Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Game of the Day (4/28/84)

Reds 7, Giants 6 (13). The Giants had Mark Davis on the mound to open the game; he would gain much more fame as a Cy Young winning relief pitcher half a decade later, but spent the '84 season showcasing the form as a starter that got him transferred to the bullpen. His opponent was Frank Pastore, who was currently even worse as a starter, and would later also be worse as a reliever, thereby not winning the Cy Young (or lasting through the entire 1986 season on a major league roster).

Both pitchers got off to relatively effective starts. Pastore walked Jack Clark in the first, and yielded a Dusty Baker walk and a Johnnie LeMaster single in the second, but kept the scoreboard clear. Davis, meanwhile, gave up a Gary Redus single-and-steal in the first, but nothing else through three innings. That allowed his team to take the early lead, as Clark homered in the third and Baker and Chili Davis opened the fourth by going back-to-back. Davis worked around a Dave Parker single in the fourth, and Pastore was pulled from the game a batter after allowing a leadoff hit to Joel Youngblood in the fifth.

Bob Owchinko relieved Pastore and initially did little better; a passed ball and an Al Oliver single brought in the fourth San Francisco run of the day. But Owchinko recovered to keep from allowing any runs that would be credited to him.

The Reds began climbing back into the game in the bottom of the fifth. Dave Concepcion led off with a single, and Dann Bilardello walked an out later. Pinch hitter Paul Householder reached on catcher's interference by John Rabb - and that's arguably not the strangest play Householder was involved in during this inning. Tom Lawless hit what is recorded as a single to center; Concepcion scored and Bilardello made it to third, but Householder was thrown out at second. Had he been forced, I assume it would be scored as a fielder's choice and not a single, so I would conclude that Householder rounded second to try for third, only to find Bilardello firmly encamped there already. Either way, the bases were no longer loaded and the second out had been recorded, which helped Davis escape without further damage.

The Reds, still well behind in the game, selected a rookie making only his second major league appearance as their next reliever - and John Franco retired the Giants in order. One of the three hitters Franco faced was pinch hitting for Davis, so Renie Martin took the mound in the bottom of the inning, and quickly got into trouble. Redus drew a leadoff walk, then raced to third on a steal-and-error combo (Rabb's second error of the game). Parker also walked, and after Tony Perez struck out, Concepcion singled Redus home to make it a 4-2 score. Frank Williams supplanted Martin and retired the next two hitters. Franco worked around an Oliver single in the seventh, while Williams was spotless in the bottom of the inning.

Ted Power allowed a leadoff hit to Davis in the eighth, but kept him anchored to first, and in the bottom of the inning, Redus's speed produced another run for the Reds as he walked, stole second, moved to third on a flyout, and scored on a groundout to bring his team within one. The Giants countered with a ninth-inning insurance run, however, as Manny Trillo singled, was bunted to second, and came home on a hit by Clark.

That left the Reds trailing by two once more, and with one more chance against Gary Lavelle. The Giant reliever retired Ron Oester to open the inning, but then yielded a Bilardello double, followed by a game-tying two-run homer to pinch hitter Cesar Cedeno. A single by Lawless and a walk to pinch hitter Dan Driessen put the winning run in scoring position, and Lavelle was hustled from the game in favor of Greg Minton (who was double-switched in, with Gene Richards taking over left and Jeffrey Leonard moving over to replace Davis in center). Minton got through the next two Reds without incident, sending the game to extra innings.

Brad Lesley came on for the top of the tenth and quickly left the Reds wishing they'd picked someone else. He walked Rabb to start the inning, and LeMaster bunted the runner to second. Ensuing events made the donation of an out look downright profligate, as Richards was intentionally walked, and Trillo and Youngblood were issued unintentional passes to first load the bases, then force in the go-ahead run. Clark hit into a double play to end an inning that could have been extraordinarily productive if the Giants had actually managed a hit.

With Minton having escaped trouble in the ninth, the Giants used him again in the tenth. He allowed a leadoff hit to Perez, who was lifted for pinch runner Tom Foley. Foley moved to second on a sac bunt and third on a groundout, then scored the tying run on a single by pinch hitter Brad Gulden. Cedeno then flied to center, where (if you'll recall) Leonard had been moved an inning earlier. Leonard committed a remarkable two errors on the play, which ended with runners at second and third; Lawless was intentionally walked, and pinch hitter Jeff Russell grounded out to leave the bases loaded and prolong the game.

Tom Hume relieved in the top of the eleventh and managed a relatively quiet inning, with relatively being the key term; after a one-out walk to Leonard, Minton was allowed to hit for himself and... well, the play-by-play says "Double play: Flyball: LF-C-2B." If someone can explain to me how that makes the slightest bit of sense for a play that started with a runner on first, I will be very impressed. (Unless the explanation is "incorrect transcription of play by play," which is possible but rather boring.)

Minton worked around a Parker single and an intentional walk in the eleventh. Rabb singled and was caught stealing in the twelfth, while Lawless had a two-out hit and moved up on a wild pitch before Hume popped up to strand him. Hume atoned for the key out by working a spotless thirteenth.

The bottom of the inning put a new Giant on the mound for the first time in several frames. Randy Lerch quickly got into trouble when Redus singled and stole second, then appeared to get out of it when Parker grounded back to the mound and Lerch threw Redus out at third. Foley hit into a force for the second out, but Concepcion followed with a double that scored Foley from first with the winning run.

If this game had slightly better timing, it could have been the best of 1984 so far; as it is, it came one day after a game that WPL likes a bit better. This one was still terrific, though, particularly when the Reds were at the plate; they were trailing all game (their first lead came with Concepcion's walkoff double), but kept the pressure on the Giants (18 at bats with runners in scoring position) and pulled off do-or-die rallies in the ninth and tenth innings. Four individual Reds had WPA either greater than +.300 or less than -.300, and three of those four (Oester, Gulden, and Cedeno) did not start the game. In fact, if you count just the WPL accrued when the Reds were batting, it puts the game in the top 20 of 1984 to date. With both teams included, it squeezes into the second slot.

On a smaller level, this game featured Gary Redus establishing a career high in stolen bases with four; he would equal that total once more in 1984, then never again. Amusingly, the man who would make over 2/3 of his career starts in the leadoff spot set his high mark in steals from the third position in the order. There were two different Giant players who made both their first and second errors of the year in this game; one of them made both on the same play. And from a larger individual perspective, this was the second outing of John Franco's career, and the first in which he did not allow a run. There were hundreds more where that came from.

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