Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees, Yankee Stadium, New York, NY
April 28, 1969

Introduction

The 1969 season represented a new beginning for Major League Baseball in several regards. The legal height of the pitchers mound was lowered to 10 inches in response to the lowest-scoring season since the Deadball Era. The save was first introduced as an official statistic. And Major League Baseball underwent its largest expansion in its history, with four new teams. In conjunction with this expansion, the American and National League split into divisions for the first time and added a new round of playoffs before the World Series. There has probably never been another season which saw such a wide scope of changes. A case could certainly be made that 1969 was the first season of "modern" major-league baseball.

If one were inclined to make that case, then, my next random game takes place in the first month of modern major-league history. And yet, 1969 was also the 100th anniversary of the first professional baseball (or, as they called it back in 1869, Base Ball) team. So, perhaps it is fitting that the game featured here was played between two teams with one of the longest rivalries in baseball, dating back to 1903.

I give you: Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees on Monday, April 28, 1969.

Although the season was less than a month old, the Baltimore Orioles had already made it clear that they were the team to beat in the new American League East, jumping out to a 15-7 record. Incredibly, they would basically maintain that pace all season, finishing with a record of 109-53. Meanwhile, the Yankees and Red Sox entered play on April 28th locked in a tight battle for second place. Entering today's game (the first in a two-game series), the Red Sox led the Yankees by one-half game, 10-7 versus 10-8.

The starting pitcher for the visiting Boston Red Sox was Ray Jarvis, who was making the first start of his major-league career. Jarvis had made his major-league debut on April 15th. His most recent appearance, his fourth overall, had been 8-2/3 innings in relief of Ken Brett nine days earlier. His fine performance that day - 1 run allowed on 2 hits and 3 walks with 8 strikeouts - had earned him a shot in the starting rotation.

Jarvis's opponent was Fritz Peterson. Peterson had won 12 games in 1968. His 1969 season had been somewhat up-and-down thus far as he entered play with a record of 2-2 and a 3.77 ERA.

First Inning

Peterson began strong, catching Red Sox leadoff hitter Billy Conigliaro looking at strike three. Mike Andrews drew a walk, but Carl Yastrzemski went down on strikes and Tony Conigliaro grounded out to end the inning.

Ray Jarvis matched Peterson's feat of striking out the leadoff hitter and did him one better by pitching a 1-2-3 bottom of the first inning.

Second Inning

The pitchers traded roles in the second inning. Peterson pitched a 1-2-3 top of the second, while Jarvis allowed his first baserunner, a two-out single by Tom Tresh.

Third Inning

The pitchers' duel continued in the third inning as both teams went down 1-2-3.

Fourth Inning

The fourth inning finally saw a batter get into scoring position as Mike Andrews led off the top of the inning with a double to left field. But he could get no farther as the next three batters were easy outs.

After two quick outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Roy White walked. Jimmie Hall followed with a single to right field and White became the first baserunner of the game to reach third base. Home plate, however, remained unattained as Ray Jarvis got Tom Tresh on a comebacker to end the inning.

Fifth Inning

The fifth inning looked a lot like a lot of earlier innings. A two-out single in the top of the inning and a leadoff walk in the bottom, but still no runs.

And so the score remained tied at zero through five innings.

Sixth Inning

The pitchers' duel continued unabated through the top of the sixth inning, a two-out walk by Yastrzemski being the only baserunner. To this point, the two teams had combined for eight baserunners in 11 half-innings of baseball - 3 singles, 1 double, and 3 walks. Three baserunners had gotten as far as second base and only one (Roy White in the bottom of the fourth inning) had gotten to third base.

Eventually, something had to give. But neither pitcher showed any signs of weakening any time soon.

And so, the game moved on to the bottom of the sixth inning. Jerry Kenney grounded out to the pitcher for the first out. But Bobby Murcer singled to right field - the Yankees' third hit of the game. The next batter, Roy White, doubled to left field and Murcer came around to score all the way from first base.

Finally, a run! In addition to clutch hitting, White also showed some heads-up baserunning, taking third base on the throw home. The next batter was Jimmie Hall. He hit a ground ball and the contact play was on with White breaking for home. But pitcher Ray Jarvis fielded the ball and threw home, White was out, and the threat was greatly reduced. The threat of more runs ended entirely as the next batter, Tresh, grounded out to end the inning.

But the New York Yankees had a 1-0 lead! Could Fritz Peterson hold it for three more innings?

Seventh Inning

So far so good in the top of the seventh as Peterson got three easy ground-outs, two back to him on the mound. But the Yankees could do not better in the bottom of the seventh inning and lead remained a precarious single run.

Eighth Inning

Peterson got the first two batters in the top of the eighth inning. The second of these, Jerry Moses, pinch hit for Jarvis, whose day ended with 7 innings pitched and only 1 run allowed on 4 hits and 2 walks. Unfortunately, as of now, Jarvis stood to be the losing pitcher in the game unless his teammates could bail him out.

The next batter, Billy Conigliaro, drew a two-out walk. But Mike Andrews lined out to center field and another inning was over without the Red Sox having scored a run.

The new Red Sox pitcher in the bottom of the eighth inning was Sparky Lyle. Lyle would be traded from the Red Sox to the Yankees in early 1972 and Lyle would go on to win a Cy Young award and two World Series as a Yankee, as well as writing a best-selling book. But back on April 28, 1969, the Lyle and the Yankees were opponents. And Lyle picked up where Ray Jarvis had left off - walk, pickoff, strikeout, strikeout, inning over.

Ninth Inning

And so the Red Sox were down to their final three outs. One small consolation: they had the heart of their order coming up, their 3-4-5 hitters. Of course, their 3-4-5 hitters had gone a combined 0-for-8 with one walk so far in the game. But maybe Peterson was starting to tire?

Carl Yastrzemski flew out to right field. One down, two to go. Tony Conigliaro hit the ball back to Peterson, who threw him out. And the Red Sox were down to their final out.

The batter was George Scott. Scott was most famous in his career for playing first base, a position at which he won eight Gold Gloves - including the two previous seasons, 1967 and 1968. In 1969, however, Scott mostly played third base (109 games vs. 53 games at first base). Scott was coming off a horrific 1968 season in which he had batted .171 with only 3 home runs. His 1969 season had started somewhat better although he entered play on April 28th batting only .200. He had, however, already matched his 1968 home run total. In fact, outside of 1968, Scott hit 16 or more home runs every season from 1966 through 1977. Not a huge hitter for average, he did hit over .300 twice in his career (1967 and 1973) and .296 in 1970.

George Scott singled to right field, keeping the Red Sox hopes alive and bringing the tying run to the plate.

The next batter was Dalton Jones, who had taken George Scott's job at first base. Jones had been one of the players whose surprising performance had helped fuel the Red Sox "Impossible Dream" 1967 pennant. That season, Jones had batted .289/.333/.409 in the regular season and .389/.421/.389 in the World Series. Could he tap into a bit of that old Red Sox magic and pull this game out - or at least keep it going for one more batter?

He could not. Ground ball to second base. Horace Clarke's throw to first was in time, and the ballgame was over.

Final score: New York Yankees 1, Boston Red Sox 0

Game Summary

With his win today, Fritz Peterson improved his season record to 3-2. He would go on to win 17 games in 1969 (against 16 losses) while leading the American League in WHIP (0.996 walks plus hits per inning pitched), walks per nine innings (43 walks in 272 innings pitched) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.49). The next season, 1970, would be Peterson's finest season as he won 20 games, led the AL for the second straight season in WHIP, walks/IP, and K/W ratio, and was named to the All-Star team for the only time in his career.

As for his hard-luck opponent, Ray Jarvis, he ended the 1969 season with a record of 5-6 with a 4.75 ERA. He pitched 15 games (16 innings) in 1970 and that was it. As measured by Player won-lost records, this game ended up being one of the top five games of Jarvis's career as measured by net pWins (pWins minus pLosses) despite the fact that he was the losing pitcher in the game and pWins tie to team wins.

The Yankees ended up fading a bit as the season went on, finishing in fifth place at 80-81 (with one tie). The Red Sox finished the season in the same position they ended play on April 28th, third place, with a record of 87-75.

Details of the game are shown below. First, I show Player won-lost records for all of the players who participated in the game. Baseball Player won-lost records are constructed so that the players on the winning team earn two pWins and one pLoss in the game while the players on the losing team earn one pWin and two pLosses. I also show expected wins and losses, eWins and eLosses, which are context-neutral. Full play by play details of the game are shown below the won-lost tables. My Player won-lost records are described in more detail in this article and throughout my website.

Retrosheet Box Score and Play-by-Play