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MORE OF "MORGAN'S MAGIC"
September 21, 1991 ... The Red Sox were having their way against the Yankees, whom they defeated, 12-1, on the strength of four homers, with two by rookie Phil Plantier and one each by Jack Clark and rookie Bob Zupcic. The game was atypical of the new Red Sox. There were 14 hits and three stolen bases, which accompanied a four-hitter by lefty wunderkind Joe Hesketh. There were back-to-back steals by the ever-present Steve Lyons and then Clark launched his opposite-field shot, his 25th, making it a 3-1 game. Plantier belted a bomb over the right-field bullpen on a 3-2 count in the sixth, accounting for the Sox’ ninth run. In the eighth, he was the front man in a back-to-back homer tandem that included Bob Zupcic's first major league home run. In between, the Sox' offense was darned exciting. With two outs in the second, Tony Pena was hit on the shoulder by a Taylor pitch. There was no score, and if this was retaliation for Roger Clemens hitting Matt Nokes last Sunday in New York, Pena was going to have some fun with it. He retrieved the ball and underhanded it back to Taylor. Last week, Nokes had caught a Clemens fastball under his right arm and whipped it back to the pitcher. Being hit seemed to inspire Pena, who stole second base and then scored on Luis Rivera's two-out single to center, which was turned into a two-base error by center fielder Bernie Williams. Hesketh, who improved to 11-4, pitched in a rocking chair from the fourth inning on. He surrendered a net job to Steve Sax in the third that tied it, 1-1. He pitched eight innings and allowed four hits. Seventeen of his outs were on the ground and only one was in the air. The Sox broke it open with four runs in the fourth inning, highlighted by a two-run single by Jody Reed and a two-run single by Carlos Quintana past a drawn-in infield. The inning also featured a nice hit-and-run by Pena and Rivera, with Pena breaking and Rivera dumping one over first base. In the fifth, Pena drove in Scott Cooper, who had reached on a leadoff double that Hensley Meulens lost in the sun. Hesketh has been the pitching story of the season for the Sox. Certainly, Clemens, who has become a Cy Young Award favorite, has been extraordinary lately, but Hesketh's 11 wins have come out of nowhere. The lefthander has duplicated the success of Greg Harris last season. Hesketh was tough coming out of the shadows at Fenway, particularly in a mid-afternoon game, winning for the first time in his last three starts. Defensively, the Sox turned two double plays, but there was no better play than the one turned in by Reed and Mo Vaughn, who combined on a beauty that seemed to set the tone defensively. Randy Velarde grounded to Reed, who made a diving stop to prevent a base hit. Then Vaughn made a nice scoop of the throw in the dirt. The play was so meticulous on both ends that Velarde was out by two steps. By the sixth inning, Red Sox fans were looking up at the Fenway scoreboard, where occasional updates of the critical Toronto-Oakland game were being flashed. There were pockets of cheers, pockets of hysteria filtering through this cautiously optimistic sea of Sox fans. At one point, the Red Sox bullpen left their warm seats and looked at the center-field scoreboard to check the score. The Red Sox left Fenway last night with 67 losses, same as the Blue Jays. An 11 1/2-game deficit 44 days ago had been wiped out in a 31-10 run. |
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