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REVERSING THE CURSE,
PART 2
PEDRO
& TEK COME TO TOWN
Nomar's homer
helps
Derek Lowe get his first Sox win
July 25, 1998 ... Showing
they can circle the wagons with the best of them, the Red Sox fought
off enemies real and imagined in a 5-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays
at Fenway Park.
Bret
Saberhagen, no stranger to soap opera, pitched seven strong innings, Nomar
Garciaparra, no stranger to high drama, delivered the two-run home run that
broke a 3-3 tie in the eighth, and Derek Lowe, a true stranger to the winner's
circle, was rewarded with his first win in 13 months against the Blue Jays,
whose last 16 batters went down in order without so much as a loud out.
Mo Vaughn
negotiated a second straight day of mass grumbling by a sellout crowd of 33,099
by singling home John Valentin with the tying run in the sixth, then battling
back from an 0-and-2 count with two out and nobody on in the eighth to draw a
walk, just before Garciaparra hit a classic Fenway Fly into the left-field
screen off Blue Jays loser Woody Williams.
And the Red
Sox are a team wrapped in Teflon, if Saberhagen is to be believed. Throwing a
season-high 110 pitches after the last two Sox starters, Jin Ho Cho and Steve
Avery, failed to make it past the fourth inning, Saberhagen did not allow a hit
after Ed Sprague's one-out single in the fourth, which center fielder Darren
Lewis converted into an out by gunning down Tony Fernandez at third.
Lowe has
taken little but grief since June 23, 1997, the last time he won a major league
game. That was when he was a continent away, playing for Seattle. Since coming
to the Red Sox last July 31, Lowe had pitched in 42 games without once winding
up with a win. That changed with just six pitches yesterday, as he set down the
Blue Jays on three ground balls in the top of the eighth, and watched as
Garciaparra parked a high changeup from Williams into the net.
The home run
was Garciaparra's 18th of the season, first in three games since being installed
in the cleanup spot by manager Jimy Williams. The Woody Williams changeup thrown
to Garciaparra was high, resulting in a fly ball that barely cleared the
Monster.
But it was
the Mo that is the soap opera. Mo's hitting .330 and he's getting booed. |
