The Bay Area Alteses looked to even the series at 2 games each, sending Vida Blue to face Don Sutton. It started well enough for the home team:
- With two outs in the bottom of the first Willie McCovey hit his second home run of the series making it 1-0 Mikes
Sutton had more trouble in the third:
- With one out Bill North walked then stole second base
- Bobby Bonds sent a single to center
- North was sent home and beat the throw from Merv Rettenmund to stake Blue to a 2-0 lead
- McCovey hit another screamer, but this one was right to Bobby Grich who had been cheating behind Bonds to hold him close
- Grich beat Bonds to the bag for the inning ending double play
Through 3 innings Blue had been stellar, in the 4th the Matts started to find their way:
- With one out Joe Ferguson worked a walk
- Rettenmund then doubled to center, but Maddox got the ball in quickly and held Ferguson at 3rd
- The Altese brain trust decided to intentionally walk Grich to face the left-handed hitting Al Bumbry
- Bumbry flew out to Bonds in right field, Ferguson bluffed home, but stayed at third
- Blue got Ron Cey looking to end the inning
The 5th inning was when the Borrises did their real damage:
- Boog Powell singled to lead off the inning
- Sutton's bunt to Sal Bando was well positioned and advanced Powell to second
- Davey Lopes tripled to the gap in left center, cutting the lead to 2-1
- Manny Mota hit a liner to left field, Bonds couldn't bring it in and when the dust cleared, Mota was on second with a double and the score was tied
- Blue crossed up Gene Tenace with a wild-pitch sending Mota to third
- Ferguson continued the hit barrage with a run scoring single for the 3-2 lead
- Blue settled down to strikeout Rettenmund
- Ferguson went to third on a base hit from Grich
- Al Bumbry flew out to center to end the inning
Blue went out to start the 6th
- Cey singled
- Powell was a strikeout victim
- Sutton placed an even better bunt, giving Bando no play to put runners on first and second and ending the night for Blue
- Horacio Pina continued his great work this series getting lopes and Mota to line out to McCovey
The 7th inning brought more intrigue
- Pina walked Ferguson to start the inning
- Rettenmund popped up to Chris Speier at short for the first out
- Grich hit a foul ball into the area behind third base and Speier misjudged the wall and injured himself trying to make a play on the ball. Bert Campaneris had to come in to replace Speier.
- Grich then singled to center
- Ferguson tried to take third on the play, but North made a great throw to Bando for the second out
- With Grich taking second, Pina intentionally walked Bumbry to face Cey and recorded a strikeout
After cruising through the middle innings, Sutton faced a little trouble in the 7th
- Gene Tenace worked a walk to lead off the inning
- Gary Matthews was sent in to replace him on the base-paths
- Bando struck out
- Maddox was given the hit-and-run sign with 2 strikes and swung through a high fastball for strike three
- Ferguson then fired to Grich to catch Matthews trying for second base to end the inning
In the eighth, the Alteses threatened again
- Campaneris singled and looked to get a large lead to take second
- Sutton threw wildly to first on a pickoff play and Campy ended up on third
- Sutton really showed his mettle here
- Tito Fuentes couldn't find a Sutton curve for strike three
- Dave Rader had replaced Tenace and was batting in the 9th spot popped up to short
- North finally hit the fly ball that would have scored Campy, but it was for the third out
Sutton worked a quick ninth for the complete game victory
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