BENGALS BACK LEMANCZYK'S 2-HITTER WITH 9-RUN 2ND
Tigers Outscore BoSox 24-2 in 2-Game Sweep
DETROIT, Aug. 5 (AP) - The Detroit Tigers put together their biggest inning of
the season with a nine-run outburst in the second and Dave Lemanczyk fired a
complete game two-hit shutout in a 12-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Tiger
Stadium. The whitewash followed yesterday's 12-2 pummeling of Boston
behind Detroit's Vern Ruhle, finishing off a two-game sweep with a 24-2
advantage in runs scored.
The Tigers broke a scoreless tie with their second inning barrage but it was an
error by Red Sox shortstop Rick Burleson that led seven of those tallies to be
unearned. Willie Horton opened the frame with his seventh home run of the
year to put Detroit on top and Jason Thompson followed with a double to right
off Boston starter Rick Jones. Aurelio Rodriguez's deep fly to left
allowed Thompson to advance to third with one out. Bill Freehan drew a
free pass, putting runners on the corners and Tom Veryzer's soft grounder to
short plated Thompson, with Freehan advancing to second. Then came the
play that opened the floodgates. On the first pitch from Jones Pedro
Garcia rolled a routine grounder to Burleson who muffed it for an error,
allowing Freehan to advance ninety feet. Instead of the inning ending the
Tigers turned over the lineup and Ron LeFlore roped a double into the gap in
left-center field, scoring both Freehan and Garcia to increase the advantage to
4-0. Alex Johnson made it 5-0 by grounding a single to left, scoring
LeFlore. Jones then hit Rusty Staub with a pitch, putting runners on first
and second. Horton dropped a single into shallow center field, plating
Johnson with the inning's sixth run and Jones walked Thompson to fill the bases
and end his day on the mound. He was replaced by Bill Lee who issued the
third base on balls of the inning, this one to Rodriguez, forcing in a
run. Freehan then looped a single into right field, driving home two more
before Veryzer finally ended the frame by flying to left. In all, 14
batters came to the plate; there were six hits, three walks, a hit batter and
one very big error, resulting in nine runs.
The game was effectively over but Detroit pushed three more runs across the
plate before it was all said and done. Freehan doubled leading off the
fifth and eventually scored on LeFlore's sacrifice fly to put the Tigers on top
10-0. In the seventh, Freehan doubled again and jogged home two outs later
when LeFlore took Tom Murphy deep for his fourth long ball of the season,
capping the scoring.
Meanwhile, Lemanczyk was virtually untouchable. The Detroit starter faced
only 29 batters allowing just two hits and issuing one walk. Burleon
singled leading off the game but never advanced beyond first base. Rick
Miller was stranded at first following a lead-off single in the second.
Fred Lynn led off the fourth by drawing Lemanczyk's only free pass but was
eliminated immediately when Carl Yastrzemski rolled into a double play.
From there, Lemanczyk simply slammed the door, retiring the final 17 Red Sox
batters he faced, fanning seven of them. Lemanczyk struck out 10 Boston
hitters overall, tying the season high for a Tigers hurler. Ray Bare and
Bill Laxton both fanned 10 in late May starts.
In the month since posting a major league worst mark of 22-53 on July 6 the
Tigers have gone 19-10 but are still mired in last place in the American
League's East Division.
8/5/1976, Bos76-Det76, Tiger Stadium 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1976 Red Sox 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 1 1976 Tigers 0 9 0 0 1 0 2 0 x 12 14 0 7 1 Red Sox AB R H BI AVG Tigers AB R H BI AVG Burleson ss 4 0 1 0 .320 LeFlore cf 4 2 3 4 .292 Doyle 2b 4 0 0 0 .250 Johnson,A lf 3 1 1 1 .271 Lynn cf 2 0 0 0 .300 Meyer ph 1 0 0 0 .190 Evans,Dw rf 0 0 0 0 .248 Staub rf 4 1 1 0 .309 Yastrzemski 1b 3 0 0 0 .266 Horton dh 5 2 3 2 .258 Rice lf 3 0 0 0 .317 Thompson,J 1b 4 2 2 0 .216 Cooper dh 3 0 0 0 .257 Rodriguez,A 3b 4 0 0 1 .289 Miller,R rf 3 0 1 0 .339 Freehan c 4 3 3 2 .257 Hobson 3b 3 0 0 0 .211 Veryzer ss 4 0 0 1 .255 Montgomery c 3 0 0 0 .112 Garcia,P 2b 4 1 1 1 .207 28 0 2 0 37 12 14 12 Red Sox INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Jones,Ri L 3-7 1.2 5 9 2 2 1 51 32 6.20 Lee,B 4.1 5 1 1 2 1 63 38 5.54 Murphy,T 2.0 4 2 2 0 1 24 20 3.44 8.0 14 12 5 4 3 138 90 Tigers INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Lemanczyk W 4-3 9.0 2 0 0 1 10 125 78 3.69 9.0 2 0 0 1 10 125 78 Bos: Evans,Dw inserted at rf in the 7th Miller,R moved to cf in the 7th Det: Meyer batted for Johnson,A in the 7th Meyer moved to lf in the 8th E-Burleson. 2B-LeFlore(11), Thompson,J(11), Freehan 2(6). HR-LeFlore(4), Horton(7). RBI-LeFlore 4(39), Johnson,A(39), Horton 2(35), Rodriguez,A(45), Freehan 2(25), Veryzer(24), Garcia,P(36). K-Doyle 3, Lynn 2, Yastrzemski, Cooper, Miller,R, Hobson, Montgomery, LeFlore, Thompson,J, Rodriguez,A. BB-Lynn, Johnson,A, Thompson,J, Rodriguez,A, Freehan. SF-LeFlore. HBP-Staub. HB-Jones,Ri. GWRBI: Horton Temperature: 82, Sky: partly cloudy, Wind: out to center at 6 MPH. Attendance: 11,890 Game Time: 2:20