Results are here:
In a series played online over the past two evenings, the Cincinnati Reds came back from a 2 games to 1 deficit to prevail over the New York Mets. The Reds advance to the World Series to meet the Sox of some unspecified color....
Game 1: In 11 postseason starts for the Reds, Tom Seaver was 10-0 entering this game. Seaver was promptly assaulted for 6 hits and 4 runs in just 3 innings as the Mets went on to stomp the Reds by the score of 9-1. Steve Carlton went the distance, scattering 7 hits and walking just 1 while fanning 8.
Scoreless into the third, NYN turned 4 singles & a walk into 4 runs, and Toby Harrah's 2-run homer in the next frame gave the visiting Mets a 6-0 lead and for all practical purposes ended the contest. Joe Sambito, mopping up in the NYN ninth, allowed a couple of baserunners then was pulled with 2 outs - just in time for Mike Lacoss to allow a 3-run homer to Sixto Lezcano, for the icing on the cake.
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Game 2: Craig Swan & Dave Frost dueled scorelessly until the NYN sixth, when Frost walked the bases loaded then watched as his opposing pitcher doubled home 2 runs. Cincy finally scratched out a run off of Swannie in the eighth, but gave it right back in the top of the ninth on two more walks, an error & a sac fly, but got the Mets to leave the bases full (for the third time today) as they took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth.
Don Stanhouse walked Tom Poquette to open the CIN ninth, then Sparky Lyle nailed Dave Collins with a pitch, putting the tying run on base. After a Charlie Spikes lineout, Dave Concepcion delivered an RBI single, and after Lyle fanned Dan Driessen, George Foster also delivered an RBI single, tying the game and putting the winning run on third base with two outs.
Rookie reliever Jeff Reardon replaced Lyle with Ray Knight coming to the plate and his first pitch went to the backstop; Concepcion raced home with the winning run while the fans went berserk.
Cincy pitchers (Frost, Hume, Clear) held the Mets to just 5 hits but walked TWELVE (Frost 8, Clear 4) and amazingly got the Mets to strand 16 runners (to 10 for the Reds). Final score: 4-3.
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Game 3: As the series moved to Shea Stadium, Milt Wilcox took the mound for the Reds against Ken Kravec and was immediately given a 3-0 lead to work with. Johnny Bench then doubled home a pair of runs in the bottom of the first to cut the lead to 1.
The Reds would get just one more hit after inning #1, while New York tied the game in the fourth on Jorge Orta's clutch single, then took the lead for good in the seventh when Wilcox ran out of steam and Hume allowed an RBI triple to make the final score a seemingly (but not really) close 6-3.
Kravec rebounded from his rocky first inning to pitch 7 effective innings, and relievers Skip Lockwood & Don Stanhouse closed it out from there.
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Game 4: A somewhat more determined Tom Seaver took the mound in his old home park and proceeded to toss a 4-hit shutout against Steve Carlton & the Mets, as the Reds stayed alive with a 2-0 victory. Both starters pitched well, the game remaining scoreless until Carlton committed an error in between doubles by George Foster & John Stearns in the CIn fifth, and those were the only runs of the game.
Seaver walked 2 and struck out 5 and benefited from 3 timely DPs from his defense.
Game 5: Frost vs. Swan II and it got ugly early and often. John Stearns opened the scoring with a solo homer in the Cincy first, then Lee May's error handed NYN an unearned run in the bottom of the frame. May, sure as hell *not* in the lineup for his glove, went 0 for 5 as well.
The Mets took the first of two 4-run (or more) leads when they walloped a pair of homers in the second, an Orta solo blast followed by Toby Harrah's 3-run shot. The Reds fought back in the fourth, stringing together 3 singles, a sac fly & Cesar Geronimo's triple, which reduced the Mets lead to 5-4.
Mike Lacoss then took over from the apparently-exhauste d Frost and was immediately just as ineffective: 3 singles produced 2 runs and NYN was suddenly up by 3 again, and up by 5 one inning later when Lacoss put runners on second & third with nobody out and Tom Hume eventually let them score.
Then came a most unlikely comeback, after Swan easily retired the first 2 batters in the Cincy sixth. Junior Kennedy doubled and Tom Poquette was hit by a pitch. That ended Swan's day, and Sparky Lyle came on. After two RBI singles and a walk to load the bases, future Met (?) George Foster took Lyle's first pitch over the left field wall for a Grand Slam and gave the stunned visitors a 10-9 lead.
Cincy tacked on an insurance run in the seventh, then held on as Mark Clear worked 3.1 innings of relief (1 hit, 3 walks) and when Clear ran into trouble in the ninth (2 on, 1 out, winning run at the plate) Frank Pastore calmly retired pinch-hitters Joel Youngblood & Leon Roberts to end the series.
In game 5, each team had 17 baserunners including 2 homers apiece. The Cincy offense aside from Foster's Slam came from unexpected sources: the Reds 6-8 batters combined to go 9 for 15 with 5 runs scored as (of all people) Junior Kennedy led the way with a 4 for 5 performance from the #8 slot.
Congrats to the Mets on a fine effort and a great season (anyone who somehow thinks that the better team won this series needs to look a little closer at the first 162 games of 1979) and the Reds look forward to hopefully continuing our overachievement against the A.L. champs.
Alan
