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REVERSING THE CURSE,
PART 2
PEDRO
& TEK COME TO TOWN
Pedro and the Sox come out swinging
July 5, 1998 ... No
one hands out prizes after a game like this. They just count
survivors after the Red Sox held on for a 15-14 win over the Chicago
White Sox at Fenway Park. And manager Jimy Williams dodged a bullet.
That's why he gladly welcomed the All-Star break after the Red Sox
took a 9-2 lead after three innings and 11-3 after five, gave it all
back during Chicago's eight-run sixth, surged ahead again, 15-11, in
the seventh, and withstood a three-run home run by designated villain
Wilfredo Cordero off Tom Gordon in the eighth, the first home run
allowed by the All- Star closer this season.
The Red Sox,
who had 20 hits for the second time in three days, batted around in both the
second and third innings to take a 9-2 lead against Jaime Navarro, Chicago's
purported ace. Navarro was so undone by Mike Benjamin's first home run in more
than two years, which came two pitches after Scott Hatteberg went deep with John
Valentin aboard, that afterward he said he was thinking of either giving up his
job or demanding to be traded.
The Red Sox,
meanwhile, may have mentally begun loading their golf clubs and fishing reels
onto their getaway flights, because instead of coasting into the break, they
were forced to hang on for dear life.
With an
eight-run lead entering the sixth, Williams dismissed starter Steve Avery, who
was more artful with his glove, especially when he nabbed Mike Cameron's bunt in
the second and snared Frank Thomas's liner in the fourth, than he was with his
pitches. Newcomer Dario Veras, two weeks removed from the trade that brought him
and fellow reliever Carlos Reyes from San Diego for Jim Leyritz, walked Magglio
Ordonez to begin the stint and failed to retire the next four batters that
followed, going walk, double, walk, bloop single, and two-run double by Ray
Durham. Adios, Dario. In came Corsi, who got two fly balls around a walk to
Thomas. Ventura doubled off Mahay to make it 11-8. Mahay out, Derek Lowe in.
Lowe hit Ordonez with a 3-and-2 pitch, dropped a feed from first baseman
Benjamin for a two-run error, then uncorked a wild pitch to tie the score.
But there
would be one more bump from Wil Cordero, even after the Red Sox regained the
lead with a seventh-inning rally that began with Troy O'Leary's double, one of
his four hits and six line drives (two were caught), continued with Valentin's
tie-breaking single and Darren Lewis's two-run double, and ended with Darren
Bragg's sacrifice fly.
Gordon, who
hadn't pitched in five days, replaced pitcher No. 6, Carlos Reyes, who had
breezed through the seventh but gave up a single to Thomas and walked Albert
Belle to start the eighth. Gordon immediately coaxed a double-play ball out of
Ventura, but walked Ordonez and watched Cordero crank one off the speakers on
the light stanchion in left-center field.
By then,
Williams had sent one of his starters, Tim Wakefield, to the pen, just in case.
Not to worry. Despite walking the next batter, Cameron, Gordon ended the eighth
by striking out Chad Kreuter, and set down the White Sox in order in the ninth.
When Thomas
flied to center fielder Lewis to end the game, Hatteberg was seeing his 190th
pitch of the game, which is two more than his Chicago counterpart, Kreuter, saw.
But even in the haze, there was still a win.
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