The 1986 season marked the Red Sox’s tenth time winning the American League Pennant.
Boston ultimately went on to lose to the New York Mets in the World Series, but it still was the Red Sox’s first American League title since 1975. The 1986 ALCS took place back when the Los Angeles Angels were called the California Angels, and the series was a back-and-forth battle for a World Series berth that went a full seven games.
Boston won Game 2 at Fenway Park to tie up the series before heading to Anaheim. On the road, the Sox dropped two games and were on the verge of elimination. The Angels, in their home stadium, could have ended it there and gone on to play for the club’s first World Series.
Then Dave Henderson happened.
You can relive the game at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday night as part of NESN’s “Red Sox Encores” series. Before you tune in, here are some things you may have forgotten about that classic game:
1. The game certainly worth the price of admission, even if Angels fans didn’t see it that way.
It had extra innings, a comeback, the season was on the line and, between both teams, there were five home runs hit. Sounds like a pretty entertaining way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
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2. Things didn’t look good for the Sox by the sixth inning.
Boston got up two runs early, but entered the seventh inning trailing 3-2. It appeared to go from bad to worse, as Red Sox center fielder Dave Henderson tried to make a play at the wall to catch a long fly ball, but instead deflected it over the fence. That put the Sox in a 5-2 hole.
3. The Angels were one pitch away from finishing off the Sox.
The Red Sox began the ninth inning trailing 5-2 with their season on the line. Don Baylor hit a two-run homer off Mike Witt to pull Boston to within a run, prompting a pitching change. After Gary Lucas hit his only batter, Angels closer Donnie Moore entered the game and got the Red Sox down to their last strike.
4. Dave Henderson saved the day.
The outfielder redeemed himself for deflecting that ball out of bounds, and kept the Red Sox World Series hopes alive. With two strikes, he took that one last pitch from Moore and sent it into the left field stands to give Boston a 6-5 lead. The Angles tied the game in the home half of the ninth, but the Sox went on to win it in extra innings, 7-6, before heading back to Boston and taking the next two games.
