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WADE BOGGS |
Boggs and Perez lead the Sox back
with 8th inning home runs
August
30, 1982 ... More Red Sox heroics overhauled
the Oakland Athletics, 9-7. After falling behind in the first inning,
4-0, all the Red Sox did was come roaring back with 15 base hits,
including five home runs (a season high), two triples and five
doubles.
If you think the good hitting isn't catching on, consider
the fact that the game-winning hit was a two-run, pinch-hit homer by none other
than Tony Perez. It was his fourth of the year, and the 361st of his career,
tying him for 28th place on the all-time list with Joe DiMaggio. More
importantly, it was the Red Sox' first pinch hit home run since Aug. 21, 1981.
In addition, Dwight Evans hit two home runs (reaching a career high of 25) and a
triple. Jim Rice and the amazing Wade Boggs (.369) also slugged home runs.
Talk about your comebacks. The Sox exploded for five runs
in the eighth inning to chase Athletics starter Matt Keough and pull away from
Oakland, which was leading at the time, 7-4. Boston has now won three straight
and six of the last nine.
Keough might have been lifted from the game after he gave
up a two-run homer to Boggs, but manager Billy Martin is operating with a
two-man (Tom Underwood and Bob Owchinko) bullpen these days. He opted for
Underwood after Keough had allowed a single to Reid Nichols. It proved to be a
mistake. Perez batted for Gary Allenson (following a sacrifice that put Nichols
on second) and slammed a home run into the left-field screen on a 1-1 count,
much to the delight of the 24,128 faithful at Fenway.
For seven innings, it appeared the Red Sox were locked in a
hopeless game of catch-up. Oakland made short work of Sox starter Mike Torrez,
who left in the first inning after giving up four runs on five hits, including a
two-run homer by Tony Armas.
The Sox scrapped back for three runs in the third. Evans
and Rice hit back-to-back home runs. Lansford narrowly missed another when he
tripled high off the wall in left center and eventually scored on a double to
left by Boggs.
But the Sox had trouble getting any closer. The A's chipped
away at lefty Bruce Hurst, who replaced Torrez in the first and pitched well in
spots, keeping Boston close. But he gave up a solo home run to Dave McKay in the
fourth. And in the seventh, after the Sox had climbed to within one run at 5-4
on Evans' second home run, he was nailed for two more runs before Mark Clear
could get the Sox out of the inning.
Jeff Burroughs led off the top of the eighth with a double
and scored on a single of the wall by Jeff Heath. With two out, Heath scored on
a double by Rickey Henderson, who delighted the fans by stealing his 123d base.
Once Clear got out of the inning, it was the Sox turn to go to work. Clear
became the beneficiary of the five-run explosion and wound up with his 12th
victory, another career high.
Reid Nichols came within
inches of making a spectacular catch on a drive by Jeff Burroughs, in the
eighth. The ball bounced off his glove, he juggled it, and finally dropped it. |
