Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Seattle Mariners at Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, Boston, MA
July 27, 1985

Introduction

The Boston Red Sox entered play on July 27, 1985 tied for third place in the American League East with a record of 52-44. The Toronto Blue Jays had a six-game lead in the division en route to the first division title in franchise history, but there was a tight battle for second place (which, in this pre-wild card era didn't matter for anything other than bragging rights) and the Red Sox, on the strength of a six-game winning streak, had pulled to within 1-1/2 games of their long-time archrival, the second-place New York Yankees.

The Red Sox opponent on this day came into being the same season as the Blue Jays, 1977. But while the Blue Jays were on the verge of their first playoff appearance, the Seattle Mariners were mired in sixth place in the AL West, headed for their ninth losing record in their ninth season of existence.

The Mariners entered play on July 27th going in the opposite direction as the Red Sox. The Red Sox had won their previous six games; the Mariners had lost their last six (and 14 of their last 17).

Pitching for the Red Sox was Tim Lollar. Lollar had been acquired from the Chicago White Sox 16 days earlier. This would be Lollar's second start for the Red Sox, his first having been a 6-inning, 3-run win five days earlier.

Lollar's opponent was the Mariners ace, Mark Langston. In 1984, Langston had won 17 games and led the American League in strikeouts (and walks) as a 23-year-old rookie. His sophomore season had not gone quite so well. Due to injuries, Langston's previous start (on the same date as Lollar's Red Sox debut) had been his first appearance in more than six weeks. Overall, Langston entered play on July 27th with a record of 5-7 with an ERA of 3.84 in 12 starts.

First Inning

Things started out well for Lollar and the Red Sox as the first two Mariners went down on a fly out to center field and a strikeout. But Al Cowens singled and Gorman Thomas homered (his 18th of the season) and the Mariners had a quick 2-0 lead. Alvin Davis got the Mariners' third straight hit, a single, but Jim Presley struck out to end the inning.

Dwight Evans led off the bottom of the first inning with a single. Marty Barrett flew out and Bill Buckner struck out. But Hall-of-Famer Jim Rice matched Thomas with his 18th home run of the season and the score was tied 2-2. As in the top of the inning, the #5 hitter singled. And Mark Langston's day was over. Roy Thomas came out of the bullpen for the Mariners and quickly ended the threat, getting Rich Gedman to fly out to left field.

And so the game was tied after one inning, 2-2.

Second Inning

The game did not stay tied for long. The first Mariners batter of the inning, Ivan Calderon, hit the third home run of the game and the Mariners led 3-2.

An infield pop produced one out, but Harold Reynolds walked, stole second, and got to third base on a wild pitch. Lollar bore down and struck out Domingo Ramos for the second out of the inning. Phil Bradley walked and so ended Tim Lollar's day.

The two starting pitchers combined to pitch a total of 2-1/3 innings, allowing 9 baserunners (7 hits, 2 walks) while recording only 7 outs. Not exactly a pitchers' duel.

The new Red Sox pitcher was Mike Trujillo. The first batter Trujillo faced was Al Cowens. Cowens greeted Trujillo with a two-run double to extend the Mariners' lead to 5-2. Gorman Thomas also hit the ball hard, but his line drive was caught by Jim Rice in left field and the inning was over.

The battle of the bullpens was on. And Roy Thomas looked to have the edge as he retired the Red Sox 1-2-3 in the bottom of the second inning.

Third Inning

The Mariners threatened to extend their lead with a pair of two-out singles. But Harold Reynolds grounded out to first base and the score remained 5-2.

Roy Thomas, meanwhile, continued his stellar relief pitching with another 1-2-3 inning, this one ending on back-to-back strikeouts of Barrett and Buckner.

Fourth Inning

A one-out single by Phil Bradley was wasted in the top of the fourth as he was subsequently caught stealing. In the bottom of the fourth, Thomas extended his strikeout streak to four, striking out Rice and Tony Armas. Rich Gedman did not strike out, but his fly out to left field extended Thomas's string of consecutive batters retired to ten (out of ten total batters faced by Thomas).

Fifth Inning

The last thing a team needs when it's already down by three runs is defensive lapses. Unfortunately, that's how the top of the fifth inning started for the Red Sox. An Ed Jurak error at third base put Gorman Thomas on first base. Alvin Davis followed with a double, scoring Gorman Thomas and extending the Mariners' lead to 6-2. Davis moved to third base on a Jim Presley groundout and scored when Bob Kearney singled. Harold Reynolds also singled but no more runs scored and the game moved to the bottom of the fifth inning with the Mariners leading 7-2.

Ed Jurak tried to atone for his error with a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning, the first batter to reach base against Roy Thomas. A wild pitch and a walk put runners on 1st and 2nd, but there were already two outs and Thomas got the third out to prevent any run scoring.

Sixth Inning

With one out in the top of the sixth inning, Al Cowens doubled, his third hit (and second double) of the game. The next batter was Gorman Thomas, who promptly hit his second two-run home run of the game and the Mariners' lead was now 9-2.

Meanwhile, Roy Thomas continued pitching goose eggs, fashioning a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts in the bottom of the sixth inning - his third 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts of the game.

Seventh Inning

With one out in the top of the seventh inning, Trujillo hit Kearney with a pitch. Reynolds singled him to third and that was the end of Mike Trujillo's day. Trujillo ended the game having allowed 10 hits, including one home run, in 4-2/3 innings.

The new Red Sox pitcher was Tom McCarthy. The first thing that McCarthy did was throw a wild pitch, allowing Kearney to score the Mariners' tenth run of the game. He then walked Domingo Ramos but retired the next two batters to get out of the inning.

Roy Thomas, meanwhile, pitched another 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the seventh inning and the Mariners led 10-2 at the end of seven.

Eighth Inning

The eighth inning was probably the most uneventful inning of the game. The top of the eighth inning went walk, strikeout, 6-4-3 double play.

The most noteworthy feature of the eighth inning was probably the fact that the Mariners brought on a new pitcher, Edwin Nunez. Roy Thomas's day ended with him having pitched 6-1/3 innings, allowing no runs on one hit and one walk, while striking out seven, and he was in line to be the winning pitcher in the game.

Nunez picked up right where Thomas had left off with a 1-2-3 inning on three ground balls to middle infielders.

Ninth Inning

The Mariners decided ten runs was enough with a scoreless top of the ninth inning leaving Edwin Nunez with an 8-run lead to protect in the ninth inning.

Nunez retired the first two batters easily.

Tony Armas then hit a solo home run to make the score 10-3 - among the least valuable home runs you're liable to see. The expected win value of a home run in Fenway Park in 1985 was 0.1382 eWins; Armas's home run was worth 0.0001 pWins - trailing 10-3 with two outs in the ninth inning isn't that much better than trailing 10-2 with two outs in the ninth inning; it's still overwhelmingly likely that you're going to lose the game.

And, indeed, Dave Sax flew out to left field and the game was over.

Final score: Seattle Mariners 10, Boston Red Sox 3

Game Summary

As measured by Player won-lost records, the two stars of this game were the Mariners' Thomases: Gorman hit two 2-run home runs and Roy pitched 6-1/3 shutout innings in relief with 7 strikeouts. As a fellow Thomas (first name, not last), I approve!

Mariners' starting pitcher Mark Langston's 1985 season did not get any better. He stayed in the Mariners' rotation for the rest of the season but his ERA ballooned from 4.06 after this game to 5.47 by season's end. In retrospect, however, Langston's 1985 season was mostly just a blip. He would go on to be named to four All-Star teams, to lead the AL in strikeouts two more times, and to win 19 games twice (with a career record of 179-158).

The Mariners win this day improved their record to 45-52. It did not, however, trigger any kind of massive turnaround. They finished the season in the same position as when they started this game, sixth place, with a record of 74-88.

For the Red Sox, on the other hand, this game was perhaps more indicative of how the rest of their season would go. In retrospect, their win the previous day was the high point of their season, with a record of 52-44. The July 27th loss was the first of four straight losses (with a tie mixed in) as the Red Sox finished the season in fifth place with a record of 81-81. Fortunately for Red Sox fans, however, the team was able to turn things around in 1986, when they 95 games and the American League pennant.

Details of the game are shown below. First, I show Player won-lost records for all of the players who participated in the game. Baseball Player won-lost records are constructed so that the players on the winning team earn two pWins and one pLoss in the game while the players on the losing team earn one pWin and two pLosses. I also show expected wins and losses, eWins and eLosses, which are context-neutral. Full play by play details of the game are shown below the won-lost tables. My Player won-lost records are described in more detail in this article and throughout my website.

Retrosheet Box Score and Play-by-Play