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THE SOX WIN THE AL EAST IN
SPECTACULAR
FASHION, BUT THAT'S ABOUT IT ...
Jody Reed's
homer wins for the Sox in the 9th
April
26, 1990 ... Jody Reed hit a game-winning
ninth-inning homer. Consider the circumstances of this 5-4 Red Sox
win at Fenway Park. It was the ninth inning. It was 4-4. Bryan Harvey
had just snaked a called third strike past Wade Boggs for the first
out. If he can
do it to Boggs, he can do it to anyone. But the next pitch he threw didn't fool
Reed. In his fourth game as the No. 2 hitter, Reed smashed Harvey's belt-high
fastball over the Wall and into the net. His fifth major league homer.
The Sox got another good start from Eric Hetzel, who
pitched a full six innings for the second straight outing. He left in a 2-2 tie,
giving way to Dennis Lamp, who breezed through the seventh before turning the
game over to Smith.
Lee Smith
allowed three hits and two runs in his two-inning stint. Three of the hits came
in the eighth when Kevin Romine lost Wally Joyner's line drive to right in the
lights for a double. Dante Bichette and Johnny Ray each produced RBI singles,
giving the Angels a 4-3 lead.
In the Sox
eighth, Dwight Evans reached first after striking out on Harvey's wild pitch.
Tony Pena, who had extended his hitting streak to 14 games with an infield hit
in the sixth, singled to left field, sending Evans to second base. Luis Rivera,
pinch hitting for Carlos Quintana, dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt. With
runners at second and third, Angels manager Doug Rader was not frightened by
Greenwell's potential in that situation and allowed Harvey to pitch to him.
The Sox
had bunted the Angels to death to snap the 2-2 deadlock in the seventh. First
Romine swung away and tapped a slow roller to third which he beat out for a hit.
Marty Barrett sacrificed Romine to second.
Boggs then
lined a single to left field off Abbott, but the ball was hit so hard Romine
couldn't score. With the one-handed Abbott on the mound, Reed at the plate and
one of Boston's fastest runners, Romine, at third, Morgan tried the successful
squeeze. Reed seemed to take more pride in the squeeze than his homer. He called
it the more skillful play. The more pressure-packed play. After all, nobody
thought Reed would win a game with a home run.
The Red
Sox struck first. Boggs, who went 2 for 4, doubled to the left-field corner to
start the first. After Abbott retired Reed, Ellis Burks, who had been in a
2-for-21 slump, singled Boggs home.
The Angels
took a 2-1 lead in the second when Jack Howell lofted an opposite-field home run
into the net in left-center. The Sox scored by the process of elimination in the
bottom of the inning. With the bases loaded, Barrett grounded into a double
play, scoring Quintana.
It was a game in which Lee Smith blew a chance for his
fifth save, but gained a win. A game in which Mike Greenwell finally knocked in
a run with an eighth-inning sacrifice fly, making it 4-4 and ending his 14-game
RBI sabbatical. Greenwell was dropped from cleanup to seventh in the order after
an 0-for-19 funk with runners in scoring position. |
