The Best Outfield: How About Boston’s Armas, Evans and Rice?

Among the three of them, Boston Red Sox outfielders Tony Armas, Dwight Evans and Jim Rice hit 103 home runs last season, seven more than the Milwaukee Brewers hit as a team.

Armas, Evans and Rice drove in 349 runs, had 541 hits in 1,926 at-bats for a collective batting average of .281, and made a total of only 15 errors in 1,014 chances for an aggregate fielding percentage of .985.

“I’d have to do some heavy thinking to find an outfield in baseball comparable to ours, both offensively and defensively,” Red Sox Manager John McNamara said.

There may not be an outfield that does all things as well as the outfield of Rice in left, Armas in center and Evans in right. Their only rivals in the American League might be the Detroit Tigers’ trio of Kirk Gibson, Chet Lemon and Larry Herndon, or the New York Yankees’ outfield of Dave Winfield, Rickey Henderson and Ken Griffey.

Henderson steals more bases; Lemon may be the best defensive center fielder in the league; Gibson hits the longest home runs, and Winfield is occasionally called the best all-around player in the game. Yet no other outfield combines the attributes of power, speed and defense in a comparable manner. Even Winfield said, “Boston possibly is the best defensive team in baseball,” giving a large measure of credit to the outfield.

“I’d be crazy to say we’re not good,” said Evans, senior member of the group. “We know we’re good, but whether we’re the best doesn’t really make much difference. We’re not the best unless we win.”

Evans joined the Red Sox in 1972, became a regular in 1973 and has been there ever since. Rice was called up in 1974, but was used extensively as a designated hitter until Carl Yastrzemski moved from the outfield to first base in 1978. Armas was traded to Boston from Oakland for third baseman Carney Lansford in December 1982.

Armas committed the most errors in 1984, nine in 342 chances, while playing the toughest position, center field. Rice, who has improved a great deal in the field, had four, and Evans committed two. All throw well, particularly Evans.

Last year, Armas led the league in both RBI, with 123, and homers, with 43. Rice had 28 homers and 122 RBI, while Evans hit 32 homers, had 104 RBI and led the league by scoring 121 runs. Rice, the league’s Most Valuable Player in 1978, led the AL in homers with 39 and tied for the best in RBI with 126 in 1983.

This excellence has bred a sort of camaraderie among the three, although it falls far short of Three Musketeers-type stuff. “Our outfielders all help each other out,” Rice said, and Evans adds, “We’re close. We’re out to help each other win, and we do what we have to.”

On the club’s last trip to Yankee Stadium, Rice was in the batting cage before the game, coming off an 0-for-6 night and struggling at the plate all week. Armas stood nearby.

“The hands, the hands, the hands,” Armas reminded Rice.

“He was just telling me to use my hands,” Rice said. “I haven’t been picking up the ball very well, not seeing it. If you move on the ball, you don’t see it well. You have to keep your hands back.”

Evans said the three depend heavily on coach Walt Hriniak, who took over as hitting instructor this season after eight years as Red Sox bullpen coach and batting practice instructor.

Over the years, Hriniak has worked with many Red Sox hitters while pitching batting practice. Five years ago, he taught Evans the hitting method of the late Charley Lau, a longtime major league batting coach who listed George Brett among his proteges. The technique has worked for the 33-year-old Evans, who was better known as a defensive player earlier in his career. He has a lifetime .269 average but has batted .290 or better in three of the past four seasons.

Armas, 31, has the lowest career average, .248, but has hit no fewer than 28 homers in each of his last four full seasons while topping the 100-RBI plateau three times. Rice, 32, has a lifetime average of .303 and three seasons with 200 or more hits. Rice and Johnny Pesky are the only Red Sox players to have three 200-hit seasons.

The three remain part of a larger whole. “We’ve never separated ourselves from the rest of the team,” Evans said. “We’re part of a unit, not a unit within a unit.”

Until he was traded to California in 1981, Fred Lynn had been the Red Sox’s center fielder. The Red Sox used Rick Miller and Reid Nichols in center until the unit jelled with the acquisition of Armas.

“We were thrilled to have Tony,” Evans said. “Of course, we traded away Carney Lansford. We hated to lose him, but you have to give up something to get something. We knew Tony could get 45 home runs in our ballpark, he’s so strong.

“I remember when he came to Boston, somebody ripped me for saying he could hit 45 home runs. What did he hit last year, 43? He can hit a ball out of any ballpark in baseball, and so can Jimmy.”

The Red Sox’s outfield will play a very large role in any success the club has in the tough American League East this season. But all three know that contributions also must be made by their teammates.

“We’re not out to prove anything,” Evans said. “We know what we’re capable of doing. Now, all we’ve got to do is do it.”