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“FENWAY'S BEST PLAYERS”  |
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Bruce Hurst was selected by the Red Sox with the 22nd overall pick in the 1976 Major League Baseball Draft. After going 17-6 with a 2.88 earned run average for the Winter Haven & Bristol Red Sox in 1979, he was put on the Sox opening day roster for 1980 but was optioned back to Pawtucket. In five major league starts, he went 2-0 with a 4.30 ERA. Hurst went 42-46 with a 4.59 ERA before his breakthrough 1986 season. Despite spending six midsummer weeks on the disabled list with a pulled groin, he posted a 2.99 ERA and helped lead the Red Sox to the World Series. He went 1-0 with a 2.40 ERA in two starts in the ALCS and then baffled the Mets, winning Game #1, 1-0 and Game #4, 4-2. "Oil Can" Boyd was then originally slated to be the Game #7 starter, but when the game was delayed a day by rain, manager John McNamara bumped him in favor of Hurst. Hurst gave up just one hit through five innings of work and would get a no-decision after he handed the ball over to the bullpen. The Mets came back to tie the game and then win the World Series. Midway through the 1988 season, the Red Sox replaced John McNamara as manager with Joe Morgan. In the summer of "Morgan's Magic", the team went 46-31 from that point forward to finish one game ahead of Detroit in the AL East. Hurst went 9-2 with a 2.54 ERA under his new manager to end the season at 18-6. He pitched a complete game in Game #1 of the 1988 ALCS against the Oakland Athletics but was outmatched by Oakland's ace, Dave Stewart. After the season, Hurst became baseball's most coveted free agent with a career-best 18-6 record. A devout Mormon, he had been turned off by the drinking and also the drama of the Wade Boggs scandal, during the previous season, so he accepted less money from the San Diego Padres than the Red Sox had offered. Consistently good but never overpowering, Bruce Hurst used an array of pitches to keep righthanded sluggers at bay. He turned to sneaky fastballs, knee-buckling forkballs, and changeups to play mind games with his opponents. He was a rare lefthander who excelled at Fenway Park. He was 33-9 there from 1986 to 1988, and his 56 Fenway wins are second only to Mel Parnell's among southpaws. He was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in November 2004.
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