Now this generation of Red Sox fans have their very own version of the Boston Massacre, compliments of the New York Yankees stunning five game sweep over the Red Sox that took place during the span of August 18th through the 21st. Twenty eight years ago, in what was dubbed the Boston Massacre by the press at the time, New York came into Fenway Park four games behind Boston in the standings. The Yankees had been as far back as fourteen and a half games in July of 1978, but the firing of manager Billy Martin and the hiring of laid-back Bob Lemon as their skipper seemed to kick start the club. After the Boston Massacre, the teams were in a virtual tie in the American League East.
Although the Red Sox would rebound from the Boston Massacre and eventually tie New York on the season’s final day, they lost the infamous Bucky Dent home run game 5-4 and the division along with it. But most Sox fans point to the early September Boston Massacre as the beginning of the end. Had Boston been able to win just one of those games they could have seen the Yankees leave town still trailing by a pair, but the Boston Massacre was so complete a destruction that the Red Sox were never in any of the contests. Unlike the recent Boston Massacre, which saw the Bosox in every game right up through the middle innings and leading in the ninth in one, the 1978 Boston Massacre was never in doubt.
The circumstances leading up to the ’78 Boston Massacre bear repeating. Boston was almost fifteen games ahead of their bitter rivals on July 24th, but had played barely above .500 over their next forty nine contests. The Yankees meanwhile had caught fire under Lemon, winning 35 of 49 to make up ten games and set the stage for the Boston Massacre. The first game, on September 7th, matched Mike Torrez and Catfish Hunter. Torrez wishes that the Boston Massacre would have been his worst memory from that campaign, but he was destined to go down in Boston lore as the man who served up the Dent home run a few weeks later. In this start to the Boston Massacre, Torrez was behind 12-0 after just four innings and long gone from the field, as New York cruised to a 12-3 victory. For Hunter, his part in the Boston Massacre was especially sweet, as injuries had limited him to just twenty one starts in 1978, his last productive year. Torrez, in his five years in a Boston uniform, would go 60-54, including 16-13 in 1978.
The second game of the Boston Massacre was a match-up of rookie pitchers, Jim Beattie of the Yanks and Jim Wright of the Red Sox. Beattie would have one winning season in nine years in the majors, but on this day he got a ton of run support from his team and the Boston Massacre was half over, 13-2. Wright was a 28 year old rookie who had toiled in the Red Sox system for nine seasons. He went 8-4 in 1978, but spent most of the next year hurt and was out of baseball by 1980, with only his part in the Boston Massacre as any evidence that he ever played the game at all. In the first two installments of this Boston Massacre, the Red Sox had committed a laughable nine errors and had been outscored by a 28-5 count. The law of averages said things could only get better.
But Boston broke that law the next day when they sent their ace, Dennis Eckersley to the hill to try to put the brakes on the Boston Massacre. The “Eck” was 16-6 at the time and on his way to his only twenty win season, but unfortunately for Boston, opposing him was Ron Guidry. “Louisiana Lightning” was on in the midst of his mythical 25-3 dream season, and his record stood at 20-2. It would be 21-2 after his 7-0 shutout of the Red Sox, and the Boston Massacre had but one act to go. It was completed the next day as New York’s Ed Figueroa met Bobby Sprowl, who had been up from the minors for less than a week. The Yankees went out to a 6-0 advantage after four innings and held on 7-4 in the only one of the four Boston Massacre games that was even relatively close. Sprowl would throw less than fifty major league innings in parts of four seasons, while Figueroa was having what is a vastly overlooked 20-9 year.
The final damage could not have been scripted by a Yankee fan in his wildest dreams. The Red Sox were outscored by 42-9 and outhit 67 to 21. To the Red Sox credit, they were able to come back from the Boston Massacre to force the one game playoff on October 1st, but this provided little solace in the coming months. How Boston reacts to this latest edition of the Boston Massacre- already being called the Son of the Boston Massacre- will go a long way in determining their status in the AL East, this year and perhaps in the next couple.
