No team likes to back into the postseason, but that's exactly what Joe Morgan's 88 club did. After burying the Yankees at Fenway and the Stadium in two successive weekends, the Sox inexplicably stumbled against the mediocre Blue Jays and Indians.
Lou Piniella's fading Yanks first blew a 9-4 lead and fell 10-9 on Friday the 23rd. They caught Bruce Hurst on an off night and shelled the lefty for 7 runs in 5 frames. The Sox chipped away, however, with single runs in the seventh and eighth to make it 9-7. Relievers Dave Righetti and Dale Mohorcic then failed in the ninth, with the big hits a Mike Greenwell double, Jody Reed single, and a two-run liner from pinch hitter Spike Owen to plate the tying and winning runs. Dennis Lamp got the win, Lee Smith the save. But the in-and-out Smith failed the next afternoon, surrendering a pair in the ninth in a 5-4 defeat. Mike Boddicker carried a 3-0 lead into the seventh, but Tom Bolton and Bob Stanley allowed the Yanks to tie. When Jim Rice, pinch hitting for an injured Wade Boggs in a famous Morgan hunch, drove in the lead run with a hard grounder to short, the Sox were on the verge of another comeback victory. But Smith walked Rickey Henderson, who went to third on a steal and error and scored on a Claudell Washington double to tie at 4-4. With two down and the bases filled, Reed fumbled a Willie Randolph grounder as the winning run crossed the plate. The Bombers had escaped, and the magic number remained at 5.
It was up to Roger Clemens to deal the Yankees the final blow, and the Rocket finally came through. Aided by a three-run homer by Greenwell and a two-run shot from Dwight Evans, Clemens went 7 innings in a 6-0 whitewash before giving way to Smith. It was Roger's 16th victory against 11 defeats and finished the Yanks, who fell 5 1/2 back. The Boston magic number was now 3.
With the New Yorkers out of the way, the Sox had 7 games left- three at home versus the Jays and four in Cleveland. A superior squad should have feasted on these opponents and quickly wrapped up the division.. But that did not happen. Morgan's Magicians were once again embarrassed by Toronto at home by scores of 11-1, 15-9 and 1-0. Wes Gardner was pummelled in game one and Mike Smithson in game two before a strong Hurst effort was wasted in a two-hit shutout by Jimmy Key. The Jays thus became the first team in 8 years to sweep the Townies at Boston for a whole season. The magic number remained at 2. Dan Shaugnessy editorialized "Is there panic in the seats at Fenway?" After a magical late July and August, this was hardly the way the Sox expected to finish.
Boddicker finally settled things down, throwing a three-hitter at Cleveland in a 12-0 shutout that cut the number to 1. It was over early, with the Bosox slamming starter Rod Nichols, who would finish his career with an 11-31 record, for 5 tallies. It was fitting that Boddy would win such a decisive game, since his 7-3 mark after arriving in Boston was a huge factor in their second-half comeback.
Unfortunately, the team was unable to celebrate their division win with champagne in the locker room. They fell 4-2 the next night, but won the division when 1) the Yankees were eliminated 6-2 by the Tigers and 2) Oakland topped the Brewers 7-1. The anticlimactic manner in which the Sox clinched is chronicled in a Globe piece describing Stanley as leading a Cleveland bar full of Boston fans after the Oakland win in an impromptu chorus of "Here we go, Red Sox, Here We Go."
The team went on to lose their final two contests, 1-0 and 6-5 to finish with an 89-73 record. It was the lowest number of wins for a first-place squad since divisional play had begun in 69. The closeness (or mediocrity) of the AL East is reflected in the fact that only 3 1/2 games separated the top five teams.
Shaughnessy mentions the Sox' 1-6 season end as part of the famous Curse of the Bambino. Though that is a bit of a stretch, a team on the downslide was facing an Oakland group that had won 104 games.
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