As the Townies went to Kaufmann Stadium to open the 99 season, question marks filled the air. In a piece entitled “Time at last for the Sox to show their stuff”, Dan Shaughnessy continued his criticism of the front office while admitting that a few wins would blunt the negative predictions.
“In the last three years, ” he wrote, “Mike Greenwell, Jose Canseco, Roger Clemens, (Mo) Vaughn and Dennis Eckersley have been run out of town by a management team that specializes in arrogance and deadpan answers. The 1999 Red Sox are molded in the image of (Dan) Duquette, a man who dismisses dissenters and readily takes credit for announcing that today is Monday.” He also stated that the Sox were “a consensus pick for fourth place in the AL East, and several national publications have them rated lower than the heretofore awful Detroit Tigers.” Shaughnessy’s colleague Gordon Edes, however, had them second behind the Yankees.
In their first series, the team quieted some of their critics by sweeping the Royals. Though KC was generally pegged for the bottom of the AL Central, winning three on the road behind strong starting pitching was impressive.
In a cool, windy opener, Pedro Martinez allowed 6 hits and fanned 9 in a six-inning stint as Boston triumphed 5-3. The Royals reached Pedro for a pair in the first, but a long homer by John Valentin tied it in the third. A sixth-inning double from Troy O’Leary triggered a two-run rally and a 4-2 lead. After 119 pitches, a tiring Martinez gave way to Derek Lowe, who surrendered an unearned tally but preserved the lead for closer Tom Gordon. Gordon picked up where he left off in 98, needing only 12 pitches to stop KC in the ninth. Leadoff man Jose Offerman, pegged (sort of) as Vaughn’s hitting successor, started with a bang with 4-for-5 to lead a 13-hit attack.
Bret Saberhagen shut down the Royals two nights later in a 6-0 triumph. The 35-year-old righty went 6 frames allowing just 3 singles. Relievers Mark Guthrie, Jim Corsi, and Gordon preserved the shutout, while Mike Stanley led the offense with 3 hits and 3 rbi’s.
Tim Wakefield, number 3 in the rotation, then completed the Royal thrashing, going 6 1/3 of three-hit ball in a 4-1 triumph. Offerman continued to tee off against his former teammates with two doubles and an rbi. It was a 2-1 game in the ninth when Donnie Sadler, subbing for the injured Nomar Garciaparra, tripled and came around on rookie Trot Nixon’s first major league homer. Gordon then shut down KC for his second save and 45th in succession.
Little had gone wrong for the Sox in their first three games, and they were the AL’s only undefeated team. They had showed timely hitting and strong hurling, both starting and relieving. The team now headed for Florida to play the undermanned but pesky Devil Rays, with the 4th and 5th starters scheduled to make their debuts
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