Red Sox Lose Opener 5-4 After Balk in 13th Inning

Governor Volpe threw the ball, and the Red Sox--despite some fine turns at the plate and in the field--bungled it. After twelve innings of neck-and-neck play, Baltimore was handed a little wild pitching--culminating in a balk--and a 5-to-4 victory over the Sox.

The Orioles opened up in the first inning a two-run homer by Brooks Robinson scoring Frank Robinson, who had been hit by a pitch.

But Boston's own came back with three in the third on singles by Mike Ryan, Earl Wilson, George Smith and George Thomas. Frank Robinson homered for Baltimore in the fifth to tie the score.

In the eighth inning, George Scott's triple gave the Sox the lead again, and they very nearly kept it. But in the ninth Brooks Robinson drove in pinch-runner Russ Snyder with a bases-loaded, two-out single.

The Orioles were only denied another run on a fine play by Sox left-fielder Carl Yastrzemski. When Woodie Held tried to from second, Yastrzemski's throw beat him to the plate.

Boston then went down one-two-three in its half of the ninth, and the game went into extra innings.

Pitchers Stu Miller and Jim Lonborg blanked each other's teams for the 10th, 11th and 12th. Boston's Lonborg, however, met trouble in the 13th. After a single by Bob Johnson, Lonborg intentionally walked two Orioles. Then he balked while pitching to Luis Aparicio, and sent Johnson in to score.

Miller got the win for Baltimore, giving up a single and a walk in his three innings. Lonborg was the losing pitcher.

The Sox meet the Orioles for a single game at 1:30 p.m. today, and on Friday Boston will open a series at Cleveland.