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BRIAN DAUBACH |
SAVING FENWAY, MORE PEDRO
AND A FRUSTRATING SEASON
Brian Daubach delivers an
8th inning game-winning homer
August 4, 2000 ... Brian
Daubach emerged from a 4-for-33 slump and scorched the decisive home
run in the eighth inning of Boston's come-from-behind, 5-4 victory
over the Kansas City Royals at Fenway.
The victory
opened the Sox' three-game cameo return to Boston amid a grueling 18-day,
16-game transcontinental odyssey that, Pedro Martinez has said, could determine
whether the team makes the playoffs. The Sox are 5-3 midway through the journey,
though they remained 3 1/2 games behind the Yankees, who also won.
Daubach's
shot into the bleachers in dead center, his 16th homer, came on the eve of
sluggger Carl Everett's return to the lineup after his 10-game suspension.
Daubach, who was the only Boston player without a hit after seven innings,
fouled off five straight pitches before he connected on a 2-2 pitch from Andy
Larkin.
As for Nomar
Garciaparra, who is hitting .430 at Fenway, by far the top home average in the
league, went 2 for 4 and improved his average to .394.
Kansas City
had put the potential go-ahead run on second in the top of eighth when Joe Randa
touched reliever Rich Garces for a leadoff double. The hit appeared ominous,
since Garces has been playing with a sore right knee and said before the game
that he would soldier on even if he had to "limp into the game." But Garces, who
improved to 7-0, mowed down the next three batters to promptly end the threat.
He was part of a trio of relievers who saved starter Jeff Fassero by pitching
one-hit, shutout ball over the last 4 1/3 innings. Garces's effort approached
the excellence of Hipolito Pichardo, who rescued Jeff Fassero from danger in the
fifth and pitched 2 1/3 innings of hitless relief. Derek Lowe set down the side
in the ninth on infield grounders.
Former Sox
pitcher Jeff Suppan went six innings for the Royals, giving up four runs on
eight hits and two walks, one intentional. But Suppan, who leads the American
League in serving up home runs (29), gave up none to the Sox.
The Sox lost
a shot at taking the lead in the seventh when Rico Brogna led off with a single
and moved to second on Darren Lewis's sacrifice bunt. Trot Nixon followed with a
walk, but Mike Lansing, in his Fenway debut, hit into a double play to end the
rally.
The game
marked another subpar outing by Fassero, the team's last healthy lefthanded
starter. Fassero quickly fizzled against the Royals and failed to finish the
fifth inning. Fassero, who yielded seven hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings,
allowed base runners every inning he worked. His undoing came in the fifth,
after he gave up back- to-back singles to Carlos Febles and Rey Sanchez. He
struck out Mike Sweeney for the second out, but then walked Jermaine Dye to load
the bases. The next batter, Joe Randa, seized the opportunity with a single that
scored Febles and Sanchez, giving the Royals a 3-0 lead. Mark Quinn followed
with a run-scoring single to make it 4-0 and end Fassero's evening. The
increasingly indispensable Pichardo came on to strike out Dave McCarty on three
pitches and extinguish the fire.
The Sox blew
an early chance to score in the first inning. After Lansing walked, Garciaparra
drilled a two-out drive to right center that had all the makings of a single.
But as the hustling Garciaparra stretched the hit into a double, third base
coach Wendell Kim decided Lansing had a chance to score from first. The relay
from second baseman Febles beat Lansing to the plate by at least 25 feet.
Catcher Hector Ortiz had time for a hot dog before Lansing arrived.
The game
also marked the debut of Massachusetts native Rico Brogna, newly acquired from
the Phillies, whose run-scoring ground out in the fifth kept alive a pivotal
rally. |
