Wednesday September 7 vs the Red Sox

Opponent: Boston Red Sox
Outcome: W
Score: 4-3
Streak: W1
Record: 49-89
Rank: 7th
GB: 27.5

The starting pitcher for the Orioles tonight was one of the players they had gotten from the Red Sox in the Mike Boddicker trade a little over a month earlier who was making his major league debut.  Curt Schilling would go on to have a 20 year major league career, winning 216 games and three World Series championships.  I'm going to avoid talking about his politics because for the purposes of this blog I want to concentrate on what he did on the field.  He ended his career with 3116 strikeouts - here's the first one, against Todd Benzinger in the second inning:



The Orioles got Schilling an early run on a sacrifice fly from Ken Gerhart in the bottom of the second but Boston tied it up on a solo home run from Ellis Burks in the fourth.  The Red Sox took the lead in the fifth on a bases loaded double from Dwight Evans that brought in two runs.  The Orioles cut the lead to 3-2 on an RBI single by Jim Traber in the bottom of the seventh.

And that's how it stood going into the bottom of the ninth with Lee Smith, the Red Sox ace closer on the mound.  But the Orioles had one of their few 1988 miracles happen this night.  Smith struck out Brady Anderson to open the inning but then gave up a single to Traber.  Smith then complained of a crick in his neck and had to be replaced on the mound by Bob Stanley.  Rick Schu came in to run for Traber.  Maybe because he had to rush to get ready to pitch (or maybe just because he was Bob F*cking Stanley - sorry, just letting my inner 1980's Red Sox fan vent) Stanley couldn't throw a strike.  He walked Larry Sheets on five pitches and Pete Stanicek on four pitches to load the bases.  Bill Ripken then blooped a single down the right field line that scored Schu with the tying run.  Red Sox manager Joe Morgan put his team into an unorthodox fielding alignment - he made left fielder Mike Greenwell into a fifth infielder, positioning him between shortstop Jody Reed and second base.  Cal Ripken then hit what looked like a tailor-made double play ball right at Reed who throw to Marty Barrett at second to force Bill Ripken but Barrett's throw to first deflected off of first baseman Benzinger's glove while Sheets came across the plate with the winning run.  It was their eighth walk off win of the season.

I was at the game that night of course.  Here are the clippings from the next day's Evening Sun: