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MORE OF "MORGAN'S MAGIC"
(BUT NOT ENOUGH)
The Sox charge back against
the Royals in the 9th inning
August
16, 1991 ... Phil Plantier, the muscular
rookie with the hightop-shod feet, finally hit his first major league
homer, and it lifted the Red Sox to a dramatic 3-2 win over the
Royals at electrically charged Fenway Park. The game
was epic. Roger Clemens and Bret Saberhagen, the two youngest pitchers ever to
win the Cy Young Award twice, dueled to a seven-inning draw, each allowing five
hits and a run on a sacrifice fly. Without his best stuff, Jeff Reardon earned
his 31st save, a nail-biter that saw Carlos Quintana almost make a desperate
catch three rows into the stands and which ended with the tying run at third.
Then there
was Plantier, who had hit 82 minor league home runs since signing in 1987 but
none in the majors. It happened like some kind of thunderclap in the eighth,
shortly after Saberhagen, who made an unreal catch of a Plantier line drive in
the third, doubling off Wade Boggs, came out of the game.
Saberhagen's replacement, Storm Davis, gave up a one-out
single to Jody Reed, then threw a low outside fastball to Plantier. Exploding
out of his exaggerated, almost preposterous crouch, the rookie unloaded a
towering fly that barely cleared the Wall in left-center field, giving Boston a
3-1 lead.
In the
end, it was another victory for the Sox bullpen, which was uplifted by Jeff
Gray's return to the clubhouse before the game. Although the team acquired
righthander Dan Petry earlier in the day, Tony Fossas (3-2), set up Reardon with
a scoreless inning in relief of Clemens.
Clemens
and Morgan apparently were in agreement that it was time for him to come out
after seven. The Rocket, who has won once in his last eight starts, gave up five
hits, walked three and struck out five. Working on three days rest instead of
the usual four, he threw 108 pitches before leaving abruptly. His outing was
largely uneventful except for one episode in the sixth when he clearly was
seething over calls by plate umpire Larry McCoy. At one point, after going to
3-0 on Danny Tartabull, Clemens angrily snatched the throw back from Tony Pena
with his bare hand. Tartabull swung away on the next pitch and drove in a run
with a sacrifice fly.
Reardon's
appearance, his fifth in the last six days, was far more dramatic. It started
with Tom Brunansky, who had come in for Plantier as a defensive replacement,
lunging after a fading liner hit by Tartabull. He missed it and the ball went
for a triple.
Jim
Eisenreich then drilled a run-scoring double to right-center, and Kansas City
had the tying run at second with none out. Todd Benzinger moved Eisenreich to
third with a fly ball to right, and Reardon came back and struck out Bill Pecota,
setting up the riveting conclusion.
The Sox
supposedly were finished when Kansas City swept them in three dismal games 10
days ago. Since then, Boston has picked up seven games on the Blue Jays, whose
impending loss to Detroit late last night kicked up a roar from the crowd of
34,548.
The Sox
trail free-falling Toronto by 4 1/2 games in the American League East. The
second-place Tigers are one game out. Although the Sox (58-58), who have won
four straight and eight of their last nine, have just now climbed back to .500,
for the first time since July 20th, the atmosphere inside Fenway since the last
time the team was in town was as different as a change of seasons. |
