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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 9 September 11, 1986 ... The longest Red Sox winning streak in nine years came to an end, but not exactly in a manner they thought it would. There was no one big moment of collapse in an 8-6 loss to the Orioles at Memorial Stadium. The Red Sox came apart in the seventh and eighth innings of a game that, with Oil Can Boyd pitching, they should have won going away. This can go down only as a team letdown with three errors and the inability of Boyd and the bullpen to hold leads of 1-0, 5-2 and 6- 4. Boyd had lost only once in five previous starts here, but he lacked the fire and spirit that last Saturday had carried him to a 3-2 victory over Minnesota. He wasn't very impressive in the first inning, when he was handed a 1-0 lead but gave it away with two runs on three hits. When Boston scored twice in the second inning off Mike Boddicker and twice more in the third, it appeared the Red Sox were in good shape. Bill Buckner's two-run homer in the third created a 5-2 Red Sox lead, and all that remained was for the Can to do his thing. Instead, the Orioles found new life in an old-fashioned manner. Home runs by Mike Young and Floyd Rayford cut the lead to 5-4 in the fourth. Buckner's second home run made it 6-4 in the fifth inning. But Boyd was beginning to struggle, and other events came into play. First there was a power outage of 22 minutes after Buckner's home run. It put a damper on a Red Sox rally with two outs, and seemed to put the momentum in Baltimore's favor. Boston failed to scored in the sixth inning, and in the seventh and eighth innings, it came back to haunt them. The turning point came long before Lee Lacy's pinch-hit single with the bases loaded in the eighth scored Young to break a 6-6 tie. It all started when the razor-thin Boyd, known for his flamboyant footwork around first base, nearly got trampled trying to make a putout on a high feed from Buckner. John Shelby, who had grounded to first, reached on the error, and there was some question as to whether Boyd should have been allowed to continue. Juan Beniquez ripped pitch No. 102 to right for a single. When the ball got past Evans for an error, the runners advanced to second and third. Steve Crawford replaced Boyd and the tying runs scored on a ground out and an Eddie Murray single. Crawford got out of the jam with a double-play ball. The Orioles' winning rally began in the eighth on a double by Young. Crawford walked John Stefero. Rayford tried to bunt and hit a roller to Crawford. There was time for a play at third, and even first with the slow Rayford. Instead, Crawford kicked the ball away for an error, loading the bases. McNamara brought in Joe Sambito. Lacy ripped a single to right, scoring Young with the go-ahead run. Sambito got a putout on a fly ball with all runners holding, and was replaced by Bob Stanley. When Beniquez hit a sacrifice fly, the Orioles had a two-run cushion. But there can be joy in knowing that despite an embarrassing loss, the Red Sox actually picked up some ground in the American League East as the Yankees beat second-place Toronto twice. With a nine-game lead, the Sox aren't about to fret over not sweeping the Orioles, but for a team riding a high tide of excellence for the past two weeks, tonight's play can be a tad upsetting. Bill Buckner had his first multi-homer game since Aug. 7, 1984, against Detroit. Don Baylor was hit by a pitch for the 30th time this year, the 222d of his career. Wade Boggs doubled in the sixth inning to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. The Red Sox finally are conceding they may have a chance to win the AL East. Season ticket-holders will begin to receive applications by mail next week for playoff and World Series games. |
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