Boston Red Sox Memories: Remembering the 1986 ALCS

Game Five

The Big One. Game Five of the 1986 ALCS is one of the greatest postseason games in baseball history. Down 3-1 in the series after an eleven inning heartbreaker that ended late the previous night, the Red Sox had to come back fourteen hours later to play Game Five at noon under the California sun.

Even though the Red Sox had Bruce Hurst on the mound, they were up against Angels ace Mike Witt which looked to be a daunting task indeed. The Red Sox had every excuse to pack it in after the crushing loss the night before, but to their credit they came out swinging. Gedman hit a two-run homer in the second inning after almost striking out (he just barely grazed the previous pitch to foul tip it).

Hurst was getting squeezed a bit but pitched well. He gave up a solo home run to Bob Boone in the second and then a hit to Reggie Jackson, but then picked him off to end the inning. The Sox had chances throughout the game but kept squandering them. Boston clung to the 2-1 lead until the bottom of the sixth inning. Doug DeCinces hit a double in the sixth with two outs and was followed by Bobby Grich.

Grich hit a long fly ball that Dave Henderson (in for Tony Armas who left the game in the fifth after hurting his ankle) chased down and leapt for in front of the wall. He caught it, but the act of crashing into the wall jarred it out of his glove and over the fence for a two-run homer and a 3-2 Angels lead. Hurst looked deflated on the mound while Grich took a curtain call in front of the frenzied crowd.

The Angels were already acting like they had won the pennant and the feeling grew when they put up two more runs in the seventh to expand their lead to 5-2. The Red Sox were down 5-2 going into the ninth inning and Angels Stadium was ready to explode.

If you’ve never watched this game, you owe it to yourself to do so; in my forty-plus years on this planet, it’s still one of the greatest and most dramatic moments in baseball I’ve ever seen. There were police officers filling both dugouts and walking out to ring the field.

Buckner led off the inning with a single and hobbled down to first base before being replaced with Dave Stapleton.

After Rice struck out looking, Witt looked set finish the game and pitch the Angels into the World Series. However, Baylor came up and hit a two-run home run on a full count to cut the lead to 5-4. This home run gets forgotten about when this game is discussed but without it, Henderson’s home run wouldn’t have ever happened. It was particularly impressive because Baylor reached out for a low and away pitch and pulled it to left-center field, an impressive display of strength.

After Dwight Evans flied out, the crowd was ready to erupt when the Angels won the pennant. Gedman was due up and he’d been 3-for-3 on the day against Witt, so Gene Mauch decided to bring in the left-handed Gary Lucas who had handled Gedman (who batted left handed) earlier in the series.

With his first pitch, Lucas hit Gedman on the shoulder which put him on base. At this point you could hear the crowd get a little antsy; not necessarily nervous, but in a “come on, can’t we just finish this now?” manner. When Mauch brought closer Donnie Moore in to finish the game, it seemed as though the crowd’s sense of inevitability returned… they were ready to party.

Moore made Henderson look foolish, getting two quick strikes on him (including one ugly swing) while just missing on a couple of the following pitches. With a 2-2 count, Henderson fouled off the next two pitches and the crowd was on their feet and were loud. You could hear how loud and crazy they were even watching it all these years later. The Angels were one strike away from winning the series (an eerie bit of premonition that would define the following series for the Red Sox).

Moore’s next pitch was a split finger fastball that didn’t dive as much as he wanted it to. Henderson swung and hit the ball over the left field wall for a two-run homer that improbably gave the Red Sox a 6-5 lead while stunning and silencing the crowd. Watching all these years later and even knowing what happened, this was still an incredibly dramatic, pulse-pounding moment. What’s been lost to the mists of time is that it was almost all for naught.

The Angels scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game and had loaded the bases with one out. Just a sacrifice fly would have won the pennant for them. McNamara brought reliever Steve Crawford, who had yet to appear in the series, in to the game to get out of the jam. He got DeCinces to pop up to shallow right field and then caught Grich’s comeback line drive to get out of the inning in a forgotten bit of drama.

The Red Sox had a chance in the tenth when Barrett made it to third base with two outs but they couldn’t capitalize. The Angels almost won it again in the bottom of the inning when Gary Pettis hit a deep fly ball to left field with a man on and two outs, but Rice made an incredible leaping catch crashing into the wall to end the inning and save the game.

This is where you could really feel the momentum shift as the Red Sox seemed fired up while the Angels and (especially) the crowd were more subdued. Baylor led off by getting hit by a pitch from Donnie Moore (who was still in the game). After Evans singled and Gedman bunted for a hit, the Sox had the bases loaded. Henderson hit a sac fly to drive in Baylor which gave the Red Sox a 7-6 lead.

Calvin Schiraldi then came in to close out the game in the bottom of the inning and mowed down the Angels, whiffing the first two batters and inducing a pop fly for the final out. This entire game was incredible but the last five innings in particular were some of the best baseball you’ll ever see. Everything that’s great about the sport, from the heartbreak to the jubilation, is contained in those pulse-pounding innings.

The Red Sox jumped around and celebrated like they’d just won the pennant while the Angels look shell-shocked and their fans were despondent. If you think about it in hindsight, it makes sense. The Angels, one strike away from winning their first ever pennant, now had to fly across the country to play another game.

For the Red Sox, they knew before Game Five that they’d need to win in order to come back and win the series. Now they had the chance to go home and play in front of their fans and sleep in their own beds. For the Angels, it was a missed opportunity and a crushing loss that they had to quickly shake off.

Regardless of whether you’re a Red Sox fan or not, Game Five is one of the greatest games in baseball history. It was just incredible, dramatic theater and I fully acknowledge that my words can never do it justice. If you only watch one game from this series, make it this one.