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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 9 May 24, 1986 ... There was a distinct New England flavor on the Arlington Stadium mound tonight. Canton's Bobby Witt twirled for the Rangers against Lebanon, N.H., native Rob Woodward, who was making his first 1986 start for Boston. Thanks to a two-run homer by Don Baylor (his second game-winner in two nights), Woodward won the battle of rookie hurlers, but the Sox lost the game 3-2 when the bullpen failed him. Witt carried a 2-3 (5.77 ERA) big league record into tonight's game. He had struggled badly in his last four starts (0-3, 8.77), and control was his big problem. Overall, Witt had walked 43 with 36 strikeouts in 39 major-league innings. Woodward, meanwhile, was 3-2 with a 3.72 ERA at Pawtucket. The 23-year-old right-hander was called up Wednesday to replace Al Nipper on the Sox roster. The game started at 8:37 Central Standard Time after a rain delay of 1 hour, 2 minutes. A violent thunderstorm flooded sections of Dallas and Fort Worth yesterday afternoon, and showers continued into the early evening. Woodward was touched for an unearned run in the first inning when rookie shortstop Rey Quinones made his first rookie mistake. He booted Scott Fletcher's hard grounder, then threw wildly past Bill Buckner for a double error. Fletcher took second and scored on a line single to center by Pete O'Brien. In the top of the second, Don Baylor drove the Red Sox into the lead with a two-run homer off Witt. Baylor crushed a 3-2 pitch over the wall in left- center for his team-leading eighth home run, seven of which have either tied a game or put the Sox ahead. Baylor has 26 career homers vs. the Rangers, 16 in Arlington Stadium. His two-run homer had beat Texas, 2-1, Friday night. The Sox went down in order in the third. Buckner led off the fourth with a single, but was thrown out stealing on the next pitch. It was only the third runner Darrell Porter has caught this year (out of 21), so the fact that he got Buckner might explains why the Sox have only 10 steals and have had 13 runners caught stealing. Woodward sailed through the early and middle innings. After O'Brien's hit in the first, he retired nine straight Rangers. Rookie slugger Pete Incaviglia broke the string with a long, one-out double to right-center in the fourth. Incaviglia moved to third on a Gary Ward grounder but was stranded when Porter grounded to first to end the inning. Texas left another man in scoring position in the fifth. No. 9 batter Curtis Wilkerson dumped an opposite-field double to left with two outs but watched Oddibe McDowell take a called third strike for the third out. Witt had the Sox bats under control. He struck out three with only three walks while allowing two hits in the first six innings. Texas right fielder George Wright and center fielder McDowell made a couple of nice catches and Geno Petralli made a backhanded stab to rob Marty Barrett of a hit in the sixth, but Witt did most of the work himself. Boston threatened in the seventh. Dwight Evans stroked a two-out double to center (over McDowell's head), then took third on an infield hit by Steve Lyons. But Evans and Lyons expired when Quinones grounded to second. Woodward got the Rangers in order in the seventh and took a three- hitter and a 2-1 lead into the eighth. He was looking for his second major league win and his fist major league complete game (Woodward was 1-0 in five appearances with the Sox last September). Woodward got the leadoff batter in the eighth, as he had in every previous inning, but Wilkerson then touched him for a single and manager John McNamara came out for the rookie and brought in Joe Sambito. With the lefthander on the mound, Texas manager Bobby Valentine opted for right-handed hitting Tom Paciorek to hit for McDowell. But Sambito got Paciorek on a pop to short and Fletcher on a grounder to Boggs at third. The ninth was a different story. When Sambito walked lead-off batter, Pete O’Brien, McNamara brought in the Steamer to save it. After striking out Incaviglia, Stanley gave up a base hit to Gary Ward and walked Darrell Porter to load the bases. Pinch hitter Bobby Jones lined a base hit that scored O’Brien with the tying run and Ward was on his heels with the game winner. |
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