Boston Red Sox Club 4 Straight Homers in Get-Away Win, Sweep Yankees
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Last season, this blog covered the memorable Dodgers 9th inning where they hit 4 consecutive homers off of San Diego Padres relievers, 2 of them on consecutive pitches by closer Trevor Hoffman as the Dodgers tied the Padres and eventually defeated them in the 10th inning by an 11-10 score.
Well, the long-shot feat was duplicated on Sunday night by the Boston Red Sox in the 3rd inning of their game with the New York Yankees, a game in which Boston trailed, went ahead, then trailed again before taking the lead for good in the late innings enroute to a 7-6 win and a sweep in Fenway Park of their 3 game series with the Yanks.
The Yanks bullpen continues to blow leads as the Red Sox have to be feeling sky-high on their chances in the AL East after sweeping the Yanks.
Boston’s rookie Japanese phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka was opposed by Yanks rookie lefthander Chase Wright who, in his previous start on April 17, pitched 5 innings in the Yanks 10-3 win over the Cleveland Indians to earn his first big league win.
But starting against the Red Sox, thunder struck Wright in the 3rd inning with 2 out. Leftfielder Manny Ramirez belted a homer to left centerfield. Rightfielder J.D. Drew, who was part of the Dodger 4 homer onslaught on San Diego last season, got into the act homering to right center. Then 3rd baseman Mike Lowell tatooed a solo blast to leftfield, way out of Fenway. Not to be denied, catcher Jason Varitek blasted a solo shot off of Wright, again to leftfield. Four straight BoSox solo homers and a 4-3 lead.
The only other time that 4 consecutive homers were hit off of the same pitcher was on July 31, 1963, as 4 straight Cleveland Indians belted homers in the 6th inning against Los Angeles Angels reliever Paul Foytack.
Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan describes the scenes both of Sunday’s onslaught against Wright and Foytack’s experience in 1963;
Wright left an 88-mph fastball at Manny Ramirez’s waist, and Ramirez deposited it over the Green Monster. J.D. Drew, part of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ quartet that homered in four straight at-bats last September, took a hanging curveball deep to center field. Mike Lowell golfed a slider over the Monster to tie the game at 3, and by the time Jason Varitek crushed a fastball into the left-field seats – the fourth of four pitches that may fly at Double-A but don’t stand a chance in the big leagues – Fenway erupted into full-on apoplexy.
“You can’t work behind these hitters,” Wright said. “They’ll make you pay. And you have to hit your spots. If you leave it over the plate, they’ll make you pay.”
As Wright was paying, Foytack was flipping. He had turned his television to the game momentarily, watching Ramirez hit his home run and wondering why his pants were so baggy, before going back to what really piqued his interest: the NBA playoff game between Denver and San Antonio. Only when his phone rang did he learn he no longer could claim his record alone.
The memories of that night returned quickly. Detroit had traded Foytack to the Los Angeles Angels six weeks earlier. He was a hard-throwing right-hander on the downside of his career. He had gone seven strong innings on July 28, but with a doubleheader on the 31st, he volunteered to pitch in the second game against Cleveland.
“I should have kept my big mouth shut,” Foytack said.
He pitched a scoreless fifth inning and retired the first two batters in the sixth before Woodie Held homered. Pedro Ramos, the Indians’ pitcher, followed with his second home run of the game. Then Tito Francona, the father of current Red Sox manager Terry Francona, hit one. According to legend, the Indians refused to set off fireworks for the next home run, the first of Larry Brown’s career, because it was costing the team too much money.
Angels manager Bill Rigney finally came to the mound.
“What do you think, Paul?” Rigney said.
“I’m not in any trouble, Bill,” Foytack replied.
Rigney yanked him, and a year later, Foytack, at age 33, was out of baseball.
As a rookie, Chase Wright has a lot of career ahead of him will soon put this event behind him, just as 3rd year Cincinnati catcher David Ross will put behind him the triple-play which the Phillies turned on his grounder to 3rd base on Saturday.
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