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DUQUETTE PUSHES ALL THE RIGHT BUTTONS ... Canseco connects for a game winner September 5, 1995 ... A battle royal of Sox and Athletics at Fenway Park on September 4th, seemed fated to end one way, on a Jose Canseco home run. Fortunately for the Red Sox, he's wearing their uniform now, so his three-run blast in the 14th inning produced a 7-4 victory for Boston instead of Oakland. It was the Sox fourth straight victory and dropped the magic number to nine for clinching the American League East. Most of the 27,080 fans had left the extra-inning contest. But those who hung around saw a beauty of a finish. Troy O'Leary singled with one out and stole second as John Valentin struck out. After a walk to Mo Vaughn, Canseco sent a 1-and-0 pitch from Carlos Reyes high into the screen. The ball was going all night, in fact. Rickey Handerson and Stan Javier hit home runs for Oakland. Valentin and Vaughn hit back-to-back home runs (for the third time this year) in the sixth. The Sox trailed in this one, 2-0, 3-1 and 4-3, but there is a reason they are 8-3 in extra innings, including 5-0 at Fenway Park. One would not suspect from the way they battled that the A's are bringing up the rear of the AL West. Starter Todd Stottlemyre went seven strong innings and left with a 4-3 lead. He outdueled Erik Hanson, who worked eight innings and gave up 10 hits. Henderson's home run in the third gave Oakland a 2-0 lead. Boston got one run back in the bottom of the inning on a single and stolen base by Luis Alicea and a two-out double by Valentin, one of three hits by the shortstop. Oakland pushed across another run in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead, but the Sox tied it in the sixth on the homers by Valentin, his 24th, and Vaughn, his 33d. Javier's blast broke the tie in the seventh, but Boston scraped back in the eighth to force extra innings. Canseco was in the middle of the tying rally, too. Valentin led off with his third hit, a single, but was erased by Vaughn on a force play. Canseco then hit a grounder up the middle that handcuffed second baseman Brent Gates and skipped through for a single. Vaughn scored easily on a single by Mike Greenwell. The drama dragged on for six more innings. Finally, Canseco came through, but he claimed there was no extra satisfaction in beating his old team. |
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