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MORE OF "MORGAN'S MAGIC"
(BUT NOT ENOUGH)
The Sox blast off with a
7-run 7th inning
June 14, 1991 ... A Roger Clemens complete
game and a Jack Clark homer could warm the cockles of your heart.
For tonight anyway, it was why the Red Sox went out and spent, spent
and spent. How many millions?
Led by Clemens' pitching, Clark's two-run homer and a
seven-run seventh inning that included key strokes by Mike Greenwell (two RBIs)
and Ellis Burks (three-run homer), the Sox roared back for a 9-4 win over the
Angels.
The Sox
bounced back from a 4-2 hole with its biggest offensive explosion of the season.
Mike Greenwell's two-run, bases-loaded line single broke a 4-4 tie, and Ellis
Burks' shot pumped up the volume to the 9-4 final.
Clark, et
al, more than once had to come to the aid of Clemens (9-3), who threw 118
pitches on the way to his third complete game of the season. The Angels took a
2-0 lead in the first, helped most by a Dave Winfield triple, and it took
Clark's two-run shot into the screen, with Greenwell aboard, to bring it back
even. In the sixth, the Angels leaped ahead, 4-2, when Wally Joyner and Winfield
opened with back-to-back singles and eventually came home on sacrifice flies to
center.
The second
of those was a work of wonder on two counts. With Winfield on second, and Joyner
already across with the 3-2 lead, Gary Gaetti sent a Clemens offering some 415
feet to dead center, Burks reaching up for a spectacular back-to-the-plate,
over-the-shoulder grab. As Burks bounced off the wall and somersaulted backward,
however, Winfield tagged up at second and came wheeling around to score on a
sacrifice fly that advanced the runner two bases.
Meanwhile, Angels starter Jim Abbott was making some neat
work of the Boston batting order. Other than the Clark blast, which inspired
longtime public address announcer Sherm Feller to sing, "Dum-dee-dum-dum," over
the stadium microphone, Abbott had a five-hitter going into the fateful seventh.
The start
to the Angels' finish came with Clark and Luis Rivera banging out singles around
a Tony Pena roller to the right side. With runners at first and second and one
out, Angels manager Doug Rader called Jeff Robinson in from the bullpen. Where
there was smoke, there would soon be fire.
Phil
Plantier, hitting for Jody Reed, sent a slow roller to the right side that
forced Rivera at second. Two on, two out. Carlos Quintana then delivered a sharp
double to left to cut the lead to 4-3, and Robinson elected to pass Wade Boggs
and pitch to cleanup man Tom Brunansky with the bases loaded. Bruno went to a
full count and finally drew a walk that tied it, 4-4, with pinch runner Steve
Lyons scoring from third.
Bob
McClure took over for Robinson, only to get ripped to right by Greenwell with
the two-run single. Burks followed with his high, looping blast into the screen
for the five-run lead. |
