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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 9 May 13, 1986 ... The symptoms were there long before tonight's 5-4 loss to the California Angels. Even while winning five in a row at the start of its road trip, Boston had some embarrassingly silent bats. Tonight, the lineup failed in the clutch again, and the Red Sox' brief visit to first place in the American League East ended in two days. This was an ugly loss. Angel reliever Doug Corbett was not impressive at all, and he shut down what appeared to be a game-winning rally with ease. In the eighth inning, Boston had a chance to win. It loaded the bases with none out and had Don Baylor, a veteran, at the plate. But Baylor hit into a 5-2-3 double play. Then, Rich Gedman, who had been 4 for 4 on Sunday, took a called third strike from umpire Mark Johnson, and officially killed the rally. For two innings, Boston was lucky to get a foul ball as Ron Romanick mowed down the first six batters he faced. But in the third, Marty Barrett got Boston's first hit, a triple. Barrett's ball dropped in front of right fielder Ruppert Jones and got to the wall. Initially, Barrett didn't advance, as Romanick got Steve Lyons and Ed Romero to pop up. But then Dwight Evans walked and Wade Boggs ended an 0-for-9 slump with a solid single up the middle. It scored Barrett and gave Boston a 1-0 lead. Brown had kept the Angels off the board for two innings, although the Angels had runners on in both frames. But he ran into trouble in the third, and California got three runs. He walked Jones with one out, and then got ahead of Wally Joyner in the count. But Joyner then smashed a high slider that sailed over the right-field fence. It was Joyner's 13th homer of the year, tops in the American League. Then Doug DeCinces fell behind in the count, too. And he drilled a fastball over the fence in left center for his fourth homer of the year. Boston tied it in the top of the fourth with some timely hitting. Baylor, playing first base again in place of Bill Buckner, hit a line-drive double which reached the wall in center, and was fumbled by Gary Pettis after a long run. Gedman flied to right. But then Barrett walked, and he and Baylor moved up a base on a wild pitch by Romanick. With Lyons at bat, Baylor scored from third and Barrett advanced on a passed ball by Bob Boone. That made it 3-2. Then Romanick tried an inside fastball on Lyons, who drove it to right for a single, scoring Barrett and producing the tie. California regained the lead, 4-3, in the fifth as a leadoff single to Pettis haunted Brown. Jones struck out and then Joyner lined to Barrett at second, a play which the Sox thought should have been two outs. Barrett caught the ball and appeared to drop it as he pulled it out of his glove. He went ahead and threw to Romero, who then threw out Joyner at first. But second-base umpire Ted Hendry had ruled that Joyner was already out, and Pettis remained on first. Moments later, Pettis moved to second on a walk to Reggie Jackson. From there, he scored on a broken-bat single up the middle by DeCinces. In the sixth, the Angels picked up another run without a hit and took a 5-3 lead. Brown walked Rob Wilfong, who moved to third on a wild pitch and a ground out. Boone produced the run with a weird sacrifice fly. Lyons caught the ball in short center, but his throw home was so low that Romero caught it and tried a relay. It was late and Wilfong slid home safely. In the eighth inning, Evans smacked Romanick's first pitch over the fence in left center, and the lead was cut to 5-4. But then Baylor hit into his double play. Once again, the Red Sox couldn't produce in the clutch, and lost their second straight game. Mike Brown (2-1) took the loss for the Red Sox. Marty Barrett's third-inning triple extended his hitting streak to 14 games, a career high. |
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