ON THIS DATE (October 3, 1990) ...
The AL East was won with a 3-1
heart-palpitating victory over the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park.
Mike Boddicker, the gritty veteran, pitched seven splendid innings
and Jeff Reardon, the veteran reliever, proved why is one of the best
of all time, by shutting the door with two innings of scoreless
pitching.
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. |