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75 YEARS & A FENWAY HANGOVER ...
Dwight Evans'
three run homer
wins on for the Sox
May
8, 1987 ... After losing two of three last weekend
in Anaheim, the Red Sox came back with thunder and lightning in this
battle of last year's division champions, ad they flexed their
muscles against the California Angels, 6-4, before 32,072 at Fenway
Park. Brian Downing hit a two-run homer off Bob
Stanley in the fifth. But once again it was the Red Sox who fired the loudest
volleys, with Don Baylor smashing two home runs and Dwight Evans coming through
in the clutch with a three-run shot in the eighth inning that broke a 3-3 tie.
The last two home runs, both off reliever DeWayne Buice, are
the ones that sent the Angels into despair. California was still alive in the
sixth inning with the score tied at 2-2. But Angel starter John Candelaria had
to be removed and Baylor greeted him with a line drive home run to left.
In the seventh, Stanley had another one of those unlucky
streaks that led to an unearned run, tying the game and temporarily taking Buice
off the hook. But that grace period lasted only until the eighth, when the Red
Sox won a ball game on their last at bat for the first time this season.
Evans got his chance after Buice gave up a leadoff double to
Jim Rice and an intentional walk to Baylor. Evans slammed a 1-1 offering by
Buice into the screen in deep left-center.
The long ball by both sides nearly overshadowed the pitching
of Stanley and Joe Sambito, who picked up the victory after pitching his way out
of a jams, in the seventh and ninth innings. Stanley, the victim of a costly
error, received a standing ovation from the Fenway Faithful when he left in
favor of Sambito.
California got an unearned run to tie the game after a leadoff
single by Gary Pettis. With one out, Mark McLemore hit what appeared to be a
sure double play ball to second. Marty Barrett made a clean feed, but Ed Romero
dropped the ball, and both runners were safe. Stanley got Downing to hit into a
forceout at second, leaving runners at first and third. But Devon White lofted a
single to center, scoring Pettis and forcing McNamara to his bullpen. Sambito
got out of the jam by getting Wally Joyner to hit into a forceout at second.
Joyner, the man he faced in the seventh inning, and Sambito got him to ground
into a forceout at third, ending the game. |
