|
SAVING FENWAY, MORE PEDRO
AND A FRUSTRATING SEASON
Troy O'Leary helps the Sox
come back and win the game
July 17, 2000 ... Tonight
at Fenway Park, in a 7-3 win over the Montreal Expos, Troy O'Leary
hit a go-ahead, three-run home run; Nomar Garciaparra hit a home run,
reached base five times, and raised his average to .400 again with a
3-for-3 night; and four Boston pitchers held the Expos to seven hits
overall, only one in the last three innings.
In 11 games
since returning from a stint on the DL designed to give him time to come to
terms with a difficult divorce, O'Leary is batting .356 (16 for 45), with 3
doubles, 3 home runs, and 13 RBIs. This was the fourth time he's knocked in
three runs in a game since coming back.
The last
batter to hit .400 this late in a season was Rockies outfielder Larry Walker,
who was batting .402 on July 17, 1997, before dipping below .400 for good the
next day.
Carl Everett
was in the lineup but went hitless in four at-bats, stranding six runners until
he drew a bases-loaded walk in the eighth. He dropped his bat and shook his hand
in obvious discomfort after striking out on three pitches in the seventh.
O'Leary
followed Everett's whiff with his home run over the visitors' bullpen, his
eighth of the season. The home run, which complemented three innings of
scoreless work from Hipolito Pichardo and Derek Lowe (who struck out the side in
the ninth), gave the Sox their third straight win and fourth in five games since
the All-Star break.
Jeff Fassero,
the former Expo who was pitching for the first time in nine days and starting
for the first time in 12. Fassero, whose last start was the shortest of his
career (a 1 2/3- inning disaster against the Twins July 5 after coming off the
disabled list), gave up four hits and two runs before being lifted with two runs
in (including a leadoff home run by Fernando Seguignol), two runners on, and one
out in the fifth.
Rich Garces
finished off the Expos in the fifth before giving up a go-ahead double by Terry
Jones over Everett's head in the sixth. But Pichardo, who has allowed just three
earned runs in his last 23 1/3 innings, turned in another dominant two innings,
and O'Leary delivered his game-breaker in the seventh. The Sox added two more in
the eighth on Garciaparra's third hit and Everett's walk. |
