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MORE OF "MORGAN'S MAGIC"
(BUT NOT ENOUGH)
Boggs' walk-off homer
completes a
doubleheader sweep
August
21, 1991 ... Wade Boggs ripped a two-strike
pitch into the right-field bullpen in the bottom of the ninth to give
the Red Sox a dramatic 5-4 Game 2 victory and a sweep of the
Cleveland Indians at Fenway, lifting his team to within 4 1/2 games
of the Jays. The Red Sox offense bashed
Cleveland's best starter, Greg Swindell, 13-5, in Game 1 behind Joe Hesketh. But
in Game 2, with Roger Clemens facing Dave Otto, the Red Sox could muster little,
trailing, 4-0 and 4-3 (on a pinch-hit Mo Vaughn single in the eighth), before
Boggs struck.
Mike Brumley opened the ninth with an infield hit. Brumley
had entered in the third inning of Game 1 after Luis Rivera was hit on the leg
by a pitch that forced him to leave. When the count ran 0-2, Boggs launched his
seventh homer.
Clemens, who has just one victory in his last 10 starts,
allowed the 16th first-inning run in his 26 starts this year. That was trivial
compared to the three runs he spotted the Indians in the second.
Clemens has become a mystifying figure of inconsistency.
With home plate umpire Ken Kaiser failing to call his fastballs for strikes, he
started throwing his forkball and breaking pitch, and the Indians thanked him
loudly. Albert Belle knocked in Alex Cole with a first-inning double. In the
second, the Indians mounted a two-out attack, with Cole driving in one and Jerry
Browne two on a single.
The Rocket, who lasted seven innings, walked three and
struck out nine while throwing 135 pitches, seemed to press the pump and started
throwing his fastball more after the second. He struck out four of five batters
in the third and fourth, and now it was just a matter of the Red Sox offense
repeating its exploits of Game 1. After Boston squandered a first-inning rally,
Jody Reed singled in Brumley, who had singled and moved to second on a ground
out.
The Sox mounted little else against Otto, but in the
eighth, the crowd in the half-empty ballpark started to stir. Reed led off with
a double down the third base line. He was moved to third on a ground out. Jack
Clark walked, and Mike Greenwell's sacrifice fly to right scored Reed. Morgan
then trotted up three straight pinch hitters against Olin, who relieved Otto.
Phil Plantier, batting for an angry Ellis Burks, walked. Vaughn, sent up to bat
for Tom Brunansky after the veteran was already digging in at the plate, singled
to center, scoring the third Boston run. But the well ran dry. Steve Lyons, now
0 for 14 as a pinch hitter for the Red Sox, popped to shortstop to end the
threat with the tying run at third base.
Burks tossed his gear and walked right down the runway. It
marked the third time he has been pinch hit for against Olin.
In the opener, the Sox pounded Swindell for nine runs
(seven earned) in four innings, collecting eight hits on the fifth anniversary
of Swindell's major league debut, a 24-5 Red Sox victory at Cleveland Stadium.
This beating was more severe as the Sox moved over .500 for the first time since
July 19th. Swindell topped off at 85 miles per hour on the radar gun. That's far
below his normal velocity.
The Sox offense featured two four-run innings, the third
and the fifth. With Boston up, 2-0, in the third, Rivera was hit by a pitch, and
Boggs followed with a triple. An error, an RBI single by Greenwell and a ground
out accounted for three more runs. In the fifth, Carlos Quintana, playing again
after an abcessed tooth sidelined him Sunday, doubled in Reed.
Swindell left in favor of lefty Jesse Orosco, who
surrendered a bases-loaded, two-run single to Tony Pena, followed by a Brumley
RBI single. In the blink of an eye, it was 10-0.
The Sox padded the margin in the sixth on Phil Plantier's
three-run shot into the Cleveland bullpen in right field, his first major league
homer against a lefty. The IBM Tale of the Tape measured Plantier's shot at 382
feet. It proved to be an almost necessary poke as the Indians managed a comeback
against Dan Petry, who made his Red Sox debut. Before Plantier's second major
league home run, Quintana singled and Clark (3 for 4, 3 runs) doubled into the
left-field corner.
Since his second recall from Pawtucket August 9th, Plantier
is 9 for 16 with 2 homers and 8 RBIs. He entered the game as a defensive
replacement for Greenwell, who had gone 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs as he raised his
average to .316.
Hesketh (8-2) became a lesser story after Boston's
explosive offense struck. The lefty didn't allow a base-runner until the fourth
when Brumley booted Chris James' ground ball. He didn't allow a hit until the
fifth when Jeff Manto ripped a single to left field after Hesketh walked Mark
Whiten with two outs.
Hesekth was thrifty, throwing 66 pitches over six innings.
He'd thrown just 36 through 4 2/3 innings before he surrendered the walk and the
hit. In the sixth, Glenallen Hill hit a homer into the net for the only run off
Hesketh. Boggs ended the sixth by making a leaping grab of a Carlos Baerga
liner. |
