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MORE OF "MORGAN'S MAGIC"
September 6, 1991 ... The Red Sox mounted a 6-5 comeback victory over the Seattle Mariners and stayed 5 1/2 games behind first-place Toronto in the American League East. Matt Young, who squandered a three-run lead by allowing a grand slam to .168-hitting Dave Valle, his former battery-mate with the Mariners, can be thanked for sparking the emotion. He walked off the field to a loud accompaniment of booing, having blown his fifth lead in his last five starts. The Sox trailed, 5-3, but with five innings left, they mounted a resurgent offense paced by Tony Pena's three hits and two RBIs, including the game-winning seventh-inning single. The Sox’ 70th victory was just as much a comeback by the offense as it was the stinginess of relievers Dennis Lamp, Greg Harris, Tony Fossas and Jeff Reardon, who topped it off with his 35th save. Pena's winning hit off reliever Mike Jackson came after Mariners manager Jim Lefevbre was ejected by crew chief John Shulock. Second base umpire Tim Tschida had deferred to Shulock on Tom Brunansky's charge that he had been held down by Seattle shortstop Jeff Schafer on a force at second. Schaefer, trying to retrieve an errant throw from first baseman Tino Martinez, fell on top of Brunansky and then seemed to hold him down as he tried to go to third. Shulock called obstruction. Pena began the comeback with a two-out RBI single off Bill Krueger after Carlos Quintana and Brunansky singled in the fifth. That was the end of Krueger. In the sixth, Phil Plantier knocked in his second run with a single up the middle that eluded second baseman Harold Reynolds, scoring Wade Boggs with the tying run. Boggs had walked and moved to second on a passed ball. The Mariners tormented Young in the fourth, capped by Valle's homer on a 3-2 pitch. Young surrendered a single to center to Ken Griffey Jr. He walked Jay Buhner and allowed a run-producing single to Tracy Jones. He walked Alvin Davis to load the bases. There were no outs and Young faced quite a challenge. He seemed on the verge of handling it. Former Red Sox draft pick Martinez struck out. Schaefer then tapped back to Young, who made this an adventure when he forced Buhner at the plate, but only after Pena made a Jerry Rice-like leaping catch of the pitcher's high fluff toss. A good throw might have gotten Young out of the inning as Pena could have turned a double play. Young seemed to be looking at his hand after the play as if to show the ball had slipped. Valle came up. Knowing his former teammate well, he made Young go deep into the count. With no place to put him, Young laid a fastball right down the middle that Valle propelled just over the left-center-field wall. The Red Sox had struck for three runs in the third off lefty Bill Krueger. He had struggled and gotten off the hook in the first two innings. But in the third, Boggs opened with a single to center. That was followed by a Jody Reed walk and a passed ball by Valle, advancing the runners to second and third. Plantier knocked in the first run with a sacrifice fly to left-center, and Mike Greenwell knocked in the second with a triple off the left-center-field wall. Greenwell scored on a Brunansky single to left. Seattle immediately took care of that little deficit, but Lamp, who replaced Young following the grand slam, held the status quo for 3 1/3 innings and was rewarded with his fifth victory in eight decisions. |
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