Re-Live The 1986 ALCS (Sort Of) Through My Seven Game Recaps

Back in 2016, I rewatched the 1986 American League Championship Series and wrote game recaps of the seven games for The 1986 Boston Red Sox: There Was More Than Game Six, published by the Society for American Baseball Research.

While I know about SABR's Games Project, an ever-growing library of accounts of games both notable and ordinary throughout baseball history, I must have forgotten that the recaps would be added to the Games Project. So I took a look. . . . And there they are.

Game 1: October  7, 1986: Angels roar to win in ALCS opener
Game 2: October  8, 1986: Sun shines on Red Sox in ALCS Game Two
Game 3: October 10, 1986: Late rally lifts Angels to Game Three win over Red Sox
Game 4: October 11, 1986: Angels move one win closer to World Series
Game 5: October 12, 1986: Dave Henderson's homer keeps Red Sox hopes alive in Game Five
Game 6: October 14, 1986: Barrett continues hot streak as Red Sox roll in Game Six
Game 7: October 15, 1986: Red Sox complete epic ALCS comeback over Angels

From Game 1:

TV Note: Although ABC showed a pregame segment — "The Frustrations of the Red Sox in the '70s" — detailing the franchise's "agonies of the not-so-distant past," announcers Al Michaels and Jim Palmer made only one mention of Boston not having won a World Series title since 1918. That bit of information came from Michaels with two outs in the top of the ninth inning! In 1986, it had not yet become a media mantra.

From Game 3:

It was announced before the game that Boston's Roger Clemens — who allowed a career-high eight runs in Game One — would start Game Four on three days of rest, something he had not yet done in his major-league career. Red Sox manager John McNamara's reasoning was simple: "You go with your best. If you're in a seven-game series, you go with your best pitcher three times." McNamara was not concerned that Clemens had thrown 143 pitches in Game One. "I don't think that's high at all. He's a young kid."

TV Note: When ABC showed replays of Pettis being thrown out trying to steal second in the first inning, it appeared as though Boston shortstop Spike Owen failed to tag the runner. This prompted a bizarre exchange in which analyst Jim Palmer maintained that if the catcher's throw beat the runner to the bag, it was not important whether the fielder tagged the runner; the mere "appearance" of a tag was enough. Al Michaels, ABC's play-by-play man, agreed, saying that as long as the fundamentals of the team in the field were sound, the out call was justified even if the runner was not tagged.

From Game 5:

Before there was David Ortiz, there was Dave Henderson. Before Big Papi thrilled Red Sox fans with his October heroics, the man they called Hendu brought Boston back from the dead in Game Five of the 1986 ALCS.

With the Angels one strike away from winning the pennant, Henderson — a backup outfielder obtained from the Seattle Mariners in mid-August — crushed a home run that gave Boston a 6-5 lead. Then, after the Angels tied the game in their half of the ninth, Henderson knocked in the game-winning run with a sacrifice fly in the 11th. The Red Sox' 7-6 victory sent the ALCS back to Fenway Park for Game Six (and, possibly, Game Seven.) Henderson also homered in the 10th inning of Game Six of the 1986 World Series; it would have been the Red Sox' World Series-winning run if not for the Mets' comeback. ...

One out away [from winning the pennant] — and Gene Mauch came out of the dugout to make a pitching change. He wanted left-hander Gary Lucas to face Gedman ...

Lucas threw only one pitch — and it sailed up and in and hit Gedman on the right hand. As the Boston catcher trotted to first base, Mauch made another change, bringing in closer Donnie Moore to face Dave Henderson. Henderson took a ball low, then a strike that was a little higher. When he swung and missed on a pitch low and away, Moore and the Angels were one strike away.

Dave Stapleton: "I looked across the field and I could see everyone in the Angels dugout getting ready to celebrate. … They had those nice little smiles that you get before you start hugging everyone."

Moore threw ball two in the dirt, and Henderson fouled off two pitches. Moore's 2-and-2 pitch — the seventh pitch of the at-bat — came in a little low. Henderson swung and as soon as he hit it, he knew. The ball sailed far over the fence in left for a two-run home run — a shot that gave the Red Sox a 6-5 lead. Henderson took three steps out of the batter’s box, watching the flight of the ball. As it cleared the fence, he jumped and spun around. And then he began a fast trot around the bases.

From Game 7:

The Boston Red Sox clinched their 10th American League pennant by winning their third straight elimination game — overcoming a one-game-to-three deficit and advancing to the World Series for the first time in 11 years. ...

Tim Horgan of the Herald called Game Seven "a mere formality" and said the Red Sox have "become so coldly proficient that the pennant-clinching game was curiously devoid of suspense and emotion. … Even the Red Sox' victory celebration was as orderly and decorous as the game itself. There's a professionalism bordering on ruthlessness in this ballclub that's tough to describe, but heartening."

Boston DH Don Baylor believed that the Red Sox' remarkable comeback in the ninth inning of Game Five, when the Angels were one strike away from winning the pennant, "broke their morale. I really don't think they ever recovered from it. … I think they were pressing, really trying to convince themselves that 1982 wasn't on their minds." In the ALCS that season (a best-of-five), the Angels lost the pennant when they dropped three straight games to Milwaukee after winning the first two. (Baylor was a member of the Angels that season.)

[ALCS MVP Marty] Barrett called the Red Sox' performance in the series "the greatest comeback ever. We were dead in Anaheim, absolutely dead." ... [JoS: Well, it was the greatest for 18 years.]

[The Red Sox] put the game away in the fourth. ... Jim Rice blasted a three-run home run off the left-field light tower, giving the Red Sox a 7-0 lead ... Rice scored eight runs in the series, an ALCS record. ...

Schiraldi struck out the side in the ninth ... putting an exclamation point on the Red Sox' victory. "The adrenaline was flowing like it never has before. ... [I had] to stop every now and then to catch [my] breath."

The Fenway Park crowd of 33,001 had been celebrating since the sixth inning. When Evans hit a solo home run in the seventh, giving Boston an 8-0 lead, loud chants of "We want the Mets!" broke out. (The Mets had clinched the National League pennant with a 16-inning victory over the Astros earlier in the day.)

After seeing the Angels' fans signs in Game Four (e.g., "Another Boston Choke"), Red Sox fans countered with their own, using the initials of the station broadcasting the series: "Angels Bats Choke," "Atta Boy Clemens," "Anaheim Bus — Catch It." ...

"We've had so much magic this year," Wade Boggs said. "Look at the ways we've won. Something weird's always happened when we needed it. Always."