff win

A year away from his fantastic 31-win season, Denny McLain was still a formidable hurler, shutting the Sox down 2-0 the next afternoon on only 4 hits. Former Soxer Lenny Green was the batting star with 3 hits, plating one run and scoring the other. Boston again threatened in the ninth with a Carl Yastrzemski single and Scott walk, but McLain bore down and easily retired Rico Petrocelli and Smith. Lee Stange was the hard-luck loser, allowing only one run in 6 innings.

There was a twinbill the next day, and things looked bad when Detroit handed the Bosox their fifth straight defeat, their longest of the year, in game 1. This one was over early, with the home squad jumping to a 9-3 lead after four on the way to a 10-4 final. Starter Gary Bell and long reliever Jose Santiago were both infeffective. Interestingly, Dick Williams pulled Scott in the second for not hustling and replaced him with George Thomas, but it mattered little. Detroit had 12 hits off four Boston hurlers. Earl Wilson came back to haunt his former team one more time, going 7 2/3 innings and fanning 7 before giving way to Marshall. It was Wilson’ 10th victory of the year.

I sometimes use an unscientific statistic- the certified stopper. I define it as a regular starter who has a .750 percentage and an ERA of at least 3.50. Jim Lonborg certainly was qualifying at 11-3, as he ended the streak in game 2, going 7 innings on a hot day, allowing 3 hits and not walking a batter in a 3-0 win. The Sox gave Lonnie all the runs he needed in the second on a Jerry Adair triple and Smith homer. Yaz, in his deepest slump of the year, connected with his 19th round tripper for an insurance tally in the eighth.

The All-Star game turned out to be the longest in history, a 15-inning 2-1 win by the NL, ended by a Tony Perez homer. Despite the length of the game, neither league ran out of pitchers, as would embarassingly happen years later. Catfish Hunter threw 5 innings and absorbed the loss.

Boston started the second half by splitting a day-night twinbill with Baltimore, winning 4-2 in the afternoon and falling 10-0 at night. The split left the Sox with a 42-40 record. Before they would lose again, history would be made-the birth of a Nation.