Stellar Performances
Rickey Henderson was the unanimous choice for Most Valuable Player. He had six hits in fifteen trips to the plate for a .400 battering average, including one double, one triple, two home runs, and eight runs scored. He drove in five runs, walked seven times, and stole eight bases. The only thing Henderson did wrong the entire series was commit an error in Game 4, and the recipient (George Bell) failed to score. But other A's put together tremendous series as well.
Dennis Eckersley saved three games in three opportunities while Dave Stewart gave up only five runs in sixteen innings, going eight full innings in both appearances and gaining the win in both the opener and the closer. Mark McGwire hit .389 with a homer while Dave Parker hit a miserable .188, but two of his three hits were home runs that made the difference in the first two games.
The most forgettable series for the A's surely belonged to Rick Honeycutt, who could not retire any of the six batters he faced in Games 2 and 3, but who came through for the A's at a critical juncture in Game 4.
The one Blue Jay who had a very good series was Tony Fernández, who hit .350, scored six runs, and stole five bases in a losing cause.
Read more about this topic: 1989 American League Championship Series
Famous quotes containing the word performances:
“At one of the later performances you asked why they called it a “miracle,”
Since nothing ever happened. That, of course, was the miracle
But you wanted to know why so much action took on so much life
And still managed to remain itself, aloof, smiling and courteous.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)