Curt Schilling has continued to dominant this postseason giving
the Red Sox yet another fantastic start. Throughout these playoffs, Schilling
has pitched 22 innings given up 4 earned runs on only 13 hits. He came into
this game undefeated and held Oakland hitless until the 4th inning.
Down to their last out, the A’s had Reggie Jackson at the plate. Jackson took a
Schilling fastball over the Green Monster for his fourth dinger of the
postseason to put Oakland in front 1-0.
Despite touching up Ken Holtzman for 9 hits in his six
innings of work Boston could not break through. Jackson’s solo shot would be
the game winning run as the A’s went up 2-1 in the ALCS. Oakland would tack on
another run in the 7th as Ray Fosse score Gene Tenace with a clutch
two out single which sent Schilling to the showers. This run would be unearned
as Tenace reached on a Mark Bellhorn fielding error.
The Red Sox had two glorious chances to score but were
thwarted by two game saving plays by A’s left fielder Joe Rudi. The first defensive
gem Rudi turned in was a wonderful diving stab of Gabe Kapler’s sinking liner in
the fourth. With one out, Manny Ramirez had singled and Jason Varitek then
doubled to left putting runners on second and third. Kevin Millar hit a screamer
to A’s third baseman Sal Bando for the second out, and then Rudi bailed
Holtzman out by robbing Kapler. Boston also threatened to tie in Holtzman’s
last full inning of work, but some bad base running coupled with the strong
right arm of Rudi stifled the rally. With Varitek on first and two out, Kevin
Millar cracked a double off the Green Monster. In an attempt to stretch the
wall ball into a double, Millar was gunned out by Rudi.
Game 4 will see the first start of the playoffs for Boston’s
Tim Wakefield as he looks to even the series facing Oakland’s Glenn Abbott.
No comments:
Post a Comment