Sept-Oct 1988
“We actually won the division title while the ballclub slept quietly..We awakened the next morning to find we were Eastern Division champs.. Morgan Magic had taken us from 2 games over .500 to over 16 at the conclusion..it was the first time since 1918 that a Sox club had finished first twice in a 3-year period…When I met (Joe) Morgan prior to the first Oakland game at Fenway he was as always upbeat and confident (but) I knew we would have our hands full with that club…they had hit 156 home runs and had a team ERA of 3.44. They also had Dennis Eckersley, the game’s most dominant closer….We had struggled the last few weeks and not finished strong. Oil Can Boyd was suffering from a blood clot in his arm…his absence from the rotation hurt badly.”
( The A’s took the first games at Fenway 2-1 and 4-3 as reliever Lee Smith failed in game2. In the first contest at Oakland the A’s overcame a 5-0 deficit against Mike Boddicker to eventualy win 10-6. They then took game four 4-1 to finish us off. Eckersley saved all four games and was voted Series MVP)
The Sox won another division title in 1990 but failed to win even 90 games. Some highlight were a 21-6 performance by Roger Clemens with a 1.98 ERA and 20 saves by Jeff Reardon out of the bullpen. The results were similar, however)
Gorman on the Series: “We scored only a total of 4 runs, and the Oakland staff shut down our offense completely.As a club,we hit .188 and our ERA was 4.50 while the A’s hit .299 and had a staff ERA of 1.00. It was an overwhelming victory.”
The next season saw the team fade to 84-78, finishing 7 games behind Toronto . Morgan was replaced as manager by Butch Hobson, an unfortunate decision which partially resulted in a diastrous 73-89 finish in 1992. In September the Sox lost 13 of 17, seven of them by one run. Free agent signees Jack Clark and Matt Young had failed miserably and Mike Greenwell and Phil Plantier headed the list of disappointments.)
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