|
“DIARY OF A WINNER”
|
THE ALL STARS
& PEDRO'S HISTORIC YEAR August 28, 1999 ... Jose Offerman, delivered a tie-breaking, eighth-inning RBI double that gave the Red Sox a 7-6 win over the Angels for their second last-at-bat win in two days, and there was no joy for Vaughn and the Anaheim nine in what was once Mo-ville. Vaughn, who missed Friday night's series opener to attend a funeral, went hitless in four at-bats, three times making outs with runners on base, then striking out against Derek Lowe in the ninth to thunderous cheers from the sellout crowd of 33,060 in Fenway Park. Vaughn is now 1 for 15 with seven strikeouts in four games here against his former mates. Lowe, who saved Friday night's 4-3 win and got credit for the win today, almost gave back the moment when Tim Salmon, who followed Vaughn to the plate, hit a drive deep to the track in center. But there was room for Darren Lewis to make the catch, giving the Sox four wins in their last five games and nothing worse than a share of the wild-card lead. Catcher Jason Varitek, whose three-run double with the bases loaded in the third lifted the Sox into a 5-4 lead after they'd fallen behind, 4-1, first hugged Lowe after the final out, then grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. The Sox, ahead, 6-4, entering the eighth, let the Angels slip back into a tie when Rich Garces, who had retired Vaughn on a fly ball with one pitch to end the seventh, walked the first two batters in the eighth, bringing Lowe into the game, and John Valentin threw away a double-play grounder, pulling Offerman off the bag at second. One run scored on that play, and the tying run scored when Billerica's Gary DiSarcina hit a 120-foot single off Lowe over the head of first baseman Mike Stanley. But in the bottom of the inning, Lewis drew a two-out walk from Angels rookie Lou Pote, who had set down seven in a row after relieving starter Steve Sparks. Trot Nixon, who had singled home Varitek (aboard on another double) for the Sox' sixth run in the sixth, then grounded another single to right, which brought Angels closer Troy Percival into the game. Percival, the All-Star who blew the save the night before when Troy O'Leary doubled in the eighth, was still on the field 40 minutes after the game yesterday, running laps, after Offerman lined a 1- and-0 pitch into the right-field corner that bounded over the railing for a ground-rule double as Lewis scored. The Sox hurt themselves with two errors. Valentin botched a double-play ball for the second time in two games, while Nixon overran Garret Anderson's single in the third, allowing Salmon to score the Angels' fourth run of the inning off Boston starter Tim Wakefield. But they were able to overcome their mistakes with major assistance from Varitek, who was in the rare position yesterday of not only having to catch a knuckleballer (Wakefield), but hitting against one, too (Sparks). Varitek's two doubles gave him 31 for the season, making him the first Sox catcher to have 30 or more doubles since Worcester's Rich Gedman hit 30 in 1985. Carlton Fisk holds the club record with 39 in 1978. It was tough out there for Vaughn, too. He bounced to first baseman Stanley with a runner on second in the first, popped to Nomar Garciaparra on Wakefield's first pitch with runners on first and third in the third, walked to start the fifth, flied to left on Garces' first pitch with a runner on second in the seventh, then whiffed against Lowe. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
|
