Pirates 8, Dodgers 7 (10). LA's Bob Welch and Pittsburgh's John Candelaria both had excellent careers, combining for 388 wins and winning a Cy Young and an ERA title, respectively. This game would not appear anywhere near the top of the career highlight list for either man.
Both pitchers allowed one hit in the first inning, Candelaria yielding a Pedro Guerrero double and Welch a Bill Madlock single. The game's first run would score in the top of the second when Candy Maldonado doubled, Steve Yeager singled him to third, and Greg Brock hit into a double play that allowed Maldonado to come home. After a perfect second from Welch, the Dodgers pushed another run across in the third when Steve Sax and Bill Russell singled, Guerrero walked to load the bases, and Mike Marshall hit a sac fly.
After double plays shortened the next two half-innings, Pittsburgh joined in the scoring in the fourth, when Joe Orsulak singled, stole second, and scored on a Jason Thompson double. LA countered with a run in the top of the fifth as Sax walked, moved to third on a Russell single, and completed the circuit on Guerrero's flyout.
The runs had been scored one at a time to this point; the bottom of the fifth began the deluge. Dale Berra and Candelaria walked, and one out later, Orsulak reached on a Russell error to load the bases. Madlock singled in two runs to tie the game at 3 and chase Welch from the game. Pat Zachry relieved and Thompson said hello by doubling in the go-ahead tally. Johnny Ray was intentionally walked to load the bases and Tony Pena singled in another run; Doug Frobel flied out, and Berra was hit by a pitch to force in the fifth Pirate of the inning.
The Dodgers recovered from the onslaught with admirable quickness. Candelaria walked both Marshall and Maldonado, and was hustled away from the mound in favor of Cecilio Guante. Mike Scioscia pinch hit for Yeager and struck out, and Franklin Stubbs hit for Brock and walked to load the bases. Dave Anderson hit a sac fly to pull within 6-4, and Rick Monday, the inning's third pinch hitter, launched a go-ahead 3-run homer.
Burt Hooton took the mound in the bottom of the sixth and allowed a hit to Marvell Wynne, but a Madlock double play ended the inning. Guante walked Maldonado in the seventh but allowed nothing further, and the same was true of the free pass Hooton issued to Ray in the latter half of the inning. The Dodgers wasted another base on balls in the eighth, keeping the Pirates close.
Tom Niedenfuer supplanted Hooton in the bottom of the eighth and immediately yielded a double to Frobel. The Pirates used a pair of pinch hitters, with Lee Mazzilli striking out and Milt May drawing a walk; Wynne then singled to score Frobel with the tying run and put the go-ahead tally at third. Orsulak and Madlock flied out to leave it there.
Kent Tekulve assumed pitching duties for the Pirates in the ninth. With one out, Guerrero singled and Marshall doubled, putting the go-ahead run at third. Pinch hitter Terry Whitfield was intentionally walked, and Scioscia then hit into a double play to keep the tie intact. Niedenfuer worked around a Pena single to send the game to extras.
Stubbs started the tenth with a triple, but Tekulve recovered to induce three consecutive groundouts to leave him 90 feet away. Orel Hershiser entered in the bottom of the inning and allowed a double to Amos Otis, a single to Rafael Belliard, and a walkoff RBI single to Wynne.
The bottom of the tenth inning was a rather remarkable intersection between two excellent baseball careers: the double was the last extra-base hit of Amos Otis's MLB tenure, and it set up Orel Hershiser's first big-league loss. It would be an outstanding moment even if it didn't come as the capper to the sixth-best game of the '84 season to date.
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