Bruce Hurst

Hurst came on in relief for the 28th inning and pitched five innings without giving up a run, later recollecting striking out Cal Ripken Jr.. on a breaking ball at 4 a.m. prior to the league's commissioner ordering the suspension of play at the end of the inning.

Bob Ojeda was credited with the win after pitching the 33rd inning on June 23.

Bruce Vee Hurst (born March 24, 1958) is an American former Major League Baseball left-handed starting pitcher.

Hurst was selected by the Red Sox with the 22nd overall pick in the 1976 Major League Baseball draft, the 11th pitcher selected.

The Red Sox assigned him to the Elmira Pioneers of the New York-Penn League, where Hurst was 3–2 with a 3.00 earned run average across nine starts.

Hurst spent the 1977 season with the Winter Haven Red Sox in the Florida State League, going 5–4 in 13 starts with a 2.08 ERA, before incurring an elbow injury.

In 1978, the Red Sox promoted Hurst to the Bristol Red Sox of the Eastern League, where he lodged six starts before having his season shut down with shoulder soreness, ending with a 1–3 record and a 2.73 ERA.

He played basketball at Dixie Junior College for the 1979–80 season.

Hurst started the 1979 season with Winter Haven, going 8-2 across 12 starts with a 1.93 ERA, then finishing the year in Bristol where across 15 starts and one relief appearance he had a 9–4 record with a 3.58 ERA.

After making Boston's opening day roster in 1980, Hurst struggled and was reassigned to the Pawtucket Red Sox of the International League.

He went 8-6 for Pawtucket over the next three months with a 3.94 ERA, with Boston recalling him in August to the parent club.

Hurst made his major league debut on April 12, 1980, coming on in relief in the second game of the season and giving up five earned runs in an inning of work in an 18-1 blowout at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers.

He made six more appearances, all starts, before being optioned back to Pawtucket with a 10.57 ERA.

He returned to the majors in August, ending the season with a 2–2 record and 9.10 ERA at the major league level.

Returning to Pawtucket for the 1981 season, Hurst went 12–7 with a 2.87 ERA, getting a call-up to Boston in September.

That season he played in the longest professional baseball game in history against the Rochester Red Wings, with 32 innings played April 18–19 and the final inning not played until June 23.

After spending the 1981 minor league season in Pawtucket, Hurst received a September call-up, going 2–0 in five starts with a 4.30 ERA.

Hurst became a regular in the Red Sox rotation in the 1982 season, starting 19 games with another nine relief appearances en route to a 3–7 record and a 5.77 ERA.

He solidified his starting status the following season, going 12–12 with a 4.09 ERA across 32 starts and one relief appearance.

With the departures of John Tudor and Dennis Eckersley, Hurst became Boston's top starter in 1984, getting the nod on opening day and giving up two unearned runs in 8 and a third innings in a 2-1 road loss to the California Angels.

He bounced back with a four-hit shutout of the Oakland A's, then was chased from his Fenway Park home opener after giving up seven runs while recording only a single out.

Hurst was 12–12 on the season with a 3.92 ERA, tying with Ojeda and Oil Can Boyd for the team lead in wins.

Getting off to a slow start in the 1985 season, Hurst was demoted to the bullpen for a portion of June and requested a trade.

Hurst turned around his season with the addition of a forkball as a third pitch to his curveball and fastball.

Hurst credited former Detroit Tigers coach Roger Craig for teaching him the concept of the forkball and former Baltimore Orioles pitcher Mike Boddicker for schooling him in the grip, confirmed later by Boddicker who described the pitch as a "foshball" that was essentially "a glorified changeup."

In an interview snippet broadcast on NBC's coverage of the second inning of game one of the World Series, Hurst said that provided his curve and forkball were fooling hitters, "I think I can get by with a mediocre fastball."

Hurst would later pinpoint his revival to a single moment during a July 3 game against Milwaukee when batter Paul Molitor easily fouled off a Hurst pitch, at which point Hurst recollected telling himself "no more" and bore down to get the strikeout, one of 10 that day for the first time in his career.

With his ERA having peaked at 6.66 on June 23, Hurst would finish the season with an overall 4.51 ERA and an 11–13 record.

He is best remembered for his performance for the Boston Red Sox in the 1986 postseason, where he won two games while allowing only two runs total.

Prior to the miraculous Game 6 comeback by the New York Mets, he was the presumed World Series MVP.

Two days later, in Game 7, Hurst was sent out to pitch the decisive game for the Sox, but he left with a no-decision when Boston saw a three run lead turn into a tie in the sixth with Hurst on the mound (New York eventually won the game and the Series); Hurst pitched a total of 23 innings, most among any pitcher in the Series and allowed five earned runs.

Hurst grew up in St. George, Utah, the youngest of five children born to John and Beth Hurst, who divorced when he was five years old.

At an early age, doctors prescribed plaster casts to correct a condition that was causing his legs to bow.

Hurst was a standout basketball player, leading Dixie High School to the state tournament in his junior and senior seasons, despite suffering a cracked vertebra as a senior, and would receive basketball scholarship offers.

Hurst had gone 42–46 with a 4.59 ERA with the Red Sox before his breakthrough 1986 season, on a staff anchored by Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens.

Hurst posted a 2.99 ERA with 13 victories despite spending six midsummer weeks on the disabled list with a pulled groin.

In 2015, Hurst told The Boston Globe that he would shoot hoops at Boston Celtics practices during his Red Sox days after developing a friendship with Celtics guard Danny Ainge.

Hurst has attributed his early interest and development in baseball to a local coach and former Brigham Young University player who had him analyze magazine photos of pitcher windups, with Hurst practicing his own windup in front of a three-way mirror.

Hurst caught the eye of MLB scouts after his junior year during an American Legion state tournament.

He would average 14 strikeouts a game as a senior, compiling a 24–2 record for his prep career.