Sunday, April 27, 2014

Game of the Day (4/26/84)

Mariners 6, Red Sox 5 (10). The pitching matchup has to have been one of the most generically-named faceoffs in baseball history, with Seattle's Matt Young taking on Boston's Mike Brown. Young would manage a major league career of nearly 1200 mediocre innings, the best of which had come during his rookie season the year before; Brown would last less than a quarter as long, largely because his pitching was considerably worse.

Whatever you might say about his deservedly brief career, Brown got off to a good start in this game; he didn't exactly retire the Mariners in order, but since Barry Bonnell was thrown out trying to stretch his single into a double, the effect was the same. That allowed the Sox to take the game's opening lead when Marty Barrett doubled and Dwight Evans singled him home. Brown allowed a walk and steal to Pat Putnam in the second, but nothing else, while Young was perfect in the bottom of the inning.

Seattle moved in front in the third when Jack Perconte singled and Bonnell homered. Barrett singled but was picked off in the bottom of the third, and Brown threw a spotless fourth. Boston surged back into the lead in the bottom of the fourth, starting by loading the bases on walks to Tony Armas, Mike Easler, and Reid Nichols. Jeff Newman brought in the tying run with a sacrifice fly, and Jackie Gutierrez and Barrett both singled in runs to put the Sox ahead 4-2.

Brown held the lead through the fifth and sixth, allowing a single and a wild pitch in the former inning and keeping the bases Mariner-free in the latter. Young had slightly more trouble over the same span, allowing a single and a pair of walks, but the end result on the scoreboard was the same.

The Mariners finally rallied in the seventh. Al Cowens reached on an error by third baseman Ed Jurak (who is notably not Wade Boggs), and Darnell Coles was hit by a pitch. Bob Kearney bunted the runners to second and third, and Spike Owen singled them both home to tie the game at 4. Owen stole second, but Brown got the second out of the inning and Bob Stanley relieved to record the third.

Young was spotless in the seventh, as was Stanley in the eighth; Boston got Nichols on in the bottom of the eighth, but Newman hit into a double play. Stanley retired Seattle's hitters in order once more in the ninth. Gutierrez led off the bottom of the inning by reaching on an error, after which Young was removed (which would seem unfair if Young himself hadn't committed the error). Ed Vande Berg induced a forceout from Barrett and a double play from Jurak to send the game into extras.

Stanley retired the first two Mariners he faced in the tenth, meaning he had gone through the entire Seattle batting order without allowing a baserunner. Bonnell ended that string with a single, and Alvin Davis followed with a go-ahead two-run homer. Seattle replaced Vande Berg with the third-most famous Mike Stanton in MLB history (and one of the two who exceeds his notability doesn't even go by that name any more); Stanton registered one out before allowing a homer to Armas that cut the lead in half. Paul Mirabella supplanted Stanton and allowed a single to Easler; he then struck out Boggs, who came in as a pinch hitter. Nichols singled to put the tying run in scoring position, but Newman grounded out to end the game.

Third base for the Boston Red Sox was one of the strongest positions anywhere in baseball in the mid-to-late 1980's, so it was pretty uncommon for that to be the spot that cost them a game. But that's what happened in this one, as Wade Boggs sat for a day in place of Ed Jurak, and Jurak went 0 for 5, with two strikeouts and a double play grounder. Two of the at bats featured runners in scoring position and all five came with at least one man on base. That's not to mention Jurak's sixth-inning error that set up Seattle's game-tying rally. Throw in Boggs's unsuccessful pinch hitting appearance in the tenth, which came with the tying run at first, and you get a combined -.393 WPA with the bat, not including the error. That can fairly be assessed as a game-losing effort, especially when you're working against the fact that your starting pitcher barely belongs in the majors.

In happier news, Alvin Davis's game-winning homer was the fifth of his career in 13 games played, a pace for over 60 in a full season. His batting line through this date was .353/.421/.745, putting him well on the way to his highly deserved Rookie of the Year award.

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