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75 YEARS & A FENWAY HANGOVER ... June 30, 1987 ... The Red Sox blew a 4-0 lead in the first inning and toyed with a 13-7 lead in the ninth. Indeed, the fans who stuck around Fenway Park for the entire 3 hours 33 minutes of this 13-9 victory over the Orioles were just glad the Sox were able to hold on to what they got. What they got was a bunch of timely runs in the fifth and sixth to wipe out a 7-4 Baltimore lead. What they got was an even higher level of hitting proficiency from Wade Boggs (3 for 3 with two walks), who inched his American League-leading average up to .391. What they got was a good indication from Mike Greenwell (3 for 5, including a big home run) that he deserves a chance to play every day. You might notice there's no mention of pitching here. The Red Sox got precious little of that, save some critical work by Steve Crawford in middle relief before he left Calvin Schiraldi with a mess in the seventh. Yet the Sox escaped with their fifth straight win over the hapless Orioles, who have lost 26 of their last 31 ballgames. Baltimore was down, 4-0, after the first inning, but by the end of the fourth, the Orioles had turned it around to a 7-4 lead by shelling starter Jeff Sellers for five runs and tagging reliever Tom Bolton for two. Indeed, the Sox seemed headed for trouble until the fifth, when Rich Gedman provided the first indication of a Boston revival with a single to right off starter Mark Williamson. A two-out single by Boggs kept it alive, and subsequent singles from Greenwell and Don Baylor each brought a run around. Williamson, normally a reliever and starting for only the second time in his career, then walked Dwight Evans to load the bases, setting up Bill Buckner's one-bounce single to center that added two more RBIs to his expanding total. As it was, the locals clung to an 8-7 lead heading into the sixth, when Boggs and Greenwell did their best to give Crawford ample breathing room with back-to-back homers off Dave Schmidt, the same poor chap who was shelled Monday night in the first inning. Boggs' was on an 0-1 pitch with Marty Barrett aboard, a shot into the Orioles bullpen. Not be to outdone, even by the league's best hitter, Greenwell deposited his over the Sox bullpen. It was 11-7, and all was rosy. Wasn't it? Not in this game. Singles by Rick (4-for-5) Burleson and Mike Young and a walk to Jim Dwyer filled the bases in the seventh and forced John McNamara to go to Schiraldi earlier than he would have liked. The closer got the job done by forcing Cal Ripken to fly deep to center field to end the inning, but ran into trouble in the ninth. By then, insurance runs had padded the cushion to six (13-7), but a two-run shot into the left-field screen by Larry Sheets made everyone start wondering again. Subsequent singles from Burleson and Young, however, went for naught as Schiraldi finally, mercifully, struck out Eddie Murray to end this thing. McNamara was just about out of pitchers, a chain reaction that started in the second, when Sellers got knocked off the hill after giving up six hits (and five runs) in the inning. Sellers was touched for four straight singles to start the second, the fourth of which was a liner to left field by Sheets that drove in two runs. Burleson followed with a double off the wall, and when Young grounded to second and Terry Kennedy chugged home on the play, it was 4-4. After Ripken hit a two-out double for a 5-4 Baltimore advantage, Sellers was gone. Lefties, righties, everybody was hitting the 23-year-old hurler, who badly damaged his chances to keep an address up in the big leagues. The first-inning barrage was compliments of a Boggs single, an RBI single from Baylor, who beat the Baltimore shift by punching out a hit through the hole at first and second, and a towering three-run homer by Dwight Evans, which cleared the wall in left and may still be going. For the record, the Red Sox had 17 hits, a club high this year. |
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