1995 Boston Red Sox: Wakefield, Vaughn & a Surprise AL East Crown
The Boston Red Sox came into 1995 as an organization that looked adrift. They had suffered three straight losing seasons. Coming off the strike-shortened year of ’94, there seemed little reason for hope in Fenway Park. But with some major lineup changes, the Red Sox were overhauled and won a surprise AL East title.
A FLURRY OF MOVES & A KNUCKLEBALL SURPRISE
Boston spent the winter making a series of modest moves—none of them spectacular individually, but together they quietly improved the roster. A trade for Luis Alicea to play second base was the first one, and Alicea posted a .367 on-base percentage for Boston in 1995. Mike Macfarlane was signed to handle the catching duties. The starting pitching was upgraded by the addition of Erik Hanson, who won 15 games with a 4.24 ERA. Zane Smith added some depth to the rotation. Stan Belinda was added for the bullpen, and he posted a 3.10 ERA in middle relief work.
These were all nice moves, but not game-changers. The headline move came on December 9. Boston swung a deal with the Texas Rangers to get Jose Canseco. The controversial DH might not have been the MVP player he’d once been in Oakland, but he was awfully good this year for the Red Sox. Canseco finished with a stat line of .378 OBP/.556 slugging percentage and hit 24 home runs.
And that wasn’t even the most consequential move. On Opening Day, which came late, on April 26, due to the strike persisting into the spring, the Red Sox signed Tim Wakefield. The knuckleballer would become a beloved icon in New England, and he had a fantastic year. Wakefield won 16 games with a 2.95 ERA and finished third in the AL Cy Young voting.
The acquisitions kept coming as the season went on. Before May was out, Rheal Cormier was added to the pitching staff. Working 115 innings in relief and spot-starting duty, Cormier had a 4.07 ERA. Mike Maddux was added for the bullpen, and he logged 89 innings with a 3.61 ERA. Willie McGee, a former MVP centerfielder in St. Louis was 36-years-old, but he was picked up midseason and hit .285.
There was also a need to shore up the back end of the bullpen. Rick Aguilera holds a unique place in history—as a reliever with the New York Mets in 1986, he was the winning pitcher on the fateful night the groundball rolled through Bill Buckner’s legs in Game 6 of the World Series—Aguilera was bailed out after giving up the runs that put Boston on the brink of the historic title they were still chasing.
In more recent years, he had become a highly successful closer and continued to be so in 1995. After coming to Boston on July 6, Aguilera saved 20 games with a 2.67 ERA.
THE CORE ALREADY THERE
Thus far, we’ve only covered the new faces. Some of the best Red Sox players in 1995 were those who had been there all along. Let’s start with Mo Vaughn. The big first baseman batted .300, ripped 39 homers, drove in 126 runs, and won the AL MVP award.
John Valentin was a terrific all-around shortstop—a .399/.533 stat line, 37 doubles, 27 homers, 20 stolen bases and 120 RBIs.
Other notable contributors included:
- Tim Naehring was at third and delivered a .415 on-base percentage.
- Troy O’Leary played rightfield and finished with a stat line of.355/491.
- On the other side of the outfield, Mike Greenwell continued to be a steady performer, with a .349/549 stat line.
- Lee Tinsley provided a spark in centerfield, with a .359 OBP and 18 stolen bases.
The most famous Red Sox player of this era—Roger Clemens–wasn’t dominant in 1995, but the Rocket was solid. He started 23 games in the 144-game season, went 10-5 and posted a 4.18 ERA.
Between the core of returning players and the myriad of new additions, the result was a balanced team. Boston finished fourth in the American League in runs scored and third in team ERA.
FINDING THEIR FOOTING
The season started out as expected—the Red Sox lost three of four in the Bronx, where the New York Yankees had high expectations, coming off the American League’s best record in 1994. But Boston got themselves to 4-4, then won five straight and hosted New York for a weekend series at Fenway.
Friday night’s opener picked up where the series in Yankee Stadium had left off. The Red Sox only mustered four hits, trailed 2-0 after seven innings and the bullpen melted down in a 12-2 loss. But the following afternoon things began to change.
Vaughn had a three-hit game. Mo and Valentin both homered in the third inning and Boston won 6-4. On Sunday afternoon, Zane Smith was brilliant and handed a 2-0 lead to the bullpen in the ninth inning. The Yanks spoiled Smith’s effort for a win when they scored twice in the ninth. But they couldn’t spoil the day as a whole—Macfarlane’s walk-off blast gave the Sox a 3-2 win.
Over the balance of May, the Red Sox had their stumbles. They lost five of seven games against the Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners, who were both headed for the American League Championship Series. But Boston handled their business elsewhere and reached Memorial Day with a 17-11 record. They were up three games on New York and plus-4 on the Detroit Tigers, who were an AL East team through 1997.
SEPARATION THEN SLIDE
The Red Sox came out of the holiday weekend, swept Oakland three straight, and then hosted Seattle on the first weekend of June.
Boston trailed 5-3 going into the eighth inning on Friday night. Valentin homered to cut the lead in half. In the ninth, Macfarlane homered to tie it. In the 10th, Valentin grounded a double into leftfield and scored on a Greenwell base hit. A dramatic 6-5 win was in the books.
Greenwell kept hitting on Saturday afternoon, with three hits and three ribbies, including a home run. Naehring had a four-hit day. The Red Sox jumped out to 9-3 lead before the bullpen made it a little interesting, but they eventually closed out a 10-8 win.
Wakefield took the mound on Sunday and was brilliant, floating his knuckler for nine scoreless innings. But Boston couldn’t score either and the game went extras. Wakefield stayed on, allowed a run in the top of the 10th, and was staring at a hard-luck loss. Until O’Leary ripped a two-run blast that delivered the Red Sox a 2-1 win and a series sweep.
With the Yankees in a spiral, Boston was soaring and their lead in the AL East was up to eight games. But they played more mediocre baseball for the balance of the first half. They still led the AL East at the All-Star break, with a 39-29 record. But Detroit had moved to within three games while the Yanks still lagged.
THE AUGUST SURGE
Losing four of five out of the break could have spelled a problem—but as if to underscore the problems the rest of the division was having it actually allowed the Red Sox to nudge their lead out to four games. They were able to stabilize the ship, generally holding serve before beginning a sequence of games against AL East rivals in mid-August.
Boston simply dominated. The 16-game stretch was highlighted by a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, a series win over New York and the continued freefall of Detroit. By Labor Day, the Red Sox were soaring at 74-45 and their lead had ballooned to a massive 15 games.
COASTING IN SEPTEMBER
In the early years of MLB’s three-division format, just implemented in 1994, the playoff format did not seed teams. With only one wild-card spot, Division Series matchups were determined on a pre-established rotation. Which is to say that with the AL East all but wrapped up, the Red Sox had little to play for in the final month.
On September 20, they were hosting the Milwaukee Brewers (an American League team prior to 1998) with the magic number down to one. The Wednesday night affair at Fenway was tied 2-2 in the seventh. Canseco’s RBI single gave the Red Sox the lead. Aguilera closed it, striking out Dave Nilsson and officially giving Boston its first AL East crown since 1990.
OCTOBER MATCHUP PROBLEMS
The failure of MLB to seed the playoffs bit the Red Sox in October. Even though their 86-58 record was the third-best in the majors, the rotation called for them to play the Cleveland Indians, who merely tore off a 100-44 mark.
Boston lost a 13-inning heartbreaker at home in Game 1 and then were handled rather routinely the next two games to end the season. Cleveland went on to reach the World Series.
1995’s surprise run was heartening, especially coming after the bitterness of the strike. But it was not an immediate bellwether of future success. The Red Sox slid back into the shadows of mediocrity for the next two years. It was the arrival of Pedro Martinez in 1998 that decisively shifted the fortunes of this franchise moving into the new century.