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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE ALL STARS
& PEDRO'S HISTORIC YEAR June 14, 1999 ... What Darren Lewis and Jeff Frye did in this game goes beyond the pale. A tandem that came into the ninth inning with a combined total of 35 home runs in 4,911 at-bats hit back-to-back homers for a walk-off 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins and a stunning rescue of a team running out of lifeboats. Six pitches after Darren Lewis' game tying homer, Frye, who already had three singles, followed Lewis's home run (his second of the season and first in 113 at-bats) with his first home run of 1999. This one, which came in his 100th at-bat this season, was a blast projected at 400 feet into the screen in left-center field that staggered Mike Trombley, shocked what was left of a crowd of 30,099 and sent Red Sox players streaming from the dugout in equal parts elation and amazement. Frye, who was playing only because regular second baseman Jose Offerman had been given the night off, had never hit a game-winning home run in pro ball. Both of Lewis's home runs this season have come against the Twins, who have almost as many rookies on their roster (13) as Miss Gandy has first-graders but had taken a 3-2 lead into the ninth. The Sox, who had scored just 15 runs in their previous seven games, managed just two through the first eight innings against the Twins, even though the only Minnesota pitcher with a pedigree, starter Brad Radke, was forced to leave the game with a bruised left knee after being struck by John Valentin's line drive in the fifth inning. Meanwhile, Sox rookie Jin Ho Cho, allowed just two runs on six hits through six innings but is still looking for his first big league win. Cho was 0-3 with the Sox last season, his first in professional baseball. His callup, then as now, was an act of desperation. With Tom Gordon on the disabled list and Tim Wakefield drafted to be the new closer, the Sox needed a starter. Cho left with Boston trailing, 2-1, and it didn't help that Sox reliever Derek Lowe, continuing what has become a nasty habit, walked the first batter he faced, Chad Allen, who came around to score the Twins' third run on a double by Jacque Jones. That pair had figured in the Twins' first two runs. Jones doubled and scored on Marty Cordova's double past Valentin in the first, and Allen homered off Cho in the second. A tip of the cap is also in order for Jason Varitek, who silently led Cho through a baptism of fire, his first major league appearance of 1999. This was not the same Cho who came up from Double A Trenton a year ago. The extra time in Triple A Pawtucket has helped him mature and develop as a pitcher. He threw 14 of 24 first ball strikes. He didn't walk anybody. Wherever Varitek placed his glove, Ho found it. But all of that evaporated when Lewis and Frye went deep -- and, incredibly, made John Wasdin 6-0 for pitching the ninth. The last time back-to-back home runs won a game for Boston was last April 27, when Midre Cummings and Lewis went yard in the eighth inning of a 6-5 victory. |
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