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WADE BOGGS' RECORD
BREAKING YEAR June 16, 1985 ... Everything, it seems, goes right for the Red Sox. A wicked Gary Lavelle slider just squirts off the bat of Marty Barrett and keeps him alive long enough to kill the Toronto Blue Jays. Glenn Hoffman survives two perfect pitches, then gets one to hit that's fat. Lloyd Moseby makes a throw from short center field that finds the only soft spot in the Fenway Park infield and kicks high at just the wrong moment. Thus do four eighth-inning runs and one victory materialize out of nowhere. The Sox thus came charging back from a 6-3 deficit to bag the Blue Jays for the fourth straight time, 7-6, at Fenway Park. The brooms first appeared early, when the Sox jumped to a 3-0 lead for starter Roger Clemens. They held them up along the first- base line and waved them frantically from the bleachers. A sweep, you see, was obviously on the way. But when Clemens went out with tightness behind his shoulder early in the sixth inning with a 3-2 lead, the brooms began to disappear. In came Bruce Hurst, who has had more trouble lately than General Dynamics, and by the time Toronto was finished playing taps on Hurst's fast ball over the next inning and a third, it had scored three times in the sixth and once in the seventh to lead, 6-3. The only apparent need for brooms at that point was to sweep away the abuse being heaped upon Hurst. But Steve Crawford (4-2) came on with one on, one in and two out in the seventh and finished off the Blue Jays' offense for the day, allowing no hits and no balls out of the infield for 2 1/3 innings. Crawford's pitching gave the Sox the one thing they needed - breathing room. Bill Buckner led off the eighth with a walk, Jim Rice singled and Buckner scored on Steve Lyons' single to make it 6-4 and at that stage, Bobby Cox went to his bullpen and called on Lavelle, who just 24 hours earlier had walked two Red Sox batters with the bases loaded to meekly hand Boston its third straight win over Toronto. The meek may well inherit the earth, but they will not inherit the American League East, as Lavelle (2-2) learned when he followed Saturday's debacle with the kind of encore that can put you in the unemployment office. Reid Nichols came on to pinch hit for Mike Easler and laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance both runners. Then Barrett fought off two devilish Lavelle pitches before finally working him for a walk that loaded the bases. Lavelle went right after Hoffman and quickly was 0-2. But just as quickly that became 2-2 and Barrett had a notion. Hoffman fouled off two dancing pitches before the count went to 3-2. Lavelle then chose to avoid another killing walk by grooving a pitch right down the middle of the plate, and Hoffman slapped it to right for a single that scored Rice and Lyons and tied the game, 6- 6. Tough or not, Cox had seen enough of Lavelle and called upon Bill Caudill, the other half of his bullpen aces, who intentionally walked pinch hitter Rich Gedman before giving up a soft fly by Dwight Evans to short center. At first it didn't appear the ball would be a problem, but when left fielder George Bell charged over to within 6 inches of Moseby, who was standing in dead center, things began to deteriorate. Moseby misplayed the ball. Barrett realized it, too, and tagged up at third as Moseby made the catch. Down Barrett charged toward home as Moseby's throw came in dead on target, that is, until it hit dead on a soft spot and bounced high. That win gave the Red Sox a sweep of the four-game series and 13 wins in their last 14 games. It also moved them to within 3 1/2 games of Toronto in the American League East and just two percentage points from second-place Detroit (.569 to .567). |
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