1995 American League Division Series

Starting pitchers Dennis Martinez and Roger Clemens both began strongly. After retiring the first four batters, Martinez yielded a single to Boston’s Mike Greenwell before stranding him. Clemens retired the first nine Cleveland batters.

In the top of the third, Boston second baseman Luis Alicea, the ninth-place hitter with a regular-season average of .270 but the Red Sox hitting star of Game One, singled with one out. Right fielder Dwayne Hosey hit a grounder to shortstop for a force play, then scored on shortstop John Valentin’s home run to deep right. Valentin had hit 27 home runs and driven in 102 runs in what would prove to be by far the best season of his 11-year career.

In the bottom of the fourth, Cleveland got singles by Kenny Lofton and Carlos Baerga, but Clemens struck out Albert Belle and got Eddie Murray to ground to Alicea to end the threat.

In the fifth, Alicea reached on a one-out infield hit and stole second, but Martinez induced a lineout from Hosey and a pop from Valentin to strand Alicea.

The Indians scored three runs with two outs in the sixth to take the lead. After Omar Vizquel walked, Cleveland put on a hit-and-run. “Valentin broke to cover the bag, Baerga angled a bouncer through the vacated hole at short to put runners on first and third for Belle,” wrote one sports scribe.1 “Belle ropes an RBI double to the gap in left-center. Valentin goes to the plate with a perfect throw, but Mike Macfarlane, his mask on, drops the ball. Baerga is safe, Belle winds up at third, and the game is tied, 2-2,” wrote another.2 Then Murray scored Belle with a single to put Cleveland up 3-2.

With the lead, Manager Mike Hargrove hooked Martinez, who had thrown just 86 pitches, and replaced him with Julian Tavarez, who retired the Red Sox in order in the seventh, culminated with swinging strikeouts of center fielder Lee Tinsley and Macfarlane.

After Clemens set down Cleveland in order in the home half of the seventh, Alicea, the most unlikely of Boston power hitters who homered only six times in 1995 and slightly more than one out of 100 at-bats over his career, homered off Tavarez to tie the game. The Indians almost unraveled after that. Lefty Paul Assenmacher replaced Tavarez after Valentin’s one-out single to face Mo Vaughn, the Red Sox’ best left-handed hitter and the eventual 1995 AL MVP. Assenmacher struck out Vaughn, who would struggle throughout the ALDS. Righty Eric Plunk came in to face Boston DH Jose Canseco and had Valentin picked off, but errors by Murray and Lofton allowed Valentin to advance to third base. Plunk got Canseco to fly to right to end the threat and keep the score tied.

With Clemens at 103 pitches, Red Sox manager Kevin Kennedy turned to his bullpen, tapping lefty Rheal Cormier. After fanning Lofton, Cormier walked Vizquel and hit Baerga before exiting in favor of righty Stan Belinda. Belinda got Belle to pop out before leaving for Mike Stanton, who induced a fly from Murray to end the eighth.

Plunk stayed in for the ninth and got into trouble right away. Greenwell singled and advanced to second on a sacrifice by Red Sox third baseman Tim Naehring. Plunk intentionally walked Tinsley to face Macfarlane, but Kennedy called on his best pinch-hitter, Matt Stairs, who had made the ALDS roster only because of a late injury to Troy O’Leary.3 Plunk struck out Stairs and got Alicea to line out (the only time Alicea failed to reach all game) to end the frame.

Stanton got Cleveland in order in the ninth. With no possible save situation remaining, Hargrove turned to closer Jose Mesa in a tie game in the top of the 10th. After having walked just 15 batters unintentionally all season, Mesa passed Hosey and Valentin before giving up consecutive line drives to Vaughn and Canseco. The Indians caught both, and the second went as a 5-4-5-4 double play to allow Mesa to escape.

Stanton finally faltered in the bottom of the 10th when Cleveland catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. beat out a bunt. Wayne Kirby ran for Alomar. Lofton struck out, and Vizquel reached on a fielder’s choice that retired Kirby. Vizquel stole second, but Baerga struck out. Stanton had retired seven of eight batters, four by strikeout.

Cleveland brought in a new battery for the 11th, replacing Plunk with Jim Poole and Alomar with Peña. After getting Greenwell to line out, Poole gave up a home run to Naehring before retiring the next two hitters, so Boston led 4-3 going into the bottom of the 11th.

With the lead, “Kennedy had the Tribe right where he wanted ’em. He had a one-run lead and his closer ready to come in to the game.”4 Rick Aguilera had to face the best power hitters of the Indians in Belle, Murray, and Jim Thome. Belle, who before the ALDS had expressed doubts about the continuation of “his incredible pace – 31 homers in 217 at-bats since Aug. 1.”5 retied the game with his second clutch extra-base RBI hit of the game, a line-drive home run to deep left, after which Kennedy got the umpires to confiscate Belle’s bat to test it for corking.

The test proved negative, and even the Boston press mocked Kennedy, with columnist Dan Shaughnessy writing, “Somehow this doesn’t seem fair. Belle loses a Wonder Boy bat and the Sox are not penalized for their challenge. Shouldn’t there be some penalty if the challenge is invalid – like in Scrabble?”6

Seemingly unbothered, Cleveland got two more on via singles by Thome and Paul Sorrento. “Then Aguilera injured himself in the process of pitching to Manny Ramirez, and had to leave the game.”7 Mike Maddux got Peña to ground out to end the inning. Aguilera’s failure to seal Game One for the Red Sox turned the tide of the entire ALDS.

Boston had a prime chance to recapture the lead in the top of the 12th. Alicea doubled, but Hosey did not bunt him over and struck out. The lefty Poole walked the righty Valentin to face the lefty Vaughn and struck out Mo. Righty Ken Hill, who had just one relief appearance for Cleveland in 1995 and loomed as the Game Four starter,8 came on to get Canseco looking to end the top of the 12th.

The Indians almost won the game in the bottom of the inning. Maddux hit Lofton, and Alicea mishandled Vizquel’s sacrifice, sending Lofton to third with none out. Baerga could not get the winning run in as he popped to Valentin. Maddux walked Belle to load the bases with one out, and Kennedy called on the lefty Zane Smith to face Murray. Smith excelled, getting Murray to ground into a 5-2 force and likewise getting Thome to ground to Vaughn to escape the nasty threat.

After giving up a leadoff single to Greenwell, Hill took care of the rest of the top of the 13th himself, striking out Naehring and getting back-to-back comebackers from Tinsley and catcher Bill Haselman, who had replaced Macfarlane after Stairs’ pinch-hitting appearance.

On this day, Cleveland had a better-hitting backup catcher than Boston, and that difference proved decisive when Peña, the former Red Sox catcher, hit a two-out walk-off home run on a 3-and-0 meatball from Smith to end what at that time was “the longest night playoff game in major league history.”9

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Game Two
Cleveland Indians 4, Boston Red Sox 0
October 4, 1995
Jacobs Field, Cleveland

Making his first postseason start in seven years, Cleveland starter Orel Hershiser extended his streak of outstanding October pitching by three-hitting Boston over 7⅓ innings as the Indians blanked the Red Sox 4-0 to take a commanding two-games-to-none lead in the best-of-five American League Division Series.

Cleveland started sloppy with two errors and a wild pitch beginning the game. Belle misplayed a Hosey drive into a two-base error, and Paul Sorrento dropped a throw from Vizquel, allowing Valentin to reach. But Boston ran itself out of the inning. Hosey tried to advance on Sorrento’s miscue but went out 6-3-5. Rather than putting runners at second and third with no out, Hershiser’s wild pitch merely advanced Valentin to second with one out. Hershiser escaped by fanning Vaughn and getting Canseco to fly to Belle, who this time made the play.

Valentin returned the favor to the Indians by kicking a Vizquel grounder. With two outs, Belle singled Vizquel to third and took second on the throw, but Red Sox starter Erik Hanson, who had made his lone All-Star Game appearance at midseason, struck out Murray swinging to end an eventful but scoreless first frame.

After retiring Greenwell and Naehring, Hershiser got into an even bigger jam in the top of the second. In this game, Kennedy started Willie McGee in right field, shifted Hosey from right to center, and benched Tinsley. McGee made the move look wise by singling, Macfarlane singled, and Hershiser walked the pesky Alicea to load the bases with two outs for Hosey. Hershiser got Hosey to ground to second “and was never remotely in trouble the rest of the way.”10

Neither team threatened again until the bottom of the fourth, when Murray, who had no triples in 480 regular-season plate appearances in 1995, tripled to left with one out. But Hanson pitched himself out of trouble by striking out Thome swinging and Ramirez looking.

Macfarlane singled to lead off the fifth, his second hit of the game and the third by the Red Sox, who would have no more hits in the game. With one out, Hosey replaced Macfarlane on a fielder’s choice and stole second, but Valentin struck out swinging to end the inning.

“Hanson, who had been pitching marvelously for four innings, lost it in the fifth, a bizarre inning,” noted a Boston sportswriter.11 The patient Indians took the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth. Sorrento walked and went to second on Alomar’s sacrifice. “Macfarlane signaled for a fastball, but Hanson threw a curve. The pitch crossed up his catcher, hit him in the groin and knocked him down. Sorrento took advantage and scooted to third. For the first time, Hanson appeared rattled.”12 He walked Lofton. Vizquel’s double scored both runners. After Baerga popped out, Hansen passed Belle intentionally before getting Murray to ground out to Vaughn. Cleveland led 2-0 after five.

Both teams went down in order in the sixth and the seventh. In the eighth, Hershiser walked Alicea again and got Hosey to hit into a fielder’s choice. Hargrove replaced Hershiser, who had “good movement on his fastball and a breaking pitch that fell off the plate”13 in throwing “a near-flawless game,”14 walking two and striking out seven. Tavarez got Valentin to pop to Baerga, and Assenmacher came on to face Vaughn. “He took the first pitch for a called strike, then swung and missed at a ball that was far outside. After taking a ball, Vaughn swung and missed badly again.”15 Assenmacher had struck out Vaughn for the second straight game, ending the eighth.

Cleveland broke the game open in the bottom of the eighth. With one out, Belle walked, Hanson’s fourth walk of the game. “Murray’s two-run homer on a Hanson changeup … sealed the verdict,”16 making the score 4-0. Hanson got the final two batters, but Kennedy may have stayed with his starter too long. Unlike Hargrove, who had hooked his pitcher after an eighth-inning walk, Kennedy, in the same situation, left his hurler in with disastrous results.

“The fireworks and dancing and music and car horns began after Jose Mesa threw four pitches and got three outs,”17 easily retiring Canseco, Greenwell, and Naehring in the ninth, leaving Cleveland in prime position to close out the ALDS if the Indians could capture a game in Boston.

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Game Three
Cleveland Indians 8, Boston Red Sox 2
October 6, 1995
Fenway Park, Boston

Charles Nagy gave up one run in seven innings, Jim Thome drove in Cleveland’s first three runs, and the Indians swept the Red Sox with an 8-2 win in Boston, the Red Sox’ 13th consecutive postseason loss.

Boston starter Tim Wakefield, who would finish third in the 1995 Cy Young race and 13th in the MVP balloting, retired the first four batters. Nagy, a New Englander from Connecticut who had faced Vaughn in high school,18 struggled with his control in the first inning and throughout the game, walking two in the first but getting Greenwell to hit into a Vizquel-to-Baerga force.

Cleveland got on the board in the second. Wakefield, also wild, walked Murray with one out before Thome hit “a two-run homer around the foul pole in right field to stake Cleveland to a 2-0 lead in the second inning.”19 Nagy retired the side in order in the bottom of the second, and Wakefield got the first two in the top of the third. But Baerga’s single followed by consecutive walks to Belle and Murray again loaded the bases for Thome. He, too, walked, scoring Baerga with what would turn out to be the winning run.

“The bottom of the third typified the Sox’ frustration in this series. Boston had runners on second and third with one out and Mo Vaughn and Jose Canseco due up. Vaughn struck out swinging, extending his slump to 0 for 12, then Canseco lined to left to end the inning and give Jose a line of 0 for 11.”20

After the Indians went down in order in the top of the fourth, Boston put together three straight singles and Macfarlane’s sacrifice fly to make the score 3-1. With two on and two out, “leadoff man Dwayne Hosey hit a would-be double inside first base. Sorrento somehow tumbled down and stopped it, scrabbling to his knees to throw to Nagy for the final out of the inning.”21

Wakefield “looked as if he were finding himself again,”22 getting Cleveland out easily in the top of the fifth and working on a streak of retiring seven straight. Baerga’s error and a walk to Canseco (one of only two times he would reach base in the ALCS) put two on with one out, but Nagy struck out Greenwell and got designated hitter Reggie Jefferson, who played just this game in the ALDS as Canseco moved to right field, to ground to Baerga to escape.

The Indians broke the game wide open in the top of the sixth to put the contest and series out of reach. Murray singled to reach for the third straight time. After Thome flied out to Greenwell, Ramirez walked. Sorrento “lined a single just over second baseman Luis Alicea’s glove”23; Murray “had to hold up while leading off second … [but] still scored, challenging Jose Canseco’s arm, while Manny Ramirez lumbered into third.”24 Alomar doubled in Ramirez to make the score 5-1 and knock out Wakefield. Rheal Cormier came on to strike out Lofton, but Vizquel singled in a pair, and Baerga doubled in Omar. Cleveland led 8-1 in the top of the sixth, and sold-out Fenway grew as quiet as a library.25

Nagy, who “was in command for most of seven innings,”26 got through his final two unscathed, getting the bottom of the order easily in the sixth and pitching around an error and his fifth walk in the seventh. Tavarez took over in the eighth and gave up a meaningless run on a groundout after three straight singles. Assenmacher again struck out Vaughn in the ninth swinging “at a pitch over his head”27 and stayed on to get Canseco and Greenwell. Belle caught Greenwell’s fly to end the game and the series, closing a fitting sweet cycle of revenge on a “cheesy”28 Red Sox team that had accused him in Game One of cheating with his bat.

Cleveland would face the winner of the New York-Seattle series in the ALCS, while Boston would mourn a sudden end to a surprising season that just earlier in the week had seemed so promising.

MARK S. STERNMAN roots for the Yankees and, since he has lived in Massachusetts since May 1995, for whichever team plays the Red Sox. In this book, he writes about the first of many playoff games that he has seen in Boston, which took place on October 6, 1995. Having watched the game from the bleachers, Sternman still recalls how quiet the Fenway faithful got as Cleveland completed its sweep of the ALDS.