1988 American League Championship Series
Team (Wins) Managers Season Oakland Athletics (4) Tony La Russa 104–58, .642, GA: 13 Boston Red Sox (0) Joe Morgan 89–73, .549, GA: 1
Dates	October 5–9
MVP	Dennis Eckersley (Oakland)
Umpires	Don Denkinger(crew chief) Ted Hendry Tim McClelland Greg Kosc Ken Kaiser John Shulock
Broadcast
Television	ABC
TV announcers	Gary Bender,Joe Morgan andReggie Jackson
Radio	CBS
Radio announcers	Dick Stockton andJohnny Bench
← 1987 ALCS 1989 →

The1988American League Championship Series was a best-of-seven semifinal series inMajor League Baseball's1988 postseason that pitted the East Division championBoston Red Sox against the West Division championOakland Athletics. It was the second meeting between the two in ALCS play. The Athletics swept the Series four games to none and lost to theLos Angeles Dodgers in the1988 World Series.

Oakland won the series, 4–0.

Wednesday, October 5, 1988, atFenway Park inBoston, Massachusetts

In an interview conducted before Game 1,José Canseco denied reports in that day'sWashington Post by baseball reporterThomas Boswell that he had usedsteroids. Canseco was supported in this denial by former sluggerReggie Jackson.

The opening game, inFenway Park, pittedBruce Hurst against Oakland's newfound ace,Dave Stewart. The game was scoreless until the fourth when Canseco, coming off the first 40–40 season in major league history, drilled a homer to give the A's a 1-0 lead. It stayed that way until the seventh. In the bottom of the seventh,Jim Rice walked and gave way to pinch-runnerKevin Romine.Jody Reed reached when Stewart hit him with a pitch. A single byRich Gedman loaded the bases with one out and Stewart gave way to relieverRick Honeycutt. Honeycutt induced a line out to left field byWade Boggs that plated Romine and tied the game, 1-1.Marty Barrett grounded out and the game remained tied after seven innings.

ACarney Lansford double and aDave Henderson single gave the A's a 2–1 lead, andDennis Eckersley held on for the save as the A's prevailed. Hurst went the distance allowing only six hits and two runs but wound up with the loss, while Honeycutt got the win.

The victory gave the A's a 1–0 series lead.

Thursday, October 6, 1988, atFenway Park inBoston, Massachusetts

Game 2 sawStorm Davis take the mound againstRoger Clemens. After five innings, the A's had two hits, the Red Sox one, and the game was still scoreless. In the bottom of the sixth, a sequence of errors gave the Red Sox two unearned runs. With two outs,Dwight Evans andMike Greenwell walked. With two on and two out, Davis appeared out of the inning, but an error byDave Henderson allowed Evans to score the first run of the game.Ellis Burks then singled home Greenwell to make it 2–0 Boston. Davis then threw a wild pitch that moved Burks to second but retired the side on a strikeout ofTodd Benzinger.

Trailing for the first time in the series, the A's deficit only lasted two batters. Henderson singled andJosé Canseco hit his second home run in two games to tie the score at two.Dave Parker singled but was forced at second by Lansford. Lansford got to go to second when Clemensbalked and to third on awild pitch. Lansford then scored onMark McGwire's single to give the A's a 3–2 lead.

Boston tied the game in the bottom of the seventh whenRich Gedman hit a home run off Oakland relieverGreg Cadaret. Three ninth-inning singles byRon Hassey,Tony Phillips, andWalt Weiss scored Hassey with what proved to be the winning run. Eckersley retired the side again in the ninth for his second save and Oakland carried a two games to none lead with them back toCalifornia.

Gene Nelson got the win while Boston relieverLee Smith was the losing pitcher.

Saturday, October 8, 1988, atOakland-Alameda County Coliseum inOakland, California

After two calm games in Boston, Game 3 saw both teams mount an offense and go wild, scoring 11 runs in the first three innings (the first two games combined saw only 11 runs scored in 18 total innings). Game 3 saw two former post-season heroes square off against one another as Oakland threwBob Welch, famous for striking out Reggie Jackson to end Game 2 of the1978 World Series, and Boston turned toMike Boddicker, the Orioles' post-season hero of1983. Neither pitcher lasted the first three innings.

The Red Sox began quickly in the first.Ellis Burks singled and went to second on a balk. He reached third whenMarty Barrett singled. AWade Boggs single scored Burks and put Barrett at second.Mike Greenwell then doubled both home, and the Red Sox had a 3–0 lead after only four batters. After a ground out byJim Rice, Welch promptly loaded the bases with walks to Evans and Gedman. With the bases loaded and only one out, Welch induced short outfield pop flies by Reed and Benzinger to get out of the first trailing only 3–0.

The Red Sox had batted through in the first, so Burks led off the second with a double. Barrett bunted Burks to third, and Burks scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Boggs.Mike Greenwell, who had doubled home two runs in the first, hit a home run to make the score 5–0 and send Welch to the showers.Gene Nelson came on in relief and got Rice to stop the deficit at 5–0.

In the bottom of the second, the A's came back.Mark McGwire led off with a home run. Consecutive fielder's choice grounders putMike Gallego at first with two outs.Walt Weiss doubled andCarney Lansford homered, and the score after two was Red Sox 5, A's 4.

With two outs in the third, the A's took the lead.Mark McGwire singled, andRon Hassey drilled a two-run homer to put the A's in front, 6–5. Boddicker left andWes Gardner came in to relieve.

In the fifth, a McGwire single and Hassey double scored McGwire to make the score, 7–5. In the seventh, Boggs hit a single and went to second on Henderson's error. Boggs then scored on a single byDwight Evans to make it 7–6. ADave Parker double and aStan Javier single made it 8–6. In the bottom of the eighth, a Lansford single and a Dave Henderson home run closed out the scoring as the A's prevailed, 10–6, to take a three games to none lead in the best-of-seven series.

Gene Nelson got his second win in two games while Eckersley got his third save. Boddicker got the loss.

Sunday, October 9, 1988, atOakland-Alameda County Coliseum inOakland, California

The Oakland Athletics completed a four-game sweep against the Boston Red Sox to make their first World Series appearance since1974. They faced theLos Angeles Dodgers who coincidentally were their opponent in that 1974 World Series.

Game 4 was a rematch of Game 1 asBruce Hurst squared off againstDave Stewart.José Canseco drilled his third home run in the bottom of the first to give the A's a 1–0 lead. In the third, two singles by Weiss and Lansford followed by aDave Henderson double made it 2–0 A's. In the top of the sixth, the Red Sox cut the lead in half whenMarty Barrett walked, went to second on a single, and scored on consecutive fielder's choice ground outs.

Needing two runs to win, the Red Sox took the field with one series of at-bats left in the bottom of the eighth.Lee Smith, ineffective in Game 2, was again ineffective as the A's pushed across two insurance runs. Canseco singled, stole second, and came home on a McGwire single.Stan Javier bunted to move McGwire to second and wound up on first due to poor execution by the Red Sox. A walk toLuis Polonia loaded the bases with nobody out.Don Baylor hit a sacrifice fly that scored McGwire and made the score 4–1. Smith retired the next two hitters, but the Red Sox were finished. Eckersley finished the ninth to get his fourth save in only four games, an all-time record (since matched byJohn Wetteland in the1996 World Series andGreg Holland in the2014 ALCS). Eckersley won theMost Valuable Player Award for his efforts.

1988 ALCS(4–0):Oakland Athletics overBoston Red Sox

• 1988 ALCS at Baseball-Reference
• 1988 ALCS Official Souvenir Program

• American League Championship Series
• 1988 Major League Baseball season
• Oakland Athletics postseason
• Boston Red Sox postseason
• 1988 in sports in California
• 1988 in sports in Massachusetts
• 1988 in Boston
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• 1980s in Oakland, California
• October 1988 sports events in the United States
• Baseball competitions in Oakland, California

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