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Wednesday.
June 18, 1986.
We took the field against the Fresno Giants.
We were going for the sweep!
And I was on the mound.
"You ready today, James?"
I nodded.
The money transfer had gone through. I wouldn't get time to hit the casinos much as we had to catch the bus tomorrow and head out to Modesto.
The temperature was 63 degrees when the game started.
Bernie Williams started the game off with a single but a 5-4-3 ended the top of the first. Their short stop had swung at a high fastball.
The walks started in the second. I thought the ump had squeezed me on one particular pitch. A fastball that had, I thought, caught the lower inside corner but he had called it a ball.
Bases were loaded with nobody out.
I just took a deep breath and said the hell with it.
A pop-up brought on the infield fly rule and there was one out. The batter had swung at a low curveball on a 2-2 count.
I put a 1-2 fastball too much in the middle of the plate for the next hitter and he turned it into a sacrifice fly and we were down 1-0.
I struck the next guy out on three pitches!
"That's a good job working out of that situation, James," Coach Stephen told me as we headed off the field.
Bernie Williams led off the top of the third with a double and he scored two batters later and we were down 2-0.
And we didn't even have a hit through three innings.
Bernie Williams got his third hit of the game in the fifth innning. The Giants went on to tack on another run and the score was 3-0.
The irritating part was how many of these hits were infield or groundball singles.
Our offense came alive in the bottom of the fifth. Three straight singles. Bases loaded. Nobody out.
And just like that, I was taking the mound with a 4-3 lead!
A lead I couldn't hold. Bernie Williams got another hit and we trailed 5-4.
We got a run in the bottom of the sixth and the game was tied.
They got another infield single in the bottom of the seventh with two out. But this time I got the next hitter to line out to retire the side.
Still 5-5.
Could our offense keep up the run production?
Three up. Three down.
The eighth innning. I was at 130 pitches but I was still ok. I hadn't walked anyone since that second innning but I walked the lead off batter on a full count pitch. And the same thing with the next batter. Full count. Ball four.
That was it.
Coach Stephen came to the mound and took the ball from me.
They ended up scoring one.
But we tied the game in the bottom of the eighth. I was at least off the hook for the loss. Wayne Davis then hit an RBI single and we led 7-6!
In the top of the ninth, the Giants got the tying run to third but Michael Visor struck out Billy Loard to end the game!
Padres win 7-6.
My line:
7.0 IP, 6 runs on 12 hits, 4 walks and 6 strikeouts.
But we were on a 4 game winning streak.
Little did we know that, in just a matter of hours, an event would take place that would shock the sports world to its very core.
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