This Week in Red Sox 1986

The winning streak that would make the Red Sox AL East champs in 86 reached 8, as the team beat last-place Minnesota 9-0. Bruce Hurst hurled the shutout, allowing 9 hits but walking 1 and fanning 9 to bring his mark to 10-7. Jim Rice put it away early with a third-inning grand slam off starter Neal Heaton for a 5-0 advantage. They added 4 more in the fifth, featuring Bill Buckner’s homer off the foul pole. Marty Barrett and Spike Owen each contributed 3 hits.

Buckner was the hero the next night in Baltimore, homering in the 11th to break a 3-3 tie as the Sox exploded for 6 runs to win going away 9-3. The nine-game streak was the squad’s longest since 1980. The Birds came back with two in the ninth to tie off Tom Seaver on a hit by old friend Juan Beniquez after Rice, on a late-season tear, had homered in the sixth for a 3-1 advantage. Rich Gedman’s three-run shot in the 11th off Don Aase, another former Soxer, clinched it. Calvin Schiraldi ran his record to 3-1 with three shutout innings. The loser was Mike Flanagan, who died tragically a few weeks ago from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Townies seemed unstoppable at this point. Even struggling Al Nipper contributed the follwing evening, going 7 1/3 innings in a 7-5 victory that ran the winning streak to 10. Nipper was relieved by Bob Stanley after allowing 5 hits and 4 runs and evened his record at 9-9. Boston overcame a 4-2 deficit in the seventh on a leadoff homer by Dwight Evans (3-for-5) and Barrett later doubled in two to put them ahead to stay. Joe Sambito picked up his twelfth save.

Before winning his 22nd, a 9-4 decision over the Orioles that made it 11 straight, Roger Clemens took a limo to Washington to meet President Ronald Reagan. “What’s left for Boston’s rocketman righthander?’ wrote Dan Shaughnessy, “Time’s Man of the Year? A duet with Julio Iglesias?” A bit off his routine, Roger staggered a bit, but still emerged with the win. He went 6 innnings, allowing 6 hits and 4 runs before giving way to Schiraldi. Buckner and Rice each went 4 for 5  and together drove in 5 of the runs. Clemens had picked up 3 wins in the Sox streak, Hurst and Schiraldi 2 each.

Around this time, a Shaughnessy “On Baseball” piece talked about Buckner’s limp. His problems had started in 1975 on an attempted stolen base against the Giants; before the year was over, he needed two operations to remove a tendon, then bone chips. The article talked about the first baseman’s routine. “Ice is his vice. Ice keeps him going. Ice in the morning, ice after the game, ice before bed. The meltdown from Buckner’s 1986 ice packs would easily fill the Quabbin Reservoir.” Though he was a big part of the team’s great season, it had taken its toll. Too bad John McNamara didn’t think about that in the tenth inning of game 6.

The O’s finally ended the Sox run, winning 8-6 as Oil Can Boyd and the bullpen failed to hold leads of 1-0, 5-2, and and 6-4 and the team committed 3 errors. But Boston’s lead remained at 9 as the Yankees took two from Toronto.

Hurst got the Sox back on track, hurling a 7-2 win over the fading Yanks in New York. Staying hot, Buckner smashed two homers to wipe out a 2-0 deficit and send the Townies on their way. Buck was on a .435 spree and had a career-high 17 homers and 98 rbi’s  He would end the year with 102, giving him 212 ribbies in two years. Boston broke it open with 4 in the eighth, capped by Rice’s 19th homer off reliever Tim Stoddard.

Though the Yankees rebounded with 17 hits off Seaver and four relievers to take the next game 11-6, the race was about over. The Bombers had fallen 11 games behind with 21 remaining.

The Mets, meanwhile, were close to clinching their division, leading Philly by 22 games. In other races, California had opened a 91/2 game lead over Texas, while Houston led Cincinnati by 8. Boggs had retaken the hitting lead from Don Mattingly and Rice was fourth in the AL in both average and rbi’s.

Both pitching and hitting showed the Mets to be baseball’s dominant team. Wally Backman, Keith Hernandez, Lenny Dykstra and Mookie Wilson were all at .300 or better, with Ray Knight and Keith Mitchell not far behind. Though he was hitting .241, Gary Carter had 21 homers and 94 ribbies, Daryl Strawberry was right behind with 21 and 77, and the team average was a solid .265. Their winning percentages in areas such as home vs. away, east vs. west, and lefthanded vs righthanded were all close to .700. The five starting pitchers were a combined 71-27, and the highest ERA was Sid Fernandez at 3.57. Roger McDowell and Jesse Orosco had combined for 26 saves, a high number in the days when saves were much harder to get. The team ERA was an excellent 3.20. The Sox staff, on the other hand, was at 3.89, and the team’s “non-Roger” mark was a very un-formidable 63-58.