CINCINNATI – Terry Crowley, who entered the game because of an eighth-inning injury to Tony Perez, belted a lead-off, walk-off home run off ace reliever Rollie Fingers in the bottom of the 10thinning to power the ’75 Cincinnati Reds to a 3-2 victory over the ‘72 Oakland A’s in Game 4 of the @JackSacco6 @sacco_john “The Best Teams of the 1970s” Strat-O-Matic World Series Monday.
The series is tied at 2-2 with Game 5 set for Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium. The home team has won each of the first four games.
An inning earlier, Crowley had the bat taken out of his hands, with the game on the line, when Joe Morgan unsuccessfully tried to steal home to win the game in the bottom of the ninth.
Crowley entered the game to play first base in the top of ninth after Perez was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the eighth and was forced to leave the game. Perez suffered an upper body injury and will miss Game 5.
The Reds, down 2-0 into the bottom of the eighth, took advantage of shoddy defensive play by Oakland, who made two errors in the inning.
George Foster reached on an error by shortstop Bert Campaneris. With two-out, Perez was hit and suddenly-hot Pete Rose and centerfielder Merv Rettenmund delivered consecutive RBI singles off left-handed reliever Dave Hamilton. After an error by catcher Gene Tenace that allowed Ken Griffey, Sr., to reach base, Joe Horlen came on to retire Dave Concepcion.
Clay Carroll came on in the eighth for the Reds and induced Tenace to hit into an inning-ending double play and then pitched a perfect ninth. Rawly Eastwick (1-0) pitched a perfect 10thinning.
Oakland committed three errors in the game and have made seven errors in the past three games. A’s fielders have also struggled getting balls, both on the ground and in the air during the series, allowing batters to reach safely.
The A’s took a 1-0 lead in the seventh when pinch-hitter Larry Brown singled home Tenace, who had led-off with a single. Oakland’s other run came in the eighth when first baseman Mike Epstein hit his second home run of the series.
The late-inning collapse ruined another tremendous start for Vida Blue, who worked six, scoreless innings, yielding three hits and striking out four. In 13 series innings, Blue has not allowed a run. He has struck out seven, walked four and surrendered nine hits.
The A’s used six pitchers in all. Cincinnati’s only earned run was Crowley’s’ game-winner. Bob Locke, Hamilton, Ken Holtzman, Horlen and Fingers (0-1) combined to work three innings, allowing five hits, walking one and striking out two.
It took five Cincinnati pitchers to secure the victory. Starter Gary Nolan worked 6-2/3 innings, allowing five hits and striking out three. He walked one, hit two batters and allowed a run.
Will McEnaney, Pedro Borbon, Carroll and Eastwick worked a combined 3-1/3 innings, yielding four hits and one run. The bullpen did not walk or strikeout a batter.
The teams combined to use 33 players.
Rose had three hits for the Reds while Griffey added two hits.
Rose is five-for-six in the last two games after manager @JackSacco6 dropped him down in the order from the lead-off spot where he went zero-for-nine to open the series.
Joe Rudi had three hits for Oakland and Matty Alou added a double. Alou is seven-for-16 in the series (.438).
Game 5 will pit Oakland’s Catfish Hunter against left Don Gullett of the Reds.
Game 6 will be played in Oakland.
The Best of the Teams of the 1970s World Series
at Riverfront Stadium
Cincinnati, Ohio
Oakland 000 000 110 0-2 9 3
Cincinnati 000 000 020 1-3 8 0
WP-Rawly Eastwick (1-0)
LP-Rollie Fingers (0-1)
My blog will appear on a regular basis and will focus on sports, opinions, notes, features, and some trivia for good measure.
John Sacco
@sacco_john
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