What the heck is wrong with Eck?
Dennis Eckersley, baseball's premier closer the past six seasons, failed for the third time to get his first save of 1994 on Thursday, giving up two runs in the ninth inning as the Boston Red Sox rallied for a 6-5 victory over the Oakland Athletics.Eckersley has saved 256 games for the A's since 1988, but he dropped from a career-high of 51 in his 1992 Cy Young Award-winning year to 36 last season. The submarining right-hander also blew 10 saves last year, the most since he took over as the A's closer in 1987.
Now, 15 games into the 1994 season, Eckersley is searching for a first save or a first win.
In the ninth, pinch-hitter Andre Dawson hit a ball to deep center field off Eckersley, driving in Scott Cooper, who had singled and took second when Ruben Sierra bobbled the ball in right.
Dawson, who sat out two straight games with a hamstring injury, limped into second base on the play, prompting Red Sox bullpen coach John Wathan to say: "He could hardly run to get into second base on that ball, but he did it. It kind of brought a semi-flashback to the Kirk Gibson thing to mind. He can really lift a ballclub."
The Kirk Gibson thing.
A name and a moment forever linked to the A's and Eckersley.
It was Gibson who limped to the plate and hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series that gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a win over Oakland. It came off Eckersley.
Following Dawson's double, Otis Nixon doubled off Eckersley to send in Scott Fletcher, running for Dawson.
Elsewhere in the AL, New York topped Seattle 4-2, Cleveland downed Minnesota 10-6, Milwaukee defeated Chicago 6-4, and California beat Baltimore 11-8.
In the National League, the Dodgers whipped the Mets 13-3 to move within two games of NL West-leading San Francisco, which lost to Philadelphia 6-1. Montreal beat San Diego 5-4.