The great escapes: by leaving runners on base, pitching is leaving its mark on the A.L. playoffs

Sporting News, The, Oct 18, 1993 by Michael Knisley

It will be the legacy of the 1993 American League Championship Series, also known as the Leave-|em-loaded Series. The Toronto-Chicago matchup turned into Game 6 this week on a succession of bases-loaded escapes that gave the games drama befitting the postseason.

In each critical case, the winning pitcher wriggled away from the threat. In each critical case, the managers made the right choices about their defense. In each critical case, the series momentum shifted as soon as the third out was recorded with the bases still full.

In each critical case, the Blue Jays and the White Sox spun their rally-killing-successes into victories. More than any other factor, the series was shaped by clutch pitching in the face of trouble. Until Toronto's Juan Guzman and a pair of relievers kept all but seven of the 33 batters they faced off base in their 5-3 victory in Game 5, the two teams were stranding more runners than Heartbreak Hill in the Boston Marathon - 46 by Toronto, 43 by Chicago.

"When you get into a situation and you don't capitalize on it, the air sort of comes out of your balloon," says Tim Raines, who was on third for Chicago when Guzman snuffed a bases-loaded rally in Game 1. "When it doesn't happen, the whole outlook of the ban game changes. We had those chances in the first two ball games and didn't come through; and they had their chances in the next two and didn't do it. And look who won those games. "

Although the White Sox didn't load the bases in the fifth game, they left two on in the seventh inning and went down in the ninth with a runner on first and the tying run at the plate. In both cases, the unhappy hitter was Bo Jackson, a home-run threat long overdue to go deep. Jackson, normally Chicago's designated hitter, missed the series' first two games in Chicago while Frank Thomas D.H.d to rest his sore arm from the rigors of first base. In Jackson's three games in Toronto, he was hitless in 10 at-bats.

Naturally, in Game 5, Guzman struck him out in the seventh and Duane Ward cut him down swinging in the ninth, taking the air out of a White Sox balloon swollen with back-to-back victories in the Skydome.

"Against Bo, I decided not to go to the corners and come right at him," Guzman says. "I had to go right at him with my fastball and try to get ahead in the count. That's the best way to pitch against him. I got ahead with my fastball. I threw two fastballs by him, and then got him with a slider, down and away."

A day earlier, the Blue Jays left 1 1 men on base, including three in the third inning that snuffed their best chance to put the White Sox away. In that case, Tim Belcher came on in relief of Jason Bere to strike out Tony Fernandez and force Ed Sprague into a fielder's choice.

The pendulum swung Chicago's way - at least until Ward struck out Jackson in the ninth inning Sunday.

"When your team gets out of a bases-loaded jam, there's a good chance the momentum is going to swing to your side," says Chicago reliever Kirk McCaskill, who used the momentum from Belcher's great escape to pitch 11/3 shutout innings and help the White Sox tie the series at two games.

Working backward, here's how the series - unlikely as it is in some cases - got to where it did.

Game 4

The Set - UP: Down two games to one, Chicago takes a 2-0 lead on Lance Johnson's two-run home run in the second inning. It's Johnson's first home run in 689 at-bats, or since August 24, 1992.

The Trouble: Bere, a rookie in his first postseason start, needs only three innings to find his first postseason distress. Pat Borders leads off Toronto's third with a single to center, Devon White walks and Roberto Alomar scores Borders with a single. Joe Carter's single scores White and Alomar, and Bere is in serious difficulty when he hits John Olerud and walks Paul Molitor on five pitches. Now, Bere has blown the lead, the bases are loaded and three runs already are in with only one out.

The Solution: Get the rookie out of the game and a veteran into it. Belcher has pitched in the majors for seven seasons and was 2-0 in the National League playoffs and 1-0 in the World Series for the Dodgers in 1988.

The Risks: Why not use a tested relief pitcher? It is the game's most critical moment. Belcher is Chicago's fifth starter, relegated to the bullpen only because Bere and Wilson Alvarez pitched so well for the White Sox in the season's last couple of months. His only relief appearance in 1993 was a meaningless inning on the season's final day, although Tommy Lasorda occasionally used him as a reliever with Los Angeles in the late 1980s. And Fernandez, the next Toronto batter, has a .41 7 lifetime batting average against Belcher.

The Outcome: On a 3-2 pitch, Belcher persuades Fernandez to swing at a borderline fastball up and away for strike three. Sprague grounds into the fielder's choice. The damage is undone.

The Consequence: Belcher settles into long relief and takes the White Sox through the sixth inning and to the regulars in the bullpen - McCaskill, Scott Radinsky and Roberto Hernandez. Thomas' home run and Johnson's two-run triple in the sixth give Chicago the lead again, and the White Sox win, 7-4,