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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 9 June 9, 1986 ... The Red Sox are losing the kind of games that two weeks ago people wanted to write songs about. Tonight they had absolutely no chance of escaping a 5-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays before 27,551 at Exhibition Stadium. Dave Stieb could have been Cy Young. Lloyd Moseby and Jesse Barfield could have been Willie Mays and Henry Aaron. The Sox have lost four of their last five. The Blue Jays, defending American League East champions, are beginning to look like their old selves. A Red Sox batting slump is pure agony. Usually it is a soft- throwing junkballer who lulls them to sleep. But tonight they couldn't catch up with hard-throwing Stieb, who switched to throwing mostly sinkers to win his second game of the season. With his sinker, Stieb induced 12 ground balls in the first five innings, and had only two fly balls. He gave up two hits and struck out three. And the Red Sox are supposed to thrive off fastball pitchers. Without Bruce Hurst and Al Nipper, McNamara was forced to use rookie Rob Woodward and reliever Tim Lollar, both of whom were burned by the Blue Jays, who made the most of eight hits with an aggressive style of play. Moseby had the game-winner, a solo home run off Woodward in the fourth inning. When the New Hampshire product also gave up a double to Willie Upshaw, and threw two wild pitches. Woodward's trouble grew in the fourth inning, when Boston's vulnerability on artificial turf came to light. Two slow throws by Bill Buckner and Rey Quinones on a grounder by Garth Iorg cost a possible double play and led to two runs. A hit off Buckner's glove and a hit-and-run single into a spot vacated by Quinones produced a third run and ended Woodward's night. Lollar was only slightly better. He gave up a sacrifice fly to Moseby, as Tony Fernandez took advantage of Steve Lyons' lack of knowledge about playing the turf and scored easily from third. In the sixth inning, Barfield clipped Lollar for his 15th home run of the season. All that mattered for Stieb, who has a history of blowing up in Red Sox games, was that he held together long enough to get to relief ace Tom Henke. Stieb struggled in the sixth, but escaped when Wade Boggs attempted to score on a two-out single and was met by the ball and Blue Jays catcher Ernie Whitt. Boggs had walked and moved to second on a base hit by Buckner. Jim Rice followed with a blooper to left, which bounced high, but George Bell hauled it in and threw to the plate on one hop. The Red Sox usually do more against the Blue Jays, whom they beat in nine of 13 games last year. They scored in the ninth, but the rally was feeble, just as the whole offense has been of late. Buckner walked and couldn't get any further than third base even though Rice followed with a double that got past Barfield and rolled to the wall. Henke came on and struck out Don Baylor in a classic struggle with a high inside fastball. Evans came close to making it interesting, but wound up hitting a 395-foot sacrifice fly ball to deep center, scoring Buckner. Lyons then went down swinging for the final out. The Orioles lost and Boston didn't lose any ground in the AL East. But a slump is a slump. Wade Boggs, who had a 14-game hitting streak snapped on Sunday, went 0 for 3 (with a walk) but turned a nice double play in the first inning. Catcher Rich Gedman was sidelined with a stiff neck. Jesse Barfield hit his 15th homer of the year, tying him for third place in the AL. Boston is Toronto's least favorite club. The Red Sox won nine of 13 meetings last year, including all six games at Fenway Park. |
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