1972 Boston Red Sox season
The 1972 Boston Red Sox season was the 72nd season in the franchise's Major League Baseball history. The Red Sox finished second in the American League East with a record of 85 wins and 70 losses, one-half game behind the Detroit Tigers. Due to the cancellation of games missed during the 1972 Major League Baseball strike, Detroit played one more game than Boston, allowing them to finish with a record of 86–70, winning the division by a half-game.
Offseason
- October 10, 1971: Jim Lonborg, Ken Brett, Billy Conigliaro, Joe Lahoud, Don Pavletich, and George Scott were traded by the Red Sox to the Milwaukee Brewers for Marty Pattin, Lew Krausse Jr., Tommy Harper, and Pat Skrable.
- March 22, 1972: Sparky Lyle was traded by the Red Sox to the New York Yankees for Danny Cater and a player to be named later. The Yankees completed the deal by sending Mario Guerrero to the Red Sox on June 30.
A bad trade
After the 1971 season, the Red Sox management decided on drastic changes. First there was a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers. George Scott, who had fallen out of favor with the Red Sox management, was packaged with Billy Conigliaro, outfielders Joe Lahoud and Don Pavletich, pitchers Ken Brett and Jim Lonborg and exchanged for pitchers Marty Pattin and Lew Krausse Jr. and outfielders Tommy Harper and Pat Skrable. It was a big deal and, as it turned out, a bad one for Boston. Lonborg won 14 games for Milwaukee in 1972, with a 2.83 ERA, and later was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, where he won 13, 17, 18, 8 and 11 games during five seasons. Scott batted.263,.266,.306,.281 and.285 in his five seasons with the Brewers, driving in 88, 107, 82, 109, and 77 runs during those same years and clouting an average of 23 homers a season, with 36 in 1975 alone. Meanwhile, although Pattin was 17–13 for Boston in 1972 a 15–15 in 1973, he was then traded away. Harper batted.254 and.281 in his two years with the Sox before being traded. Skrable, a Triple-A player, did not play professionally after the 1971 season. He refused to report to Boston, and the Red Sox received infielder Bobby Pfeil as compensation; Pfeil finished his career with Boston's Triple-A affiliate in 1972.Regular season
Following the 1972 Major League Baseball strike, Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn ruled that no games cancelled due to the April strike would be made up. The Red Sox played a total of 155 games of their original 162-game schedule, and finished with a record of 85–70. Meanwhile, the Detroit Tigers played 156 games, and finished with a record of 86–70. Thus, the Tigers were winners of the AL East, by a half-game over the Red Sox.Boston and Detroit finished their regular-season schedules with a three-game series against each other, played at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Entering the series, Boston held a half-game lead over Detroit, but Detroit won two of the three games, and the AL East title.
The first game of the series included a notable play. In the top of the third inning, Boston trailed, 1–0, and had one out with Tommy Harper at third base and Luis Aparicio at first base. Carl Yastrzemski hit a ball that looked to be a triple; Harper scored, but Aparicio fell as he rounded third base. Aparicio got up and retreated to third, but Yastrzemski was already there, causing Yastrzemski to try to return to second, resulting in Yastrzemski being tagged out. Thus, instead of having a 2–1 lead with one out and a runner at third, Boston had only tied the game and had two outs. The next batter, Reggie Smith, struck out to end the inning. Boston was unable to score again, and Detroit went on to win the game, 4–1. Aparicio falling as he rounded third base is looked back upon as a key play that could have made a difference.
Notable transactions
- June 6, 1972: Don Aase was drafted by the Red Sox in the 6th round of the 1972 Major League Baseball draft.
- August 15, 1972: Chris Coletta was traded by the Red Sox to the California Angels for Andy Kosco.
Opening Day lineup
Source:Player stats
Batting
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; SB = Stolen bases; BB = Walks; AVG = Batting average; SLG = Slugging average| Player | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | AVG | SLG |
| Tommy Harper | 144 | 556 | 92 | 141 | 29 | 2 | 14 | 49 | 25 | 67 | .254 | .388 |
| Rico Petrocelli | 147 | 521 | 62 | 125 | 15 | 2 | 15 | 75 | 0 | 78 | .240 | .363 |
| Doug Griffin | 129 | 470 | 43 | 122 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 35 | 9 | 45 | .260 | .302 |
| Reggie Smith | 131 | 467 | 75 | 126 | 25 | 4 | 21 | 74 | 15 | 68 | .270 | .475 |
| Carlton Fisk | 131 | 457 | 74 | 134 | 28 | 9 | 22 | 61 | 5 | 52 | .293 | .538 |
| Carl Yastrzemski | 125 | 455 | 70 | 120 | 18 | 2 | 12 | 68 | 5 | 67 | .264 | .391 |
| Luis Aparicio | 110 | 436 | 47 | 112 | 26 | 3 | 3 | 39 | 3 | 26 | .257 | .351 |
| Danny Cater | 92 | 317 | 32 | 75 | 17 | 1 | 8 | 39 | 0 | 15 | .237 | .372 |
| Ben Oglivie | 94 | 253 | 27 | 61 | 10 | 2 | 8 | 30 | 1 | 18 | .241 | .391 |
| John Kennedy | 71 | 212 | 22 | 52 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 22 | 0 | 18 | .245 | .335 |
| Juan Beníquez | 33 | 99 | 10 | 24 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 7 | .242 | .333 |
| Rick Miller | 89 | 98 | 13 | 21 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 11 | .214 | .367 |
| Phil Gagliano | 52 | 82 | 9 | 21 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 10 | .256 | .329 |
| Duane Josephson | 26 | 82 | 11 | 22 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 4 | .268 | .378 |
| Bob Montgomery | 24 | 77 | 7 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 3 | .286 | .377 |
| Bob Burda | 45 | 73 | 4 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 8 | .164 | .260 |
| Dwight Evans | 18 | 57 | 2 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 7 | .263 | .404 |
| Andy Kosco | 17 | 47 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 2 | .213 | .489 |
| Cecil Cooper | 12 | 17 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | .235 | .294 |
| Bob Gallagher | 7 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 |
| Vic Correll | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .500 | .500 |
| Pitcher Totals | 155 | 423 | 34 | 68 | 14 | 1 | 4 | 31 | 0 | 14 | .161 | .227 |
| Team Totals | 155 | 5208 | 640 | 1289 | 229 | 34 | 124 | 594 | 66 | 522 | .248 | .376 |
Source:
Pitching
Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; H = Hits allowed; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; SO = Strikeouts| Player | W | L | ERA | G | GS | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Marty Pattin | 17 | 13 | 3.24 | 38 | 35 | 0 | 253.0 | 232 | 102 | 91 | 65 | 168 |
| Sonny Siebert | 12 | 12 | 3.80 | 32 | 30 | 0 | 196.1 | 204 | 105 | 83 | 59 | 123 |
| Luis Tiant | 15 | 6 | 1.91 | 43 | 19 | 3 | 179.0 | 128 | 45 | 38 | 65 | 123 |
| John Curtis | 11 | 8 | 3.73 | 26 | 21 | 0 | 154.1 | 161 | 69 | 64 | 50 | 106 |
| Lynn McGlothen | 8 | 7 | 3.41 | 22 | 22 | 0 | 145.0 | 135 | 66 | 55 | 59 | 112 |
| Ray Culp | 5 | 8 | 4.46 | 16 | 16 | 0 | 105.0 | 104 | 60 | 52 | 53 | 52 |
| Gary Peters | 3 | 3 | 4.32 | 33 | 4 | 1 | 85.1 | 91 | 48 | 41 | 38 | 67 |
| Bill Lee | 7 | 4 | 3.20 | 47 | 0 | 5 | 84.1 | 75 | 31 | 30 | 32 | 43 |
| Lew Krausse Jr. | 1 | 3 | 6.38 | 24 | 7 | 1 | 60.2 | 74 | 48 | 43 | 28 | 35 |
| Don Newhauser | 4 | 2 | 2.43 | 31 | 0 | 4 | 37.0 | 30 | 11 | 10 | 25 | 27 |
| Bobby Bolin | 0 | 1 | 2.93 | 21 | 0 | 5 | 30.2 | 24 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 27 |
| Ken Tatum | 0 | 2 | 3.07 | 22 | 0 | 4 | 29.1 | 32 | 12 | 10 | 15 | 15 |
| Bob Veale | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 8.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 |
| Roger Moret | 0 | 0 | 3.60 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5.0 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 4 |
| Stan Williams | 0 | 0 | 6.23 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4.1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Mike Garman | 0 | 1 | 10.80 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3.1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Mike Nagy | 0 | 0 | 9.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Team Totals | 85 | 70 | 3.47 | 155 | 155 | 25 | 1382.2 | 1309 | 620 | 533 | 512 | 918 |
Source:
Statistical leaders
| Category | Player | Statistic |
| Youngest player | Dwight Evans | 20 |
| Oldest player | Luis Aparicio | 38 |
| Wins Above Replacement | Carlton Fisk | 7.3 |
Source: