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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 9 May 9, 1986 ... Roger Clemens’ failure to come back strong in the ninth inning set the stage for a rally by the Oakland A's that wound up only as a detour in Boston's 9-6 victory. Don Baylor's two-run double highlighted a four-run 10th inning that gave Boston its third straight victory. Clemens was brilliant for eight innings, striking out 11 batters and tying an American League record for strikeouts in three games (41). But in the ninth, he ran out of gas and old reliable Bob Stanley, who had reeled off five straight saves, returned to his vulture days. Clemens' bid to become the first Red Sox pitcher in eight years to start the year with a 6-0 record will have to wait for another start. Stanley came on after Clemens had thrown 135 pitches and given up a pair of one-out singles to Dave Kingman and Bruce Bochte. He worked former teammate Carney Lansford to a 3-2 count and then gave up a three-run dinger, tying the score and sending the game into extra innings. Boston won it in the 10th after Oakland's pitching also failed. Walks to Steve Lyons, Ed Romero and Dwight Evans loaded the bases. Wade Boggs drove in the game winner with a sacrifice fly to left. Jim Rice drove in the second run with a groundout. Then Baylor cleared the bases with his double. Stanley got the victory, but gave up a run in the bottom of the 10th and had to be replaced by Joe Sambito, who got the save. Clemens had struck out 10 A's in a 4-1 victory at Fenway on Sunday, the game after his record 20-strikeout performance. He got early support in the form of two-run outbursts in the first two innings that made Rick Langford remember a pain in his upper chest, which was his stated reason for leaving with the A's trailing, 4-0. A leadoff walk to Evans and a single by Boggs set the table for Bill Buckner, who doubled up the gap in left-center for a 2-0 lead. The Sox went right after Langford again in the second, which started with Lyons getting a belly-flop bunt single as leadoff man. Lyons' hit broke an 0- for-22 slump and was followed by a hit to right by Romero. Lyons moved to third on a foul fly to right by Evans, barely beating a great throw by Jose Canseco. Lyons scored easily on Boggs' second hit of the night, his fifth straight over two nights. Buckner fouled to the catcher, but Rice followed with a single to right, scoring Romero and putting the Red Sox ahead, 4-0. Curt Young, a lefthander, took over for Langford, and retired Baylor on a called third strike. Clemens wasn't getting many strikeouts in his first three innings. He threw a lot of breaking balls at the A's, who were obviously sitting on his fastball. But he also wasn't giving up many hits. He struck out Canseco in a string of seven straight batters that he retired at the start of the game. The eighth batter, Alfredo Griffin, broke the spell with a bloop single to center. Clemens lost any thoughts for a shutout in the fourth when Canseco lofted his first offering to right, and the towering fly ball just carried over the fence at the 330-foot sign for his ninth home run. But the Sox came charging right back and scored despite a brilliant catch by Mike Davis that robbed Rich Gedman of an extra- base hit. Davis made an over-the-shoulder grab just before crashing into the center-field wall. That was followed by a double to left by Marty Barrett, extending his hitting streak to 10 games. Barrett moved to third on a grounder to first by Lyons, and scored on Romero's solid hit up the middle to make it 5-1. Clemens began to weaken in the seventh inning. Lansford doubled with two out, and scored on a base hit by Davis that made it a 5-2 game. He had no trouble getting Donnie Hill to ground out and end the inning, but after throwing 119 pitches, he wasn't likely to last much longer. He seemed to be in complete command in the eighth when he struck out the side. But his sixth straight victory vanished in the ninth. He did, however, become the first Red Sox pitcher ever to have at least 10 strikeouts in four straight games. By going 2 for 5 last night, Wade Boggs raised his league-leading average to .377. In his last seven games, he is 15 for 26 (.577). He also leads the league in on-base percentage (.492), is the co- leader in doubles, and is second in walks. Jim Rice picked up two more hits, and now has hit safely in 14 of 15 games. Boston's 18-10 start is its best since the club went 18-8 in 1982. The Sox have seven come-from-behind wins and are 13-1 when leading into the seventh inning. |
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