Boston Red Sox history: 4 greatest performances in a losing effort
Great performances on the diamond don’t always happen during a win. Many times, a player can have a great individual effort, despite his team coming out on the short end of the score. With that in mind, we take a look today at the four greatest performances by a Boston Red Sox player that happened during a loss.
We will start with the fourth-greatest performance and work our way up to number one on the list. All statistics come from the Stathead component of Baseball-Reference.com.
Kevin Millar had an amazing game for the Boston Red Sox in a loss to the New York Yankees
In the 2004 season (the one that Red Sox fans will remember well as a campaign that earned the franchise its first World Series trophy since 1918), Boston was playing in a July home series against the arch-rival New York Yankees.
In the opening game of that three-game series (on Friday, July 23), Kevin Millar, batting seventh in the Red Sox lineup, went 3-for-4 with three solo homers (hitting them in the fourth, sixth, and eighth innings) to total 12 bases. New York, however, would score what would be the winning run in the top of the ninth on an Alex Rodriguez RBI single to give the Yankees an 8-7 win.
Interesting note: Millar would hit just 18 home runs all season and July would be his best month at the plate for not only hitting long balls (six in all), but also for overall performance (posting a .373/.429/.639 slash line with a 1.067 OPS).
Ted Williams accomplished many amazing feats in his Hall of Fame career and, yes, one of his finest games happened in a losing effort.
Remembering the time Ted Williams mashed as the Boston Red Sox lost to the Detroit Tigers
The year was 1954 and the Red Sox were on their way to a 69-85 record, despite having one of the game’s best hitters in their lineup. However, in the third game of the season, no one knew what was coming later in the year. They just knew that Williams could still hit the ball like few others.
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On the second day of the season (May 16), the Red Sox were in Detroit to take on the Tigers. In a doubleheader, Boston lost the first game 7-6 as Williams went 3-for-4 from the plate. However, it is what he did in the second game that will go down in history as one of his most productive games.
Playing at Briggs Stadium, Williams went 5-for-5 with two singles, a double, and two home runs (totaling 12 bases) and logged five RBI. However, the Tigers would score a run with two outs in the bottom of the 14th to post a 9-8 win.
Interesting note: Including this monster of a game, Williams would bat .408 with a 1.288 OPS in the opening month of the season and finish the season with a .345 batting average and 1.148 OPS.
Jim Rice was an eight-time All-Star, and his first All-Star selection came during the 1977 season, a year when he would eventually finish fourth in the MVP balloting after leading the American League with 382 total bases.
One of his best games during that season, however, came in a loss to the Oakland A’s.
The time Jim Rice smashed three home runs, but the Boston Red Sox lost to the Oakland A’s
On August 29, 1977, in the first game of a two-game series in Boston against the A’s, Rice (batting behind Carl Yastrzemski, we’ll talk more about him next) went 4-for-5 with a single and three home runs (totaling 13 bases) and four RBI. However, Oakland would score a run in the eighth to tie the game and Mitchell Page’s solo homer (his second of the game) off Bill Campbell in the top of the ninth would give the visitors an 8-7 win.
Interesting note: In the game, Rice would hit his first homer of the night off Oakland starter Joe Coleman to lead off the second inning, then take Coleman deep again the very next inning.
This would be one of just two games in Rice’s career where he hit three home runs.
Of all the players to ever wear a Red Sox uniform, only Ted Williams has accumulated more bWAR than Carl Yastrzemski (122.1 to 96.5).
At the age of 25, Yastrzemski was already in his fourth season with the Red Sox and had already earned a Gold Glove, an All-Star Game bid, and a finish among the top six in MVP voting. He also had recorded one of the best games of his career, in a losing effort.
When Carl Yastrzemski hit for the cycle, but the Boston Red Sox lost to the Detroit Tigers
In front of a crowd of just 10,271 at Fenway Park on May 14, 1965, Yastrzemski logged the 12th cycle in Red Sox history, going 5-for-5 at the plate with two homers, a triple, a double, and a single (totaling 14 bases) with five RBI. Detroit, however, scored four times in the top of the 10th inning to eventually take a 12-8 win.
Batting third in the lineup, Yaz (who also walked to reach base in all six of his plate appearances on the day) would hit his two homers of the day in the game’s first two innings, and both would come off Detroit starter Denny McLain. Those homers would give Boston an early 5-0 lead, but the Tigers would come back would five in the third inning. It was part of a game that featured a combined 20 runs and 31 hits.
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Interesting note: Detroit won the game in extra innings, but the Red Sox had a great chance to avoid that loss. With one out in the sixth, Yaz hit a triple to center. However, he was stranded at third. That missed opportunity would prove costly.