The 3rd in a series of writeups about the divisional round in my 1972 Dynasty League
Pittsburgh: Winner NL Wild Card Round:
The write up about the Pirates team as a whole for the Wild Card Round is here.
NL Wild Card game 1 at Riverfront Stadium
It was a battle of the aces as Gaylord Perry a NL Cy Young favorite faced Fritz Peterson the ace of the Big Red Machine. Things started well for Cincinnati as Al Kaline tagged Perry for a homer and an Error by Hank Aaron set up Bill Buckner to drive in Joe Rudi on a grounder for a 2-0 lead. Pittsburgh struck back with two outs in the 6th. Singles by Bill Freehan, Ron Woods and George Scott loaded the bases and Peterson’s 3-2 pitch to Rod Carew was just outside to walk in a run but Tommy Davis K’d to kill the rally. Peterson further helped his cause by beating out an attempt to bunt Bill Bucker to 2nd a two out walk to Joe Morgan loaded the bases for Johnny Bench who singled him in but Perry like Peterson K’d the last man (Kaline) to keep things close (3-1) after 7.
That’s when the Pirates erupted. Bill Freehan led off with a solo shot to make it a 1 run game. Ron Woods walked and with one out Carew singled him to 3rd. Up came Joe Lahoud who drove a ball down the 1B line. Dick Allen dived but couldn’t get it Woods scored easily and Carew beat Kaline’s throw to give the Bucks the lead. Lahoud moved to 3rd on the throw but was cut down on a suicide squeeze when new Pitcher Fred Gladding got off the mound quickly to get the ball to Bench to keep it 4-3. Cincy threatened in the 8th getting runners on 1 & 3 in the 8th and the Pirates had 1st & 3rd with one out and the bases loaded in the 9th but both failed to score. Finally relief ace Mike Marshall came on in the 9th when Perry gave up a lead off double to Dick Allen. With the tying run in scoring position and nobody out Joe Morgan walked bringing up Bench who grounded a ball right to 3rd allowing Sonny Jackson to make the force there for the 1st out. This turned out to be critical as a bad throw by Jackson pulled Aaron off the bad loading the bases rather than allowing in the tying run. With the game on the line and only one out Marshall struck out Joe Rudi and got Ted Martinez to ground softy to short eeking out a 4-3 Pirates win by the narrowest of margins.
WP Perry (1-0) LP Peterson (0-1) Sv Marshall (1) HR Kaline (1) Freehan (1)
Game two at Three Rivers Stadium
Pittsburgh struck 1st off of starter Paul Splittorff as Aaron hit a solo shot with two outs but Bill Singer gave it right back in the 2nd when Bobby Tolan hit a two run shot of his own to give Cincy a 2-1 lead. Jose Cruz lead off the bottom of the 3rd with a walk and Pittsburgh unexpected pinch hit for Singer after only 3 inning of work. It paid off as Johnny Briggs doubled to left center tying the game and after a Bill Russell bunt moved him to 3rd Rod Carew singled him in for a 3-2 Pit lead. It looked like Cincy would come right back. Dick Allen singled in the top of the 4th and Splittorff bunted him to second. Joe Morgan promptly singled and the speedy Allen headed for home but young Jose Cruz’s throw got there first cutting down the tying run.
That would prove critical as relievers Jim Barr, Bob Johnson and Mike Marshall would all bend, none of them would break as they shut out the vaunted Reds office while Pit added two more on a bases loaded double play and a single in the 7th to account for the final 5-2 score
WP Barr (1-0) LP Splittorff (0-1) Sv Marshall (2) HR Aaron (1) Tolan (1)
San Francisco 108-54 1st in NL Beta (1st seed)
Offense: The offense that won a world series two years ago returned to San Francisco as the giants 718 runs scored was only surpassed by the incredible Yankees (822) Rookie Dave Kingman hit only .186 but 26 of his 70 hits left the park. He was one of 3 Giants members of the 20+ HR club with Bobby Bonds (23HR 107 RBI & 30 SB both 3rd in NL) and Harmon Killebrew acquired in a trade with Kansas City who though not was he was still put 21 balls out of the yard to go with the 6 that he hit for the Royals. and drove in 61. The team didn’t hit for much avg. Rick Monday hit the highest at .277 but with their 140 HR leading the NL they didn’t have to, particularly since their 656 walks led the majors. With Darrell Evans walking 137 times , Chris Spier’s 81 and Killer Killerbrew walking 72 times in 111 games there was always someone on base to drive in and Boy did they do so. They are a rally waiting to happen every inning.
Defense: Very few teams were more deadly up the middle. Dave Cash at 2nd with only 2 errors .997 FPCT and Chris Speier at short .986 FPCT were death to runners while Gary Maddox threw out 8 in center while committing only 2 errors Bobby Bonds in threw out 10 more in right but added 3 errors to the mix. Both Killebrew and Kingman were more than adequate at first with the vet outplaying the rookie but Darrell Evans 30 errors at 3rd were high and the SF pitching staff combined for 16 more. The real danger was the catching as the Giants only threw out 2 of 30 who were stealing all season.
Pitching: The Giants had the top team ERA in baseball at 2.66 top in baseball with a .216 avg against and top in baseball with a 1.09 WHIP. Combine that with the 3rd fewest walks in the NL and that meant there weren’t a lot of baserunners around to take advantage of their poor catching arms. s and their .216 avg against and 1.09 WHIP Jim Palmer at 26-5 with a 1.87 ERA and a WHIP of 0.97 and a .198 avg against was practically unhittable Eddie Watt went 9-1 in relief while saving 11 of 13 Dave Gusti who came over from Atlanta in the Trade for Dave McNally saved 17 of 21 to make it very hard to come back from all that offense. Unheralded Phil Hennigan went 6-2 in relief along with a save thanks to a .193 against and a WHIP under 1 (0.94) As for the rest of the rotation Dock Ellis and Mickey Lolich (acquired in May from Baltimore) were adequate both going 12-12 and Ron Bryant went 14-7 to round the things out.
Season Series
Series 1 May at Pittsburgh
In game 1 the Giants offense was too much for Gaylord Perry as rookie Dave Kingman hit a 2 run shot in the 1st while Bobby Bonds did the same in the 6th with Darrell Evans driving in one in the 3rd as well. This was more than enough for Steve Stone who gave up a solo shot by Aaron in the 3rd and came out in the 8th when the Bucks would add two more as they won 5-3
Game 2 was much more interesting with the Pirates managing 2 off Palmer in the 2nd on a Sonny Jackson triple. The Giants took the lead in the 3rd with 3 off Bob Johnson aided by errors from Sonny Jackson and Aaron. Dave Kingman’s double being the big hit. The Pirates tied it up in the 8th on a Coco Laboy single which drove in Jose Cruz to tie it but the key play was Dave Kingman being thrown out at 3rd by Rick Monday on Cruz’s single which would have given Pittsburgh a lead on the Laboy’s hit. Instead the game remained tied after 9 and would stay that way till the Giants erupted for 6 runs in the top of the 12 three of them on a bases clearing double by Rick Monday leading to the lopsided 9-3 score
Pittsburgh got their revenge in game 3 scoring 4 off the newly acquired Mickey Lolich on a pair of 2 runs shots by Aaron (3rd) and Stennett (7th) while Bill Singer held the Giants to a single run in the first over 7 2/3’s Marshall pitching the 9th for his 9th save.
Series 2 June at San Francisco
The Giants took game one despite an injury to starter Jim Willoughby and a pair of 6th inning runs off of Steve Stone who can in to replace him. The giants answered with back to back HR by Speier & Evans in the bottom of the inning and took the lead for good with 2 in the 7th via a Speier single and one in the 8th off of Bruce Kison 3. Eddie Watt got the win and the Giusti trade paid dividends with the save. In game 2 Pitt took an early 5-1 lead helped along by Back to Back HR by Bill Freehan & Ron Woods off starter Ron Bryant but the Giants would rally for four in the bottom of the inning to tie it the big hit being Killebrew’s 3 run shot and would take the lead for good in the 4th when Bobby Bonds Tripled and was driven in by a Killebrew double. Barr managed to get out of further damage but Stone, Hennigan and Acosta would shut the Bucs down the rest of the way. Once again it was in game 3 that Pittsburgh would avenge itself as Gaylord Perry would outduel Jim Palmer shutting them out on 3 hits while the Pirates scored on a Joe Lahoud single in the 1st and a solo shot by Johnny Briggs in the 3rd.
Series 3 August at Pittsburgh
The Giants shut out Pittsburgh in game one Dock Ellis shut them out for 8 with Cy Acosta pitching a scoreless 9th while they went to town on Jim Colburn with Bonds and, Evans homering and Evans driving in 5 runs total for an 8-0 blowout. Game two the Pirates shut them out back with Perry pitching 8 innings of 1 hit ball while Mike Marshall pitched the 9th for the save. Again the victims was Mickey Lolich was the victim of this shutout giving up homers to Freehan and Woods in a 3-0 loss. Game 3 would be another pitchers duel although not as scoreless as for 9 innings Three Pittsburgh Pitchers (Johnson Barr & Marshall) and Three Giants pitchers (Bryant, Watt & Giusti) would hold the other to 2 runs via a pair of singles by Bonds and Kingman in the 1st and a Solo shot by Aaron in the 4th and a Bryant error in the 6th that tied it. In the 10th the Giants would finally get to Marshall as with one out he gave out 3 doubles with a single after the first two in sequence for 3 runs. The Pirates would load the bases off Cy Acosta in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a single, walk and one out error. Acosta would give up one run on a bases loaded walk to Tom Haller and a wild pitch directly afterwards but he would get Ron Woods out on a grounder to short with the infield pulled in and after an intentional walk to George Scott would retire Rennie Steinnett to escape disaster.
Series 4 Sept at San Francisco
As in his last start against the Bucs Jim Palmer would give up two runs, but they would be in the 9th after his team had scored seven in the first six innings. Homers by Rick Monday, Evans were the big blows. Game 2 again went the Giants way. The Bucks got 2 in the 3rd on a Sonny Jackson double but the Giants got four back on an 2 RBI single by Bonds, an RBI single from Garry Maddox and an RBI double from Johnny Oates. Dave Cash would add a solo shot for the 5-2 win. Gaylord Perry would again Victimize Mickey Lolich with a 5 hit shutout in game 3 as Carew, Stennett and Perry himself would drive in runs while Aaron would go deep again for the 6-0 win.
Season Series SF 8-4
The Pirates 91 wins are nothing to sneeze at but the Giants dominated at home and on the road (54-27 records in each) winning 2-3 of every series they played and pretty much only losing when shut out by Gaylord Perry and beating up on Mickey Lolich. They are going to have to manage to win at least one game without Perry and beat someone other than Lolich to win this series. The Duel between him and Palmer in game one will decide a lot but based on the offense the rest of the team has managed I’ve got to give the edge to San Francisco in 4 but frankly I won’t be surprised if it goes five.
SF in 4.
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