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MORE OF "MORGAN'S MAGIC"
June 20, 1991 ... Tonight's 8-7 comeback victory over the Oakland A's ended a three-game losing streak and kept the Sox .001 ahead of Toronto (a 6-1 victor over the Yankees) atop the American League East. The Sox were sparked by a timely 12-hit attack that featured the return of Tom Brunansky's bat. The right fielder had three hits, knocked in three runs and scored the winner on Tony Pena's single to right, which capped a two-run rally in the eighth. Pena had an aggressive night with three hits and got thrown out at three bases. But this was a game in which the Red Sox did many things well. They tattooed nemesis Stewart for six runs in six innings. They executed well, as evidenced by Steve Lyons' sacrifice bunt in the eighth that moved Brunansky to third, setting up Pena's game-winning hit. Brunansky had tied the game with a hustle double off the left forearm of Oakland second baseman Mike Bordick. The A's contributed by committing two errors and tying a team record with four wild pitches. The tide-turning eighth began when Mike Greenwell drilled a single off Mark McGwire's glove against Curt Young, who was trying to protect a 7-6 lead. Brunansky, who earlier had hit his 11th homer, stepped to the plate against reliever Steve Chitren (1-2), who wild-pitched Greenwell to second before surrendering the tying hit. Lost in all the action was Jeff Reardon's 18th save as he worked a perfect ninth. The Red Sox mounted two comebacks. One was after the A's had taken a 5-2 lead off starter Mike Gardiner, who allowed two fifth-inning homers, a titanic shot to Jose Canseco and a two-run net job to Mark McGwire. The A's had come back from a 1-0 deficit on Rickey Henderson's two-run triple to right-center in the second. Gardiner, affected by a stomach virus, lasted 4 2/3 innings. If ever the Red Sox could capitalize against Stewart, this was the night. The pitcher who dominated Boston to the tune of a 6-0 record (2-0 in the playoffs) in 1990 has been struggling for the first time in four years. Stewart, 4-3 with a 5.47 ERA coming in, spent more than two weeks on the disabled list with a strained rib cage muscle. He had allowed six earned runs in his last two outings. The Sox finally got to him in the bottom of the fifth, closing within 5-4 on Greenwell's double (his first extra-base hit since June 1, a span of 16 games) over Dave Henderson's head to the center-field wall, which scored Jody Reed (double) and Jack Clark (walk). After Greenwell took third on Oakland's futile attempt to nail Clark at the plate, Brunansky hit a home run into the net for a 6-5 edge. The Sox squandered that lead when the A's scored two in the seventh off relievers Dennis Lamp and Jeff Gray. Lamp allowed singles to Harold Baines and Terry Steinbach to open the inning. After Gray walked McGwire, his first unintentional pass in 28 2/3 innings, Vance Law hit into a double play that plated the tying run. Willie Wilson's two-out single to left, his 2,000th career hit, scored McGwire with the go-ahead run. Morgan has always talked about the beauty of speed. Actually, most Red Sox managers have admired it from afar. But if there was ever an advertisement for Burks in the leadoff spot, where he probably will remain for a while, it came in the first inning. He led off with a double to left-center, moved to third on Reed's ground out and scored on Boggs' medium fly to right field. Only Burks could have scored. After Rickey Henderson put Oakland ahead, the Sox tied it, 2-2, in the fourth when Pena came through with a ground-rule double to right, scoring Brunansky, who had moved up on two of Stewart's three wild pitches in the inning. Not a great night for Mike Marshall, who returned to the starting lineup for the first time since June 1. He struck out twice, hit into a double play and misplayed a foul pop. |
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