On October 23, 1986  – At Fenway Park, Bruce Hurst’s complete-game victory gives the Boston Red Sox a 4 – 2 win and 3-2 lead in the World Series against the New York Mets. Hurst scatters 10 hits with one walk and six strikeouts.

Dwight Gooden takes his second loss of the series. The Red Sox struck first in the second when Dave Henderson tripled with one and scored on Spike Owen’s sacrifice fly. Dwight Evans‘s RBI single next inning with two on made it 2–0 Red Sox. In the fifth, Jim Rice hit a leadoff triple and scored on Don Baylor‘s single. After Evans singled, Sid Fernandez relieved Gooden and allowed an RBI double to Henderson.

Bruce Hurst pitched ​7 1⁄3 shutout innings before Tim Teufel‘s home run in the eighth put the Mets on the board. In the ninth, Mookie Wilson doubled with two outs and scored on Rafael Santana‘s single before Hurst struck out Lenny Dykstra to end the game,

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What They Wrote

“Perhaps the most noteworthy development of Game 5, however — even more so than Smokey Robinson’s two-minute, 30-second rendition of the National Anthem (just seven seconds shy of the record held by Jose Feliciano) — was another failure by Dwight Gooden.

“Remember Dwight Gooden? Dr. K? It seems like only yesterday when he was baseball’s latest prodigy.

“Now, at the tender age of 21, he has become just another pitcher who can be beaten.”

— Rick Talley, Los Angeles Daily News

“One of the hottest plays on Broadway right now is ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood.’ But without a doubt, the hottest subject in all five boroughs of New York today is the mystery of Dwight Gooden. It is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions whose latest act was played out Thursday night at Fenway Park. And when the curtain fell on Game 5 of the World Series, Hamlet had nothing on Gooden in the problem department.”

— Fran Blinebury, Houston Chronicle

Quote of the Day

“It seems like there’s divine intervention from somewhere. Being able to come back when we were down to our last strike, our last swing, well, there must be a reason. I think we have to win it. If you sat down and told this story, I don’t think anybody would believe it.”

— Red Sox DH Don Baylor

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