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THE SUMMER OF "MORGAN'S
MAGIC" ...
The Sox beat
the A's in the clutch
August
19, 1988 ... Oakland showed its might with
three homers at Fenway Park. But the Red Sox won the opening round of
an important three-game series, 7-6, thanks largely to the efforts of
Barrett, Stanley and Greenwell.
This wasn't the same Sox team that had lost five of six
previous meetings to the AL West's runaway leaders. The Red Sox broke a 6-6 tie
in the seventh on clutch hitting by Barrett and Greenwell. Barrett doubled and
scored the winning run on a single by Greenwell, whose three RBIs enabled him to
reclaim the major league lead from Oakland strongman Jose Canesco (96-94).
Stanley
(5-1) earned the victory with 2 1/3 innings of shutout relief after replacing
starter Mike Smithson. The Steamer made it interesting, surviving a bases-loaded
jam in the eighth as he subdued perhaps the toughest lineup in baseball.
Oakland
slammed 11 hits, including homers by Luis Polonia and Sox alumni Don Baylor and
Dave Henderson. The Red Sox made the most of seven hits and two errors by a club
that rarely hurts itself in such fashion.
The
Athletics gave their Cy Young hopeful, Dave Stewart (15-11), a 4-1 lead after 4
1/2 innings and appeared home free against Smithson, who struggled for most of
his 6 2/3 innings. But the Red Sox turned their offense up a notch and twice
came through with timely hitting that turned the game around. The first
offensive surge came in the fifth when the Sox struck for five runs and a 6-4
lead. One run scored on a single by Barrett, who had two RBIs to go with his
three hits. Greenwell drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single, and the
third run crossed on catcher Terry Steinbach's error. Greenwell, who had taken
third on the throw home, provided Smithson with a two-run advantage by scoring
on Ellis Burks' groundout.
Smithson
couldn't hold the lead as he gave up back-to-back homers to Polonia (No. 2) and
Henderson (No. 19) in the seventh, creating the 6-6 tie.
Stanley
bailed the Sox out of the inning, and the Sox won it in the bottom half. Barrett
led the charge when he doubled sharply down the left-field line, his 13th hit in
25 at-bats against Stewart. Gene Nelson replaced Stewart and was probably the
most surprised man in the park to see Dwight Evans put down a textbook sacrifice
bunt, moving Barrett to third.
With first
base open, Athletics manager Tony LaRussa could have played it safe and walked
Greenwell. Instead, he brought his infield in, and the Sox cleanup man ripped a
line single over the head of first baseman Mark McGwire to bring in Barrett. It
was Greenwell's 16th game-winning RBI of the year.
Even after
Barrett and Greenwell delivered, the suspense wasn't finished. The burden rested
with Stanley, who struggled in the eighth when the Athletics loaded the bases.
Steinbach, who was charged with two errors and a passed ball, stroked a one-out
single. Stanley struck out Baylor, whose two-run homer in the fourth had given
Oakland a 3-1 lead, but walked pinch hitter Ron Hassey. Glenn Hubbard's hot
grounder bounced off shortstop Jody Reed for an error, filling the bases.
Stanley escaped by getting pinch hitter Carney Lansford on a hard grounder to
third baseman Wade Boggs, whose throw to Barrett at second provided the
inning-ending forceout.
Stanley
still wasn't safe. In the ninth, he had to face Polonia (double, triple, homer),
plus Henderson, Canesco and McGwire, who have a total of 74 homers. Stanley hit
Canseco with a pitch. But he struck out the others for the victory. The decision
delighted a crowd of 33,993 and kept the second-place Sox three games behind
Detroit in the American League East. |
