|
“DIARY OF A WINNER”
|
THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 9 May 31, 1986 ... The only pleasant news tonight was the Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-2. Along the way, the Sox lost lefthander Bruce Hurst with a pulled left groin muscle, and reliever Sammy Stewart may join the list. By winning, the Sox expanded their lead to 2 1/2 games over New York, but suffered a costly blow when Hurst went down in agony at the end of the fifth inning and had to be carried off the field by teammates. Stewart, the man who replaced him, left under his own power in the ninth, complaining of pain in his forearm. He doesn't think it's serious. Without the American League strikeout leader and one of the league's best lefthanders, the Red Sox are in serious trouble since the next 30 games are against AL East rivals. There is no doubt that Hurst, who earned his fifth victory, is hurting. He rolled around in agony, not unlike the way righthander Al Nipper did 15 days ago in Fenway Park, when he was lost to the Red Sox for six weeks with a severe cut above his knee. Hurst's injury may not be as serious, but the pain might have been. Back in spring training, the Sox felt they had 10 good pitchers, and, sure enough, they quickly established themselves as the best staff in the AL. But that's history. First, reliever Wes Gardner developed shoulder problems and went on the disabled list. On May 18th, Al Nipper went down for six weeks from a spike wound to his right knee, and the original group was down to eight. Last week, the Sox got a scare when Roger Clemens came up with a sore middle finger that proved to be just an old football injury. He didn't miss a start, and is scheduled to pitch today. But if he also develops soreness or a similar problem, then all McNamara can do is punt. The Red Sox reserves of starting pitchers is quickly drying up. Mike Brown and Rob Woodward have already been promoted from Pawtucket. Don't count on farmhand Jeff Sellers; he was lost for an undetermined period of time when he was struck in the ankle by a line drive Friday night. So it's back to the drawing board. Tonight's game did produce some highlights. Wade Boggs had his second five-hit game against the Twins in two weeks, and raised his average to .402. Some think he might never drop below that mark again. Boggs' 5-for-5 effort highlighted a 14-hit assault by Boston. Meanwhile, the Twins were helpless against Hurst, who had five strikeouts, and couldn't dent Stewart until the eighth and ninth, when they pushed across single runs. The Red Sox got the victory going by scoring six runs in the second inning off loser Mike Smithson. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
 |