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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE ALL STARS
& PEDRO'S HISTORIC YEAR April 13, 1999 ... If the Olde Towne wants to celebrate the fast start of the Red Sox, who shut out the Chicago White Sox, 6-0, in today's home opener to run their record to 6-1, Bret Saberhagen says party on. Let there be songs in praise of Saberhagen, who ignored 48-degree temperatures and gusts of 35 miles an hour to deliver another turn-back-the-clock performance with a suddenly pain-free shoulder. Newcomer Jose Offerman, gave the Sox their first lead in Fenway Park by tripling to the triangle in his second at-bat in home whites, driving in two runs and scoring a third on Darren Lewis's single in the second inning. Derek Lowe tightroped his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh. Troy O'Leary’s three-run home run into the White Sox bullpen sealed the outcome in the eighth. Saberhagen, who threw six shutout innings in 76-degree temperatures in Kansas City last Wednesday, had some trouble weathering the first two innings. He loaded the bases in the first, walking two batters, including Magglio Ordonez on four pitches, before striking out Paul Konerko on the next three. In the second, he gave up one-out singles to Brook Fordyce and McKay Christensen, before catching two more hitters, Ray Durham and Mike Caruso, looking at third strikes. But after that, he was locked in, allowing just three more hits, two of them bloopers, before being replaced by Lowe with two out in the seventh after Caruso's floater to center dropped in for a single. The crowd, already grumbling because manager Jimy Williams lifted Saberhagen with a 3-0 lead after a yield of 102 pitches, threatened to turn mutinous when White Sox strongman Frank Thomas dropped a ground-rule double just inside the right-field foul line and Lowe walked Jeff Liefer on four pitches to load the bases. The murmurs turned louder and darker when Lowe, who had surrendered home runs in each of his previous two outings, went to a 3-and-0 count on the next hitter, Ordonez. A mock cheer greeted Lowe when he finally threw a strike, but to the relief of both the pitcher and his critics, Ordonez rapped a one-hopper back to the mound. After a winter in which the mere mention of his name caused negative vibes, Offerman continued his rousing rebuttal. He launched his third triple in seven games (and 15th hit overall) after White Sox starter Jim Parque did the unpardonable, walking the bottom feeders in the Sox order, Jason Varitek and Donnie Sadler, with two out and nobody on. Offerman, greeted with warm applause during pregame introductions, received his first Fenway Park standing O after his hit rattled around the 420-foot sign. Offerman's hit not only gave the Sox the lead, it also allowed Valentin to exhale after his base-running boner in the first inning, when the Sox had the bases loaded with one out and came away with nothing. Valentin, who had singled after Lewis's base hit, was on second after Parque walked Mike Stanley on a full count. O'Leary whacked Parque's first pitch on a line to left. On a day when the wind wasn't howling from left field, it might have been off the wall. Lewis remained a couple steps off the third-base bag, preparing to tag and score on what should have been a routine sacrifice fly. Routine, that is, until Valentin took the turn like Jeff Gordon hugging the curve at Talladega and chugged past a shocked Lewis. In the eighth, Valentin, who walked ahead of Stanley, was in no danger of getting a speeding ticket. All he had to do was jog when O'Leary crushed an 0-and-2 pitch from lefthanded reliever Bryan Ward over the new advertising signs on the visitors' bullpen. New Boston reliever Mark Guthrie, who lived in Scituate until he was 11, worked a 1-2-3 ninth, and the Fenway organ sang out the news of another Sox win. It'll be the White Sox here again tomorrow, with Martinez bidding for win No. 3. The emphasis here, one week into a season that represents the team's best start in 44 years, was plain for everyone to see. For the sixth time in seven games, Sox pitchers limited the opposition to three runs or fewer. All of the starters save Pat Rapp have gone at least six innings, the measure of a quality start, and staff ace Pedro Martinez and Saberhagen already have two wins apiece. |
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