NY Times (edited)
RUTH HITS TWO HOMERS, BUT YANKEES LOSE - Box Score
NEW YORK - Friday - June 25, 1920. The Yankees came back to the Polo Grounds and a rousing welcome today. Close to 20,000 fans gave the pennant chasers a reception in keeping with the work of the team during the recent Western swing. The fans saw Babe Ruth in another great batting outburst and learned from the big scoreboard that the White Sox were scalping the league-leading Cleveland Indians. What more does one want to assuage a 6-3 defeat?
Yankee manager Miller Huggins relied on Jack Quinn to give the welcome home a happy finale, and it was no fault of the veteran spitballer that the Yanks did not win. He was outpitched by Herb Pennock, but he yielded only five hits in the eight innings that he occupied the mound. Jack was removed to let Sammy Vick bat in New York's half of the eighth, and it was against Hank Thormahlen, Quinn's successor on the hill, that the Sox put over the runs they needed to win.
Harry Hooper wasted little time in sending the Red Sox to the front. With two strikes against him, Harry connected solidly, and the ball sailed into the upper deck of the right field stand where it was caught by one of the spectators. The next three batsmen went out in order, and then the Yanks did some home running of their own.
Roger Peckinpaugh put the crowd in good humor by smashing a ball well into the left field bleachers about five yards from the foul line. After Aaron Ward and Wally Pipp had been retired, the crowd cut loose with the cheer that it had been saving up. Babe Ruth was on his way to the plate, and that crowd of 20,000 was all keyed up by this time with home run fervor. Babe obliged with the longest home run that he has yet manufactured at the Polo Grounds, and the stands turned into a bedlam as he jogged his way around the cushions. "Twenty-one and eight to go to tie that record," was the cry of a fan behind the New York dugout when the noise subsided enough for one voice to be heard. [Yankees 2, Red Sox 1]
The Sox tied up the game in the third. With one out, Hooper whizzed a double along the right field foul line, Ossie Vitt skied to second baseman Bob Meusel, and Mike Menosky's single to right sent Hooper across the plate.
In the fifth, the Red Sox went to the front. Roxy Walters started with a hit to right center for two bases, Pennock sacrificed Walters to third, and Hooper sent a fly to left. Ruth came in for the catch, but his throw curved away from Truck Hannah at the plate and Walters scored. [Red Sox 3, Yankees 2]
In the Boston ninth, Hank Thormahlen walked Wally Schang and Wally stole second. Stuffy McInnis's hot grounder bounced off second baseman Del Pratt's shoe and rolled into right field for a single, scoring Schang. Eddie Foster struck out, and Everett Scott hit to deep left center for three bases, scoring McInnis. Scott then crossed the plate while Peckinpaugh was fumbling a grounder to short. [Red Sox 6, Yankees 2]
Ruth was up first in the bottom of the ninth. The four-run lead gave Pennock some confidence in his ability to tame the slugger and he put one over within the reach of the long fifty-four ounce bat which Babe swings as lightly as the average human being manipulates a toothpick. Ruth took his full swing, bat and ball met perfectly and the sphere took off. The ball hit the top frieze, just below the grandstand roof, and only a few feet from the easterly end of the stand. But for the interruption, the drive would have carried far into the runway to the "L" station exit, where hundreds of fans had lingered to get another look at the mighty slugger. The ball bounded to the field after hitting the top deck. It was a spectacular shot, but it was the last run the Yankees scored. [Final: Red Sox 6, Yankees 3]
