1988 Boston Red Sox season

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The 1988 Boston Red Sox season was the 88th season in the franchise's Major League Baseball history. The Red Sox finished first in the American League East with a record of 89 wins and 73 losses, but were then swept by the Oakland Athletics in the ALCS.

The team is best remembered for its change of fortune following its change of

Joe Morgan, the team won its next 12 games in a stretch nicknamed "Morgan Magic".[3]

Offseason

Regular season

Record by month[6]
Month Record Cumulative AL East Ref.
Won Lost Won Lost Position GB
April 14 6 14 6 2nd 1 [7]
May 11 16 25 22 4th 7 [8]
June 14 12 39 34 3rd 6 [9]
July 21 9 60 43 3rd 1+1⁄2 [10]
August 13 16 73 59 2nd 2 [11]
September 16 12 89 71 1st +3 [12]
October 0 2 89 73 1st +1 [13]

Highlights

A rough beginning

The 1988 team seemed to start much better than their chaotic 1987 predecessors, going 14–6 in April;[6] however, the team went sour thereafter, especially for Jim Rice as he moved from left field to designated hitter. Dwight Evans also had problems when he played first base, and the usually reliable Lee Smith had problems closing, including giving up a game-winning home run to the Detroit Tigers on Opening Day.[14]

Joe Morgan

The Red Sox had an 11–16 record in May,

rotation
, but the team and its fans were losing patience.

"Morgan Magic"

At the

Joe Morgan to manager.[16]

On July 15, the first game after the All-Star break, the Red Sox and Roger Clemens beat the Kansas City Royals and Bret Saberhagen, 3–1.[17] This began a 12-game winning streak,[17] which launched the Red Sox to first place over the slumping Tigers and New York Yankees. The Red Sox would later set an American League record of 24 straight home victories. Two months after Morgan became manager, the team was 81–63 and in first place by 4+1⁄2 games.[18] The team cooled off in the final two weeks of the season, finishing with nine losses in their final 13 games,[17] but held on to win the AL East, finishing one game ahead of the Tigers, for their second division title in three seasons.

Season standings

  • AL East
W
L
 Pct. GB Home Road
Boston Red Sox 89 73 0.549 — 53–28 36–45
Detroit Tigers 88 74 0.543 1 50–31 38–43
Milwaukee Brewers 87 75 0.537 2 47–34 40–41
Toronto Blue Jays 87 75 0.537 2 45–36 42–39
New York Yankees 85 76 0.528 3½ 46–34 39–42
Cleveland Indians 78 84 0.481 11 44–37 34–47
Baltimore Orioles 54 107 0.335 34½ 34–46 20–61

Record vs. opponents

1988 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore — 4–9 5–7 4–7 4–9 5–8 0–12 4–9 3–9 3–10 4–8 7–5 6–6 5–8
Boston 9–4 — 8–4 7–5 8–5 6–7 6–6 10–3 7–5 9–4 3–9 6–6 8–4 2–11
California 7–5 4–8 — 9–4 8–4 5–7 5–8 3–9 4–9 6–6 4–9 6–7 8–5 6–6
Chicago 7–4 5–7 4–9 — 3–9 3–9 7–6 6–6 4–9 3–9 5–8 9–4 8–5 7–5
Cleveland 9–4 5–8 4–8 9–3 — 4–9 6–6 9–4 5–7 6–7 4–8 5–7 6–6 6–7
Detroit 8–5 7–6 7–5 9–3 9–4 — 8–4 5–8 1–11 8–5 4–8 9–3 8–4 5–8
Kansas City 12–0 6–6 8–5 6–7 6–6 4–8 — 3–9 7–6 6–6 8–5 7–5 7–6 4–8
Milwaukee 9–4 3–10 9–3 6–6 4–9 8–5 9–3 — 7–5 6–7 3–9 8–4 8–4 7–6
Minnesota 9–3 5–7 9–4 9–4 7–5 11–1 6–7 5–7 — 3–9 5–8 8–5 7–6 7–5
New York 10–3 4–9 6–6 9–3 7–6 5–8 6–6 7–6 9–3 — 6–6 5–7 5–6 6–7
Oakland 8–4 9–3 9–4 8–5 8–4 8–4 5–8 9–3 8–5 6–6 — 9–4 8–5 9–3
Seattle 5–7 6–6 7–6 4–9 7–5 3–9 5–7 4–8 5–8 7–5 4–9 — 6–7 5–7
Texas 6–6 4–8 5–8 5–8 6–6 4–8 6–7 4–8 6–7 6–5 5–8 7–6 — 6–6
Toronto 8–5 11–2 6–6 5–7 7–6 8–5 8–4 6–7 5–7 7–6 3–9 7–5 6–6 —


Notable transactions

Opening Day lineup

  5 Brady Anderson CF
17 Marty Barrett 2B
26 Wade Boggs     3B
14 Jim Rice LF
39 Mike Greenwell     RF
24
Dwight Evans
 1B
30 Sam Horn DH
10 Rich Gedman C
  7 Spike Owen SS
21 Roger Clemens P

Source:[14]

Alumni game

The team held an old-timers game on May 14, before a scheduled home game against the Seattle Mariners. The alumni game marked the 40th anniversary of the 1948 Red Sox team, which had lost a one-game playoff to the Cleveland Indians.[21] The visiting (non-Red Sox) alumni team, skippered by Lou Boudreau—who had been player-manager of the 1948 Cleveland squad—prevailed by an 8–2 score, led by four RBIs from former Pittsburgh Pirate Manny Sanguillén.[21]

Roster

1988 Boston Red Sox
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Rich Gedman 95 299 69 .231 9 39
1B Todd Benzinger 120 405 103 .254 13 70
2B Marty Barrett 150 612 173 .283 1 65
3B Wade Boggs 155 584 214 .366 5 58
SS Jody Reed 109 338 99 .293 1 28
LF Mike Greenwell 158 590 192 .325 22 119
CF Ellis Burks 144 540 159 .294 18 92
RF
Dwight Evans
 149 559 164 .293 21 111
DH Jim Rice 135 485 128 .264 15 72

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Rick Cerone 84 264 71 .269 3 27
Spike Owen 89 257 64 .249 5 18
Larry Parrish 52 158 41 .259 7 26
Brady Anderson 41 148 34 .230 0 12
Kevin Romine 57 78 15 .192 1 6
Ed Romero 31 75 18 .240 0 5
Sam Horn 24 61 9 .148 2 8
Pat Dodson 17 45 8 .178 1 1
John Marzano 10 29 4 .138 0 1
Randy Kutcher 19 12 2 .167 0 0
Carlos Quintana 5 6 2 .333 0 2

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Roger Clemens 35 264.0 18 12 2.93 291
Bruce Hurst 33 216.2 18 6 3.66 166
Oil Can Boyd 23 129.2 9 7 5.34 71
Mike Boddicker 15 89.0 7 3 2.63 56
Steve Ellsworth 8 36.0 1 6 6.75 16
Steve Curry 3 11.0 0 1 8.18 4

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Wes Gardner 36 149.2 8 6 3.50 106
Mike Smithson 31 126.2 9 6 5.97 73
Jeff Sellers 18 85.2 1 7 4.83 70

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Lee Smith 64 4 5 29 2.80 96
Bob Stanley 57 6 4 5 3.19 57
Dennis Lamp 46 7 6 0 3.48 49
Tom Bolton 28 1 3 1 4.75 21
John Trautwein 9 0 1 0 9.00 8
Zach Crouch 3 0 0 0 6.75 0
Mike Rochford 2 0 0 0 0.00 1
Rob Woodward 1 0 0 0 13.50 0

ALCS

Main article: 1988 American League Championship Series

Game 1

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Oakland 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 6 0
Boston 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 6 0
W: Rick Honeycutt (1-0)   L: Bruce Hurst (0-1)  S: Dennis Eckersley (1)
HR: OAK –
José Canseco
(1)

Game 2

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Oakland 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 4 10 1
Boston 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 3 4 1
W: Gene Nelson (1-0)   L: Lee Smith (0-1)  S: Dennis Eckersley (2)
HR: OAK –
José Canseco (2)   BOS – Rich Gedman
(1)

Game 3

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Boston 3 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 6 12 0
Oakland 0 4 2 0 1 0 1 2 X 10 15 1
W: Gene Nelson (2-0)   L: Mike Boddicker (0-1)  S: Dennis Eckersley (3)
HR: OAK – Mark McGwire (1)  Carney Lansford (1)  Ron Hassey (1)  Dave Henderson (1)  BOS – Mike Greenwell (1)

Game 4

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Boston 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 4 0
Oakland 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 X 4 10 1
W: Dave Stewart (1-0)   L: Bruce Hurst (0-2)  S: Dennis Eckersley (4)
HR: OAK –
José Canseco
(3)

Awards and honors

Awards
Accomplishments

All-Star Game

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball

The

Arizona League Red Sox/Mariners
(a cooperative team) were added as a Rookie League affiliate.

Level Team League Manager
AAA Pawtucket Red Sox International League Ed Nottle
AA
New Britain Red Sox
Eastern League
 Dave Holt
A
Lynchburg Red Sox
 Carolina League Dick Berardino
A
 Winter Haven Red Sox Florida State League Doug Camilli
A-Short Season
 Elmira Pioneers New York–Penn League Bill Limoncelli
Rookie
AZL Mariners/Red Sox
Arizona League
 Mike Verdi and Myron Pines

Arizona League team affiliation shared with the Seattle Mariners[22]
Source:[2][23]

Notes

  1. ^ The Red Sox list 1987–2001 as Harrington's tenure as president,[1] although the team's 1988 media guide listed Jean Yawkey as president.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Club Executives" (PDF). Boston Red Sox Media Guide. Boston Red Sox. 2020. pp. 23–24. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 22, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2020 – via Wayback Machine.
  2. ^ a b Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
  3. ^ Cafardo, Nick (April 24, 2016). "Baseball notes". The Boston Globe. p. C4. Retrieved October 12, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Lee Smith Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
  5. ^ Dennis Lamp Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com
  6. ^ a b c d "The 1988 Boston Red Sox". Retrosheet. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  7. ^ "Events of Saturday, April 30, 1988".
  8. ^ "Events of Tuesday, May 31, 1988".
  9. ^ "Events of Thursday, June 30, 1988".
  10. ^ "Events of Sunday, July 31, 1988".
  11. ^ "Events of Wednesday, August 31, 1988".
  12. ^ "Events of Friday, September 30, 1988".
  13. ^ "Events of Sunday, October 2, 1988".
  14. ^ a b "Detroit Tigers 5, Boston Red Sox 3". Retrosheet. April 4, 1988. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  15. ^ "Standings At Close of Play of July 10, 1988". Retrosheet. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  16. ^ "John McNamara's short season". Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. July 15, 1988. p. E1. Retrieved October 12, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  17. ^ a b c "The 1988 Boston Red Sox Regular Season Game Log". Retrosheet. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  18. ^ "Standings At Close of Play of September 13, 1988". Retrosheet. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  19. ^ Rick Cerone Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
  20. ^ Brady Anderson Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
  21. ^ a b Sudyk, Bob (May 15, 1988). "Old-Timers game a '48 reminder". Hartford Courant. p. B5. Retrieved May 24, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
  22. ^ "1988 AZL Red Sox/Mariners". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
  23. ^ Boston Red Sox Media Guide. 1988. p. 123. Retrieved March 14, 2021 – via Wayback Machine.

External links

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