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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF
THE BAMBINO, PART 9 September 21, 1986 ... In a season when the Red Sox have met every challenge, they might have outdone themselves in a tough 3-2 victory over Toronto, which showcased the toughness of Roger Clemens and a veteran lineup that did what it had to do to salvage the final game of a three-game set. Sure, there is still time left on the AL East calendar, and the purists will remind you that by winning, the Red Sox merely reduced the magic number to four. But they regained the momentum from the Blue Jays, so you can leave such reverence for dwindling numbers to the optimists and Yogi Berra. All that might change in the coming two weeks is the order of finish by the former contenders. Toronto is 9 1/2 games out, New York 10 1/2 and Detroit 11 1/2. You couldn't have put any more pressure into Exhibition Stadium. Though the Sox have the utmost confidence in Clemens, who worked eight innings to pick up his 24th victory, John McNamara didn't hesitate to go to Calvin Schiraldi in the ninth to shut down the defending AL East champions, who had come from behind to win the first two games of the series. Three solo home runs off lefthander Jimmy Key accounted for all the Boston scoring, but victory was not assured until Schiraldi struck out two of the four batters he faced. Another hero was Dwight Evans, who, in addition to belting a fifth-inning homer that proved to be the deciding blow, turned in two splendid catches in the third and fifth innings. With Clemens, the Sox were confident that the starting pitching that had failed in two straight games would be good enough to keep them close. Before today, he had come back to post a victory 13 times after Boston losses. Just as in the first two games of the series, the Sox built a 2- 0 lead. The first run came on Dave Sax' first major league home run in the first inning. Sax, a last-minute replacement at first base for Bill Buckner, got two of Boston's hits. The Sox made it 2-0 in the third when Rich Gedman led off with his 16th homer of the year. Clemens, who has now pitched over 245 innings, didn't have quite the same fastball of July or August. In the fourth, after Rance Mulliniks slashed an opposite-field single to left, Lloyd Moseby ended a 1-for-15 slump against him with a double up the gap in left-center. Mulliniks scored from first, and it was 2-1. Evans' home run made it 3-1 in the fifth. That would be Boston's final volley against Key and reliever Mark Eichhorn. In the bottom of the fifth, Toronto scored on a double by Ernie Whitt, a single by Manny Lee and a sacrifice fly by Tony Fernandez. It was then that Evans, who had robbed George Bell of a double in the third inning, raced far to his left and robbed Mulliniks of a run-scoring double to end the inning. Clemens got through the next three innings, but a leadoff single to Fernandez made the eighth inning a bit tense. But although the Blue Jays had their best at bat, they couldn't score. Mulliniks sacrificed Fernandez to second. Clemens got Moseby to ground to Wade Boggs at third. Then he struck out Blue Jay MVP candidate Bell on a wicked, high-and-inside fastball that Bell could not lay off. Schiraldi took over in the ninth and gave up only one hit, a single to Whitt. |
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