May 31, 1963 - Ralph Terry threw three home run balls yesterday, so the Yankees were forced to go to overtime before beating the Red Sox, 6-5, in 10 innings at Fenway Park. The victory was the champs’ 12th in 15 games, a spurt which has kept them reasonably close to the high-flying Birds of Baltimore, who lost to the A’s yesterday, 7-2. They now lead the Yanks by two games. Dick Stuart, wearing glasses for the first time, homered after a single by Lu Clinton in the second. Terry then hit Russ Nixon on the right arm with a pitch and was clipped for the distance by Eddie Bressoud. Ralph settled down for a long while after that and had only to retire Bressoud in the ninth to end the game. But again came the gopher over the left fence and the 5-5 tie. “If Bressoud was in a slump, we got him out of it,” said Yankee manager Ralph Houk after the game. “We do that for everybody.” Arnold Earley, a left-handed reliever for Boston, was working late when the Bombers won it. Elston Howard, who had been in a slump, opened the 10th with a double over the head of Clinton, who didn’t play it well. Phil Linz, subbing at short for Tony Kubek, then got an infield single to short on which no play could be made, so slowly was it hit. Terry slap-bunted the runners along, then Clete Boyer drove a sacrifice fly to right, with Howard easily beating Clinton’s throw to the plate. The Yanks had one long ball, Roger Maris hitting his seventh, a 420-footer into the right-center bleachers in the second inning. Kubek hopes to play tomorrow night in Cleveland but isn’t certain he’ll feel well enough. He’s got a painful bruise in his left hamstring, the result of a collision with Tom Tresh Tuesday night. They were chasing a pop fly, which Tony caught.
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