We come to Game 7. This series has had several reverses of fortune, what did the final match-up bring - more of the same!
Vida Blue was going for the Alteses and the Leos countered with Roger Moret, in a surprise start over Jack Billingham. Neither starter were involved in the decision.
Moret had a shaky first inning:
- Bill North walked
- Johnny Bench caught North straying a bit too far off of first after a pitch to Garry Maddox and picked him with a perfect throw to Tony Perez
- Maddox singled and consecutive walks to Willie McCovey and Gene Tenace loaded the bases
- Sal Bando singled scoring Maddox and McCovey to make it 2-0
- Gary Matthews ground out put runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 out
- Moret made one more mistake, hanging a slider to Chris Speier and Speier deposited it in the seats for a 3-run homer making it 5-0.
- Moret retired Tito Fuentes, but the inning seemed to drain the RedsSox crowd of energy
Not for long...
- Joe Morgan leadoff the bottom of the first with a single
- After Dave Concepcion struckout, Reggie Jackson hit a moon shot over the rightfield fence to make it 5-2
- Tony Perez made the second out on another hard hit ball that was right at Bando
- Red-hot George Foster then matched Reggie with a home run of his own, cutting the lead to 5-3
- Reggie Smith continued the ripping, with a double
- Carl Yastrzemski completed the team cycle in the first inning with a triple to the gap in center, scoring Smith and cutting the lead to one
- Johnny Bench his a grounder to Speier at short that looked like it would end the inning, but Speier threw it away, scoring Yaz and putting Bench on second
- Phil Gagliano, pinch hitting for Moret grounded out to McCovey ending the inning, but the score was 5-5
Billingham relieved Moret and held the Bay Area squad in check until the 4th
- Fuentes singled to start the inning
- Bobby Bonds had replaced Matthews in left after a double switch walked to put runners on first and second
- Morgan made a great play on North's grounder, stepping on the bag and making the throw to Perez to double up the speedy North, Fuentes moved to third
- Maddox came through with a 2-out single to score Fuentes and put the Mikes back on top 6-5
Horacio Pina and then Catfish Hunter had replaced Blue on the bump and had held the RedsSox to 5 until Yaz leadoff the 6th with a line drive homerun into the seats in right, tying things back up at 6
Ray Culp, Mel Stottlemeyer, Bob Veale, Bobby Bolin and Luis Tiant followed Billingham for the Leos. Tiant was working his second inning in the top of the 9th, still tied at 6
- With two outs, Maddox singled
- McCovey followed with a double and Maddox beat the throw from Pete Rose, to take the 7-6 lead
Don McMahon came in in the bottom of the 9th looking to get the series ending save, Darold Knowles, Glenn Abbot and Rollie Fingers had held the Leos to this point
- Concepcion singled to start things off, but was erased on a fielder's choice by Jackson
- McMahon then walked Tony Perez, putting the tying run on second and the winning run on base
- Dan Driessen popped up for the second out
- Andy Kosco, pinch-hitting for Tiant, became the last hope for the Leos
- Kosco kept the series alive with single, scoring Jackson
- Tommy Harper couldn't end it though as he popped up to Bando for the 3rd out
Into extra innings we went, Pedro Borbon came in for the RedsSox and allowed only a hit batter in the 10th and worked a perfect 11th
McMahon got out of a jam in the 11th
- After allowing a 2-out double to Perez
- McMahon intentionally walked Driessen
- With no hitters left, Borbon went out trying to help himself, but could only manage a popup to Dave Rader behind the plate to end the threat
Borbon had some trouble himself in the 12th
- McCovey walked to start he inning
- McMahon moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt
- After Bando walked, Borbon hunkered down and got the last tow outs to end the threat
McMahon had a quick 12th bringing us the 13th inning
- Chris Arnold had taken over at second base for Fuentes back in the 10th leadoff the inning with a single
- Bert Campaneris - the last hitter on the bench for the Mikes - came in to run for Arnold
- Campy stole second
- Borbon was rattled with the baserunner and walked Bonds and North to load the bases
- Maddox made the first out of the inning, but it was productive - a deep fly to left, scored Campy to make it 8-7
- Tom Hall came in to face the lefthanded McCovey, but failed at his job, McCovey doubled scoring Bonds, but North held at third - 9-7
- McMahon hit a grounder to Morgan who throw home, but North slid in under the tag making it 10-7, still only one out
- Hal walked Bando to get to the left-handed hitting Rader
- Rader followed Maddox's example, with sacrifice fly to left, scoring McCovey - making it 11-7
McMahon came out in the 13th with his second chance to seal the game - the 4-run lead was more precarious than it seemed as McMahon would likely have to come out if he allowed anyone to reach base, the bull pen remainders for the Mikes all have serious flaws vs one side of the plate
But McMahon was able to get Morgan, Concepcion and Jackson to end the game and the series
The Mikes move on to face the NLCS Champion Matts later this week - schedule tbd
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