|
“DIARY OF A WINNER”
|
THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 9 September 20, 1986 ... The Blue Jays made it two straight over the Sox up here in Molson Country, beating Al Nipper and the Sox, 5-2, before 43,713 happy wanderers and a network TV audience. The Sox magic number (6) is in a holding pattern. Joe Johnson of Plainville, Mass., teamed with rookie reliever Mark Eichhorn to stop the Red Sox. Boston scored a pair in the second on a Rich Gedman double, then watched Nipper lose the lead in a hail of fourth-inning base hits. The Sox have to be worried about Nipper. It was easy to banish him to the playoff bullpen until Tom Seaver limped off the mound (strained knee) Friday night, but now Nipper is the No. 4 starter and he's been pitching in a hard-hat zone for the last month. Hurling for a team that is 31 games over .500, Nipper is 9-11 with a 5.51 ERA. In his last eight starts, he has given up 52 hits and 34 earned runs in 38 1/3 innings. His ERA in those eight starts is 7.98. For the third time in his last four starts, Nipper failed to finish the fourth inning. He had a one-hit shutout entering the fourth, but was driven from the mound by five consecutive hits, most of which were of the loud variety. He was almost KO'd by a Lloyd Moseby bullet in the fist. Toronto's centerfielder lined a wicked one-hopper off his left leg. The ball deflected toward Wade Boggs, who threw out Moseby to end the inning as Nipper writhed on the turf. Gedman staked Nipper to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. Dwight Evans started the rally with a long two-out single to left, then took second when usually reliable Tony Fernandez failed to handle Tony Armas' grounder to short. Armas' ball was ruled a hit, and Evans and Armas both rode home when Gedman sliced a double to left-center. Surprisingly, Nipper came back out for the second (he has a nasty bruise on the inside of his left calf) and pitched two solid innings before running into major problems in the fourth. Moseby started things with a leadoff single to left and scored when George Bell followed with a triple to left-center (giving Bell a franchise-record 105 RBIs). Bell's hit shouldn't have been a triple, but Rice and Armas crossed signals. Jesse Barfield scored Bell with a hard single to left, and Ernie Whitt followed with a rope to right for another hit. Pitching coach Bill Fischer came out to chat with Nipper. Nothing changed. Rick Leach drove a single to center; the ball rattled off Armas, allowing Barfield to score as Whitt and Leach took third and second. The hits had done what Moseby's liner couldn't do: KO Nipper. Steve Crawford took the mound and Kelly Gruber grounded to short, scoring Whitt, to make it 4-2. Crawford got out of the inning without further trouble. The Jays made it 5-2 in the fifth when Willie Upshaw singled to center, took second on a passed ball and scored on a single to left by the ubiquitous Bell. Johnson knew what to do with the three-run lead. He got the Sox in order in the sixth. Evans led with a double to left in the seventh, but Johnson got Armas, Gedman and pinch hitter Mike Greenwell on harmless fly balls. With one out in the eighth, Marty Barrett walked and Bill Buckner singled to right. Rookie sensation Eichhorn replaced Johnson. Dave Stapleton ran for Buckner. Rice fouled Eichhorn's first pitch deep into the seats in left. He drilled the next one to third on a hop and was an easy double- play victim. It was Rice's 19th double play of the season. Bob Stanley came on for the bottom of the eighth and fanned Bell to start the inning. Bell was Stanley's seventh strikeout victim in an eight-batter span covering three appearances. In the ninth, Eichhorn struck out Baylor, Evans and Armas on 10 pitches. That gave the reliever five outs on 12 pitches (11 strikes). Sammy Stewart has been brutal in his last five outings, giving up 17 hits, 11 walks and nine earned runs in 11 2/3 innings (6.94 ERA). He's also walked the first batter he faced in five of his last six appearances. Rich Gedman's last 10 homers have been hit on the road. He's hit only two of his 15 homers in Fenway Park. Spike Owen is 0 for 27 in games the Red Sox have lost since he joined Boston. The Sox haven't been swept by a division rival all season and Roger Clemens is the reason. He's won 13 times after a defeat. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
 |