July 2, 1962 - The Yankees beat the Athletics, 8-4, today, but it wasn’t easy. Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, and Hector Lopez hit homers at the Stadium and with Bill Stafford pitching beautifully for six innings, it looked for a while as if that would more than suffice to squelch Hank Bauer’s ninth-place Kansas City team. It took a lot more toil and sweat, however, before Ralph Houk’s Bombers finally put the Athletics down for keeps in the opener of a four-game series before 16,653. Trailing by four runs in the seventh, the Athletics went on a rampage that routed Stafford as they scored four runs. This surge tied the score at 4-4. But ace reliever Luis Arroyo (pictured between Whitey Ford and manager Hank shut the door on Kansas City, and the Yanks lashed into John Wyatt for four more runs in the Bombers’ half of the eighth. Bill Skowron’s sacrifice fly scored one, and Phil Linz banged a single off the first baseman’s glove for another. After Arroyo filled the bases with an infield hit, Tom Tresh drove in the final pair with another single. That gave Arroyo his first victory of the season and enabled the Yanks to maintain their slender hold on first place over the persistent Los Angeles Angels, who trail by only 4 percentage points.
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