One magnificent catch by Thompson, the Red Sox catcher, was the feature of the fourth inning. Iredell, who was at bat, sent up a sky-piercing foul. Thompson, Hobbs and Roth started for it.
“I’ve got it, I’ve got it!” yelled Thompson.
The others stopped and Thompson kept on.
The ball swerved toward the Boston dugout, where the substitutes and extra pitchers of the team were sitting.
A shout of warning went up, but Thompson did not falter. With his eye on the ball and his hands outstretched, he plunged ahead.
He grabbed the ball in a terrific forward lunge and went head over heels into the dugout, where his comrades caught him and saved him from injury. But he still clutched the ball as he was put on his feet, and a tempest of applause went up in which even the Giants and their partisans could not help joining.
“Suffering cats!” exclaimed McRae. “That was a miracle catch.”
“Never saw a better one in all my years on the ball field,” Robson conceded generously.
Thompson was forced to remove his cap again and again before the crowds would stop their cheering, and the play put still greater stiffness into the Boston’s defence.
But they needed something more than a stone wall defence. They had a lead of one run to overcome, and at the rate Joe was mowing them down, this seemed a tremendous obstacle.