Red Sox Mend Holes In Outfield, Gain On Yankees
Putting this season’s most remarkable comeback in perspective, the Boston Red Sox gained 11-1/2 games on the Yankees in four weeks. Teetering at a distance of 17 games out on Aug. 1, the Red Sox slashed that deficit to 5-1/2 before the weekend. In 1978, when the Yankees overcame a 14-game Boston lead, they gained seven games in four weeks and needed seven weeks and two days to gain as much as the Red Sox this season.
“We’ve inched our way back into the race,” Dan Duquette, the Boston general manager, said in an understatement.
Duquette and others cited a variety of reasons for the stunning comeback from a season dead and virtually buried. But consider this one: Before they could raise the sinking ship, the Red Sox had to shed the symbolic albatross that Jose Canseco and Kevin Mitchell represented. Mitchell was traded to Cincinnati July 30, and Canseco went on the disabled list Aug. 1, the day he had back surgery.
The Red Sox had been so intent on creating a doomsday offense that they actually planned to use Canseco and Mitchell in the outfield together. But the good-hit, dreadful-field pair epitomized the crux of the team’s problems - its defense. Through the first half of the season, the Red Sox were a well-earned last in fielding. “The defense put a lot of extra pressure on the pitchers and the hitters earlier,” Duquette said. “With the defense improving, it’s improved the pitching. The pitchers have a lot more confidence when they go out there. They don’t have to throw the perfect pitch.”
The Sox’ surge has created what could be the most intriguing division race for the final four weeks of the season. A division the Yankees once led by 12 games now has a three-team race. Once again the American League West has Seattle chasing the first-place team, this time Texas instead of California, and the Central has Cleveland in command.
Atlanta is running away with the National League East, Colorado is trying to keep the West a three-team race with San Diego and Los Angeles and the Central title is there for the taking, most likely by Houston, which collapsed down the stretch last season, or St. Louis.
The Yankees have been in a giving mood. Otherwise, the Red Sox, for all their winning, wouldn’t be in position to challenge for the division championship, only for the wild-card spot.
“Our first goal was to get to .500,” Duquette said. “We got there. Our next goal is the wild card. If we solidify a hold on that, our next goal will be to win the division. The good thing about our schedule is we play teams ahead of us in the last month.”
No team has been ahead of the Red Sox since the All-Star break. In that period, they have had the best record in the major leagues, 33-18 entering Saturday’s games. They have been even hotter since Aug. 1, compiling a 22-8 record compared with 12-17 for the Yankees and 18-11 for the Orioles.
A crowded 40-homer club
Hitters are hacking and slashing their way to home-run records Babe Ruth never dreamed of. Last week Ken Griffey Jr., Andres Galarraga, Brady Anderson and Juan Gonzalez joined Mark McGwire, Albert Belle and Sammy Sosa on the 40-home run plateau, leaving the major leagues only one short of the record for most players with 40 or more home runs.
Entering yesterday’s games, Todd Hundley, Mo Vaughn and Jay Buhner were two away from that level. Five other players had at least 35 homers.
The record of eight players with 40 or more was set in 1961, when Roger Maris broke Ruth’s record. Joining Maris (61) were Mickey Mantle (54), Harmon Killebrew (46), Jim Gentile (46), Orlando Cepeda (46), Rocky Colavito (45), Norm Cash (41) and Willie Mays (40).
A few mature comments
Jason Isringhausen and Paul Wilson, younger and far less experienced than Dwight Gooden, displayed far more class than Gooden in their reaction to the Mets’ firing of Dallas Green. The blunt former manager was unsympathetic when Gooden, as a member of the Mets, was suspended for drug abuse in 1994, and he was recently critical of Isringhausen and Wilson, saying they didn’t belong in the major leagues.
Upon hearing of Green’s firing, Gooden verbally danced with glee, suggesting that Green had problems and claiming, perhaps slanderously, they came from alcohol. The two young pitchers, in a much more mature reaction, said they understood Green’s comments.
More teams, more negotiations
When the owners convene in Seattle next week for their quarterly meetings, they will vote on a recommendation to put one of the two expansion teams into each league. It will come as no surprise that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are headed for the American League and the Arizona Diamondbacks for the National. But that step, which will create two 15-team leagues in 1998, will require interleague play throughout every season, and the owners will take it without having an agreement on interleague play with the Players Association.
The union has agreed to interleague play for 1997 only, but not even that plan is official because it would be part of a new collective bargaining agreement. But by telegraphing their intention to have odd-numbered leagues, the owners aren’t leaving themselves an escape, thus limiting their leverage.