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MIKE WITT |
THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 9
"IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER"...
Mike Witt baffles the Red Sox
July 26, 1986
... The Red Sox were beaten, 4-1, by Mike Witt and the
California Angels. With a little help from Boston's baffled baserunners, Witt
and reliever Donnie Moore stifled the Sox on five hits.
The 26 year-old Witt is one of
the premier pitchers in baseball. He leads the AL
with nine complete games and 168 1/3 innings. He's
third in strikeouts (134) and fourth in ERA (2.94).
The Angels' All-Star righty retired the first six Sox in
order before Rich Gedman led off the third with a first-pitch line drive over
the fence in left. It was Gedman's eighth homer of the season and his third in
the last four games. It would be Boston's only run of the day.
Baserunning buffoonery took the Sox out of a potential big
inning in the fourth. Bill Buckner slashed a one-out double into the left- field
corner, then lumbered to third on Jim Rice's ground-ball single to left. Don
Baylor was next and he lofted a high fly to shallow center. Gary Pettis caught
the sun-drenched pop, then dropped it. Buckner had been set to tag up (to draw a
throw), then decided to break for it when Pettis dropped the ball. Rice,
meanwhile, stood near first and didn't move to second until way too late. Pettis
threw home and Boone tagged Buckner out (according to umpire Drew Coble) on a
close play, then fired to shortstop Dick Schofield to get Rice easily.
DeCinces, Boone & Co. made the Sox pay for the base path
blunders by knocking out Boston starter Bruce Hurst in the bottom of the fourth.
Hurst gave up only one hit in the first three innings, but it was apparent that
California's veteran hitters had the junkballing lefty figured out for their
second turn at bat. Brian Downing drew a one- out walk, then coasted home on a
prodigious homer to left by DeCinces.
After George Hendrick flied to left, Bobby Grich hit a
majestic shot over the fence in center. When Schofield (three hits) followed
with a single to right, Sox pitching coach Bill Fischer came out to talk to
Hurst. The chat didn't do any good. Boone scored Schofield with a double to
left. One second after Hurst walked No. 9 batter Pettis, McNamara bounded out of
the dugout with the hook. Calvin Schiraldi came on and fanned pinch hitter
Reggie Jackson to end the inning.
In two starts covering nine innings since coming off the
disabled list, Hurst has given up 12 hits and eight earned runs while walking
five, striking out five, and surrendering four homers. Like Al Nipper, Hurst
appears to be in a spring training stage and it was unrealistic of the Red Sox
to assume that these starters would step off the DL and pitch as if there'd been
no interruption.
Schiraldi did another nice job (3 2/3 scoreless innings) in
the long-relief role, but it was too late to save the Sox. |
