This Week in Red Sox 1986

As the 86 Red Sox moved toward an AL East title, an injury to an important member of the starting rotation gave them reason to worry.

The week began with an 11-5 defeat to the Yankees in one more subpar performance from Al Nipper. He was given a 3-0 lead on a Jim Rice homer but left after 1 1/3 innings, charged with 5 hits and 5 runs. The New Yorkers would go out to an 11-3 lead against relievers Sammy Stewart, Steve Crawford, and Joe Sambito. The magic number remained at 11.

Boston bounced back quickly, however, with a doubleheader sweep against the Brewers.. The Rocket Man picked up his 23rd victory in the first contest,  a 2-1 complete-game win. Roger walked one and fanned ten. His 10-strikeout effort was his eighth, tying a club record set by Jim Lonborg in 1967. Dwight Evans’ 23rd homer of the year in the seventh broke a 1-1 tie. In game 2, the Townies exploded for 6 in the bottom of the eighth to break a 3-3 tie. The Bosox had gone up 3-0 after one, but starter Jeff Sellers gave up single runs in the fifth and sixth, and Calvin Schiraldi surrendered the tying tally in the top of the eighth. The uprising was against old pals Mark Clear and John Henry Johnson. Clear threw 3 wild pitches and hit a batter. Rice, Wade Boggs, and catcher Dave Sax each contributed 2 hits. Clemens continuted impatient replies to certain questions. Asked how he would rate his stuff against Milwaukee, he answered “I don’t rate my stuff. You have to go to Milwaukee and ask them. They have to try to hit it.”

The Bosox completed the sweep against the last-place Brewers (then still in the AL East) with another complete game by Hurst by a 7-1 score. One more hitting explosion marked this one, with the Sox knocking out veteran Pete Vuckovich in the third. Eleven Sox came to the plate, with Rich Gedman and Marty Barrett each hitting two-run singles. Boggs, who went 2 for 4, hit safely in his 20th straight game. The Sox streak was now 16 wins in 19 games.

Oil Can then reduced the magic number to 7 by winning his 15th over the Brewers, 4-1. Boyd went all the way, allowing 8 hits, walking one and fanning 6. Homers by Evans (24) and Baylor (30), gave him some breathing room. Around this time, Larry Whiteside wrote about the “new Dennis Boyd….He is no longer the outrageous Oil Can Boyd who spat out a thousand words a minute to just about anyone who came along……the new Dennis Boyd is a working professional, almost subdued in comparison…..if there is any positive byproduct of this bizarre season, it is that the flamboyant Can has been replaced by a mature 26-year-old who one of these seasons is going to win 20 games.” In this case, Whiteside was not correct. Unfortunately, Boyd would never win more than 10 games again in his ten-year big league career.

The next contest, a 6-4 loss in Toronto, was important only in that Tom Seaver exited early with a right knee sprain. Seaver said he originally hurt the outside of his knee at Yankee Stadium the previous Saturday, and reinjured it in the Toronto contest throwing a pitch to second baseman Manny Lee. “I felt something snap,” he said, never a good sign. It was a severe sprain. Though he was originally to miss only one start, Seaver would not pitch again, season or postseason. It was a huge loss.

Al Nipper, who would take Seaver’s place in the World Series rotation, continued to have problems. He was removed after 5 innings of a 5-2 loss to the Jays after surrendering 6 hits and 4 runs. His recent stats had been John Lackey-like: 52 hits and 34 earned runs in his last 38 1/3 innings with an ERA of 7.98. Meanwhile, Dan Shaughnessy wrote that “the late-relief situation is turning into a one-man play.” Schiraldi was 3-1 with 8 saves and a 1.19 ERA. Bob Stanley, still being roundly booed, had one save since July 6, and Joe Sambito’s ERA stood at 5.18. Pitching depth, as every fan knows,  have doomed Sox chances over and over again.

As of Sunday the 21st, the Sox had an 89-59 record, well ahead of the Yankees and Toronto. Their magic number stood at 6. Don Mattingly led Boggs by 4 points for the major league lead with a .350 mark, while Baylor was among the top homer hitters with 30, and Rice and Bill Buckner had both driven in over 100 rbi’s. No one was close to Clemens’ 23-4. An interesting stat showed that the Sox had committed 5 more errors than the opposition, unusual for a team with a record like theirs.

Shaughnessy was speculating on McNamara’s rotation in the ALCS against the Angels. Dan predicted that Clemens would go in game 1 at Fenway, with Boyd or Seaver starting game 2.

Tom’s injury, however, put this into question. Hurst would probably be saved for game 3 in California. For game 4, would Mac use Clemens with 3 days rest? But Rocket hadn’t done that even once during the season. All older fans realize that Tom Terrific could have made a big difference in the 86 postseason.