Game 6 - Tiger Stadium
Mel Stottlemyre vs Johnny Podres
The two teams returned to the Motor City with the Tigers still on the brink
of elimination. The Yankees scored a run in the 1st when Joe Pepitone
singled in a run after Mantle was intentionally walked. The Tigers came
right back with 3 in their 1st thanks to run scoring doubles by Kaline and Don
Wert. After a scoreless 2nd the Yanks plated 3 in the 3rd on
homers by Tresh and Mantle and a Roy White single. Both teams were quiet
until the 8th when each team scored 2 (Whitaker HR for NY, Horton RBI single,
double play ball for DET) to make it 5-4 Yankees. The New Yorkers scored a
run in the 9th when small ball made a rare appearance- Roy White bunted for a
hit, stole 2nd, and scored on a Schofield single.
The Tigers season appeared to be over going into the bottom of the 9th,
trailing by 2 with closer Dooley Womack pitching. Light hitting 2B Jerry
Lumpe started with a single, but then pitcher Larry Sherry struck out ("my
pinch hitters suck" said Tiger manager Jack Mudd) and the Detroit crowd was
losing hope. But Dick McAuliffe shocked the Yankees with a home run that
landed in the right field stands just inside the foul pole. With the game
now tied the Tigers crowd was so excited they started several fires in the
stands (wait, not Halloween yet, never mind). The Tigers proceeded to load
the bases on an error, single, and walk, and Jim Northrup strolled into the
batters box with the bases loaded needing just a decent fly ball to win it for
Detroit. Northrup did hit a fly ball but not very deep, but with 2
outs Al Kaline decided to test Mickey Mantle's arm one more time but Mick's
throw was on the money (not Cash this time) and Elston Howard held onto the ball
for the out to temporarily douse Detroit's fire.
In the 10th the Yanks loaded their own bases on 3 walks given them
by Larry Sherry but Howard flied out to deep center field to end the
threat. In the bottom of the 10th New York brought in not-closer
Pedro Ramos to pitch. Don Wert greeted Ramos with a single up the
middle and moved to 2nd on a groundout. Then Jerry Lumpe again came
up with a key hit, singling to move Wert to 3rd. Really light hitting
pinch hitter Dick Tracewski came up ("I told you my bench sucks", Jack
Mudd said) only needing to get a runner home from 3rd with less than 2 outs to
send it to game 7. However, Tracewski hit a little pop-up a few feet in
front of home plate, Elston Howard jumped up to grab it and again
force on-deck hitter Dick McAuliffe to be a hero. But wait,
there's more! Howard dropped the ball! (No premature infield fly
rule in this game!) As the ball rolled away from a disbelieving Howard.
Don Wert crossed the plate with the game winning run. The Detroit
crowd just sat stunned in their seats for a minute and then exploded with joy,
setting more fires as well. After the game Howard angrily denied reports
he was either a) taking bribes from Denny McLain's mobster friends, or b)
distracted by Australian bikini models. Detroit 8-7, each team had
14 hits but the Yankees made 4 errors. Some guy named George
Steinbrenner ran into the Yanks owner box and tried to fire the Yankees fielding
coach but was escorted from the stadium.
Series tied 3-3
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