THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 9
"IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER"...
Bruce Hurst leads the Sox past the Angels

May 5, 1986 ... The Red Sox won a wet, 3-0 decision over the California Angels by challenging a sore-armed outfielder with a bum leg shortstop last night. The battle came in the third inning of Boston's 3-0 win at Fenway Park when limping Glenn Hoffman outran a limping throw from Angels left fielder Brian Downing.

While the Angels were scattering hits without effect all over Fenway Park, the Red Sox were biding their time until they could put two together in the same zip code to take a 1-0 lead in the third inning. With one out, Hoffman ripped a double high off the left-field wall that barely missed going out, and after Dwight Evans popped out, Wade Boggs went with a Mike Witt pitch on the outside half of the plate and slapped the ball into left field for a single. Third-base coach Rene Lachemann took one glance at Downing, the Angels' left fielder whose arm has had so many rotator cuff operations it is now made of fine china, and he decided to keep Hoffman running bad ankle and all. And Hoffman couldn't have found anything better to run on this side of artificial turf. Hoffman scored easily when Downing's throw went wide to the left of catcher Bob Boone and Boston had given Hurst a lead he could work with.

That should not have come as a complete shock to the Angels since Boggs is hitting higher than .400 lifetime against them and is on a bit of a tear at the moment. Going into last night's game Boggs was hitting .471 in his last five games and .400 over the past 14, so there was little reason to assume he would slow down for the Angels.

What was a little more difficult to accept with such assurance was the pitching of Hurst, who somehow managed to hold his lead through eight innings despite the Angels battering him for eight hits. Yet the only time Hurst was anywhere near trouble came in the fifth when he gave up a lead-off single to Boone and Gary Pettis followed with another single to left field. Hurst momentarily quieted things when he struck out Rick Burleson looking, but it took a Greg Louganis style dive in center field to keep the Angels off the scoreboard. Center fielder Steve Lyons sprinted over to right-center field after a sinking Wally Joyner liner and at the last moment he dove flat on his chest and made a skidding catch. When he came to a stop, so did the Angels' rally, the victim of some faulty base running by Boone, who is also known as the Samurai Warrior of the basepaths. Boone was two thirds of the way to third before becoming an easy double-play victim when Lyons scrambled up and threw to Hoffman at second to end the rally and the inning.

The Sox lost a chance to add to their lead in the fourth when Jim Rice led off with a double only to expire at second when Don Baylor, Rich Gedman and Marty Barrett couldn't get the ball out of the infield.

The same thing happened in the seventh when Barrett led off with a single but was forced out by Lyons. Lyons then advanced to second on Witt's wild pitch but Hoffman struck out, Dwight Evans walked and Downing made his own sliding catch along the left- field foul line on a sinking Boggs fly to end the inning without a second run being scored.

The Sox came back at Witt again in the eighth when Jim Rice lined his second double of the night down the right-field line with one out and then moved to third a pitch later when Witt launched his second passed ball of the night. Rice then scored when Baylor batted a ball off the heel of shortstop Dick Schofield's glove. The ball bounded over Schofield's head and landed along the back of the infield. While Schofield searched for the ball, Rice skittered home to make it 2-0. Gedman then singled to right to send Baylor to third as Witt began to search for a bar of soap to take with him to the showers. Marty Barrett then blasted a shot over the head of Pettis in center field, but he ran it down and made an over-the-shoulder catch that erased Barrett, but allowed Baylor to score from third to make it 3-0.

Meanwhile, Hurst was calmly scattering hits and finally getting at least some of the luck he deserved in several earlier outings to preserve the lead on his way to evening his record at 2-2.