After the 1995 season, the club was excited about their surprise finish. Rebuilding was put aside and players like Tim Wakefield, Jose Canseco and Dwayne Hosey needed to be rewarded and retained. On paper, the club appeared to be better than it was and to remain at the high level of the year before, they had to spend more money. They picked up pitchers Tom Gordon and Jamie Moyer as free agents and catcher Mike Stanley. When Rick Aguilera returned to the Minnesota Twins, they picked up Heathcliff Slocumb from the Phillies, in exchange for Lee Tinsley, Glenn Murray and Ken Ryan. And finally Dan Duquette signed Wil Cordero. The 1995 American League Most Valuable Player, Mo Vaughn, was signed to a three-year deal.
On a sun-splashed day in the 70s in Texas, the Red Sox went down to an Opening Day defeat at the hands of the Rangers, 5-3 on April 1st. The Sox much-ballyhooed lineup was held to eight hits and three runs. Roger Clemens pitched as if he were on a different planet. The Sox offered no visible means of support as they committed two errors, none more costly than John Valentin's throwing error in the fifth on Ivan Rodriguez' grounder that opened the door for two runs. After losing three straight in Texas, the Sox displayed matchless ineptitude in three major categories: hitting, fielding and pitching. The Sox' 13-2 setback to the Rangers on April 4th wrapped up the awful series and was by far their worst performance of the three losses. After issuing 19 walks in 5-3 and 7-2 losses that opened the season, the Sox added 10 passes, plus four errors (three by novice second baseman Wil Cordero) and a measly six hits, giving them a grand total of 18 (five for extra bases) in the series. On April 7th in Kansas City after losing the first two games, the Sox bounced back with a 3 to 1 win on April 7th. Jamie Moyer allowed just for hits and one run in 7 1/3 innings. Mike Stanton and Heathcliff Slocumb finished things off. Mike Greenwell banged out three hits including a double. On Opening Day at Fenway Park on April 9th, the Sox' offense jumped on former Red Sox prospect Frank Rodriguez for six hits and five runs over five innings, and then the Sox kept hitting from innings one through eight, eventually beating the Minnesota Twins, 9-1. Equally relentless was Tom Gordon, who pitched the American League's first complete game, throwing 132 pitches and scattering seven hits. The Red Sox made three nasty errors on April 11th that led to a 6-5 loss to the Twins in a game delayed 90 minutes at the start by snow removal. Not much went right in this one. Next came the Indians from Cleveland, who swept the Sox in four straight games. After securing the worst start in their 96-year history, the Red Sox (3-12) finally defeated the Baltimore Orioles, 10-7, on April 18th at Camden Yards. The Sox scored in bunches. They scored four in the third, two in the fourth, three in the seventh and tacked on one more in the eighth on Mike Stanley's solo homer. Seven straight losses and open panic in Red Sox Nation was followed by a two-run homer by Mo Vaughn in the seventh, and four runs in the third. But on the road in Cleveland, the Indians took three straight making them 7-0 against the Sox in the young season. A 4-1 win over the Twins in Minnesota, on April 22nd, saw Aaron Sele emerge with his best outing of the year, going six innings, giving up just four hits and a run. The Red Sox exploded on April 24th against the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park. Behind the torrid bats of Reggie Jefferson and Mo Vaughn, the Sox overcame a 7-0 deficit and scratched and clawed their way to an 11-9 victory. The Red Sox went after the Rangers aggressively as if they were the team with an overwhelming lead. Texas was ahead, 7-0, 7-4, 9-4, 9-5 and 9-7 before the Sox tied the game in the sixth. Two victories in a row will not make a season for any major league team. But for the Red Sox the next night on April 25th, it was a breath of fresh air. For the second straight night, the Sox came from behind and wiped out the staggering Texas Rangers, 8-3. They did it with Tim Wakefield pitching six strong innings for his first victory, and with Mo Vaughn and Troy O'Leary connecting for three-run homers to help erase a 2-0 deficit, and Vaughn adding a solo shot as the icing. The euphoria was short lived because the Sox next lost three home games to the Royals. The Red Sox were 6-19 and that was the worst record in baseball. In response, pitching coach Al Nipper was let go. The Red Sox had a 13-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Fenway on April 30th. The winner was Tim Wakefield, who had his teammates back him with 16 hits, including home runs by Reggie Jefferson (two) and Mo Vaughn. The Sox finished the opening month with only seven wins in their first 26 games, leaving them in fifth place, 7 1/2 games out.
One day after the demotion of his dear friend Al Nipper, Roger Clemens pulled himself together and took out his frustrations on the Detroit Tigers, 5-1, on May 1st. With the crowd solidly behind him, Clemens struck out 13 and walked none and recorded his first victory after four losses, halting his worst start to a season ever. Two games were next won against the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway. On April 3rd some fans were upset that the game was allowed to continue through 3 hours and 43 minutes of rain delays, forcing a suspension by the 1 a.m. American League curfew time. The results justified the inconvenience as the Sox held on to win the suspended game, 8-7, on May 3rd and took the scheduled game, 8-4, the next day on May 4th. The Red Sox won a game, 4-2, over Milwaukee on May 7th for their fifth win in six games. Roger Clemens struck out 10 batters, the third straight game he'd reached double digits and that hadn't happened since 1987. In Toronto on May 10th, the Sox took down the Blue Jays, 6 to 5 in 11 innings. Troy O'Leary's homer to left provided the winning margin. On May 14th, the Sox were down, 3-0, to the Angels back at Fenway, after Aaron Sele's six innings of work. Then the Sox mounted a comeback in the seventh against Chuck Finley. With two men on base, John Valentin sent a 2-and-0 fastball into the net, tying the score. The shortstop later scored the winning run on Jose Canseco's single to right, for a 4-3 walk-off win in 12 innings.
A 17-6 win over the California Angels on May 15th, at Fenway Park, was by far the best and biggest victory of the season, An offensive outburst of 17 hits, including six doubles and four homers. Mo Vaughn (2 homers, 4 RBIs), Mike Stanley (4 RBIs) and Troy O'Leary (3 doubles) highlighted a big night while the bullpen turned in another good performance, allowing just one run over five innings. In a season full of early despair, the Sox continued their mild surge, bouncing back on May 17th to win in extra innings for the second time in three games. They pulled out a 5-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Wil Cordero's two-out, two-run walk-off homer in the 11th inning. If the offense explodes and gives the pitchers a comfort zone, only good things can happen. That was the formula that carried the Sox to a 12-2 victory over the Oakland A's on May 19th. Power hitting, strong starting pitching from Aaron Sele and better-than-average defense put the Sox at 4-1 on this homestand and 10-5 in their last 15 games. Not many teams are going to beat the Red Sox on a day when Mo Vaughn and Jose Canseco hit back-to-back home runs, or when Milt Culyer and John Valentin hit two-run singles, each coming with two outs and the bases loaded. The Sox bats took over during a 16-4 victory over the Oakland A's the next night on May 20th, in an offensive extravaganza. It wasn't close after the third inning. The crowd saw the Red Sox erupt for 21 hits, including home runs by Jose Canseco (2), Bill Haselman and Mo Vaughn. Vaughn's blast was his 17th of the year, which tied him with Albert Belle of Cleveland for the American League lead and gave him a league-leading 47 RBIs to go with a .344 average. Canseco sizzled and had his first two-homer game in a Red Sox uniform, a pair of two-run shots. Roger Clemens went the route on May 23rd, beating the Seattle Mariners, 11-4, for his third win of the year. But long after everything else about the game is forgotten, fit was the night they saw Clemens get his first hit in the big leagues. The Rocket's teammates and the fans were delirious when he walked up to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning. When he cracked a single up the middle, there were smiles from foul pole to foul pole. A 10-3 victory was earned over the Angels at the Big "A" on May 25th. It was just a plain old whuppin' by the Sox, featuring a two-run double by Troy O'Leary, a seventh-inning three-run homer by Jose Canseco and a two-run shot by Mo Vaughn in the ninth. Tom Gordon retired ten straight batters in the middle of the game, before allowing a seventh-inning walk. He scattered eight hits over 6 1/3 innings. The Sox then went up to Oakland and throttled the A's, smashing 16 hits and scoring in double digits for the eighth time this season for a 10-3 victory before a Memorial Day crowd at the Coliseum on May 27th. They struck for six hits and five runs in the second inning, more than enough support for a quality start by Tim Wakefield, who tossed his first complete game since last August. Tom Gordon went a long way by throwing a two-hit, 10-1 win against the Seattle Mariners on May 30th at the Kingdome. Gordon's only mistake was a fifth-inning homer by Paul Sorrento, who got the other hit off him with a single in the eighth. Before the homer, Gordon had retired the first 12 batters and 14 of the first 15. While Gordon controlled his destiny, the Sox offense left nothing to chance with a four-homer outburst. Two were by No. 9 hitter Milt Culyer, a solo shot by Tim Naehring and the big blow, a grand slam by Jose Canseco.
Mo Vaughn has provided precious moments of baseball beauty. His three-run homer in the fifth inning at the Kingdome on June 1st, unknotted a 2-2 game and helped carry the Red Sox to a 6-5 victory over Seattle. Vaughn lofted the ball up to the third deck with a textbook uppercut swing. It was measured at 409 feet. The Red Sox (22-32) finished their West Coast swing winning only four of the ten games they played. They returned to Boston in fourth place, ten games out of first. Secondbaseman, Jeff Frye, who had been released by the Texas Rangers, signed on with the Sox on June 5th.
After losing two games to the White Sox at Fenway, the Red Sox pulled off a 7-4 victory over Chicago on June 6th. They combined decent pitching, solid defense and timely hitting, highlighted by John Valentin becoming the 19th player in franchise history to hit for the cycle with a single, double, triple and homer. Shrugging off a 5-4-3 triple play on a first-inning grounder by Tim Naehring, the Red Sox halted their three-game skid. Valentin was the catalyst, putting the Red Sox ahead for good with a two-run first-inning homer, going on to achieve his first career cycle and scoring three runs as a bonus. A five-homer comeback from a 7-1 deficit, produced a 10-7 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on June 7th. Reggie Jefferson's two-run pinch-hit homer in the eighth put the Sox ahead the first time, and Jose Canseco finished off the power parade with his second homer of the night and 18th of the season. But the Sox lost the next two games with the Brewers. In the last game, it was 8-8 in the ninth inning when a mass of Red Sox fans got up and left Fenway Park. They must have known something, as the Sox once again lost, 11-8. Fan apathy characterized the six-game homestand, as the Sox played seemingly endless marathons of mostly uninteresting and listless baseball. It seemed that not enough players cared about their performances on the field. After four starts that offered glimpses of promise and minimal success, Vaughn Eshelman put it all together on June 11th in a 9-2 win in Chicago. His job in jeopardy, the lefthander responded with six shutout innings as he nursed a 1-0 lead. Then his teammates had rewarded him with a seven-run explosion in the top half. The burst was highlighted by Jose Canseco's two-run single and Mike Stanley's three-run homer. Everyone had seen it all before. There was a blown save by Heathcliff Slocumb, four strikeouts by Jose Canseco and a fly ball clanging off the glove of Troy O'Leary. As the game groaned into extra innings in Chicago, on June 12th, it was the White Sox that squandered opportunities. This time the Red Sox went home with smiles on their faces. The Red Sox won the game with a 3-2 victory. The Red Sox showed a little backbone. They overcame a dazzling effort by Chicago starter Alex Fernandez (13 strikeouts) and held off three rallies in the late innings. The home team stranded eight runners in the ninth, 10th and 11th. The Red Sox won it when Canseco doubled to lead off the 12th, then limped to third on Tim Naehring's fly before limping home on Mike Stanley's sacrifice fly. Back home on June 13th, the Sox and Rangers went into overtime. Down 6 to 4 in the ninth inning the Sox rallied to tie the game. Mike Stanley doubled home Jose Canseco who had walked. Then Reggie Jefferson followed with a double off the wall in left-center that tied the game at six each. In the top of the 10th, Rich Garces loaded the bases and the Rangers went up a run. But in the bottom of the inning, John Valentin's homer tied the game once more. Mo Vaughn next drew a walk, moved to second on a fielder's choice and was brought home ny Alex Delgado for an 8 to 7 walk-off win. June 14th’s 4-3 decision over Texas had Vaughn provide the uplift with an eighth-inning homer off Canton's Bobby Witt to break the 3-3 tie that the Rangers had achieved in the top of the inning. The Sox had won their last three by one run and had 17 come-from-behind wins. They had won four straight games for only the second time this season. Reggie Jefferson delivered a three-run homer in the ninth, on June 16th, giving the Red Sox another come-from-behind, 10-9 victory over the Texas Rangers in one of the most exciting finishes of the year. Texas once led, 9-3, but the Sox came back to score seven runs in the last three innings. In the ninth, Jefferson's blast was preceded by singles by Mo Vaughn and Jose Canseco, and a wild pitch. Given the foot speed of the three men who batted in the ninth, Jefferson could just as easily have hit into a triple play. Nobody thought the Rangers would lose in such a manner, especially after they had recovered from a 3-2 deficit by scoring five runs in the fifth inning to lead, 7-3, and had a six-run cushion with two more in the seventh. But then after five straight losses in Cleveland and Texas, the Sox were looking for reasons why. One reason they found was that Sox catchers had thrown out only eight runners in 73 stolen-base attempts this season. It was becoming clear that the only excitement to come this season was watching Mo Vaughn's quest for the Triple Crown. Players were beginning to question in what direction the team was headed. Vaughn has said there's confusion over whether the Sox are still trying to get back in the race or are playing for next year. The Sox were in fourth place and 14 games behind in the AL East. There was a small feeling of relief on June 26th when the Sox were able to overcome a 4-1 ninth-inning deficit and scratch and claw its way to a 6-4 victory in 15 innings over Cleveland on a two-run homer by Tim Naehring. The Sox had never lost every game of the season to any opponent, and the Indians had won the first 11 games this year, owning a 14-game streak that went back to a sweep in last year's American League playoffs. Chances of ending the streak seemed bleak after eight innings. Roger Clemens had pitched his heart out again, but still stood to be a 4-1 loser unless the Red Sox rallied. They did so, scoring three runs in the ninth and finally won after a series of near-misses by both teams. This was Bad News Bears I vs. Bad News Bears II. The two worst pitching staffs on earth were trying to hold the other team down at Fenway on June 28th. And in the end, the favored Sox took an 8-5 win over Detroit before their hardy Fenway fans who were stuck with tickets. Tim Wakefield got a rousing ovation for merely pitching into the sixth inning and not getting annihilated. Sox fans were easily impressed now. The crowd filled three-quarters of the bleacher seats by midgame and then thinned quickly. The 600 Club had small clumps of viewers in the lower rows and the roof-top boxes were half-filled. Nothing succeeds like success. On any given day, the Red Sox could have had all the firepower they needed to take apart a club like the Detroit Tigers. They did it in the third game of the series. Aaron Sele was off his game and put the Sox in a 6-2 hole in fewer than three innings. But the Sox came back with five runs in the bottom of the third, and five more in the sixth en route to a 13-6 victory. It was the second straight win over the last-place Tigers. The baseball world might be a lot different if Sox bats were booming all season like they did in this game. Shortstop John Valentin led a 16-hit assault with two home runs. Reggie Jefferson collected three hits and improved his average to .369. Mo Vaughn extended his hitting streak to a career-high 16 games. Mike Stanley drove in three runs with a single and his 11th home run. On June 30th, the sox finished off their homestand by taking down the Tigers for their third straight win, 9 to 4. Reggie Jefferson had three hits including two home runs and drove in three of the Sox runs. Troy O'Leary also brought in three runs with two hits. The Red Sox (34-45) finished June going 13-14 for the month, but were still in fourth place, a distant 13 game out of first.
The Sox came back down to reality as
July started in the Bronx. They suffered a 2-0 loss to the
Yankees on Julky 1st as Jimmy
Key outdueled
Roger Clemens.
They had hooked up in the
past and the games, finesse vs. power, always had been
interesting. There wasn't much room for error, and when
Clemens served a 3-and-2 fastball to Mike Aldrete in the
seventh, as the designated hitter he deposited it into the
left-field bleachers. The Yankees also executed a safety
squeeze in the inning, as Joe Girardi's bunt toward
Vaughn
at first scored Andy Fox.
Jose Canseco hit a three-run homer sealing the Sox 7-3 victory over the Orioles on July 5th. Canseco was having a great year. He had 26 home runs and 63 RBIs in 69 games and was hitting .301. He was three homers behind league-leader Brady Anderson and one behind Cleveland's Albert Belle. On July 7th, Mo Vaughn ended the first half of the season as he slammed two home runs. The second was a titanic game-winning homer in a 7-5 win over Baltimore. It was three or four rows shy of going over the center-field bleachers, a 457-foot shot that was the second longest homer in Camden Yards history. Vaughn knocked in five runs, giving him 78 RBIs at the All-Star Break, to go along with 26 homers and a .346 average. The first one was no cheapie either, measuring 417 feet to right field, hitting the brick warehouse on one bounce. Barry Bonds won the annual All-Star home run derby in Philadelphia. He beat crosstown rival Mark McGwire of the A's in the finals, 3-2. McGwire registered the longest drive, a 460-foot shot into the upper deck in left. Mo Vaughn sat out because of a ligament problem in his right hand. The power pitching of starter John Smoltz, Kevin Brown, Ricky Bottalico and Pedro Martinez, plus five colleagues who contributed to a nine-man, seven-hit shutout, sparked the NL to a 6-0 victory over the American League. Mike Piazza of the Dodgers, won game MVP honors after collecting a homer and a run-scoring double. John Smoltz gave up two hits, including a second-inning double by Mo Vaughn, who made his debut as an All-Star starter because of a foot injury to White Sox first baseman Frank Thomas. Roger Clemens made it look easy in the first game after the break in an 11-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers on July 11th. In seven innings, he dazzled the worst team in baseball for the second time this season with some of his best stuff. He allowed only three hits and one run and struck out 10. Sox hitters slammed five home runs, led by Reggie Jefferson's pair, giving him six this season against the Tigers. Jose Canseco hit a three-run homer and walked four times. John Valentin and Mike Stanley also chipped in with long balls. The Sox collected 10 hits, but the home runs made it seem like twice that many.
Tom Gordon's efforts easily could have been lost in the fireworks the next night on July 12th, as the Sox came up with another Detroit demolition, this one 11-3. Mo Vaughn launched his sixth career grand slam and Reggie Jefferson bolstered his credentials as a Tiger killer, knocking in four runs for a two-game total of seven. Aaron Sele was up to his old tricks in the third game, blowing a 3-0 lead and giving up three home runs to the Tigers on July 13th. But he was able to hang in there for seven innings, just long enough to reap the harvest of a 10-5 rout. The Red Sox had won four straight, were 8-1 against the Tigers this year and Sele now had four victories. It was an easy sweep in Detroit and the Sox returned home to face the Yankees on July 15th. They were 16 games behind the Yanks at the start of the night. This game was about finally being able to say they could beat the best, even if it was just one night. And they did it for the team's sixth straight win, 8-6, overcoming a 3-0 first-inning deficit. Tim Wakefield was not at his best, leaving after five innings with a 7-6 lead, but gained the win to improve to 6-9. It was the fifth straight win by the Sox' starting rotation, a first this season. The Sox bullpen, Vaughn Eshelman, Joe Hudson, Mike Stanton and Heathcliff Slocumb (13th save) were the real stars, holding the Yankees scoreless for the final four innings. No other game in the 1996 season could have been as meaningful as the one on July 17th. The pile-on after Jeff Frye's two-out, ninth-inning single off John Wetteland, the best closer in baseball, gave the Red Sox an implausible 12-11 win over the Yankees and probably was the closest thing to a championship atmosphere that Fenway Park would experience all year. It was THE game of the season. The noise in the stands wasn't as inspiring as the Sox turned a 9-2 seventh-inning lead into an 11-9 deficit in the ninth. A three-run double by Kevin Mitchell in the fifth and a three-run homer by Jose Canseco in the sixth helped the Sox. Jamie Moyer turned in a splendid performance on July 19th for a 13-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway. Mo Vaughn led the way after five homerless games. He cracked his 29th homer to highlight a four-run third and had five RBIs in the first six innings, raising his season total to 91, one behind Milwaukee slugger Greg Vaughn, for the American League lead. It was also his first homer at Fenway since June 14th. Mike Stanley finished a six-run sixth with a three-run homer as the Sox regrouped. Moyer allowed only five hits through seven innings before surrendering a pair of unearned runs in the eighth as he improved his record to 6-1.
Tim Wakefield's knuckleball danced in the crosswind at Fenway in perhaps his best performance of the season, a 2-0 Red Sox win over the Baltimore Orioles on July 20th. In a showing reminiscent of last season, Wakefield picked a good day to bring his ERA back down below 6.00 (5.98), as the Sox bats mustered only eight hits overall. In perhaps the final Boston home performance for some, the Sox flexed their muscles for a 12-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on July 24th. They sent the crowd home happy with a 14-hit assault. Jamie Moyer allowed seven hits and two runs in seven innings, improving his record to 7-1 for the season and lowering his ERA over the last 20 2/3 innings to 1.31. Moyer was 5-1 as a starter and had won his last three. And after giving the Sox their first Fenway decision over KC in six tries, he was responsible for their only two wins in nine games against the Royals. Arquimedez Pozo saw three runs score after the triple he stroked to right-center field in the top of the ninth on July 27th, in Minneapolis. It broke a 5-5 game and propeled the Red Sox to a 9-5 win over the Twins. Tom Gordon (8-5) got the win despite blowing 4-1 and 5-3 leads and Heathcliff Slocumb struck out two in the ninth. Jose Canseco had an MRI at a local and he was still in pain from his lower back down his left leg. He reinjured his back after taking a swing during batting practice. He had revealed during the Sox's first West Coast trip in May that a private physician had diagnosed a ruptured disc. He would be out for the rest of the year and would undergo surgery. In midseason, injuries and the failure of players that the Red Sox expected to do well, forced a different direction. Defense and speed became a priority for Dan Duquette. Jamie Moyer alternated between starting and relieving while putting up a 7-1 record and a 4.50 ERA and was unhappy with his role. Darren Bragg was brought in from Seattle on July 30th for Moyer. Earlier, the Sox shipped disgruntled outfielder Kevin Mitchell to Cincinnati, second baseman Roberto Mejia and minor league pitcher Brad Tweedlie. Finally, Mike Stanton was dealt, along with a player to be named later, to the Texas Rangers, for the promising 22-year-old closer Kerry Lacy and middle reliever Mark Brandenburg, who would join the Sox in Kansas City.
Troy O'Leary's long drive flew into the night on Dan Naulty's second offering, first looking as if it would easily reach the Sox bullpen, then drifting into that sinister triangle that usually spells doom for someone. The ball was coming down and the Twins’ Rich Becker seemed to have a bead on it, following it ever so carefully. But at the moment of impact, it grazed off his glove for a triple that scored pinch runner John Valentin, finishing the Red Sox' two-out, none-on rally from a three-run deficit and produced an uplifting 11-10 victory over the Minnesota Twins before a fraction of the 28,041 fans who started out at Fenway Park on August 2nd. The next day, August 3rd, the Sox and Twins split a doubleheader. In a make-up game for one that was snowed-out in April, the Sox easily beat Minnesota, 6 to 3. There were four teams (Detroit, Seattle, California and Minnesota) with worse ERAs than the Red Sox, so when the Sox offense faced one of those staffs, they could produce some numbers, especially at Fenway Park. After the game on August 4th, the Twins' ERA stood at 5.49 (the Sox' was 5.27) following a 13-6 Red Sox victory. Vaughn Eshelman started with an 8.08 ERA but ended with a 7.32 mark after allowing one earned run, four in all, in 6 2/3 innings. The Sox moved within a half-game of the coveted three spot in the American League East on August 5th with an impressive 3-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays as Tim Wakefield beat Juan Guzman. The Sox' lineup needed only three runs on seven hits to foil the Jays, who committed a costly error in the Sox three-run second. The key to Wakefield's newfound success was Mike Greenwell. While Phil Niekro had received much of the credit for getting Wakefield to change speeds on his knuckleball, it turns out that Greenwell first discovered a flaw in Wakefield's delivery after returning from Florida and the disabled list. Wakefield went back and studied the films and talked to some other people and now had done it the right way. In his third complete game of the season (and first since June 10th), Wakefield tied his season-high for strikeouts with eight, while the Sox also stole a season-high four bases, including Greenwell's theft of home as part of a double steal with Mike Stanley. Mike Maddux posted his first victory of the year and proved the difference in a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays the next night on August 6th. Darren Bragg doubled twice, scored twice and drove in the deciding run. Bragg, as leadoff man, set the table and did that three times. In the first inning, he reached on an error, and after a double by Jeff Frye, he scored on a ground out by Mo Vaughn. In the sixth, with the game tied at 1-1, Bragg doubled to left-center and scored on a double by Frye. Bragg's RBI came in the eighth after a walk to Tony Rodriguez, who scored from first on another double to left. It was good enough for the Sox to win their third straight game (fifth out of six) and crawl over Toronto into third place in the American League East.
For the first half of the season, there were a lot of people who questioned the wisdom of signing Tom Gordon. The free agent righthander's performance was shaky in his early starts at a time when the Red Sox needed a stopper. But you couldn't find a single detractor of the Tom Gordon who showed up on August 8th and flirted with perfection before settling for a three-hitter and an 8-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. He wound up with his first shutout since he blanked Seattle in 1990. He threw 130 pitches and struck out eight. It was the first shutout by a Red Sox pitcher at Fenway since 1994. The Blue Jays had scored only three earned runs in three games. Jeff Suppan was a hit among several major league scouts attending the opener of a doubleheader on August 9th, which the Red Sox swept from the Brewers, 9-7 and 4-1. Suppan didn't have a good curveball but kept throwing it and often got Milwaukee hitters to pop it up as he lasted 6 2/3 innings, allowing nine hits and five runs, for his first major league win as a starter. Another winner was Vaughn Eshelman, who went 8 2/3 innings and allowed six hits in the nightcap as the Sox completed their first road doubleheader sweep since 1987, and first sweep of any kind since 1991. The Red Sox won nine of their last 11 games following a 3-2 victory on August 10th over the Brewers at County Stadium and were playing excellent baseball. Tim Wakefield was on automatic pilot, changing speeds and patterns and completely baffling hitters. He gobbled up valuable innings and saved the bullpen. After allowing a two-run homer in the fourth, he yielded only three hits the remainder of the game and retired nine straight. The Sox offense again was triggered by the top of the order. Darren Bragg and Jeff Frye reached base a combined six times in eight plate appearances, including Frye's second home run. The next day on August 14th, Roger Clemens spun one of his gems, a 2-0 combined shutout with Mark Brandenburg and Stan Belinda at County Stadium. It was his first shutout since April, 1994. The surging Sox, who had won 10 of their last 12 games, swept the Brewers in this four-game series, but were in third place, 13 games behind. After taking a 7-2 lead against Toronto in the fourth inning, the Sox never stopped staving off the small but steady comebacks of the Blue Jays on August 13th. In the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings, the Blue Jays scored single runs, but in the seventh, the trend was stopped dead in its tracks by Mark Brandenburg, who pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win and set up Heathcliff Slocumb, who registered his 18th save, as the Sox held on for a 7-5 victory at SkyDome. Mo Vaughn had a 1-1 count on him the next game on August 14th, when righthander Tim Crabtree threw an inside fastball that hit off the end of Charlie O'Brien's mitt, deflecting to the backstop and scoring Troy O'Leary with the run that put the Sox, who had trailed, 5-2, entering the eighth, ahead, 6-5. Wil Cordero added some insurance with a two-run single as Red Sox earned their 12th victory in 15 games, finishing a 6-1 road trip. Win or lose, Roger Clemens comes to do battle. And finally he was getting the run support he had been suffering without all season. A seven-hit shutout of the California Angels, 6-0, on August 17th. It was his first complete game since May 23rd and his first shutout since 1994. It was the 37th shutout of his career, leaving him one short of Cy Young on the Red Sox' all-time list. Even at 34, Clemens could turn his game up a notch. The game remained scoreless until the sixth but the three Sox runs that inning were all Clemens would need. The final score had the Red Sox on top, 10-9, in a battle, on August 19th, that included 31 hits, nine of them for extra bases. Troy O'Leary led the Sox with three RBIs, including a key two-run single in the sixth when the Sox picked apart California's 9-7 lead and pulled away for good. The next night on August 20th, the Red Sox turned the Back Bay into hardball heaven with a 4-3 victory over the Oakland A's that pulled them within two games of .500 for the first time since the opening week of the season. Mo Vaughn launched a three-run homer into the screen in left, bringing the Red Sox out from under a 3-1 deficit and moving them within 6 1/2 games of the White Sox in the American League wild-card chase. On August 21st, in so many ways, the game was much like the losing days of April and May. The Sox twice squandered leads and committed four errors. Only this time, the Sox scrapped their way to a 6-4 victory over the Athletics, a decision delivered by catcher Mike Stanley's two-run, bases-loaded single in the eighth inning that snapped a 4-4 tie. Mo Vaughn scored three runs and chipped in with his 116th RBI, not to mention a steal of home. The Red Sox beat the A's, 2-1, on August 22nd. It was Roger Clemens' classic pitching and Troy O'Leary's one-out homer in the ninth that added up to their 17th triumph in 22 starts. They won all three games in this series on their last turn at bat, coming up with eighth-inning rallies in the first two. Then Clemens' scintillating pitching, which produced a 1-0 game until there were two outs and two strikes in the Oakland ninth, and O'Leary's "Pesky Pole" shot that grazed the right-field foul pole meshed to make this the most memorable night of Boston baseball this season. Clemens had pitched 28 scoreless inning, which was the longest in the majors that season. Against the Mariners on August 24th, the Red Sox belted out three home runs, including Darren Bragg's grand slam against Randy Johnson, on their way to a 9-5 thumping of Seattle at Fenway Park. The next day, on August 25th, win No. 66 was an 805 victory, that edged the Sox over .500 for the first time this season, delivering them to within 3 1/2 games of Chicago in the race for a wild-card playoff spot. They again relied on home runs by Troy O'Leary and Jeff Frye to beat the Mariners. By the fourth inning, the Sox had a 6-0 lead, with five of their runs driven in by the long ball. Pitcher Pat Mahomes was traded to the Red Sox from the Twins for Brian Looney on August 26th. In his fourth straight stellar start Roger Clemens enabled the Sox remain three games behind in the wacky wild-card chase. Clemens pitched eight innings of shutout ball in the 2-1 victory over the Angels on August 27th. It was 1-0, the Sox, going into the ninth. Every play was huge, and it was Clemens who won, for the Sox's 21st win in 27 games. Clemens (three hits, seven strikeouts) had given up only one run in his last 36 1/3 innings and had allowed only 24 hits and one run. He fanned 35 while walking 10. He'd won games by scores of 2-0, 6-0, 2-1 and 2-1. On August 28th, the Sox ripped the Angels, 7 to 4. Tom Gordon went the distance giving up five hits and Mike Greenwell led the Sox batters with two hits that included a home run. The Red Sox were 22-9 in August and now only 7 1/2 games behind the first-place Yankees.
After putting together one of the most sizzling months of the baseball season, the Red Sox beat the A's, 8-3, on September 1st, as Aaron Sele returned from the disabled list to pitch very sharply and rookie Nomar Garciaparra made his first major league start a most memorable one indeed. Nomar hit his first homer, had another RBI single and finished with three hits in five at-bats. All told, he'd been at bat six times in the big leagues and had hit the ball sharply all six times.
The next night on September 2nd, the Red Sox refused to suffer their first setback of September in Seattle, rallying on the bat of Mike Greenwell. He went 4 for 5 and drove in all nine runs for a 9-8 victory over the Mariners. With two outs and two on in the 10th, Greenwell ripped his fourth hit, a single to left off Rafael Carmona that sent Wil Cordero home with the winning run. Greenwell's output, which included his third career grand slam, was one short of the team RBI record and set a major league standard for driving in all of a team's runs. On the heels of a 6-3 swing through California and Seattle, the Red Sox rolled to a 10-3 victory in the opener of a three-game showdown at Comiskey Park on September 6th, and shaved their deficit to 2 1/2 games behind front-running Chicago in the American League wild-card race. Things worked to near perfection, and the beneficiary was Tim Wakefield (12-12), who pitched out of several jams during his seven-inning, eight-hit, three-run stint. After the explosion in the second, the Red Sox added a run in the fourth, two in the fifth and two in the ninth. Chicago's response against Wakefield, two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth, was feeble. Mike Greenwell went 2 for 4 with two RBIs. In 34 games since coming off the disabled list after an injury-plagued start, he was batting .333 (41 for 123). He was also hitting a torrid .526 (10 for 19) this month. But the Sox then lost four straight before beating trhe visiting Brewers, 4 to 1 on September 11th. Tim Wakefield remained hot, giving up just four hits in the eight inning he worked and Heathcliff Slocumb earned his 26th save with a scoreless ninth. They were 5 1/2 games behind Baltimore in the wild card race, with 16 games left to play. Roger Clemens (9-12) was the beneficiary of a six-run outburst in the third inning, but he was hardly overpowering in his seven-inning stint on September 13th. Still, the Red Sox earned a 9-5 victory over the White Sox at Fenway Park as a three-game showdown between American League wild-card contenders opened. In a 13-5 loss to the White Sox the next day on September 14th, the Red Sox self-destructed in the first inning before getting to bat. Chicago tagged Tom Gordon for five runs. Finally it was three cheap ninth inning singles that decided a 9-8 walk-off Red Sox victory over the White Sox in the final game of their series showdown on September 15th. In Detroit on September 17th, the Sox pulled out a 4-2 squeaker. Tied 2-2, they scored a run in the seventh when Tiger pitcher John Cummings walked in a run. Then in the ninth, after Bill Haselman singled to center, Jeff Frye drove him in with a double.
Mo Vaughn was honored as AL "Player of the Week" for the second time this season. He hit in six straight games at a sizzling .560 clip (14 for 25) with a double and three home runs. He drove in 11 runs and scored six times while raising his average from .316 to .326. Vaughn also was player of the week from April 29th to May 5th, on his way to "Player of the Month" honors for May. In September, Vaughn was hitting at a torrid .420 pace (21 for 50). He was 10 hits short of becoming the first Red Sox player to reach 200 since Wade Boggs in 1989. He had 41 home runs and 133 runs batted in, both career bests. He ranked in the AL top 10 in 10 offensive categories. For mere mortals, once in a lifetime would be more than enough. But Roger Clemens is on another plateau entirely. He had the stuff of legends. He can make the impossible come true. In a magnificent performance, Clemens duplicated his 10-year-old major league record on September 18th, when he struck out 20 Detroit Tigers in a 4-0 victory. Rearing back for the glory of his flamethrowing youth, he awakened the echoes of 1986, when he set the record by fanning 20 Seattle Mariners. This strikeout performance made it a trifecta for him. He tied the Red Sox career victory record of 192 and it was his 38th shutout, tying Cy Young for first on the club list in that department. The Sox swept the Tigers with an 8-3 thumping on September 19th. Jeff Frye, Mike Greenwell, Rudy Pemberton, Bill Haselman and Nomar Garciaparra all had a pair of hits. The Yankees may have been in first place. But the team playing the best baseball in the majors was from Boston. The Red Sox gave the American League East leaders a sample on September 20th with a 4-2 victory that was as hard-fought as a playoff game. Tim Wakefield (14-12) dazzled the Yankees for eight innings, and John Valentin's baserunning heroics in the seventh won the game. But the Yankees won the next two and basically shut the door on the Red Sox season. At the end of the most important game of the year, on September 22nd, the Red Sox had Arquimedez Pozo at third, Trot Nixon making his big league debut in right, and Joe Hudson on the mound. They were totally spent and had no more to give. And so, on the last day of a rather dreadful summer, in front of a sellout, crowd at Yankee Stadium, the 1996 Sox succumbed to the first-place Yankees, 12-11, in 10 innings. The Red Sox had lost too many games in April and May to catch up. They were eliminated from the race on September 27th.
Roger Clemens struck out ten Yankees on September 28th. It would be his last game in a Red Sox uniform. Mike Greenwell wanted a new contract but was told that he wasn't worth what he thought, because Wil Cordero could be playing left-field in the future. The 1996 Red Sox were a club with plenty of power, but very little speed, no defense and a pitching staff, that apart from Roger Clemens, didn't intimidate anybody. They were not a team of future stars but looked a lot like the losing clubs of Red Sox past. Clemens was disappointed that the Red Sox questioned his health. His desire for a four-year deal, which the Red Sox wouldn't give him, meant he would opt for free agency. He finished the season with 10 wins and 13 losses, but led the league with 257 strikeouts and had pitched eight games with ten or more strikeouts. He tied Cy Young with 192 career wins in a Red Sox uniform. As their closer, Heathcliff Slocumb led the team with 31 saves and a 3.02 ERA. For his part, Mo Vaughn had an even better 1996 season than his MVP year. He batted .326 with career high 44 home runs, 143 runs batted in, and a .420 on-base percentage. He finished fifth in the MVP balloting. In May, Tim Naehring had an 18-game hitting streak. In June, he hit his first career grand slam, against Milwaukee, and in early September, he was hitting .288, with 17 home runs (his personal best), and 65 RBIs. But bad luck seemed to follow him. In late August, he strained a tendon in his left knee, and in September, he injured his shoulder diving for a ball in a game against the White Sox. Within two days, the shoulder pain was so bad that he could no longer throw. It was a frustrating end to his season. Mike Greenwell injured the ring finger on his left hand in 1996, and missed all of May and June and the first half of July. He also battled a sore back and a bruised right foot. When the season ended, manager Kevin Kennedy was blamed and was fired while Jose Canseco demanded to be traded.
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