The Dodgers expressed ill intent from the start at Dodger Stadium - Reggie Smith homered as the third batter of the game, and Ron Cey led off the 2nd with another solo shot off of Figueroa to get LA off to a slugging start. But the Yankees got to Tommy John in the 4th, killing him softly with six singles in the span of seven batters to score four times and take the lead. But Dusty Baker doubled with two outs in the bottom half and Rick Monday and Lee Lacy singled to score the third Dodger run of the game. John was playing his "wily aging lefty" role to perfection other than the hiccup in the 4th, pitching his way out of a bases loaded, two-out jam in the 6th by getting Mickey Rivers to tap back to the mound. Los Angeles then got level in the bottom half of that inning when Cey hit his second homer of the game with no one aboard, but the Yankees again loaded the bases in the 7th, this time with only one away. Lou Piniella's hit by pitch filled the bases and chased John, but Bob Welch came on to whiff Graig Nettles and get Chris Chambliss to ground to short to end the threat without damage. It looked like a tense finish to open a start-studded Series, but the usually reliable back end of the Yankee bullpen imploded in the 8th. Steve Garvey led off with a home run off of Sparky Lyle and, one out later, Baker doubled and Monday singled to drive Lyle off the hill. In came Goose Gossage, and he got Lee Lacy to ground into a drawn-in infield for the second out, but then walked Steve Yeager to load the bases. Davey Lopes was next to hit, and he launched the Dodgers' fifth home run of the game, a grand slam that capped a five-run inning and put away Game One when Welch whiffed two of the three hitters he faced in the 9th. Thurman Munson had three hits in the losing cause. Los Angeles 9-11-0, New York 4-12-0. [scoresheet]
There were no offensive fireworks to be found early in Game Two, and in fact there weren't any to be found at all - Hunter and Hooton were dominant on the rubber as the teams combined for only four hits through the first five innings. In the bottom of the 6th, LA got a one-out two-bagger from Bill Russell and Bob Lemon decided to put Smith on to face the right-handed hitting Garvey; he got the firstbaseman to pop to second, but Cey followed with an RBI single that plated the first run of the ballgame. Hooton was pitching as if that would be all he would need, zipping through the 6th, 7th and 8th innings without allowing a hit, and he came back out for the 9th with the home team still clinging to a slim 1-0 lead. He retired PH Jay Johnstone to start the inning, and then got both Roy White and Gary Thomasson to hit the ball in the air at thirdbaseman Cey to retire the side in order for a complete-game two-hit shutout, facing only 29 men in one of the great pitching performances in World Series history. Lou Piniella had both Yankee hits - a double in the 2nd and a single in the 5th - and New York will need a lot more of that as they head back to The Stadium looking up at a two-game Series deficit. Los Angeles 1-5-1, New York 0-2-0. [scoresheet]
The Yanks have the man they want on the mound as they find their backs pressed against the wall in front of Monument Park - the 25-game winner Guidry gets his second career WS start after a legendary 25-3, 1.74 regular season. And it starts off the same way much of the Series had gone thus far - Yeager draws a one-out walk in the 3rd and then Bill Russell slices a long fly ball that drops over the fence in right field for the Dodgers' sixth homer in nineteen Series innings. Roy White leads off the Yankee 4th with a base on balls, takes second on Sutton's wild pitch, and scores on Munson's RBI single to cut the LA lead in half, but Reggie Jackson bounces into a twin killing to short-circuit any further Yankee business. (This would become a theme, as NY grounded into four DPs on the evening.) Guidry gets in trouble gain in the 6th when Los Angeles puts together three singles for a run, but Louisiana Lightning locks up Lee Lacy on a ground out to first to end the inning. In the 7th, the Bronx Bombers finally find the long ball - Piniella walks with one out and Nettles follows him with a bomb into the upper deck in left to tie the score at three and send Sutton to the showers and the Stadium crowd into a frenzy. And Guidry now has the bit well and truly between his teeth - he retires the National Leaguers in order in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings, setting down twelve in a row with five strikeouts, but the Yankees can't push a run across against Bob Welch. Guidry departs to a thunderous ovation for a heroic effort (10 ip, 6 h, 4er, 7 k) after allowing a leadoff double to Smith in the 11th, but the letdown is palpable when Cey's one-out grounder up the middle gives Bucky Dent just one play - to first base, as Smith scores the go-ahead tally. Welch retires White to start the home 11th, running his string of scoreless relief innings in the series to 6.2, but Munson lines a base hit to bring on Lance Rautzhan to face Reggie (1-for-12 with four strikeouts thus far in the Series). The slugger slaps a base hit to move Munson to third, and Charlie Hough comes into the game to face Piniella. Lou drives a double into the gap in left-center . . . Munson scores to tie the game, Reggie rounds third and heads for home . . . OUT! and Hough retires Nettles to send the game to the 12th tied at four. Gossage strikes out the side in the top half of the inning, and Chambliss starts the Yankee half with a base hit against Doug Rau. On the hit-and-run, Brian Doyle grounds to second with Chambliss taking second, but Dent swings through strike three for the second out. Rivers (three hits) was next, and he ended the extended evening with a single up the middle and into center field that scored Chambliss and tossed the Yanks a lifeline. New York (A) 5-12-0, Los Angeles 4-6-0. [scoresheet]
New York looks to get even behind Figueroa, but his evening looks similar to the one he suffered in Game One. The Dodgers get a run in the 2nd when Cey doubles with one away and Baker singles him home, but the real blows come in the 5th. Baker starts the inning with a homer to left, then Monday singles and Bill North draws a walk. That brings up Yeager, who belts the fifth homer allowed by Figueroa in 11 Series innings and it's suddenly 5-0 for Los Angeles. The American Leaguers can't do (literally) anything with John, who sets down sixteen in a row at one stretch and doesn't allow a hit until Piniella's leadoff single in the 7th. When Nettles followed with a base hit, John departed and Rick Rhoden came on to retire New York after allowing one run to score as a result of his wild pitch. A one-out single by Munson in the bottom of the 9th led to the end of the game when Reggie hit into another double play to send the crowd sulkily out into the Manhattan evening, and the Dodgers to the brink of a title. Los Angeles 5-7-1, New York (A) 1-3-0. [scoresheet]
The Yankees needed to get going first, as LA had scored first in each of the firs four contests, but they did not. Garvey doubled to lead off the Los Angeles 2nd, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on Baker's sacrifice fly. But this time it was the Yankee pitching that handcuffed their opponents, and the offense came to life in the 3rd; four singles produced two runs on RBI from Munson and Piniella to give New York the lead. They padded that in the 5th - Rivers started the inning with a double, and scored two outs later when Jackson doubled; he scored when Piniella followed with another two-base hit and the Yanks had a 4-1 lead. Beattie pitched into the 6th despite command issues (5 walks), but two straight free passes after two were out in the 6th meant the end of his evening; Dick Tidrow came into the game and fanned Lee Lacy to end the inning. Tidrow pitched a scoreless 7th, and Gossage came on to record a two-inning save while striking out three more Dodgers (at one point, he had whiffed five straight over two appearances). Rivers had a single, double and a stolen base while Munson continued his fine Series with two hits and an RBI. The Yankees are back in it, but will need to win two in a row at Chavez Ravine. New York (A) 4-11-1, Los Angeles 1-6-0. [scoresheet]
Has the worm finally turned in the Yankees' favor? New York crushes two 1st-inning homers (Rivers, Jackson) off of Sutton to grab a 1-0 lead with Hunter (7 ip, 1 er in Game Two) on the mound. But Catfish clearly does not have the same stuff six days later. A leadoff walk is followed by Garvey's second homer of the Series, Cey doubles and scores on Baker's base hit, and then Monday takes Hunter out of the park as well and the Dodgers have answered the Yankees' pair and raised them five in the 1st. Hunter stays in, and it doesn't go any better for him in the 2nd - another leadoff walk, then a single, and he's gone from the game after eleven batters in favor of Ken Clay. Smith greets him with an RBI single and, two batters later, Cey hits his third HR of the Series to make it an 8-2 game. Los Angeles was not in a mood to allow any uncertainty to creep into their celebration - they scored two in the 3rd (Vic Davalillo triple) and two more in the 4th (Joe Ferguson two-run single) to make it a dozen, and added another pair in the 7th for good measure. Fourteen runs, sixteen hits - six of them for extra bases - and the Series title in a laugher. Los Angeles 14-16-0, New York (A) 4-8-0. [scoresheet]
The batting averages of the two teams for the Series were roughly equal, yet Los Angeles scored almost twice as many runs. The difference was hard contact - of the Yankees' 48 hits, eleven went for extra bases; of the Dodgers' 51 hits, twenty-one were worth more than one base. The Yankees hit four home runs in the six games, none of which came off of any pitcher not named Don Sutton; the Dodgers crushed eleven long balls, accounting for twenty of their 34 runs. The other difference was command/patience - Los Angeles pitchers walked just six Yanks in 56 innings, while NY pitchers walked 22. [Series stats]
In a Series where the Dodger pitching had to get most of the plaudits - and Burt Hooton's two wins and 0.76 WHIP over 17 innings had to merit consideration - it was 3B Ron Cey who led the slugging attack that eventually buried the Yankees. The Penguin slugged .792, and led all Series hitters in homers, RBI and runs scored.
0 comments:
Post a Comment