July 4, 2008
Eddie Murray: homers to remember
June 23, 1979: One night after Doug DeCinces' ninth-inning homer stunned
Detroit and started "Orioles magic," Murray kept it going in the opener of a
doubleheader. Trailing by a run in the ninth inning, the Orioles put two on
with one out for Murray, who won it, 8-6, with a homer off the Tigers' John
Hiller, against whom Murray had been 0-for-8 in his career.
Oct. 4, 1979: Murray's first postseason homer was a three-run shot off
California's Mark Clear in Game 2 of the 1979 playoffs. It gave the Orioles an
8-1 lead in the second inning, but it turned out they needed every run they
could get. The Angels rallied with six runs in the last three innings before
falling, 9-8.
Oct. 11, 1979: Murray's only homer of the 1979 World Series came in Game
2, a second-inning shot off Bert Blyleven that made it into the right-field
upper deck at Memorial Stadium, a rarity because so little of the upper deck
was in fair territory.
April 5, 1982: Opening Day at Memorial Stadium was the setting for
Murray's fifth career grand slam, off Dennis Leonard in a 13-5 victory over
Kansas City. It began one of the hottest individual starts in Orioles history.
Murray hit better than .500 over the season's first 14 games, with four homers
and 15 RBIs.
Sept. 18, 1983: Murray's dramatic grand slam off Pete Ladd in a six-run
eighth inning capped a comeback from a 7-0 deficit against Milwaukee. The
Orioles went on to win, 10-9, on John Stefero's ninth-inning single.
Oct. 7, 1983: Murray had gone hitless in his previous 29 postseason
at-bats dating to the 1979 World Series, but he put his stamp on Game 3 of the
AL playoffs with a three-run homer off Richard Dotson in the first inning.
That started the Orioles on their way to an 11-1 pounding of the White Sox.
Oct. 16, 1983: Murray homered twice in Game 5 of the World Series to bring
the Orioles a world championship. The second one, a two-run shot in the fourth
inning off Philadelphia's Charles Hudson, traveled 425 feet and hit the
right-field scoreboard at Veterans Stadium. At the time, the scoreboard was
displaying a list of the 1983 American League RBI leaders. The home-run ball
hit the scoreboard just above the "M" in Murray.
April 8, 1985: Snow fell during Opening Day at Memorial Stadium, and the
Orioles' hitters were chilled by Charlie Hough's knuckleballs, going hitless
until the seventh inning. But with the score tied 2-2 in the eighth, Murray
hit a two-run homer off Texas reliever Dave Rozema to give the Orioles a 4-2
victory.
Aug. 26, 1985: A grand slam off Alan Fowlkes capped the best night of
Murray's career -- three homers, nine RBIs and four hits (all in the first
five innings) in a 17-3 victory over the Angels at Anaheim Stadium. Murray hit
a three-run homer in the first inning and an RBI single in the second off John
Candelaria, then added a bases-empty shot in the fourth off Fowlkes before
connecting for the grand slam. With two chances to hit his fourth homer of the
game, Murray flied deep to center and walked.
May 9, 1987: Murray's second homer of the night, off White Sox
right-hander Bob James at Comiskey Park, made him the first player in
major-league history to homer from both sides of the plate on consecutive
nights. Earlier in the game, Murray had homered off left-hander Joel McKeon.
The night before, Murray connected off right-hander Jose DeLeon and
left-hander Ray Searage.
Sept. 6, 1996: One year to the day after Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's
consecutive-games record, Murray became the 15th member of baseball's
500-homer club, sending a seventh-inning pitch from Tigers right-hander Felipe
Lira into the right-field bleachers at Camden Yards.
Murray's hot list
The pitchers who have surrendered four or more home runs to Eddie Murray:
Six: Bert Blyleven, Milt Wilcox, Frank Tanana.
Five: Geoff Zahn, Dave Stieb, Mike Caldwell, Larry Gura, Jack Morris, Mike
Smithson.
Four: Rick Langford, Jim Slaton, Dennis Leonard, Ken Schrom, Dan Petry,
Richard Dotson, Jose DeLeon, Bruce Hurst, Sid Fernandez, Kevin Gross.
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
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