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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 9 May 28, 1986 ... The Red Sox shook the cobwebs out of their bats from the previous evening and pounded the Cleveland Indians, 13-7. It was the American League East leaders' fourth straight victory, 10th in 11 games and 16th in 20. And the reemergence of the offense was fortunate, because for once the Boston pitching faltered as Oil Can Boyd (6-3) and Steve Crawford got tagged for seven extra-base hits, including four homers. The Sox countered with a 14-hit attack, erupting for five runs in both the sixth and seventh innings as they turned a 2-0 deficit into a 10-2 rout. Don Baylor provided the winning hit with his 10th homer of the season and fifth in 10 games, a three-run shot that snapped a 2-2 tie in the sixth. Jim Rice had the most productive evening, driving in five runs, and Baylor contributed four RBIs. The surge was both emphatic and belated, because for five innings, the Sox managed only two hits off Cleveland righthander Don Schulze, who had been given the two-run lead on Brook Jacoby's fifth homer of the year. But the Sox promptly stunned Schulze for five straight hits, four consecutive singles and Baylor's homer. Are the Sox batters really this scary? Schulze was one of four Cleveland pitchers who felt the wrath of Red Sox bats. And that relentless display was essential, because the Indians unloaded 11 hits, including two homers by Mel Hall, good for three RBIs, and a double, triple and homer by Joe Carter (3 for 4, one RBI). Boyd was the victim of two, and Crawford surrendered back-to- back shots to Hall and Carter in the Indians' three-run eighth before Bob Stanley tamed the Tribe in the ninth. Boyd, who started well but staggered toward the end of his seven- inning stint, fell into a hole when Carter reached him for a one- out double and Jacoby launched a two-out homer over the left-center- field fence in the fifth. But Boston countered with singles by Marty Barrett, Wade Boggs, Bill Buckner and Rice, whose two-run base hit tied the game. Next came Baylor, who had been robbed of a homer in the fourth inning by Hall's leaping catch at the wall. He was down on the count, 0 and 2, when Schulze tried to blow another fastball by him. There were no dramatics this time: Ralph Sampson and Akeem Olajuwon combined couldn't have reached this shot. Baylor was good enough to hit safely for the ninth time in 10 games (14 for 34, .412). In that span, he has driven in 16 runs and collected 33 total bases. He achieved another milestone, this one more painful, as he became the first American Leaguer to be hit by pitches 200 times in his career. Jim Kern plunked him during the seventh- inning uprising, and Baylor, as usual, flicked the ball away as if it were a fly. So was Rice, who collected three hits, including a double. Buckner added a sacrifice fly to his 2-for-4 effort, and Dwight Evans joined in the fun in the three-run eighth with a run-scoring double. All of which enabled Boyd to record his fourth straight triumph. Tonight's victory completed a three-game sweep of the Indians, who come to Fenway Park next week. The Sox are 17 games above .500 (31-14) for the first time since September 1982, when they were 79-62. |
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