|
“DIARY OF A WINNER”
|
THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 9 July 1, 1986 ... The sight of 41-year-old Tom Seaver on the mound was stirring for the crowd of 32,729, and for his colleagues. His contributions in a 9-7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays will no doubt be exaggerated. But he contributed, and that is the reason Boston wanted him for the long, hot summer. Maybe this is a scene that has become commonplace in New York, Cincinnati and Chicago. But now Seaver is in Boston, and if one outing is a barometer, he will have the Fenway Faithful pleading for curtain calls, as they did tonight. If anybody expected vintage Tom Seaver in his Boston debut after Saturday night's trade with the White Sox, they may have disappointed. He is no longer the type of pitcher who can send the aggressive Blue Jays scurrying for safety across the Canadian border. But after falling behind, 1-0, in the first inning, he settled down and gave a new audience a glimpse of skills that will put him in the Hall of Fame. The game was only a few minutes old, and the Blue Jays had a 1-0 lead after a leadoff double by Tony Fernandez and a one-out single by Lloyd Moseby. Seaver said he was pleased just to get out of the inning with one run. And the Sox didn't allow the deficit to linger. For openers, they stormed back to take a 4-1 lead and make Downtown Doyle Alexander's night miserable. Dwight Evans smashed a three-run double that sparked the surge. A walk to Wade Boggs, a single by Jim Rice and yet another stroll to first after being hit by a pitch by Don Baylor (his team-record 20th of the season) loaded the bases for Evans. Gedman drove in the fourth run with a double to left. Boston added three runs in the third for a 7-1 lead and appeared home free. But the Blue Jays kept plugging away, getting two runs in the fourth and another in the fifth, and were within striking distance at 7-4. Then Seaver's experience began to pay off, and he held them off long enough for Boston to push across two unearned runs in the fifth. He left after the seventh to a tribute seldom witnessed at Fenway or any other park. Fans demanded a curtail call once they saw that Steve Crawford (who rejoined the team after missing some time because of the death of his grandmother) was coming out for the eighth. Not until the Blue Jays scored a run on three straight singles off Crawford did it dawn on the crowd that the celebrations may have been premature. Crawford left after giving up one-out singles to Damaso Garcia, Fernandez and pinch hitter Rick Leach, pulling the charging Blue Jays within 9-5. Lefty Joe Sambito took over because Bob Stanley had worked three innings Monday and was unavailable. Sambito got Moseby to hit into a forceout, but when the ever- popular George Bell singled to center, Fernandez scored, making it 9-6. Sambito escaped further trouble by striking out Jesse Barfield. Toronto came right back in the ninth with three one-out singles, cutting the lead to 9-7. But Boston has developed the ability to finish off teams, and did so nicely. Evans chased down a foul fly by Fernandez for the second out. He ran almost as far for the final out on a fly by Kelly Gruber. Seaver gave up nine hits and four runs. But not once did it seem he was not in command. For the second time this season, Roger Clemens was named AL Pitcher of the Month. In June, Clemens went 6-0 with a 1.44 earned run average in six starts. He also was honored for April, when he went 4-0 with a 1.62 ERA. He becomes the first Boston pitcher to receive monthly recognition more than once in a season. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
 |