|
THE ALL STARS
& PEDRO'S HISTORIC YEAR
Brian Daubach
finishes off a great week
with a walk-off game winner
August 16, 1999
...
Brian Daubach, after fouling off five consecutive pitches with the
bases full, drove Tim Worrell's next pitch the opposite way, high off
the Green Monster. Darren Lewis, who was on third base, scored. Butch
Huskey, who was on second, scored. And Jose Offerman, who took off
from first as Worrell released his changeup, crossed the plate with
the run that gave the Sox a 6-5 win over the Oakland Athletics, one
that resonated with meaning far beyond its immediate impact on the
wild card race.
Nothing
compares to winning a game in Boston, in the bottom of the ninth. Turn on any
TV, and you will see Daubach shedding any semblance of his Midwest reserve,
leaping off second base as if he'd been shot out of a rocket launcher and
throwing out his arms as if he could gather all of Kenmore Square in one giddy,
glorious embrace. The crowd of 30,957, poised to file out after a near-miss,
instead surrounded Daubach as he transformed Joe Mooney's infield into his
personal dance floor, while Fenway Park organist Richard Giglio shook the Back
Bay night with the strains of "Stars and Stripes Forever."
Inside the
Sox clubhouse during that ninth-inning comeback, as first Jason Varitek singled,
then Huskey (on an 0-and-2 pitch), and finally Offerman to load the bases,
relievers Mark Guthrie and Rich Garces were standing on the couch with clubhouse
man Pookie Jackson. They were shrieking at the big-screen TV, especially when
DiMuro threw out his arms, signaling a foul ball.
Rich Garces,
who followed Guthrie's 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief with 2 1/3 innings of
one-run work after the A's had leaped out to a 4-0 lead in the third against
starter Brian Rose, was screaming and jumping around.
Daubach has
now driven in 15 runs in the last four games. Five RBIs Friday night, six
Saturday, one Sunday, the three to win last night and cool off the A's, who were
fresh off a three-game sweep in Toronto and had opened August with 11 wins in 14
games. The A's were one pitch away from drawing into a tie for the wild card.
Instead, they fell two games behind the Sox, who have now won 8 of 11.
Daubach is
hitting .408 since the All-Star break, with 10 home runs in 26 games. He has 14
extra-base hits in his last 10 games. This afternoon, he was named American
League Player of the Week. Tonight, he was claiming a higher reward, a niche of
Red Sox lore all his own, as improbable a story line as any heard in these parts
in a long time. |
