BOSOX TURN TRIPLE PLAY, FALL TO YANKS
Murphy Fires 11th Complete Game
NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (AP) - The Boston Red Sox turned the season's third triple
play but still lost to the New York Yankees 5-1 at Yankee Stadium. The
second inning triple play briefly kept the game scoreless but the Yankees broke
the deadlock in the third and went to a fairly comfortable victory. New
York starter Johnny Murphy took a shutout into the eighth inning but settled for
a complete game seven-hitter, allowing one run en route to his 13th win of the
year. It was the third straight victory for the Yankees who were
eliminated from the pennant race yesterday when the Detroit Tigers split a
doubleheader with the Browns in St. Louis.
New York seemed poised to take the lead in the second inning. Lou Gehrig
drew a lead-off walk from Boston starter Spike Merena and a wild pitch advanced
him to second. George Selkirk followed by grounding a single to left, with
Gehrig holding at third. That brought Tony Lazzeri to the plate. On
a 1-0 pitch he lined sharply back to the box. The drive was snared by
Merena who immediately fired to third baseman Billy Werber to double up Gehrig.
Selkirk was all the way down at second base so Werber casually threw to first
baseman Ed Morgan to complete the triple play.
The Yankees were not long denied, scoring the game's first run in the third
without the benefit of a hit. Ben Chapman drew a lead-off walk and stole
second. Art Jorgens popped to second and Murphy lined to right but Frank
Corsetti walked and then Merena balked the baserunners to second and
third. Red Rolfe drew the inning's third free pass to load the bases and
Merena then walked Babe Ruth on a 3-2 pitch, forcing in a run. Gehrig
grounded to second to end the frame but New York now held a 1-0 lead.
The Yankees scored a run in the fourth on George Selkirk's solo home run, his
fourth of the season, which just barely made it into the lower grandstand down
the right field line to up their advantage to 2-0.
The two-run lead remained intact until the sixth when the Yankees seized firm
control of the game. With one out, Selkirk singled to right and stole
second base. Lazzeri and Chapman drew consecutive free passes to fill the
bases. Merena ended up walking nine batters in the contest, one off the
big league high for the season. With the bases loaded and one out, Jorgens
rolled a single into right field, scoring both Selkirk and Lazzeri and advancing
Chapman to third. Murphy followed with a fly to center that was deep
enough to allow Chapman to tag and score the fifth run of the contest.
The Red Sox finally got on the board in the eighth. Werber led off with an
infield single and stole second base. Mel Alamada followed with a double
into the left field corner and Dusty Cooke walked, loading the bases with no
outs. Skinny Graham then grounded into a fielder's choice, forcing Cooke
at second, but plating Werber to make the score 5-1. Rick Ferrell then
grounded into an inning-ending double play, extinguishing the only truly good
scoring opportunity Boston had in the entire game.
9/24/1934, BoA34-NYA34, Yankee Stadium 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1934 Red Sox 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 7 0 8 2 1934 Yankees 0 0 1 1 0 3 0 0 x 5 6 2 8 1 Red Sox AB R H BI AVG Yankees AB R H BI AVG Niemiec 2b 4 0 0 0 .263 Crosetti ss 3 0 0 0 .309 Werber 3b 4 1 4 0 .344 Rolfe 3b 3 0 1 0 .282 Almada cf 4 0 1 1 .114 Ruth rf 2 0 0 1 .272 Cooke lf 3 0 0 0 .205 Byrd pr 0 0 0 0 .280 Graham rf 4 0 0 0 .152 Gehrig 1b 2 0 0 0 .363 Ferrell,R c 4 0 1 0 .230 Selkirk lf 4 2 3 1 .380 Morgan 1b 4 0 0 0 .276 Lazzeri 2b 2 1 0 0 .298 Lary ss 3 0 0 0 .225 Chapman,B cf 2 2 1 0 .317 Kellett ph 1 0 0 0 .000 Jorgens c 4 0 1 2 .178 Merena p 2 0 0 0 .400 Murphy p 3 0 0 1 .152 Reynolds ph 1 0 1 0 .313 25 5 6 5 Welch p 0 0 0 0 .186 Ferrell,W ph 1 0 0 0 .387 35 1 7 1 Red Sox INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Merena L 1-1 6.0 4 5 5 9 2 109 53 3.86 Welch 2.0 2 0 0 2 1 34 16 5.31 8.0 6 5 5 11 3 143 69 Yankees INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Murphy W 13-5 9.0 7 1 1 1 4 123 77 3.63 9.0 7 1 1 1 4 123 77 BoA: Reynolds batted for Merena in the 7th Kellett batted for Lary in the 9th Ferrell,W batted for Welch in the 9th NYA: Byrd ran for Ruth in the 7th Byrd moved to rf in the 8th E-Crosetti, Lazzeri. 2B-Werber 3(44), Almada(2). HR-Selkirk(4). RBI-Almada(6), Ruth(73), Selkirk(35), Jorgens 2(25), Murphy(4). SB-Werber(33), Selkirk(1), Chapman,B(27). K-Niemiec, Graham, Ferrell,R, Kellett, Crosetti, Ruth, Murphy. BB-Cooke, Crosetti, Rolfe, Ruth 2, Gehrig 2, Lazzeri 2, Chapman,B 2, Murphy. SH-Crosetti. WP-Merena. BALK-Merena. GWRBI: Ruth Temperature: 66, Sky: clear, Wind: out to left at 5 MPH. Attendance: 23,637 Game Time: 2:07