5/3/75 MON @ NYM

Boxscore

I managed the Expos in this one, so of course I enjoyed this, at least for the most part. I don’t know why, but I like Pete Mackanin. He’s gotten clutch RBI’s all year. All four of his RBI’s in this game came with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 out. He doubled both times.

Woody Fryman was cruising early on, throwing 3 perfect innings to start the game and notching 5 strikeouts in that time. You can see from the boxscore he ended up with 10 on the game in 6-2/3 innings. But it was “Lima Time” in the 4th.

Leo Foster walked to lead the inning. Del Unser struck out, but then Rusty Staub homered. “No big deal” I’m thinking. That only makes it 5-2. Dave Kingman doubles. Jerry Grote walks. Joe Torre (yep, that’s the same one) popped out to short. So I’ve got 2 out, 2 on, and John Milner coming up. Milner was pressed into service in this game, despite the fact that he struggles off lefties like Fryman. Well, he didn’t struggle. He hits a 3-run shot to tie the game.

Normally at this point, I’d be pretty pissed that my starter has pissed away a 5 run lead. Yet oddly, I wasn’t. Bud Harrelson was coming up, and since he usually doesn’t do much damage, I decided to let Fryman keep going. He K’d Bud to end the inning.

I had chased Mets starter Jerry Koosman after only 2-2/3 innings. Hank Webb had come in to pitch, and wasn’t doing too bad. But then HE blew up in the top of the 5th. After getting Larry Parrish and Mike Jorgensen out quickly, he walked Mackanin and Tim Foli in succession. Since I now had a ballgame on my hands, I let Larry Biittner pinch hit for catcher Barry Foote (since he sucks as a hitter). Biittner hits a pinch hit, 3-run homer to go up 8-5. But Webb’s not done. Since I now have a 3 run lead again, I let Fryman hit for himself, hoping to get another inning or two out of him. He draws a walk. Bob Bailey draws a walk. Unfortunately, Pepe Mangual flew out to left to end the inning, despite my visions of another dinger.

The other unusual part of this game was that it was cut short by rain. It was called in the top of the 8th.

5/3/75 NYY @ MIL

The Yankees rallied for 3 runs in the top of the 9th to defeat Milwaukee 5-4, the second consecutive game New York has won over the Brewers by that score. My main man, Graig Nettles, was THE MAN in this one. It was his bases loaded double in the 9th that gave the Yankees the win. Nettles finished the game 3-3, 2B, 2 BB, 3 RBI. The rally came off Tom Murphy, who has to be one of the worst closers in history. Skip Lockwood pitched a scoreless 9th for his 5th save of the year.

Jim Slaton pitched pretty well again, going 7 innings while allowing only 2 earned runs. He did give up 10 hits and walked 4, but managed to get out of trouble in every inning except for the sixth. Pedro Garcia hit his 4th home run of the season, a two run shot, while Mike Hegan added his 3rd as a solo.

Boxscore

5/3/75 BAL @ CLE

Sixth complete game of the year for Jim Palmer, who moved to 5-1 on the season and dropped his ERA to 1.33 with a 2-1 win over the Indians. Cleveland's lone run came on a home run by John Lowenstein, his 3rd of the season. You can see the boxscore here.

Fritz Peterson pitched pretty well for the Indians, but effectively lost the game when he hit Brooks Robinson with the bases loaded in the 5th. That drove in the Orioles 2nd run, which turned out to be the winner.

Nothing like a good pitching duel to get your Saturday morning going.

5/2/75 HOU @ SF

Joe Niekro cost the Astros in this one. After pitching a scoreless 8th inning, Niekro disintegrated in the 9th. Giving up a walk, a single, and another walk, he loaded the bases with nobody out in a 3-3 game. With the infield drawn in, pinch hitter Glenn Adams grounded one to short. Jerry DaVanon came home to force Von Joshua at the plate. Dave Rader then pinch hit for Ed Goodson. Rader drove one up the middle, scoring Gary Matthews and ending the game.

“I don’t know what the hell he was doing” said Astros manager Pedro Gomez. “He throws a perfect 8th, and then looks like some nervous 21 year old rookie in the 9th. He wasted a hell of an effort by the guys just to get the game tied up.”

That effort was a 2-run rally in the top of the 8th. Pete Falcone dominated for the first 7 innings, allowing only a solo HR to Cliff Johnson (his 7th of the year). But he gave up back to back singles to Greg Gross and Bob Watson to open the 8th. That ended his night, with Charlie Williams coming on in relief. Williams proceeded to walk Johnson (his 3rd of the night) to load the bases. Jose Cruz came on to run for Johnson. Williams then walked pinch hitter Ken Boswell, scoring Gross. Rob Andrews hit a fly ball to center that Joshua almost misplayed, but made a leaping catch to save the play. That mistake was enough to allow even the plodding Bob Watson to score from third to tie the game. Williams then hit DaVanon to load the bases again with only 1 out. However, neither Milt May nor Wilber Howard, both pinch hitting, could push in the go-ahead run.

Giants manager Wes Westrum commented, “We’ve been doing this all year, though after losing 4 in a row, I was getting nervous that we were headed for 5.” After jumping out to an early 10-2 mark, the Giants are 4-6 in their last 10, and are now 2 games behind the red-hot Reds in the NL West.

“If it weren’t for that shaky first inning, JR was just lights out. If we weren’t 2 runs down, I wouldn’t have lifted him for a pinch hitter in the 7th,” said Gomez. He’s right. J.R. Richard allowed only 1 walk and no hits while striking out 4 from innings 2-6. The 3-run first was highlighted by a 2-run triple by Joshua, who would later score on a Matthews single. Joshua leads the majors with 5 triples, though this one was probably helped by the fact that Cliff Johnson was playing in right, and he’s not exactly the world’s fastest right fielder.

5/2/75 CAL @ TEX

Strange game. California had 4 stolen bases, but were caught 3 times. Texas was caught twice, once in the 9th and again in the 10th. The Angels won this one 4-3 in 10 innings. However, two borderline strikeouts marred the end of the game. With Tom Grieve on first with one out, both Jim Spencer and Jeff Burroughs were called out on pitches that appeared to be solidly wide of the plate.

A short rain delay before the game hurt both starters (Bill Singer for CAL, Bill Hands for TEX). Texas jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st when Grieve singled home Mike Hargrove and Lenny Randle. The Angels tied it in the top of the 2nd when Denny Doyle doubled home Lee Stanton, advanced to 3rd on the throw home, and scored on Dave Chalk’s sacrifice fly.

The score would remain deadlocked at 2 until the bottom of the 7th. Jim Sundberg led off with a single. He moved to second on Singer’s wild pitch, and then scored when Hargrove doubled to right center.

California tied the game back up in the top of the 8th. Stanton flew out to center. Doyle singled, but was thrown out trying to steal. Pinch hitter Dave Collins singled and then stole 2nd. Chalk drove in his second run of the game when he doubled, scoring Collins. Steve Foucault then intentionally walked the Rem Dog, Jerry Remy, and induced an easy ground out to first from Morris Nettles.

The Angels scored what would prove to be the winning run in the top of the 10th. Stanton singled and stole 2nd. He moved to 3rd on Doyle’s groundout. Steve Thomas was brought in to face Tom Egan. Egan struck out with the infield drawn in. Chalk then came through yet again, hitting a triple to easily score Stanton.

Hargrove continued his torrid pace, going 2-4 with a run scored and RBI to lift his average to .416. Grieve went 3-4 with 2 RBI. But clearly, Chalk was the player of the game, going 2-4, 2B, 3B, 3 RBI. The Angels remain 1-1/2 games ahead in the AL West at 17-7. They’ve also stolen 48 bases in those 24 games. The loss drops Texas to 9-14, 3-10 at home.

5/2/75 San Diego @ Los Angeles

San Diego beat the Dodgers 6-0 behind Randy Jones. Willie McCovey went 1-5, but hit a 2-run homer in the top of the first, driving in Dave Winfield, and giving the Padres all the runs they would need.

Jones has run his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 22. He also held the Dodgers hitless until Lee Lacy singled with one out in the top of the 7th. That ended a string of 19 consecutive innings without giving up a hit. He also worked out of a bases-loaded, nobody out jam in the 9th to preserve his 3rd shutout of the year, lowering his ERA this season to 1.07.

“I didn’t feel as sharp today, particularly in the 9th, but I made the pitches I needed to make,” said Jones, who gave up 4 hits and 4 walks.

Randy Hundley collected another 3 hits to pace San Diego, his second straight 3 hit game. “I figure if I can keep doing this, they gotta keep playing me.”

In contrast, despite 2 hits in the previous game, Tito Fuentes continues to struggle, going 0-2 to lower his average to .110. Tito commented, “This is getting pretty freaking ugly. I was stunned when Sutton intentionally walked me in the 8th.”

When Sutton was asked about the intentional pass, which came with 2 outs and Winfield on 2nd, he was clearly irritated: “Take it up with Walt (Alston, the Dodgers manager). Apparently he’d rather have me face a guy hitting .200 (Enzo Hernandez) instead of the dude hitting .100.”

Alston’s response: “He got him out, didn’t he? Now I just have to get Wynn’s head out of his ass.” Jimmy Wynn went 0-4, striking out 3 times, and grounding into a double play. When this reporter suggested what the problem might be, Wynn responded, “No, I was not batting with my eyes closed. But I bet I could beat you with ‘em closed.” Clearly, this is not a happy Dodger clubhouse.

The loss drops LA to 11-13, only a ½ game ahead of San Diego for 4th place in the NL West.

Intro

OK, I'm not sure why I'm doing this, but I'm going to start this up again. The difference is that I'm going to put different topics on different blogs. The one you're looking at will be devoted to my 1975 baseball season replay. I'll post all kinds of things up here, but it will be almost exclusively baseball related.