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DUQUETTE PUSHES ALL
THE RIGHT BUTTONS ... Bill Haselman is the hero in this game
June 27, 1995
...
The next night, Bill Haselman slammed a solo
home run in the 11th inning that carried Sox to a 6-5 victory over
the hapless Blue Jays. Haselman sent a 3-and-2 pitch soaring into the
left-field screen, his first home run with the Red Sox. For the second straight night,
the Red Sox blew a lead to put themselves in position for a dramatic win. They
squandered a 5-1 advantage that Roger Clemens took into the seventh inning.
Clemens was fine for six, but
rookie Angel Martinez hit a three-run homer into the right-field seats to pull
Toronto within a run in the seventh. Clemens finished the inning but was done
for the night after throwing 98 pitches. The Jays then got to Ken Ryan for the
tying run in the eighth.
The hero,
Haselman, wasn't even in the game. Mike Macfarlane was lifted for a pinch runner
after walking in the ninth, and Haselman came out to catch in the 10th.
For six innings, the Sox had a
ball at the expense of former Sox pitcher Danny Darwin, who gave up three home
runs. Two came in the first inning, solo shots by Lee Tinsley and Mo Vaughn.
Troy O'Leary hit his third of the year in the fourth, and with Clemens on the
mound, the Fenway Faithful had to feel pretty good. When Macfarlane delivered
with the bases loaded in the sixth, they had to be ecstatic. But a streak of
wildness hurt Clemens in the seventh.
Clemens actually struck out the
first three batters, but the second, Ed Sprague, reached when strike three was a
wild pitch. With two outs, Clemens hit Candy Maldonado with a pitch, and the
next batter was Martinez, who made it 5-4.
Ryan replaced Clemens in the
eighth and wound up with his third blown save. He gave up a leadoff single to
Paul Molitor, who stole second and scored with two outs on John Olerud's single
to left. The throw home by Mike Greenwell was short, and Macfarlane boxed it
around.
Double plays got Boston out of
jams in the 9th and 10th innings. Lefthander Derek Lilliquist was credited with
the victory, prompting manager Kevin Kennedy to suggest he might see more duty.
The Red Sox have won five of the
last seven and are playing the way they did earlier in the season. Their
American League East lead over second-place Detroit is back to six games.
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