|
Dennis Eckersley & Jim Rice master the A's
May 21, 1981
... The magic was there tonight for the Red Sox,
and particularly for Jim Rice and Dennis Eckersley. They gave the
23,145 on hand a real bargain, and once Rice's graceful home run
swing had been completed in the ninth inning, the Red Sox had a 3-0
victory over the Oakland A's and a sweep of their two-game series.
Boston has won four games in a row. The Eck was
in complete control, striking out 12 batters, a career high for him with the Red
Sox and the most strikeouts by a Boston pitcher since Luis Tiant achieved the
same number against Milwaukee back in 1976. Eckersley limited the A's to two
hits and walked five as he pitched his first shutout since beating Texas, 1- 0,
in July, 1979.
The Rice home run, his fifth, was indeed a thing of beauty.
His swing was easy and short, and the pitch by loser Brian Kingman simply
exploded off Rice's bat and came to rest in the left-field screen. It followed
leadoff singles by Dwight Evans and Carl Yastrzemski.
Rice was the man up there with a bat in his hand. And with
runners on first and second, there was no chance of him bunting, for as Houk
said later, Rice is the kind of guy who could advance the runners on a fly ball,
and the way things were going the Sox just had to gamble that he wouldn't hit
into a double play.
There was no question that Eckersley was feeling confidence
from his performance. The victory was his fourth of the year, but his first at
Fenway Park where he has taken all three of his losses. Of the seven complete
games by Red Sox pitching this year, six have been for victories, and the Eck
now has three of them.
But it happened for the Eck as he mowed down 12 Oakland
hitters, all swinging. Houk said that indicated that Eckersley's fast ball was
moving.
Actually, Eckersley's best pitching came in an inning when
he didn't get any strikeouts. With two out, he pitched carefully to Rickey
Henderson and Dwayne Murphy, walking each on a 3-2 count. Henderson went all the
way to third by stealing bases No. 25 and 26 of the season. Murphy might have
done the same thing had not lefthanded hitting Mitchell Page swung at
Eckersley's first offering and hit a mile-high flyball to left for the final
out. |
