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MANNY RAMIREZ |
REVERSING THE
CURSE, PART 2
PEDRO
& TEK COME TO TOWN
1998
ALDS, GAME #3
Manny Ramirez leads
the Indians to another win
October 2, 1998 ... The
Indians, behind two home runs by Manny Ramirez, and one apiece by
Kenny Lofton and Jim Thome, withstood a ninth-inning two-run homer by
Nomar Garciaparra to beat the Red Sox, 4-3, and take a 2-1 lead in
their best-of-five American League Division Series.
Saberhagen,
with a World Series MVP on his resume by the age of 21, could have halved that
requirement by beating the Indians yesterday. Instead, he was outdueled by
righthander Charles Nagy, who generated almost as many home runs (34) this
season as Garciaparra (35) but today had the Red Sox beating the ball into the
dirt while Saberhagen was victimized by the long fly.
The Red Sox
scored a run in the fourth on singles by Darren Lewis and Vaughn and a fielder's
choice by Garciaparra. But they advanced only one other runner as far as second
base against Nagy, who threw only 88 pitches in eight innings and recorded 15
ground-ball outs to maintain his undefeated record at Fenway (4- 0).
Saberhagen,
meanwhile, took a 1-0 lead and a no-hitter into the fifth but gave up a leadoff
home run to Thome, the Indians' lefthanded-hitting strongman who launched a
changeup into the TV camera well in dead center field.
An inning
later, Lofton cleared the leap of rookie Trot Nixon with a home run into the Red
Sox bullpen, the second of the series by the Indians leadoff man, and Ramirez
led off the seventh with a drive into the left-field screen.
There can be
nasty flashbacks, however, as Ramirez demonstrated in the ninth against
Eckersley, who turns 44 tomorrow and has given up home runs in each of his last
three appearances at Fenway, watched Ramirez turn on a pitch that was supposed
to be down and in and park it in the screen. Unlike the first two games in
Cleveland, when he was surprised twice as balls he hit did not leave the
premises, Ramirez, who now has 11 postseason home runs to go along with the 45
he hit during the regular season, did not begin his home run trot until he was
approaching second base.
The Red Sox'
style was limited to desperation against Indians closer Mike Jackson. John
Valentin lined out hard to third before Vaughn singled and Garciaparra hit his
second home run of the series, giving him 10 RBIs in three games. But Jackson
retired Mike Stanley and Troy O'Leary on grounders as the Nos. 5-9 hitters went
1 for 17 and are just 9 for 57 in the series.
The Red Sox,
who have yet to show the capacity to score a run in this series unless Mo Vaughn
and Garciaparra are in the mix, face elimination. |
