The COVID-19(73) World Series shifted to the Bay Area for game 3. Ken Holtzman took the mound for the Alteses facing off against former Alteser - Andy Messersmith.
Bill North singled in the bottom of the first to stop the streak of 9 hit-less innings for the Matt pitching staff. But both pitchers cruised until the bottom of the 4th.
- Willie McCovey worked his 3rd walk in as many games to start the inning
- Gene Tenace followed that by depositing a Messersmith fastball into the left field seats for the 2-0 lead
- Sal Bando struck out for the first out of the inning
- Garry Maddox hit a come-backer to Messersmith, but he dropped it and by the time he got back in control he couldn't get the speedy Maddox at first
- The pitcher's best friend a 4-6-3 double play grounder from Chris Speier ended the inning
The Borrises fought back in the top of the 5th:
- Bobby Grich singled to start the inning
- Holtzman struck out Willie Crawford for the first out
- Ron Cey grounded to Fuentes but Grich slid hard into Speier to stop any potential double play
- With Cey at first Boog Powell singled to right moving Cey to third
- The Matts sent Don Baylor up to pinch-hit for Messersmith and he succeeded with a double to right field
- Cey scored and Powell was sent home as well by Lasorda coaching third
- North gathered the ball in the corner and threw to Tito Fuentes
- Fuentes made a perfect replay to Tenace to get Powell at home, end the inning and preserve the lead 2-1
Jim Brewer made his second appearance on the Series, replacing Messersmith in the 5th
- Brewer walked Fuentes
- Holtzman attempted to bunt Fuentes to second
- Joe Ferguson could not field the bunt cleanly and everyone was safe
- Cey and Grich teamed up for a great double play erasing Holtzman and getting the speedster North at first to calm things down
- The Matts had a conference on the mound to discuss pitching to Bonny Bonds or walking him to face the left-handed hitting McCovey, they chose poorly
- Bonds homered to make the score 4-1
With two outs in the 6th the Matts mounted another threat
- Red-hot Merv Rettenmund singled in the infield
- Holtzman lost a long at-bat to Ferguson in a base on balls
- With two out and two on, the Alteses contemplated taking Holtzman out with Grich coming to the plate
- Holtzman stayed in and made it pay off - striking out Grich to end the inning
Holtzman and Rollie Fingers limited the Coastal-Script-Jerseys to 2 singles the rest of the way for the 4-1 win, tightening the series to 2 games to 1
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