FRANK TANANA

THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 9
"IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER"...
Frank Tanana leaves the Sox in the cold

April 23, 1986 ... Detroit bounced Boston, 3-1, in a 3 1/4-hour Yawkey Way freeze out tonight. It may take a while for the Sox to purge their minds of Sparky Anderson, Darnell Coles, Dave Collins and Co. The Red Sox are in their third week of regular-season play and have faced the Tigers 15 times since they first broke bread in Polk County March 7th. Detroit won six of nine in Florida and four of six in the frozen North.

A less clever outfit would have let the Tigers get out of town when the weather turned nasty early today, but the Red Sox wanted to take advantage of a Detroit team without Kirk Gibson. Snowflake-tossing Frank Tanana figured to be easy pickings, right?

Wrong. The Red Sox squandered several chances in the early innings against Detroit's junkyard dog. The locals left runners on third in three straight innings and stranded five men in scoring position (18 in the three-game set) from the second through the fifth innings.

Locked in a southpaw duel with Boston's Bruce Hurst, Tanana was the master. He walked six, but that was only indicative of his unwillingness to give in to the Boston hitters. The former flame-thrower gave up three hits in eight innings and none after the fifth. Tanana threw 137 pitches before giving way to Willie Hernandez, who pitched the ninth and picked up his fifth save.

Boston's best threat came in the second. Rice led off with a double off The Wall in left-center. Baylor and Tony Armas (three walks for the third time in his career) walked to load the bases with no outs. Rice crossed the plate when Rich Gedman (a rally killer all night) grounded into a double play. After Gedman's grounder, Marty Barrett grounded to short, ending the inning. The Sox blew more chances in the third, fourth and fifth.

Ed Romero led off the third with a bloop double to left. Romero expired on the basepaths when Dwight Evans, Wade Boggs and a struggling Bill Buckner (.197 BA) grounded harmlessly to the infield.

With one out in the fourth, Baylor and Armas walked again. They moved to third and second when Gedman grounded to first, but went no further. Barrett flied to right to end the inning, and the Red Sox had left runners on third in three consecutive innings.

In the fifth, the Sox got runners to first and second with two outs, but Rice stranded them with a weak fly to center. The Sox had left five men in scoring position in four innings.

Hurst struck out eight in his six innings (he has 30 punch-outs in his last three games and leads the league with 33), but it was a wasted effort. Much of the blame is looking at Hurst in the mirror this morning. Boston's lefty struck out the side in the fourth and had six whiffs and a 1-0 lead when he took the hill in the top of the funky fifth.

The immortal Dave Engle started the trouble with a sharp grounder (off an 0-2 pitch) to Bucker at first. Hurst was late covering, and Engle beat it out for a single. Tom Brookens was next, and he sliced an 0-2 pitch down the right- field line. The ball bounced in fair territory, then appeared to run along the top of the railing. Evans juggled ball as it rolled further toward the corner. Engle crossed home plate and went into the dugout as Brookens settled into third. When time was called, Evans ran in to talk to first base umpire Ted Hendry. After consultation with plate umpire Durwood Merrill and crew chief Jim Evans, the hit was ruled a ground- rule double. Engle was ordered back to third and Brookens to second. Sparky Anderson padded the eight-minute delay with demonstrative dispute, then officially placed the game under protest. Collins followed with a sharp single to left, scoring Engle (again), and moving Brookens back to third. Alan Trammell fouled to Buckner, but the ever bothersome Coles (7 for 13 with five RBIs in this series) scored Brookens with a single to left. The damage was done.

Detroit KO'd Hurst (131 pitches) in the seventh. Collins led off with a single and moved to third on Trammell's double off the wall. Stewart, who last pitched on Opening Day (April 7th), replaced Hurst. Coles scored Collins with a grounder to short, and it was 3-1.

Tanana got the Sox in order in the seventh and eighth and gave way to Hernandez in the ninth. After a one-out single by Armas, Gedman put this game out of its misery by grounding into his third double play of the long, cold evening.

The Red Sox lead the American League with an earned run average of 2.90. Red Sox starters have made it into the seventh inning in 14 of 15 games (14 straight). Boston has struck out 94 batters, while Red Sox hitters have fanned a league-low 47 times (an astounding 2-1 ratio). Bruce Hurst leads the league with 33 strikeouts, and Roger Clemens is 3-0. The staff is on a 1,000-strikeout pace.

The Sox expect shortstop Glenn Hoffman to rejoin the team tomorrow night in Kansas City. Hoffman is in California with his wife, Cheryl, who gave birth to a 7-pound- 1/2-ounce girl, Sarah Christine, yesterday afternoon.

The Sox hit 14 home runs in their first 15 games with seven off Tiger righty Jack Morris. Boston has an .839 slugging percentage in two games against Morris.