I was in college in upstate New York at the time; generally painful to be a Boston sports fan at that time. The Bruins, after a fine regular season with Pete Peters in net, had been eliminated from the playoffs by the Islanders 3 years prior, and were annual fodder for the Canadiens, including a 3 game sweep earlier that April. The Pats went from laughing stock to appearing in the Super Bowl then back to laughing stock after getting crushed in a game that was not nearly as close as the 46-10 score would indicate. And the Red Sox had not been relevant since 1982, when they were tied for first place as late as August 2nd before eventually falling to the Brewers.
Since then, it had been all downhill: Yaz had retired; Eck, Lynn and Fisk were long gone, leaving only Rice, Evans and closer Bob Stanley from the "almost great" teams of the mid-to-late 1970's. Every promising young pitcher that the Red Sox had brought up through the organization seemed to have flamed out or been traded away: John Tudor had pitched the Cardinals to the World Series the prior season; Bobby Ojeda had been flipped for young Mets prospects after 5 mostly underwhelming seasons, and would go on to win 18 games for the Mets in 1986. Bruce Hurst was still around, and slated to be the team's #1 starter that season. And while he had shown flashes and even stretches of brilliance, over the prior couple of seasons, noone was really sure he would ever overcome his control issues that had once led to an infamous confrontation with Don Zimmer.
When Seattle came to town in April of 1986, it would have been hard to find a more under the radar team than the 1986 Red Sox. The Sox were 9-8 and 3 games behind a New York Yankees team was appeared to be running away with the division after a white hot 13-6 start. The Sox lineup looked like it would be OK: the Red Sox were 3rd in runs scored the prior season, and returned most of the same lineup. Wade Boggs was one of the league's best hitters and in the prime of his Hall of Fame career. Jim Rice was no longer the "most feared hitter", but was consistently good for an 0.800 OPS. Dwight Evans was in the middle of his late career offensive prime, and was an obvious plus defender in RF. Rich Gedman was firmly established as the Sox catcher, and was coming off his first All Star appearance. Bill Buckner had just become the 4th player all time to reach the 200 hit milestone in both leagues. And, to take advantage of the LF in Fenway, the Sox traded popular DH Mike Easler for the right handed Don Baylor in one of the few trades between the Red Sox and Yankees. But the pitching staff was a big question mark. Besides Hurst and Clemens, the rotation consisted of the combustible Oil Can Boyd, a big unknown despite winning 15 games the prior season; Al Nipper, a one time promising right hander who slumped in 1985; and Mike Brown, another one time promising youngster who had been rushed from AA to the major league team in 1982 and had since struggled. The bullpen had been revamped somewhat. Former closer Mark Clear the Bases had long since exhausted the patience of fans and the manager with his propensity to walk batter after batter, and had been traded to Milwaukee for utility infielder Ed Romero. Bruce Kison, famous around town for a memorable confrontation with Toronto's George Bell after Bell was hit by a pitch, had retired. Young shortstop Jackie Guitierrez, after 2 poor seasons both at the plate and in the field, was traded for Sammy Stewart. Lefty Joe Sambito was signed as a free agent after having been released by the Mets. And it was hoped that at least one of the young pitchers acquired from the Mets would be able to help out later that season. Meanwhile, across town, the region's one true bright spot in the sports radar, the Boston Celtics, coming off a 67 win season after acquiring Bill Walton, were playing the Atlanta Hawks in an opening round playoff series widely expected to be a formality.
The Red Sox had come off a split of a 2 game series in Kansas City, a perennial house of horrors for the Sox. Al Nipper had just outdueled World Series hero and defending Cy Young winner Brett Saberhagen to bring his ERA down to 2.14. The lineup was off to a somewhat slow start: Rice has struggling at the plate despite 3 HR's. Evans had only 1 home run, that one being the first at bat of the season. Buckner was off to a slow start and dealing with ankle issues. And CF Tony Armas was terrible. On the bright side, Baylor had 4 HR's, including a grand slam; Gedman looked to be headed for a 2nd All Star appearance; and Boggs was Boggs. Both Boyd and Hurst had been inconsistent; Bob Stanley had blown a save against the Tigers in Detroit. An early 4 game winning streak was halted by the Tigers. After Clemens won his 3rd start in a row, the Sox would lose to the Tigers, once again haunted by long time nemesis Frank Tanana. After a listless 6-0 loss in Kansas City, the Sox were once again at 0.500. The game following the aforementioned win against Saberhagen was rained out, and so the Sox had a rare 2 days off when the resumed play in Fenway on April 29th against the Mariners.
Even Clemens was under the radar going into that game. He was certainly highly touted when he appeared as a 21 year old rookie in 1984, but experienced the typical rookie adjustments and inconsistencies. He raised some eyebrows when he struck out 15 and 11 in back to back games in August, before being shut down for the month of September after experience shoulder discomfort. After a promising start in 1985, he spent time on and off the DL, striking out only 15 batters in his final 38 innings. Turns out the was dealing with an undiagnosed torn labrum, which required season ending surgery from little known Dr. James Andrews that August. Clemens was ramped up slowly in spring training, and was #4 starter after Hurst, Oil Can Boyd, and Al Nipper. He walked 5 batters in his first start, a win against the White Sox. He had then won his following 2 starts, including one against the Tigers where he had struck out 10 in 6 2/3 innings. So, while the 3-0 start was promising, noone really knew what to expect from Clemens going forward.
That game would end up as the 2nd game of a stretch where the Sox would win 12 of 14 to take over first place. They would take over first place for good on May 16th. Clemens would win 14 of his first 15 starts, and would pitch 3 hitless innings in the All Star game, which would also feature his first major league at bat. He would only pitch once against the Yankees that season, a 10-1 victory against Sox nemesis Ron Guidry in a key series in the old Yankee Stadium that would end in a Red Sox sweep. And the rest of the story of that team has been well chronicled elsewhere.