TRIBE DROPS 17 ON BENGALS FOR SECOND STRAIGHT DAY
10-Run 9th, Doby's Slam Seal Win
DETROIT, July 7 (AP) - The Cleveland Indians used a ten-run ninth inning to
finish off the Detroit Tigers, 17-6, at Briggs Stadium. It was the second
straight 17-run win for Cleveland over Detroit; the Indians finished off the
Tigers 17-2 yesterday. Cleveland became just the second team to reach
double digit runs in a single inning this season; the New York Yankees tallied
11 times in the sixth inning of at 16-14 slugfest victory over the St. Louis
Browns on June 6. Remarkably, this game represents the fourth time this
year that the Indians have scored exactly 17 runs in a game.
Detroit actually took a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a two-run single off
the bat of Dick Kryhoski.
Cleveland cut the Detroit lead to one on Dale Mitchell's two-out RBI single in
the third and then captured a lead they would never surrender by tallying twice
in the fourth off Tigers starter and loser Bob Cain. Larry Doby led off
the frame with a walk and Luke Easter's triple to center tied the contest.
Al Rosen then brought home Easter with a ground ball to third.
From that point on Cain and Indians starter Bob Lemon matched scorless innings
until the top of the seventh. Bob Kennedy singled to right-center and
stole second. Ray Boone reached on an infield single to the right side,
leaving runners at first and third and Jim Hegan walked to fill the bases.
With the infield in at the corners, Lemon rolled weakly to third baseman George
Kell who inexplicably booted the ball for an error, allowing Kennedy to score
Cleveland's fourth run and reloading the bases. When Mitchell walked to
force in the second run of the inning, Cain's day was done. Dizzy Trout
replaced the Detroit starter as part of a double switch, with Neil Berry
entering the game at short, but Bobby Avila greeted Trout with by grounding a
single into left field, scoring two more runners and putting the Indians on top
7-2. Trout retired the next three batters in order to prevent further
damage, but the Tigers now trailed by five runs.
And yet Detroit battled back. George Kell's two-out double in the bottom
of the seventh scored Kryhoski with the club's third run and the Tigers made a
real game of it in the eighth. Joe Ginsberg and Jerry Groth drew
consecutive one out walks off Lemon and Pat Mullin was called upon to pinch hit
Trout. He promptly lined a 1-0 pitch from Lemon nearly halfway up the
lower seats in right field, just missing the upper deck facade, cutting
Cleveland's lead to 7-6. Lemon was on fumes at this point and though he
retired Berry on a ground ball, manager Al Lopez replaced him with Lou Brissie,
who took care of Jerry Priddy on a fly ball to end the inning.
With a one-run lead and Gene Bearden now on the hill, the Indians looked to add
some insurance in the top of the ninth. That they did, with gusto.
Mitchell drew a leadoff walk and stole second--his second stolen base of the
game. Avila bounced another single to left, with Mitchell--who had held up
to make sure the ball went though--stopping at third. Doby then blooped a
single just inside the right field line, scoring Mitchell and chasing Avila to
third. Easter then singled through the box, plating Avila and advancing
Doby to second. With the Indians now on top 9-6, Rosen lined to left for
the first out of the inning. But the parade resumed immediately.
Harry Simpson, who had entered the game as a defensive replacement in the
eighth, Boone and Hegan swatted consecutive singles, with each hit driving in a
run. Trailing 12-6, the Tigers pulled the ineffective Bearden and replaced
him with Virgil Trucks. Brissie was retired on a grounder, but Mitchell
drew his second free pass of the frame, Avila singled for the second time in the
inning, driving home the team's 13th run and Doby applied the coup de grace with
a towering grand slam to right to cap the Indians scoring.
The Tigers scored a meaningless solo run in the bottom of the ninth.
The win was the fourth straight for the Indians, who had been slumping until
recently, having dropped 20 of 32 games from June 1 through July 3.
Cleveland had ranked second to last in the American League in runs until the
recent 34-runs-in-two-days outburst. Previously, the Indians had reached
double figures in runs only once since May 27.
7/7/1951, Cle51-Det51, Briggs Stadium 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1951 Indians 0 0 1 2 0 0 4 0 10 17 15 0 5 2 1951 Tigers 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 7 12 2 9 1 Indians AB R H BI AVG Tigers AB R H BI AVG Mitchell lf 3 2 1 2 .333 Priddy 2b 4 0 1 0 .273 Avila 2b 6 2 3 3 .281 Kryhoski 1b 3 1 2 2 .307 Doby cf 5 3 3 5 .282 Kolloway ph 1 0 0 0 .200 Easter 1b 6 2 2 2 .235 Kell 3b 5 0 2 1 .317 Rosen 3b 5 0 0 1 .247 Wertz rf 3 0 0 0 .306 Kennedy,Bo rf 3 1 1 0 .251 Souchock ph 1 1 1 0 .301 Simpson ph 2 1 1 1 .290 Evers lf 5 0 1 0 .237 Boone ss 4 2 2 1 .226 Ginsberg c 3 2 1 0 .269 Hegan c 4 2 1 1 .236 Swift ph 1 0 1 1 .273 Lemon p 4 2 1 1 .404 Groth cf 4 1 1 0 .313 Brissie p 1 0 0 0 .364 Lipon ss 3 0 1 0 .295 43 17 15 17 Trout p 0 0 0 0 .387 Mullin ph 1 1 1 3 .270 Bearden p 0 0 0 0 .000 Trucks p 0 0 0 0 .400 Cain p 1 1 0 0 .176 Berry ss 2 0 0 0 .156 37 7 12 7 Indians INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Lemon W 9-5 7.2 9 6 6 6 3 138 76 3.36 Brissie S 2 1.1 3 1 1 0 1 24 15 4.75 9.0 12 7 7 6 4 162 91 Tigers INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Cain L 4-6 6.0 6 7 6 3 4 98 54 3.34 Trout 2.0 1 0 0 1 3 39 21 4.01 Bearden 0.1 6 7 7 1 0 36 21 6.28 Trucks 0.2 2 3 3 1 0 14 7 6.52 9.0 15 17 16 6 7 187 103 Cle: Simpson batted for Kennedy,Bo in the 8th Simpson moved to rf in the 8th Det: Berry inserted at ss in the 7th Mullin batted for Trout in the 8th Kolloway batted for Kryhoski in the 9th Souchock batted for Wertz in the 9th Swift batted for Ginsberg in the 9th E-Kell, Lipon. 2B-Lemon(5), Kell 2(18), Souchock(8). 3B-Easter(1). HR-Doby(4), Mullin(5). RBI-Mitchell 2(25), Avila 3(29), Doby 5(34), Easter 2(46), Rosen(48), Boone(32), Hegan(24), Lemon(2), Simpson(17), Kryhoski 2(32), Kell(32), Mullin 3(30), Swift(1). SB-Mitchell 2(3), Kennedy,Bo(3). K-Mitchell, Doby, Easter 2, Rosen, Hegan, Simpson, Priddy, Evers, Lipon, Kolloway. BB-Mitchell 3, Doby, Boone, Hegan, Priddy, Kryhoski, Wertz, Ginsberg, Groth, Cain. GWRBI: Rosen Temperature: 91, Sky: clear, Wind: out to left at 6 MPH. Attendance: 19,717 Game Time: 2:53