THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 9
"IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER"...
Bruce Hurst Ks 14 in a losing effort

May 16, 1986 ... Bruce is the AL strikeout king with 71, two better than 20-K Roger Clemens. Tonight he struck out 14 Texas Rangers (and walked none), a career-high bettered by only five Red Sox pitchers ever. He was a 4-1 loser to a 23-year-old rookie, Jose Guzman (3-5), who allowed the Red Sox only seven hits despite painful blisters on both feet that required ice treatments between innings. Four times he returned to the floodlights to find that his teammates had given him a run, three on solo homers. Each seemed to notch his confidence a level better, meanwhile increasing a load carried by Hurst (3-3) for several years now.

Hurst's teammates have given him only 16 runs in his eight starts this year, and this latest gagging (the Sox stranded seven runners in scoring position) squeezed Hurst to his limits. His nine strikeouts after four innings matched Clemens' record-setting pace of three weeks ago. Hurst was cutting Rangers down because he couldn't afford to do worse.

Guzman had lost five of his previous six decisions, but he survived several scares. Third baseman Steve Buechele dived and threw out Marty Barrett in the second inning, when Boston appeared on the verge of placing runners on second and third. In the third, Dwight Evans doubled but refused to take third on Wade Boggs' weak grounder to first (Evans could have then tagged up and scored on Rich Gedman's lineout to deep center).

Umpire Drew Coble squeezed himself into the decision with Red Sox on first and second with two out in the fifth. Guzman had pitched around Boggs to face Bill Buckner and his .197 average, and Buckner ripped the strategy into left field toward the sliding Gary Ward. Did Ward catch it? Coble ruled he did, the inning was over and the Rangers still led, 2-0. Though Ward would claim that he caught Buckner's drive, the replay showed that the ball had been trapped - a clean hit. McNamara had a good argument, but he was too late. By the time he returned to the field, Hurst had allowed a forkball to rise near Pete Incaviglia's swelling eyes. The rookie slugger wasn't halfway to first when his leadoff homer pelted the screen.

Sure, Hurst had looked troubled in the first inning when Oddibe McDowell had homered on the third pitch into the right-field front row, and Incaviglia's up-the-middle smash threatened to carry a Hurst extremity with it. And that was that. Hurst struck out five of the next six, catching all three Rangers looking in the second and cutting down the side again in the fourth. Evans began Hurst's fifth by dropping Buechele's drive for an error that came around for an unearned run (and the 2-0 lead) on McDowell's one-out single. By that time Hurst had recorded as many innings as Clemens this year, he trailed his more celebrated teammate by only two strikeouts (69-67).

But Hurst watched his teammates choke away Don Baylor's one-out double in the sixth, and then began the seventh with a leadoff homer to Buechele that cleared everything.

Their last big chance popped in the eighth. After one-out singles by Buckner and Jim Rice, Tony Armas walked with two out to load them for Rich Gedman. Gedman lined out to the warning track in center.

In the ninth, pinch hitter Steve Lyons homered to right off of Guzman. The best-hitting team in the league (.274 coming in) had beaten the best pitching staff (3.15 ERA), leaving Hurst with his 14 strikeouts.

Bruce Hurst's career-high 14 strikeouts tied him for second-best by a Red Sox lefthander with Dutch Leonard (1915). Only five times have Sox pitchers done better: Roger Clemens (the major league record 20 three weeks ago and 15 two years ago), Bill Monbouquette (17), Smoky Joe Wood (15) and Mickey McDermott (15). Hurst is tied with Joe Harris, Joe Wood and Ellis Kinder at 14.

This marked the fourth time this year that Hurst has struck out 10 or more, and the ninth time in his career tying him with Luis Tiant and Dave Morehead in that category. Hurst holds this career record for Sox lefties.

Hurst had achieved his previous career high of 11 K's on six occasions. The Sox have scored only one run in each of his three losses.