#9: Jays clobber A’s to win their
first A.L. Pennant, 1992
Oakland Athletics (2) at Toronto Blue
Jays (9)
Wednesday, October 14, 1992
ALCS Game 6
SkyDome
On
a Wednesday afternoon in Toronto, with the roof of the SkyDome closed (as it
has always been in October) the Blue Jays had an opportunity to eliminate the
Oakland A’s in Game 6 of the 1992 ALCS and advance to the World Series for the
first time in franchise history.
But
Jays’ fans had seen this before. Seven years earlier, Toronto had a three games
to one lead over the Kansas City Royals and proceeded to lose three games in a
row to lose the series. Even after a dramatic Game 4 win in Oakland to take yet
another three games to one lead, you couldn’t help but be a bit skeptical that
they could blow it again. Especially after they had dropped Game 5 to the A’s
and now stood at 0-4 all time when in a position to win a postseason series.
Juan
Guzman would be the starting pitcher for Toronto and he would face Oakland’s Mike
Moore. Guzman had been the winning pitcher in Game 3 while Moore had suffered
the loss in Game 2. But after Oakland went down in order in the top of the
first, something out of the ordinary happened that made Jays fans think this
game wouldn’t get away.
Toronto
centre fielder Devon White was the lead off batter. On the second pitch of his
at-bat, White lifted a rather weak fly ball to left field that was sure to be
an out. A’s All-Star outfielder Rickey Henderson moved over to his right to
catch the ball…but dropped it. A rare mistake by the future Hall-Of-Famer
opened the door for a Toronto rally.
After
second baseman Roberto Alomar struck out, right-fielder Joe Carter drilled a
2-2 pitch from Moore over the centre field fence to give Toronto a 2-0 lead.
And then, after Guzman escaped some trouble in the top of the third, the Jays’
batters pretty much put the game away in their half of the inning.
Alomar
singled to centre, then stole second. After Carter went down on strikes,
designated hitter Dave Winfield was walked intentionally. That brought up first
baseman John Olerud, who drilled the second pitch he saw from Moore down the
right field line. The ball bounced into the stands for a ground rule double.
Alomar scored to make it 3-0, and Toronto still had runners on second and third
with only one out.
Left-fielder
Candy Maldonado then knocked the doors off the cupboards when he belted a 1-1
pitch over the right-centre field fence for a three-run homer, giving Toronto a
6-0 lead and knocking Moore out of the ball game. After Guzman made it through
the next two innings with no runs allowed, Toronto added to their lead when a
sacrifice fly from catcher Pat Borders scored Olerud, making the score 7-0 in
the fifth.
Oakland
finally mustered a run off of Guzman in the sixth, but the Toronto right-hander
would finish the day with only the one run allowed in seven innings of work
while striking out eight batters.
The
A’s scored a run in the top of the eighth off of relief pitcher Duane Ward, but
the Blue Jays pretty much put the game out reach in the bottom of the inning.
Borders walked, shortstop Manuel Lee doubled and White and Alomar drove them in
with a sacrifice fly and an RBI single, respectively. The score was now 9-2
heading to the ninth.
And
for the ninth, long-time closer Tom Henke was on to finish the job. After
giving up a lead-off walk, Henke struck out Randy Ready and got a fly ball out
from the bat of Jamie Quirk. Two out, one to go. Another walk prolonged the
drama, but Henke induced Ruben Sierra to lift a high fly ball to left field. As
Maldonado camped under it, the noise from the 51,355 fans got louder. Then they
exploded in celebration as Candy squeezed the final out of the ALCS.
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