THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 9
"IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER"...
The Twins give the game away to the Sox

May 19, 1986 ... Losers at long ball, the Red Sox found a way to walk away with a victory at Fenway Park, edging the Minnesota Twins, 8-7, when Marc Sullivan was hit by an 0-and-1 Ron Davis pitch with the bases loaded.

Davis (2-3) entered in the ninth inning with the Twins holding a 7-6 lead, and promptly retired the first two Sox hitters. He then fell into trouble when he walked Marty Barrett on a 3-and-1 pitch and gave up a Wade Boggs double off the left-field wall. Twins manager Ray Miller then ordered Davis to walk Bill Buckner to load the bases and set the scene for Jim Rice. Rice, after fouling four 1-and-2 deliveries, walked on the 11th pitch from Davis and brought in Barrett with the tying run. Sullivan, the utility catcher, looked at a first-pitch strike from Davis. He was then hit by the next delivery in the left hip, forcing home Boggs with the winning run.

Propelled by back-to-back homers by Kent Hrbek and Tom Brunansky in the fifth inning, the Twins had taken a 7-6 lead. After falling behind, 4-2, in the second inning, the Twins, floundering in the AL West, struck back with five runs in the fifth when they banished starter Mike Brown. In all, the Twins collected their first seven runs on 10 hits, seven of which went for extra bases.

Meanwhile, a knack for hitting into double plays was thwarting the Sox. They, too, had their share of extra-base hits in the early innings, with Buckner's third homer and doubles by Mike Stenhouse and Steve Lyons in a three-run second.

But the Twins could not be matched for power. Their first four hitters, Kirby Puckett, Roy Smalley, Hrbek and Brunansky, combined for four doubles, two homers and a single.

The Sox, after falling behind, 7-4, could only get one more run off starter John Butcher. Reliever Frank Pastore took over to start the sixth and set down seven straight before Rice rolled a single to right in the eighth. Before the inning was over, Rich Gedman singled and Don Baylor's roller to third brought in the sixth Boston run.

Neither starter showed any signs of imitating Cy Young in the early going. By the end of three innings, they had each given up five hits, with the Sox standing atop a 4-2 lead.

This was a night that everything was subject to change, however. Brown fell into trouble starting with Smalley in the first inning. Smalley ripped a 2-and-2 pitch for a double to right-center and Hrbek followed that with a run-scoring double to the triangle in center on the next pitch. And with two outs, Mark Salas lined a single to right that Stenhouse, starting in place of Dwight Evans (pulled leg muscle), just missed catching with a dive. The Twins were up, 2-0.

Butcher began giving back right away in the Boston half of the first. After Boggs rapped into a double play, Buckner cracked his first Fenway homer of the year into the Sox' bullpen to the cut margin to 2-1. The Sox then moved ahead in the second with a three-run rally that Lyons, moments after driving in a pair of runs, prematurely curtailed with some boneheaded base running. Baylor began the go- ahead rally, drawing a one-out walk and then moving to third on Stenhouse's double to right. It was Stenhouse's first hit with the Sox, recently called up from Pawtucket after his off-season trade from the Twins.

Another recent Pawtucket call-up, Rey Quinones, brought in the tying run with a line single to right, leaving Lyons with runners at first and third. Ahead on the count, 2-and-1, Butcher then watched Lyons crush a double to right-center, bringing in Stenhouse and Quinones for the two-run lead.

The momentum was quickly halted, however. Leadoff hitter Barrett followed with a fly to left, a deep fly, but a routine catch nonetheless for Mickey Hatcher. Lyons was looking to grab an extra base and took off for third after tagging up at second. But even with Hatcher's one-hop throw, wide to the dugout side, third baseman Gary Gaetti easily scurried back and tagged out the sliding Lyons to end the inning.

In the first four innings, the Sox hit into four DPs, following the lead set by Boggs and Barrett-Lyons in the first two frames. After Boggs led with a walk in the third, Buckner rapped into a 4-6- 3. In the fourth, Baylor led with a single and Stenhouse quickly ended any chance of a threat with a 1-4-6-3 roller.

Following their initial outburst, the Twins' offense fell silent over the next three innings. But the silence all ended with a deafening bang, actually repeated thunderclaps, in the fifth. Paced by the back-to-back homers by Hrbek and Brunansky, the Twins batted around and piled up five runs to take a 7-4 lead. With one out, and Smalley on first, Hrbek sent Brown's 1-and-0 pitch some 12 rows into the right-field stands to tie it up at 4-4. Then, on 1-and-2, Brown left a fat pitch over the plate for Brunansky to hammer into the screen for the go-ahead run. That still wasn't enough for Brown. It took a hard Salas single to right for Sox manager John McNamara to summon reliever Tim Lollar. Still no relief, though. Gaetti met Lollar with a sharp single to left and, with two outs, Hatcher's double to left boosted the lead to 7-4.

Butcher teetered near extinction in the fifth himself, giving up a fifth run when Buckner singled home Lyons from second on a close play at the plate against the still-aggressive Lyons. The threat was quickly canceled, though, when Butcher put away both Rice and Gedman on flies to center. Over three innings, the Sox had gone 1 for 6 with men on base.

What ails Glenn Hoffman? The Red Sox aren't sure, so they're in the process of giving him a battery of tests. Before this week ends, Hoffman, who has complained of a sore ankle and dizziness, will have undergone examinations with an eye specialist, a cardiologist, a neurologist and an orthopedist. He'll also have a series of blood tests.