Angels 8, Red Sox 7. Boston opened with the young Oil Can Boyd, making the 17th of his 207 career big league starts. The Angels responded with Steve Brown, who was slightly older and was making the 15th of his 15 career major league appearances.
California seized the lead in the top of the first, as Gary Pettis and Rod Carew singled, Fred Lynn walked to load the bases, and Doug DeCinces hit a sacrifice fly to bring Pettis home. Reggie Jackson and Brian Downing failed to score the other runners, however, and Boston responded quickly in the bottom of the first. Jerry Remy led off with a single and took second on a wild pitch. Two outs later, Jim Rice doubled Remy home to tie the game, and Mike Easler followed with a go-ahead RBI single for a 2-1 lead.
Boyd worked around a single in the second, and Brown circumvented a double. In the third, Carew singled and Lynn doubled him to third, but Carew was then thrown out stealing home. The Sox then poured on the runs in the bottom of the inning, as Dwight Evans and Wade Boggs started it with walks and Rice tripled them both home. Two outs later, Rich Gedman added an RBI double to extend the margin to four.
That lead was narrowed quickly and sharply in the top of the fourth when Jackson, Downing, and Bobby Grich hit consecutive home runs. Bob Boone followed with a single that ended Boyd's day; John Henry Johnson relieved and escaped further damage, but the 5-4 advantage was much less secure than it had been a short time earlier.
Brown made it one out further into the fourth than Boyd had, being removed after a walk to Remy. Jim Slaton took his place and allowed singles to Boggs and Rice that increased the lead to 6-4. DeCinces then led off the fifth with a home run to cut the gap back down to a run.
Slaton was perfect in the bottom of the fifth, and the Angels went back to work in the sixth. Boone led off with a single, and Dick Schofield reached on a Remy error. Pettis and Carew both drew walks, the second of which forced in a run and ended Johnson's outing. Al Nipper was installed on the mound with the bases loaded and nobody out in a tie game and did as well as could reasonably be expected - Lynn hit into a force at second that produced the go-ahead run, DeCinces grounded to the mound and got the lead runner thrown out at home, and Jackson struck out.
Jackie Gutierrez led off the bottom of the sixth with a single, but Slaton erased him on a double play, then threw a spotless seventh after Nipper circumvented a Boone double. Nipper permitted a Carew single before coaxing an eighth-inning double play from Lynn to keep the game close, and it got closer in the bottom of the inning. Tony Armas led off with a single, and Gedman doubled him to third to chase Slaton. Luis Sanchez hit Reid Nichols with a pitch to load the bases with nobody out, then allowed a game-tying sac fly to Rick Miller and a Remy single that reloaded the bases. But Evans struck out and Boggs grounded out, keeping the newly-forged tie intact.
Bob Stanley replaced Nipper to start the ninth and recorded one out without incident; the second did not come so easily, as Jackson doubled and Downing singled him home to put the Angels back in front. Grich and Boone were dismissed to end the top of the inning, and Sanchez returned for Boston's last chance in the bottom of the ninth. A one-out Easler single, a groundout, and a passed ball put the tying run at third, but Nichols flied out to leave it there and end the game.
For the second consecutive day, the Game of the Day featured a pitcher's last MLB start. The fact that their final starts came in excellent games on consecutive days is about the only thing Steve Brown and Jim Palmer have in common. Brown's career came to a close after 57 innings, 28 strikeouts, and 25 walks, and he allowed 6 runs in 3.1 innings in his final appearance - yet the Angels won anyway, thanks to 5.2 innings of solid relief from Slaton and Sanchez and a strong effort up and down the lineup (four multi-hit games, including four hits by Bob Boone, and every starter either scored or drove in a run). And with the game's see-saw nature and late decisive rallies, it grades out as the sixth-best of 1984 through this date.
Brown may not have had an especially memorable major league career, but at least he helped give the fans a game to remember during his last shot on the big stage.
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