Red Sox Opening Day, 1998 by BruceM

On April 10, 1998 (22 years to the day before this quiz was written), the Boston Red Sox won their home opener by scoring seven runs (without any outs) in the bottom of the ninth. What 1995 AL MVP ended that game with a walkoff grand slam off Paul Spoljaric?

Spoljaric was the fourth Seattle Mariner reliever to enter that game in the ninth inning. Name any one of the other three.

• The first had played for the 1996-1997 Red Sox before being part of a notoriously lopsided trade.
• The second was a Havana-born LOOGY ("lefty one-out guy") who had played for Boston in the early '90s.
• The third was a four-time world champion (two each with the 1990s Blue Jays and 2000s Red Sox).

Which Hall of Famer was Seattle's starting pitcher that day, facing off against Brian Rose? He struck out 15 batters over eight innings of two-hit, two-run ball.

Two answers required. Joey Cora led off for the Mariners. Name the next two hitters in Seattle's lineup: At the time they were 22 and 28 years old, respectively.

Two answers required. He was the 1997 AL rookie of the year and led off for Boston in the 1998 Red Sox home opener. She played for the USWNT from 1987 to 2004, winning World Cups in 1991 and 1999. They got married in November 2003. Name both of these athletes (please provide two surnames, not just his).

What kingly former and subsequent Yankee batted cleanup (as a DH) for the Red Sox that day? He was primarily a catcher in 1996, when his game-tying home run turned around Game 4 of the 1996 World Series. He got back to the World Series with the 1998 Padres and 1999 Yankees.

The player from the previous question only caught one game for the 1998 Red Sox, who used him almost entirely as a DH. What Georgia Tech alumnus was Boston's starting catcher for the home opener and for 55 other games that year? Sometimes known as "The Captain," he was once traded for one of the pitchers from question 2. In July 2004 he shoved his glove into the face of one of the players from question 4.

What lefthanded batter was Boston's main starting catcher that year? He was announced to pinch-hit for Darren Lewis in the ninth inning of that Opening Day game, but Mike Benjamin pinch-hit for him once Seattle brought in a lefty. He's far better known for a September 4, 2002, pinch-hitting appearance in Oakland, a walkoff home run later featured in the movie Moneyball.

In Moneyball what actor portrayed the player from the previous question? You may also know him as Andy Dwyer (of Pawnee, Indiana) or as the superhero Star-Lord.

Which former Atlanta Brave, a late-inning hero in multiple 1991 World Series games (and indirectly the inspiration for Homestar Runner's name) batted seventh and played second base for Boston that day?

Which Stephen King novel is partly named for a reliever who would save 46 games that season but who pitched ineffectively (one out, two hits and a walk, two runs) for Boston that day? We want the title of the book, in which nine-year-old Trisha gets lost on a family hiking trip and listens to Red Sox games on the radio.

Boston's winning pitcher that day was Rich Garces, better known as "El Guapo." Mike Maddux claims to have given Garces that nickname after watching Alfonso Arau play El Guapo in what movie?