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ON THIS DATE (September 24, 1996)
... Mo Vaughn hit three homers for the first time
in his career. His third homer (and 44th of the season) was also his
200th hit, and the Red Sox first baseman became the first major
leaguer to collect 40 homers and 200 hits since the Red Sox' Jim Rice
in 1978.
Most of all, though, Vaughn took control of the game as the
Red Sox squashed the wobbling Orioles, 13-8, in a battle of American League
wild-card contenders.
For sure, Vaughn spoiled the night of David Wells, who had
given up only one homer to a lefty this season. But the starter is one of many
tired Orioles pitchers, and Vaughn stroked three off him, two into the screen
and the third, a most fitting crunch of a blast into the Red Sox bullpen in the
sixth, to put the Sox ahead for good, 6-5.
Vaughn homered in the first to get the Red Sox on top, and
after the Orioles took a 2-1 lead on Anderson's 47th homer in the third, Vaughn
again rose to the late-season challenge. After Bill Haselman led off the bottom
of the third with his seventh homer to tie the score, Jeff Frye drove in another
run with a sacrifice fly and Vaughn hit a two-run homer.
By night's end, Vaughn's feat had lifted him into some elite
company with the Yankees' Lou Gehrig (1927), Ted Williams (1946, on the same day
Cleveland player-manager Lou Boudreau implemented the "Williams' Shift"),
Baltimore's Boog Powell (1966) and Chicago's Tim Raines (1994) who had been the
only lefties who hit three homers in Fenway.
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