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MIKE BODDICKER |
THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 9
"IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER"...
The Orioles beat up
Sox pitching
June 19, 1986
... No
game scheduled
June 20, 1986
... The Earl Weaver team came into Fenway Park and
mounted an offensive surge in a 14-3 rout of the Red Sox that was worthy of
Baltimore's championship years. The Orioles had lost four straight and nine of
11 games as they arrived in Boston. But the way they hammered six Red Sox
pitchers for a season-high total of 20 base hits makes you wonder why they
haven't been doing this all year, and why they aren't higher than third place in
the American League East.
It helped, of course, that
they had Mike Boddicker (10-1) on the mound against
a Red Sox lineup that looked as if it was still
enjoying its day off following the three-game sweep
of the Yankees. Jim Rice had three hits, and Bill
Buckner hit a solo homer in the first inning.
Boddicker went after the rest of the lineup as if
he were playing wiffle ball, and Boston's AL East
lead was cut to six games over the Yankees and
seven over the Orioles.
This is not what the largest Fenway crowd of the year
(34,826) was expecting. But after the Sox lost Mike Brown with a bruised right
elbow in the second inning when he was struck by a line drive off the bat of
Juan Bonilla, it was like target practice for the Orioles. They had a field day
off the servings of Tim Lollar, Rob Woodward, Mike Trujillo and Bob Stanley
before Joe Sambito arrived to get the final two batters. Sambito's predecessors
were torched by a host of Orioles, led by Tom O'Malley, whose five runs batted
in doubled his season output. Mike Young drove in three runs, and Larry Sheets
and Rick Dempsey knocked in two each.
Baltimore also benefited from nine walks, which no doubt
kept Sox manager John McNamara up all night. The Orioles had 32 baserunners as
they exploded on the heels of a 1-7 homestand, their worst since 1954.
Boddicker was razor-sharp in capturing his sixth straight
decision and becoming the second 10-game winner in the league. A year ago, it
was open season on the Orioles right-hander, but this year he is back in his
20-win form of 1984.
It was quickness, or lack of same, that forced Brown out of
the game. The Orioles had taken a 2-0 lead in the first inning, the first time
in 12 games they've scored first. Boston had made it 2-1 in the bottom of the
inning on Buckner's eighth homer of the year.
But Brown was struck on the outer edge of his right elbow
by a line drive off the bat of Juan Bonilla leading off the second. Brown was
taken to Beth Israel Hospital where it was determined he had suffered a deep
bruise but no fracture. It didn't seem to matter who pitched for the Sox
tonight.
After replacing Brown, Lollar got out of the second
unscathed but was removed in the third when the Orioles built the lead to 4-1 on
Young's two-run single to left. His replacement, Trujillo, surrendered a two-run
single to O'Malley in the fifth and was relieved by Woodward in the seventh,
when the Orioles built their lead to 7-3 on Rey Quinones' bases- loaded error.
Woodward was roughed up by O'Malley for a three-run double in the eighth, and
Stanley got tagged for four runs in the ninth, a surge that featured Dempsey's
two-run single. |
