31 August 1996 - On this day eleven years ago, appearing as a late-inning replacement for Jeff Frye, late-season call-up Nomar Garciaparra debuts in the seventh inning at second and goes 0-for-1 with a line drive out to left as the Red Sox loses 8-0 to the Athletics in Oakland. The next day, Garciaparra starts the game at shortstop and, in the fourth inning with two outs, hits a solo home run off John Wasdin for his first major league hit and goes 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBI in an 8-3 Red Sox win.

A year later in his first full season, Garciaparra became a force as Boston’s leadoff hitter, making 684 plate appearances to set a club record. He also collected 209 hits, a rookie club record, for a .306 clip and hit 30 home runs while driving home 98 and scoring 122 runs himself; those numbers easily making him the American League Rookie of the Year. Garciaparra continued to dazzle over the next few seasons, winning batting titles in 1999 and 2000 while also hitting 117 home runs and driving home 436 runs in his first four-plus seasons. In September of 2000, as Boston finished out of the playoffs for the first time in three years, Garciaparra was hit on the wrist by an errant pitch. The following spring, just a week after a Sports Illustrated article and cover proclaimed him the most physically-fit player in baseball, he aggravated the injury again and spent most of the 2001 season on the disabled list, appearing in just 21 games midway through the season.

Returning to full strength in 2002, Garciaparra would again produce at the plate over the next two seasons, hitting another 52 home runs and driving home another 225 RBI while batting above .300 both years. Just a week before the 2004 season was to begin, Garciaparra ended up on the disabled list with a sore Achilles, but rumors persisted that the injury was a front in a dispute that had erupted between the shortstop and the franchise over salary negotiations, as he was due to become a free agent at the end of that season. He eventually returned to the lineup in June and batted .321 in 38 games, but a surprise deadline trade sent him to the Chicago Cubs, bringing his Boston career to an abrupt end.

As Boston continues to make its push to win the team’s first division title since 1995, a once-comfortable, double-digit lead has shrunk to five games through games played last night. While this may be a cause for concern to some Red Sox fans, records show that in franchise history, Boston has more often than not managed to stay the course and maintain this lead through the end of regular season play. Fifteen times, the Red Sox have held or shared the lead at the end of play on 22 August and gone on to win a division title or the pennant eleven times. The largest lead ever held at this date was a 13-1/2 game divisional lead in 1995, while Boston was tied for the lead in the American League pennant chase in 1967, two years before divisional play began.

Only three times has Boston failed to make the playoffs with a lead this late in the season, all within the remarkable span of five years. In 1974, the Red Sox held a 6-1/2 game lead over the second place Indians and a seven-game lead over the third-place Orioles, but a severe late-season slump put Boston in third-place at the end of the regular season, seven games behind Baltimore. Three years later, Boston held just a half-game lead over second-place New York. Despite going 26-15 over the remainder of the season, the Red Sox would tie for second with the Orioles as the Yankees went 28-11 over that same stretch to win the division by 2-1/2 games.

In 1978, the Sox owned a seven-game lead over the second-place Milwaukee Brewers and a 7-1/2 game lead over the third-place Yankees, but another collapse, marked by the infamous “Boston Massacre” in early September, dropped Boston as far as 3-1/2 games behind New York. An eight-game win streak to end the season put the two teams in a first-place tie, forcing a one-game playoff at Fenway Park. Unfortunately for Boston, thanks in part to light-hitting Bucky Dent’s three-run home run for New York, the visitors prevailed with a 5-4 win, leaving the Red Sox out of the playoff picture.

Only one other time has Boston held a lead at this point in the season and not gone on to win a division title or the pennant, but the Red Sox still made post-season play. In 2005, the club held a 3-1/2 game lead over second-place New York and the lead would get as high as four games on 10 September but, thanks in part to a late-season surge by the Yankees, the two teams would finish with identical 95-67 records. However, New York had won the season series between the two teams 10-9, with the Yankees needing just one win in a season-ending three-game series in Boston to ensure this, thereby giving the Bombers their ninth straight division title. However, the Red Sox would still end up in the post-season as the wild card team.

20 August 1967 - On this day forty years ago, Red Sox outfielder Reggie Smith hits three home runs in two games at Fenway Park as Boston not only sweeps a doubleheader against California, 12-2 and 9-8, but completes a four-game series sweep against the Angels. The four wins also avenges a sweep at the hands of the Angels in Anaheim one week earlier and moves the surging Red Sox to within 1-1/2 games of first place in the American League, but comes at a price; Tony Conigliaro is beaned by a Jack Hamilton pitch in the first game of the series and the young outfielder will miss not only the rest of the season but the entire 1968 campaign as well.

In the first game, Smith becomes the first player in franchise history to hit home runs from both sides of the plate in a single game; his first, a three-run shot, comes in the first inning off left-handed starting pitcher George Brunet and the second, a two-run blast, comes in the sixth off right-hander Pete Cimino. Rico Petrocelli and Carl Yastrzemski also homer as Boston scores five runs in the first and six runs in the sixth to make it a laugher.

In the nightcap, the Angels take a commanding 8-0 lead before Smith hits his third home run of the day, a solo shot off Angels starter Jim McGlothlin, with one out in the fourth inning. The Red Sox then score three in the fifth on Yastrzemski’s second home run of the day and four in the sixth to tie the score at eight runs apiece; third baseman Jerry Adair then completes the scoring with a solo home run into the netting above the Green Monster. In the ninth inning, the Angels attempt to salvage at least one game in the series thanks to a single and a double to open the frame that put runners on second and third. However, reliever Jose Santiago manages to pitch out of the jam by inducing a groundout to second base, a strikeout, and a international walk followed by a groundout into a force at second.

An East Boston native and a graduate of St. Mary’s High in the nearby suburb of Lynn, Tony Conigliaro got the opportunity to live the dream of New England school boys everywhere when he signed with the Boston Red Sox in September of 1962. With Boston’s intermediate Single-A affiliate in Wellsville, NY the following year, “Tony C,” as he was known later to Boston fans, tore through the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York League (known today as the New York-Penn League), batting .363 with 24 home runs and 74 RBI in only 83 games. It was only too easy then for newly-crowned Boston manager Johnny Pesky to find a spot for the 19-year-old prodigy on the major league roster the following spring in Arizona. Less than a month later, stepping to the plate at Fenway Park for the first time, he took a pitch from Chicago White Sox pitcher Joe Horlen over the Green Monster and onto Lansdowne Street for his first career major league home run; with that, a legend was born.

By late July of his freshman campaign in the majors, Conigliaro had smashed 20 home runs and driven home 42 runs, but an errant pitch thrown by Cleveland’s Pedro Ramos on 26 July in the second game of a doubleheader sidelined the young outfielder for over a month. He eventually finished with a .290 average, a career high, 24 home runs, and 52 RBI in 111 games played, but the injury had ruined his chances to walk away with American League Rookie of the Year honors, which instead went to Tony Oliva. Over the next two seasons, he would continue to demonstrate remarkable power numbers at the plate, becoming the youngest player ever to win the home run crown in 1965 after collecting 32 long balls and hitting another 28 the following season.

1967 saw Conigliaro jump out to a strong start. Before a two-week stint on the disabled list in late May, he was batting .304 with two home runs and 15 RBI; when he returned, he hit eight home runs and drove home another 26 runs in the month of June while keeping his average close to .300. In July, he hit another nine round-trippers, highlighted by career number 100 in the first game of a doubleheader on 23 July off John O’Donoghue of Detroit to become the youngest player to reach that milestone. As Boston ended a road trip the same day having won ten straight to close within a half-game of first place, fans and the media were caught up in pennant fever and Conigliaro, along with his teammates, were on the verge of greatness.

Unfortunately, his part in the pursuit of a long-overdue championship for the franchise was instantly shattered on 18 August. Settled into the batter’s box in the bottom of the fourth inning at Fenway Park, California Angels pitcher Jack Hamilton threw his first pitch high and inside; Conigliaro never had a chance as the pitch struck his face below his left eye, causing his cheekbone to get crushed and his eye ball to implode. Conigliaro immediately dropped to the ground as coaches and players raced to his aid and the Fenway crowd sat in stunned silence. Conigliaro not only missed the rest of the “Impossible Dream” season but the 1968 campaign as well as he recovered from the devastating injury.

His return in 1969 earned him Comeback Player of the Year honors as he socked 20 home runs and plated 82 runs in 141 games; he followed that season with career-highs of 36 home runs and 116 RBI in 1970. To the surprise of everyone outside the organization, Boston traded the beloved Conigliaro that October to California, but he lasted just 74 games with the Angels in 1971 before he announced his retirement at age 26 due to lingering problems with his eyesight.

Not willing to hang up the cleats for good, Conigliaro made one last attempt to return to the game he loved. With the addition of the designated hitter’s position in 1974, he figured he might be able to make an impact with his bat for the club and told Boston in November of 1974 that his depth perception was back 100%. The following April, on Opening Day against Milwaukee at Fenway, 30-year-old Tony Conigliaro made his triumphant return to the Boston lineup and received four standing ovations, responding to the warmth of the crowd with a single in his first at-bat. However, the good times were short-lived as he appeared in only 21 games, batting just .123 with two home runs, before making his last appearance for the Red Sox on 12 June, grounding out to second in his last at-bat.

Following retirement, Conigliaro moved away to San Francisco and found work as a sportscaster on a local area television station. When a position became available to become a television analyst for the Red Sox, he jumped at the opportunity to return to his roots and flew back to Boston in early January 1982. Unfortunately, as he was being driven back to Logan Airport by his brother Billy to return to California, he suffered a massive heart attack that left him severely incapacitated. Tragically, he died in 1990 in Salem, MA; he was just 45 years of age.

Former Red Sox pitcher Jack Wilson may not be a name familiar even to die-hard Fenway fanatics and his career hardly made a blip on the radar as a professional ballplayer. In nine big-league seasons, seven with the Red Sox between 1935 and 1941, the University of Portland, Oregon product was 68-72 with a 4.59 ERA and 590 strikeouts. His best season, arguably, came in 1937 when he went 16-10 with an ERA of 3.70 in 51 appearances, splitting time between the starting rotation and the bullpen as he also saved seven games at a time when this was not a recognized statistic.

He may be better remembered, however, for what he did with his bat rather than with his arm. In September of 1935, Boston trailed Washington 7-0 in the first game of a Labor Day doubleheader at Fenway Park before the team rallied to tie the score at 8-8 after eight innings. Wilson then capped the comeback with a game-winning solo home run to dead center field, his first-ever major league home run, as the home team won by a final of 9-8 in 11 innings. Nearly five years later, pitching in the second game of a June 1940 doubleheader at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Wilson helped his own cause with two home runs as the visitors collected five home runs and 20 total hits en route to a 14-5 rout of the White Sox. These would be the only three home runs out of 15 extra-base hits that Wilson, a .199 hitter, would manage in 413 career at-bats.

09 August 1949 - On this day 58 years ago, Red Sox outfielder Dom DiMaggio’s franchise-record 34-game hitting streak comes to an end as he goes 0-for-5 at the plate against Yankee hurler Vic Raschi, but Boston still wins the game 6-3 in front of more than 35,000 fans at Fenway Park behind eventual 23-game-winner Ellis Kinder. With one last chance to extend the streak in the bottom of the eighth inning, Dom’s line drive to center field is caught on the shoestrings by his own brother, Joe DiMaggio, who today still holds the major league record for the longest consecutive-game hitting streak at 56.

Known to teammates as “The Little Professor,” the five-foot-nine bespectacled outfielder looked more like he belonged in front of a classroom than on a baseball diamond, yet he was perhaps one of the best to play the outfield for Boston. Seven times, DiMaggio was named to the All-Star game during his 11 seasons in Boston, sandwiched around three years of service with the Coast Guard during the second World War. DiMaggio would also hit in 27 straight games in 1951 and, used primarily as a leadoff hitter, scored 100 or more runs seven times. Though his numbers were not enough to earn consideration for Hall of Fame induction, he was part of the original class of former players inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1995.

After closing the gap for the lead in the American League pennant race to a half-game in late July, the Red Sox entered August 12 games over .500; in a month in which the team went 19-10, the highlight had been the club’s surprising ten-game win streak that took them from the middle of the American League standings to second place, two games out of first place. The team not only found itself in the midst of a late-season push for the post-season, but suddenly beloved by a region of fans that had, for the most part, ignored them for nearly a generation as they had floundered one season after the next; everyone from office workers to dock workers tuned in to listen to announcers Ken Coleman and Ned Martin over the radio and on television. The Red Sox no longer seemed like a team content to stay in the cellar; general manager Dick O’Connell and manager Dick Williams, almost like magic, had turned perennial losers into playoff contenders.

Even so, that magic was almost in danger of disappearing overnight just as August began. After winning six-of-eleven on a nine-day homestand that included two double-headers in three days, Boston stumbled at the start of a nine-game road trip by getting swept in Minnesota; in the series finale, Twins pitcher Dean Chance won a rain-shorted 2-0 contest in which he retired all 15 batters he faced as the Red Sox would suffer a series sweep for the first time all season. The team would then lose the opener of a three-game set in Kansas City before roaring back to win the last two games and surprisingly stay within one-and-a-half games of Chicago. Finally, with its last stop in California, Boston would suffer yet another surprise series sweep at the hands of the Angels that caused the team to drop one place in the standings each day. The Red Sox limped home from a 2-7 road trip not to be greeted by throngs of supporters at Logan Airport as the team had enjoyed only a few weeks earlier at the end of its ten-game winning streak; though still only 2-1/2 games out of first, some wondered if the celebration of the team’s success in July had been premature.

Returning to Fenway Park, the intimacy of home seemed to turn around the team’s fortunes. Over the next twelve games at home, Boston would win ten and enjoy a modest seven-game winning streak, the end of which vaulted the team into a first place tie with Chicago. Perhaps the only downside during the streak of good play was the tragic beaning of outfielder Tony Conigliaro on 18 August as the Red Sox opened a series with the Angels; inevitably, Conigliaro would not only miss the rest of the season but all of 1968 as well and problems with his eyesight from that point forward would eventually cost him his baseball career. Yet, even with the loss of a teammate, the young club chose to carry on; Boston held on to win that night, 3-2, and then exacted its revenge on many levels with a sweep of the four-game set, winning the dramatic final game of the series 9-8 after the Angels posted an early 8-0 lead. The Sox closed the homestand with four wins in a five-game series versus Washington and, just like that, moved into a tie for first place one week after falling behind by 3-1/2 games.

Back in the hunt, Boston jetted off to Chicago for an important series with a chief rival for the division crown. The two teams split a doubleheader to open the five-game set, highlighted by a dramatic 4-3 win in the first game for Boston as catcher Elston Howard, recently acquired from New York, blocked the plate on a high throw from right fielder Jose Tartabull and then tagged out the potential tying run at home with two outs in the ninth. The next day, Red Sox moved alone into first place the next day with a 6-2 win, the first time that Boston had been in sitting on top of the American League this late in the season since 1949.

Splitting the last two games of the Chicago series, Boston fell back into a tie for first with Minnesota and headed to New York to face the struggling Yankees. A win to open the series was followed by a double-header split with the Bronx Bombers that included a 20-inning contest in the second game, eventually won 4-3 by the home team. Even so, with Minnesota losing in Baltimore, the Red Sox jumped back into a half-game lead. Boston closed its series with another extra-inning affair, this time won by the visitors 2-1 on Carl Yastrzemski’s solo home run in the eleventh inning as Yaz broke out of a 0-for-18 slump after entering the game as a defensive replacement for George Thomas in the eighth inning, as the Red Sox jumped to a one-and-a-half game lead in the American League.

Boston would finish the month at 20-15 with a loss to Chicago to start a brief home series; though the team was alone in first place, the race was far from decided. With a month to play, four teams, Boston, Minnesota, Detroit, and Chicago, all had a shot to win the pennant, with only one-and-a-half games separating first place from fourth.

Tuesday afternoon, just minutes before the trade deadline came at 4:00 PM, the Boston Red Sox acquired right-handed reliever Eric Gagné from the Texas Rangers in exchange for pitcher Kason Gabbard and two minor league players. The major league record holder with 84 saves posted in succession between 28 August 2002 and 03 July 2004, he has 177 lifetime saves, including a career-high 55 in 2003; he also posted a 1.20 ERA in 77 games with the Los Angeles Dodgers that season and easily captured the National League Cy Young Award.

Saves did not become an official recognized statistic until 1970, though research has retroactively identified saves earned by relievers prior to that. In Red Sox team history, former reliever Bob Stanley holds the franchise mark with 132 saves converted between 1977 and 1989, with a career high of 33 coming in 1983. Next on the list is Dick Radatz, known as “The Monster” during his playing days in Boston, who converted 104 saves between 1962 and 1966 and often pitched two or three innings to close a game for the Red Sox. In contrast, Jonathan Papelbon, who has closed for the Red Sox since the start of the 2006 season, passed Lee Smith on Wednesday night for eighth all-time with 59 saves and now stands nine behind Tom “Flash” Gordon in the number seven spot.

Gordon also holds the franchise single-season mark for saves with 46 in 1998 and established a then-Major League Baseball record of 54 consecutive saves through the following June, which has since been broken by Gagné. Next on the list is former Red Sox pitcher Derek Lowe, who converted 42 save opportunities in 2000 before moving back to the rotation two years later and winning 21 games; by doing so, he became the first player in Major League Baseball history to save at least 40 games in a season before winning at least 20 in a subsequent season. The only other players in franchise history to convert at least 40 saves in a single season was Jeff Reardon in 1990 and Ugueth Urbina in 2002; as for Papelbon, he stands alone in fifth place after saving 35 games during his rookie season of 2006.