September 1, 1990: Mike Greenwell hits inside-the-park grand slam as Red Sox rout Yankees

This was a bizarre game on Labor Day weekend in 1990 in which the visiting New York Yankees lost their left fielder and then their right fielder in the same inning, both of them hurt by running into the wall in their respective areas of the Fenway Park outfield.

It was also the game in which Boston Red Sox left fielder Mike Greenwell hit an inside-the-park grand slam – the second IPHR he hit off the same Yankees pitcher in less than 14 months.

The two historic rivals weren’t battling for first place. As August ended, the Red Sox were first in the American League East Division and the Yankees were in last place. The 74-57 Red Sox were 6½ games ahead of the second-place Toronto Blue Jays. The 56-75 Yankees were 18 games behind.

The Yankees had come to Boston for a three-game weekend series and lost the August 31 Friday night game, 7-3, the four runs that made the difference coming on an eighth-inning grand slam by shortstop Luis Rivera. The Red Sox had won eight games in a row.

Boston manager Joe Morgan selected Mike Boddicker (13-8, 3.46) to start the Saturday afternoon game on September 1. Manager Stump Merrill of the Yankees chose Andy Hawkins (5-10, 5.02). 1 Both pitchers were veterans who had begun their careers in the early 1980s. Both had won World Series games with their original organizations: Boddicker with the 1983 Baltimore Orioles and Hawkins with the 1984 San Diego Padres.2

Both had hard-luck losses in 1990. Before the Red Sox had bashed out a total of 25 runs in his two most recent starts, Boddicker had lost two games in August despite not allowing an earned run in either start. Hawkins had held the Chicago White Sox hitless on July 1 – but lost 4-0 when two walks and three Yankee errors yielded four eighth-inning runs. Five days later, he threw 11 scoreless innings against the Minnesota Twins, then lost, 2-0, in the 12th.3

Boddicker began his start against the Yankees by striking out leadoff hitter Roberto Kelly. After second baseman Steve Sax reached on a one-out ground-rule double, Boddicker attempted to pick off Sax but made an errant throw that allowed Sax to take third. Strikeouts of lefty-swinging Matt Nokes and Kevin Maas – who came in with 16 homers in his first 53 big-league games – stranded Sax.

Boston second baseman Jody Reed led off with a first-pitch single to short center. Hawkins turned first baseman Carlos Quintana’s comebacker into a force at second, but a flurry of base hits followed. Wade Boggs singled to center. Ellis Burks hit a three-run homer into the left-field screen, his 17th of the season. It must have been hit exceptionally hard, with the right spin on it; as the Hartford Courant reported, it “struck the top of The Wall, rolled onto the screen and over onto Lansdowne Street.”4

Greenwell doubled to right-center and came home on a homer hit down the left-field line by Tom Brunansky, this one remaining in the netting. After just 19 pitches, Hawkins was relieved of his duties, down 5-0.

The New York Times noted, “In three career starts against the Red Sox, Hawkins has never retired more than one batter in any appearance. He has pitched a total of one inning and permitted 13 hits and 18 runs – incredibly, an earned run average of 162.00.”5 Lefty Greg Cadaret came in from the Yankees bullpen. He gave up a walk and a single but then got the next two outs.

Working with a big lead, Boddicker allowed a run in the second. Jesse Barfield walked with one out, Steve Balboni singled, and Randy Velarde drove in Barfield with a single to left-center.

The Yankees threatened again in the third. Sax hit a one-out single. After two outs, with Maas at the plate, Sax stole second, Boddicker then hit Maas with a pitch. With Hall up, Boddicker let fly a wild pitch and New York had runners on second and third, but Hall popped up foul behind first base, the play made by second baseman Reed.

Cadaret kept the Red Sox scoreless from the second inning through the fourth, aided by a third-inning double play and one runner picked off and another caught stealing in the fourth.

Boston, however, broke the game open with another big inning in the fifth.

Quintana worked an eight-pitch leadoff walk. First-pitch swinging, Boggs doubled to left-center, and Quintana stopped at third. Left fielder Hall was hurt on the play and had to leave the game.6 Ellis Burks walked, loading the bases with nobody out.

On Cadaret’s 1-and-0 pitch, Greenwell pulled a line drive past Maas at first and down the right-field line. Barfield, reported the New York Times, “tried to stop the ball but slipped as he reached it near the corner. He then limped after it as Greenwell circled the bases and crossed home standing up.”7 Greenwell had cleared the bases with an inside-the-park grand slam, and the Red Sox led, 9-1.

Maas, playing first because nine-time Gold Glover Don Mattingly was sidelined with a back injury, had left too much room to his left and had not been prepared for a ball pulled down the line. The Boston Globe wrote, “If Don Mattingly …were playing first, it would have been a 3-6-3 double play.”8

The last time there had been an inside-the-park grand slam at Fenway was on August 8, 1961, hit by Red Sox center fielder Gary Geiger. Oddly, Greenwell had hit an inside-the-park homer off Cadaret at Fenway Park the year before, on July 7, 1989, that one a solo home run to center field.9 

Barfield bruised his knee on the play, costing the Yankees their second outfielder of the half-inning. 10 Rookie Jim Leyritz took over for Barfield. Jimmy Jones relieved Cadaret.

Brunansky and catcher John Marzano both grounded out, with a single by DH Mike Marshall in between. Luis Rivera singled. Reed doubled to left, driving in another run. Quintana, up again, singled to right, and drove in both Rivera and Reed, capping the seven-run inning and making the score 12-1.

Boddicker retired the Yankees in order again, not letting the ball out of the infield save for a pop-fly foul to Quintana at first base. He’d give up four hits in six innings of work.

The Red Sox weren’t finished scoring yet. Ellis Burks led off the bottom of the sixth with a home run to left field – his second homer of the game. Greenwell singled, but a fly ball and a 6-4-3 double play ended the inning. 

Wes Gardner became Boston’s new pitcher in the seventh. He struck out the first two Yankees and got the third to fly out to right.

After the seventh-inning stretch, Jones put up a scoreless inning, the only baserunner being Rivera, who reached on an infield single.

In the eighth, lefty Joe Hesketh took over from Gardner and he too allowed just a single. The Red Sox added two more runs off Jones in the bottom of the eighth. Boggs led off with a double down the left-field line. Kevin Romine, who had taken over for Burks in center field, struck out. Greenwell then picked up another run batted in with a ground-rule double to right field. Brunansky singled to left, driving in Greenwell. He was thrown out trying to reach second base, but he had bumped up the score to 15-1.

It ended with a fly ball, a popup to second, and a ball hit back to Hesketh, who threw to first base for the third out. Backed by double-digit runs for the third start in a row, Boddicker had his 14th win of the season.11

Though Mike Greenwell played in more games (159) in 1990 than in any other season, it wasn’t his most productive in some areas – he drove in 73 runs, for instance, down from 119 in 1988 and 95 in 1989. But this one game had been a special one, with five RBIs on the grand slam and double. And the very next night – September 2, also against the Yankees – he drove in four more (including the game-winner) with a single, sacrifice fly, and a two-run triple. The Red Sox won that game, 7-1.

Having swept the Yankees in four Fenway games in early June, the Red Sox completed 1990 having taken every one of the seven home games they played against their historic rivals. As of 2024, it was the only time in franchise history they did so.12

The Red Sox won the AL East, coming in two games ahead of the Blue Jays (and 21 ahead of the Yankees), but were swept by the Oakland Athletics in the AL Championship Series, scoring just one run in each of the four games.13

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Thomas J. Brown Jr. and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Mike Greenwell, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS199009010.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1990/B09010BOS1990.htm

Greenwell’s grand slam can be seen on YouTube at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79saGd6R0ZY

Notes

1 Bucky Dent was the Yankees manager to start the season but after the team started out 18-31 was replaced by Merrill.

2 With his win in Game Two of the 1984 World Series, Hawkins remained as of 2024 the only pitcher to win a World Series game for the Padres.

3 Stew Thornley, “Andy Hawkins,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/andy-hawkins/. Accessed January 2025.

4 “I’ve never seen that happen here before,” said Joe Morgan. Sean Horgan, “Red Sox Win in a Breeze,” Hartford Courant, September 2, 1990: C1, C7.

5 Michael Martinez, “Yanks and Hawkins Rocked at Fenway,” New York Times, September 2, 1990: S3. Hawkins’ earned-run average against the Red Sox in Boston actually went down in this outing, from 172.65.

6 Hall “injured his left wrist when he tumbled chasing a double off the base of the wall.” Martinez.

7 Martinez.

8 Nick Cafardo, “Sox Streak Now Has Nine Lives,” Boston Globe, September 2, 1990: 41.

9 “I can’t explain two of them off the same pitcher,” said Greenwell afterward. “It’s just a freaky thing.” Cafardo. For a description of Greenwell’s 1989 IPHR, see Dan Shaughnessy, “Greenwell, Sox Pull Inside Job, 6-4,” Boston Globe, July 8, 1989: 29.

10 Martinez.

11 The 15-run outburst tied the Red Sox’ season high; they had a 15-4 win over the Texas Rangers on July 1. After losing a 1-0 complete game to the Angels in the ninth inning on August 17, Boddicker was treated to 13 runs from his teammates in beating Baltimore 13-1 on August 22 and then a dozen runs in a 12-4 in Cleveland on August 27.  

12 The closest they came had been in 1973 when the Red Sox were 8-1 against the visiting Yankees. In 1980 the Yankees swept the Red Sox in all seven games played at Fenway Park. Thanks to John Fredland for asking the question and Carl Riechers for providing the information.

13 The scores were 9-1, 4-1, 4-1, and 3-1.