The first ALCS game against the Athletics was scheduled for Fenway Park on Wednesday October 5. Two days earlier, in a rather bizarre piece by Larry Whiteside, deposed skipper John McNamara sounded off about the team that had fired him in July. "I look out and say 'that is still my lineup….and I'm proud of them.' After that slump in July, they turned it around and played the way they were capable of playing. I felt all along that they were a fine ballclub…the Sox streak came after I left. The Yankees had one early in April and May. Detroit got hot in June. The Blue Jays finished up with one."
It never seemed to occur to Mac that the streak (12 in a row and 19 of 20) occurred immediately after his departure. It is unlikely that it would have happened with him in the dugout. Two days later Will McDonough, in a column entitled "Is McNamara Kidding Us?" chided the former manager for practically taking credit for the team's division crown. "In reality, when he left, the Red Sox were a team divided, and he couldn't control it. Even though many players like him, the one thing that stood out about his departure was that not a single player even offered that he was a good manager. The only positive comments were about his being a good guy."
Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but two Globe men picked the Sox to beat Oakland- Leigh Montville in six and Larry Whiteside in seven. Michael Madden and Dan Shaughnessy picked the A's, though in a competitve series. But head-to-head matchups showed the Athletics' superiority. They had taken 9 of 12 from Boston, including a pair of three-game sweeps in Oakland. They had won 104 games to 89 for the Sox. They also played in a stronger division.
The tenor of the series was set in the first two games. Bruce Hurst and Roger Clemens gave it their best shots, but came up empty. Hurst fell 2-1 despite a fine complete-game effort, allowing only 6 hits. After a Jose Canseco homer in the fourth, Boston tied it in the seventh on a sac fly by Wade Boggs. The visitors immediately regained the lead in the eighth on a double and single by old pals Carney Lansford and Dave Henderson. Another old friend, Dennis Eckersley, went the last two innings, surrendering just one hit. The win went to Rick Honeycutt, in relief of ace Dave Stewart. Clemens went the next night and suffered a similar defeat, this time 4-3. After a scoreless five frames, Boston scored two unearned runs in the sixth for their first series lead. But as on the previous day, it was gone almost in an instant. The seventh saw a Henderson hit, Canseco homer and later a run-scoring single from Mark McGuire. A Rich Gedman blast tied it in the bottom half, but erratic Lee Smith failed again, surrendering singles to Ron Hassey, Tony Phillips and Walt Weiss for the winning tally. Again, super-closer Eck pitched a perfect ninth. The winner was Gene Nelson, in relief of Storm Davis.
Boston was in bad shape. They had wasted strong efforts from their one and two starters- 9 innings from Hurst and 7 from Clemens and come away with nothing. Now they were going to the Oakland Coliseum, where they had gone 0-6. Shaughnessy speculated that it had probably been the team's last two games at Fenway. "I don't want any talk of a sweep," cautioned A's manager Tony LaRussa. "Winner's talk. Already." wrote Montville.
Steroid stories had already appeared during the season concerning Canseco, who of course denied it and vaguely threatened legal action. Some Boston fans were already riding Jose about the issue. But steroids were not a factor in this series. The Athletics were simply a much better team.
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