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Tom Brunansky's dramatic game ending catch |
ON THIS DATE (October 3, 1990) ... And one of the greatest plays ever made to end a game, won a division. It was made by Tom Brunansky on a sizzling, twisting liner to right field by Ozzie Guillen. Brunansky dived, almost kamikaze style, toward the wall in right and came up with the liner. First base umpire Tim McClelland did not make the call right away, because a fan had jumped out of the stands and undercut him. Meanwhile, Brunansky also was being attacked, but got up and then realized his cap was missing. He went back to get his cap and some thought he went back to get the ball. It was a ball hit close to the line -- about 10 feet from it. It could have been a inside-the-park home run, or a lot of trouble. Brunansky then gave the game ball to McClelland. But in one of the many touching moments in the locker room, McClelland went over to Brunansky and flipped the ball back to him. Reardon pitched a strong eighth, allowing only a wall-scraping double to Carlton Fisk. In the ninth, he got the first two outs as the Fenway crowd awaited the killing. But Sammy Sosa singled up the middle, Scott Fletcher was hit by a pitch and then Guillen came up. The Red Sox won with Boddicker, who finished the regular season 17-8, helped them to a division title. He is 39-22 with the Red Sox, 23-14 at home. He has one of the best winning percentages of any pitcher in recent Red Sox history. Boddicker's winning percentage is .639; Roger Clemens is 41-24 (.630) during that period. The Red Sox surged to the playoffs, winning six of their last eight games. They pounced on Chicago rookie righthander Alex Fernandez for three runs in the second inning. Mike Greenwell led off with a double to the left-field corner and scored on Dwight Evans' single to center. Evans advanced to second on the throw to the plate and rode home on Brunansky's triple around the wall in right field. Brunansky scored when the White Sox called for a pitchout on what they presumed would be a suicide squeeze attempt by Luis Rivera. They were right. Brunansky broke down the line and was a dead duck. Or so it seemed. But all the bad karma was missing on this night. The White Sox, who might be the most fundamentally sound team in the league, messed up big time. Fernandez got involved in the rundown and threw a ball to third, with nobody covering, allowing Brunansky, who slid back into third and then had to pick himself up, to score. The White Sox loaded the bases in the seventh. Boddicker walked two and allowed a single to Frank Thomas. But with one out and the bases full, Boddicker got Scott Fletcher to pop out to Rivera. Guillen singled past the shortstop hole and into left, scoring Thomas. Dan Pasqua tried to score from second but was gunned down by Greenwell, who threw a perfect strike to Pena. It took a mere 162 games for the Red Sox to finally seal their fate. The Red Sox would have backed in because Toronto was beaten. Instead, they finished two games ahead. |
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WBZ TV, Channel 4 |
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