Red Sox, Series at Their Feet, Unravel in 10th : Wild Pitch and Error Give Mets 6-5 Win

One pitch away from winning their first World Series in 68 years, the Boston Red Sox stubbornly clung to their storied legacy of failure Saturday night.

That legacy had supposedly been exploded by Dave Henderson’s Angel-killing home run in the American League playoffs. And Saturday night, another magical home run by Henderson, this one breaking a 3-3 tie in the top of the 10th inning in Game 6 of the World Series against the New York Mets, had church bells all over New England primed to peal out the news that the underdog Red Sox were the major league champions.

Following Henderson’s homer, Wade Boggs’ double and Marty Barrett’s single made it 5-3, Red Sox, and seemed only to strengthen Boston’s grasp on a title that had eluded them for so long.

Instead, Red Sox reliever Bob Stanley, first baseman Bill Buckner, and--to a lesser degree, Manager John McNamara--added their names to a roll call of Boston disasters that Red Sox fans of any age can recite by heart.

The Mets, down to their last out, hit three straight singles for one run. Stanley then threw a wild pitch to bring in the tying run, and Buckner’s hobbled legs served as wickets for Mookie Wilson’s ground ball that carried into right field and brought home Ray Knight with the winning run in New York’s incredible 6-5 victory, evening the best-of-seven Series at three games apiece.

Johnny Pesky held the ball while Enos Slaughter scored in the 1946 Series. Bill Lee threw the blooper pitch that Tony Perez hit over the screen for a homer in 1975. Mike Torrez threw the home run pitch to Bucky Dent in 1978.

And Saturday night, Stanley threw the wild pitch and Buckner committed the error that put the left-for-dead Mets in position tonight in Game 7 to win their first World Series since 1969. And they thought that was a miracle.

This time, the Mets rallied three times--the first time in this Series that any team has come from behind to win.

They were down, 2-0, to Boston ace Roger Clemens and tied it in the fifth.

They were down, 3-2, after Knight’s throwing error in the seventh and tied it on Gary Carter’s sacrifice fly in the eighth.

They were down in the 10th after Henderson connected off reliever Rick Aguilera and after Boggs and Barrett combined for what seemed like an insurance run.

And somehow, they revived themselves with a comeback even more improbable than the one they had made to beat Houston in 16 innings in the deciding game of the National League playoffs.

“I always dreamed I’d be on the mound when we clinched it,” said Stanley, summoned after Calvin Schiraldi, the ex-Met and ace of the Red Sox bullpen, surrendered hits to Carter, pinch-hitter Kevin Mitchell and Knight.

“I was in there, but we didn’t clinch it.”

They had booed Stanley, the most vilified of Red Sox relievers, when the team was introduced on Opening Day at Fenway Park. After that game, he had made a vow.

“They can boo me now,” he said, “but when I’m on the mound when we win the World Series, everyone will want to kiss my butt.”

Those words may come to haunt him, especially after throwing a 2-and-2 sinker way inside to Wilson, who jump-roped out of the way while the ball skipped past Boston catcher Rich Gedman.

“I was trying to go inside, but the ball went the other way instead of coming back (toward the plate),” said Stanley, who had thrown only two wild pitches in the last two years. “I just threw the ball too far inside. He (Gedman) got a glove on it, but it wasn’t enough.”

That brought home Mitchell, who had singled Carter to second and had taken third on a single by Knight, who had fallen behind Schiraldi in the count, 0 and 2, before flaring a hit over Red Sox second baseman Barrett.

“I just couldn’t do it,” said Schiraldi, speaking in a voice just above a whisper. “I couldn’t close it.”

A moment later, the Mets closed out the Red Sox when Wilson hit a chopper toward Buckner, who is playing on legs that would cause other men to call for crutches.

The ball took a big hop, then a small one through Buckner’s legs, and Knight dashed home to be swarmed under by Mets, while a crowd of 55,078 screamed at their unbelievable fortune.

“I hate to say I missed a ground ball,” said Buckner after a long interlude in the trainers’ room.

“I was playing deeper than usual, and he (Wilson) is a pretty good runner getting down the line. . . . I can’t remember the last time I missed a ball like that, but I’ll remember that one.”

The way Clemens breezed through the first four innings, striking out six while not allowing a hit, no one could possibly have foreseen the makings of a nearly four-hour game.

But the Mets tied it in the fifth when Darryl Strawberry walked, stole second and scored on Knight’s ground-ball base hit up the middle.

Wilson followed with another hit to right, and Knight took third when Dwight Evans, Boston’s Gold Glove outfielder, fumbled the ball. That error proved critical when the next batter, Danny Heep, grounded into a double play, Knight coming home with the tying run.

“The ball was bouncing almost like a Super Ball,” Evans said. “I tried to block it. It looked like it hit something in front of me.”

The Red Sox went ahead again in the seventh when Barrett walked, took second on an infield out and scored as Knight threw over first baseman Keith Hernandez for an error.

Clemens polished off the Mets 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh, and the Red Sox were six outs away.

But with Henderson on second after a single and a sacrifice in the eighth, McNamara lifted Clemens for pinch-hitter Mike Greenwell.

“We’d been monitoring Roger all night,” McNamara said. “He said he’d had enough and he had developed a blister under his middle finger, so we really had no choice.”

Met reliever Roger McDowell, who had replaced starter Bob Ojeda to start the seventh, struck out the rookie Greenwell on three pitches, the last one in the dirt.

He then walked Boggs intentionally and walked Barrett inadvertently to load the bases for Buckner.

Met Manager Davey Johnson summoned his ace in the pen, left-hander Jesse Orosco. McNamara could have opted for Don Baylor, the right-handed power hitter confined to the bench by the rule against designated hitters in National League parks.

McNamara stuck with Buckner, who flied out to center on the first pitch, went hitless in five trips and is now batting .143 in the Series, .179 in the postseason.

In the bottom of the eighth, Schiraldi, who had saved Bruce Hurst’s 1-0 win in Game 1 here, gave up a pinch single to Lee Mazzilli, whose baseball career appeared to be over until he signed a Triple-A contract with the Mets Aug. 1 after being released by the Pittsburgh Pirates eight days earlier.

Len Dykstra, the next batter, bunted right back to the mound, but Schiraldi hurried his throw to second, bounced the ball into the bag, and everyone was safe.

Wally Backman bunted the runners over, and Schiraldi walked Hernandez intentionally to load the bases, then went 3 and 0 on Carter.

The Red Sox reliever seemed to be on the verge of coming undone, but Carter swung away, lining the first pitch deep enough to left to score Mazzilli.

“I’ve done it all year,” said Met Manager Johnson, who gave Carter the go-ahead to swing. “With just a little elevation, that ball is in the parking lot. A little more to the right or left (of Rice), we win the ballgame.”

Strawberry, who has yet to drive in a run in this series, stranding 15 men on base, flied out to end the inning.

A throwing error by catcher Gedman on another bunt in the ninth after a leadoff walk to Knight gave the Mets runners on first and second with none out, but Schiraldi pitched out of it.

But that only served as prelude to the 10th, an inning that looked as if it would belong to Henderson, whose home run stood to be the most dramatic in Series history since Pittsburgh’s Bill Mazeroski homered in the ninth inning of Game 7 in the 1960 Series.

Instead, the ghost of Red Sox past showed up one more time to snatch victory away.

“I don’t know nothin’ about history,” McNamara snapped, “and I don’t want to hear about choking or any of that crap.”

Once before in the postseason, the Red Sox had given away a game in extra innings--when Schiraldi hit Brian Downing with a pitch with the bases loaded and Bobby Grich followed with a game-winning single in the 11th inning of Game 4 of the AL playoffs.

The Red Sox were assumed to be finished, then, too, until Henderson’s Game 5 heroics.

“I’m beginning to think somebody up there is writing a script to make it interesting,” Henderson said. “We’re playing a class act. They don’t die.”

Neither, Evans assured, will the Red Sox.

“This is the same kind of stuff that has happened to us,” he said. “We’ve done the same thing. This was just a little of our own medicine.

“We can dish it out, and we can take it, too. This was one of the greatest games I’ve ever played in.”

The kind of game they may be talking about in Boston another 68 years or so from now.