Kuzul

So, who is still ready to throw Barry Zito into the nearest dumpster? Anybody?

Zito threw 5.2 innings and gave up one hit and no earned runs. He picked up loss No. 13.

He is 8-13 with a 4.02 ERA.

Now I realize when he is bad, he’s really bad. Zito has allowed four or more earned runs in nine of his 30 starts. In those nine starts, he has allowed 46 runs in 44.1 innings.

Zito is 0-6 in those starts. The Giants are 3-6 in those starts.

Has Zito been inconsistent in his Giants career? Absolutely.

But when Zito is hitting his spots, there may not be a better left-hander in the National League.

In every other start, he is 8-6 with an ERA of 2.30.

Wait, how does someone with a 2.30 ERA have six losses?

Run support.

Whenever Zito allows three or fewer runs, the Giants score an average of three runs per game. San Francisco has scored two or fewer in 11 of those starts.

Zito has seven no-decisions in these starts.

The offense is what is at fault in Zito’s starts. It has been the Giants’ Achilles’ heel all season.

Is the offense improved from last season? Yes.

Do the Giants have a deeper bench? Of course.

But do the Giants have a single guy that strikes fear into the opposing team?

No, they don’t.

On the most recent road trip, there was a different hero each night. It’s time to get back to that.

With Andres Torres possibly out for the remainder of the regular season, it is even more important to get contributions from everybody.

Aubrey Huff is a nice player, but he has been slumping for a couple of weeks now. Torres is out. Pat Burrell is a good player but was paid $10 million to go away by Tampa Bay.

Buster Posey is the most legitimate threat on the team, but he’s only a rookie. Not there yet.

Cody Ross is only hitting .194 as a Giant. Jose Guillen has also tapered off, now hitting .280.

Without a new hero each night, this team struggles. Someone needs to step up.

It seems when the pitching staff throws well, the offense vanishes. Whenever the pitching struggles, the offense comes alive.

The Giants are hitting .206 as a team in September with Guillen, Ross, Pablo Sandoval, and Torres batting below the Mendoza line.

The team ERA in September is 1.68. San Francisco cannot continue to waste outstanding outings by the pitching staff. No more.

The Giants will be facing another guy that has owned them this year: Chad Billingsley.

The Padres seemed to have woken up and are showing the Rockies their run is over. This makes the offense that much more critical.

It is September, and this is the time teams prove where they belong.

If the Giants want to be playing in October, the offense needs to wake up and contribute this month.

They cannot make the playoffs without it.

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He’s baaaacccckkkkkkk!!!!

Looking at Tim Lincecum‘s three starts in September, one would think he is back to Cy Young form. After a horrible 0-5 August record, Lincecum has responded by winning each of his three starts in September. His ERA in August was an abysmal 7.82, compared to 2.09 in September. 

So he’s back on track right?

Well, hold it right there. Sure his stats are back to ace-like form, but how do we know he has really changed?

It’s all in the mechanics. Tim Lincecum relies on his hips for power. The reason he is able to launch a fastball in the low- to mid-90s out of such a small frame is due to the mechanics of his extra long stride and the way his hips open up after release.

He stays balanced throughout his whole motion, which is hard to believe because of how violent of an action it is.

So even if stats don’t lie, there has to be a way where one can find out if Tim Lincecum is truly back in business and not just getting lucky.

Well, as you all know, Lincecum’s velocity has been dropped slightly this year, even though he has shown signs of getting it back up at different points. Since he gets all of his power from his hips, he probably concluded that maybe he wasn’t using them enough. This is an assumption and an attempt to explain the difference in his mechanics I will explain shortly. 

Lincecum might not have even known specifically what he was doing wrong with his mechanics, but he did know he was not getting the results he is so used to getting. 

So what was wrong with him?

He had been overturning before he released the ball. His hips opened up too soon and he did not step straight towards home plate. This caused him to pull the ball slightly and miss location very often. He tried changing numerous aspects of his delivery during his slump, including lifting his hands over his head. This only led to a dragging motion in his arm and although it led to successfully results in the short run, it was not good for his mechanics.

Also, fatigue may have been a factor, but it hasn’t looked like it in his past three starts. This leads me to believe it was mostly his mechanics and lack of confidence that led to such an awful August. 

Lincecum’s problems usually occurred when he tried to muscle the ball to the plate. This led to an unreal amount of walks that have not really been part of Tim’s game. 

How do we know for sure he fixed his problems? Watch the difference in his delivery from the time he faced the Diamondbacks in San Francisco and gave up four runs wearing his high socks, compared to his most recent start against the D-backs 10 days ago.

In his first start, it is noticeable that he is opening up and trying to sling the ball to the plate. In his second start, you can see that he is staying closed longer, and stepping more towards the plate, allowing him to drive the ball, keeping his walk rate down, and his velocity around 93.

Yes folks, Tim Lincecum has regained his form. There is no doubting it, and all signs point to yes. So unless he starts leaving balls over the plate or begins opening up early again, he should be able to lead the San Francisco Giants and their pitching staff to the playoffs. 

And NO ONE wants to face the Giants in a short series because of their rotation. It is now enjoyable to watch Lincecum pitch, and when his turn in the rotation comes around there is a good chance he will deliver a W—just like old times. 

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The Giants are once again tied with the Padres for first place in the NL West after beating them to win the series finale.

Tim Lincecum pitched well for the third time this month, allowing just one earned run in seven innings while striking out nine.

Buster Posey hit a two-run homer in the first inning to give the Giants an early lead, and they added on later: Jose Guillen hit a sacrifice fly in the third inning, and Lincecum hit a two-run single in the fourth inning.

Mat Latos, who had gone a major-league record 15 consecutive games with five-plus IP and two ER or fewer, lasted just four innings, giving up five runs.

The Giants went on to win the game 6-1, as they finished their road trip with a 7-3 record.

The key factor in the Giants’ success against the Padres was their ability to contain Adrian Gonzalez. He was just 3-for-15 in the series without a single RBI or run.

Notes

• Andres Torres is likely out for the season due to appendicitis. This will undoubtedly be a big blow to the Giants’ offense (in spite of his recent struggles) but will be an even bigger blow to their defense. Pat Burrell, Aaron Rowand, and Guillen might very well be the worst outfield defense in the majors. Hopefully, Nate Schierholtz and Cody Ross will get a lot of playing time. In a lineup with Ross in center, it’d be interesting to see who leads off…possibly Freddy Sanchez? Torres will be missed sorely…
• Lincecum reached the 200-K plateau for the third consecutive year, becoming the fourth Giant in history to do so and the first Giant since Juan Marichal did it in four straight seasons from 1963-1966. He also took the NL lead in strikeouts with 208. He could become the third pitcher in the post-World War II era to lead the NL in strikeouts in three consecutive years, joining Warren Spahn and Randy Johnson. 
• The Giants rotation is on a serious roll: 11 quality starts in their last 14 games. On a similar note, the Giants’ ERA this month is 1.84.
• Four Giants (Burrell, Posey, Aubrey Huff, and Juan Uribe) had a multi-hit game on Sunday…nice to see after the Giants had batted .207 over the first nine games of this road trip.
• The Giants are 8-3 in September. The Padres, meanwhile, have posted a 4-7 record this month.
• After going four consecutive seasons (’05-’08) with records below .500, the Giants have clinched their second consecutive .500-plus season.

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May 6. 

That is the last day the Giants were in 1st place. Four months later, the Giants stand atop the NL West, tied with the San Diego Padres.

They won 1-0 on Friday thanks to yet another strong pitching effort. Jonathan Sanchez went five scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, but walking eight (one intentionally). Despite his lack of control, he did his job. He kept the Giants in the game, and gave them the opportunity to win.

Aubrey Huff was hit by a pitch to start the seventh inning, at which point Clayton Richard was removed from the game and replaced with Luke Gregerson. While Pat Burrell was swinging at strike three to make the first out, Aubrey Huff took a bold steal of second base. Jose Guillen reached on a fielder’s choice, and Nate Schierholtz was put in to pinch run for him.

With one out and runners on the corners, Uribe hit a chopper to shortstop. Cabrera flipped the ball to Eckstein, who threw to first, but the inning-ending double play couldn’t be completed as Uribe was safe by half a step. Nate Schierholtz slid with all of his force into Eckstein to break up the double play, and it probably made the difference, allowing the Giants to take the lead.

With a 1-0 lead, the Giants’ bullpen was able to shut the Padres down with a spectacular effort. They combined for four scoreless innings, allowing just two hits.

The Giants won this game the way they were expected to win and supposed to win ballgames this year—by shutting down the opposition. The rotation of Lincecum, Cain, Zito, Sanchez, and Bumgarner has always the had the potential to perform at an elite level, but it’s finally coming to fruition.

They’re pitching like they’re the best rotation in baseball…and perhaps they are—or at least they could be if they can be consistent.  The bullpen, too, is pitching incredibly. On this road trip so far, the bullpen ERA has been 0.43. In 21 innings of pitching, the bullpen has allowed just one earned run. The rotation, meanwhile, sports an impressive 2.82 ERA on the road trip.

Every play matters: Huff’s stolen base, Schierholtz’s hard slide into second, Jonathan Sanchez’s ability to induce a double play with one out and runners on first and second against Adrian Gonzalez.  They played hard, executed in certain key moments, and walked away with the victory.

Quite possibly the most impressive part of this game is that they did this without any assistance from Buster Posey, whose absence weakens the Giants’ offense significantly (not to mention what he brings to this team defensively…).

Notes:

Brian Wilson has allowed just one earned run in his last 18.2 innings of work. He’s the best closer in the National League at this point, an established all-star closer whose kept the ball in the park, struck out 82 batters in 65 innings, and had an ERA of 1.80—nearly one lower than his previous career best. 

Freddy Sanchez, who was 2-for-4, has had multiple hits in 11 of his last 23 games. He’s made it harder to notice Andres Torres’ struggles at the plate, as he’s been getting hits at inconceivable rates—he’s batting .414 since August 12. 

Jonathan Sanchez is starting to find his rhythm, showing a bit of consistency at the moment: he’s allowed just one earned run over his last three starts (20 innings). While tonight’s start wasn’t flawless (the seven walks were certainly noticeable…), he did only give up one hit. 

The Giants are 8-2 in September, performing well now that their pitching is prospering. 

The Rockies are starting to become a serious issue. They’ve won eight in a row, and stand just 2.5 games behind the Giants. Troy Tulowitzki has hit seven home runs in his last nine games. 

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Brian Wilson leads the National League in saves at 39. He has been one of the most consistent closers in all of baseball. 

Consistent you ask?

Well Brian’s version of closing in consistent in a different way than you think. 

Giants fans are witnesses to this.

Almost every time he is asked to save a game, he starts off by putting men on base. Whether he walks them, or gives up a hit, he is always making Giants fans nervous. 

He has a 94 to 99 MPH fastball, along with a cutter and a slider. These pitches are effective enough for him, as his success shows. 

But what if he added another pitch? With the speed he has on his fastball, adding a simple change-up with make him a dynamic big-game pitcher. His strikeout rate would go up and he would get more ground ball double plays if men did get on base against him. 

It seems that sometimes he gets bored out there on the mound, even if it is a close game, and decides he better walk someone. Maybe this amuses him. Who knows.

What we do know is that every time Brian Wilson closes, there is going to be drama. Every Giant fan is sitting on the edge of his or her seat. Usually Brian gets it done, though, and closes out the game safely and soundly. 

But wouldn’t it be nice if Brian retired the side in order more than once in a while?

Imagine if he had a pitch that was in the back of batters’ minds when they started getting strikes on them. They might want to swing earlier in the count and this would let Wilson take full control of the game. 

Batters know that most of the pitches that Wilson throws are over 90 MPH. His slider is effective at changing speeds but it is not a major difference.

If he added a change-up that was 82 to 85 MPH, it would drive hitters crazy. Just a thought for Brian, because it would be appreciated by us Giants fans and Bruce Bochy, who can be seem pacing nervously around the dugout during many of Wilson’s appearances.

If Wilson added a change-up he would not only be more effective at getting saves, but he would also keep Giants fans from any possibility of having a heart attack. 

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The Padres have been leading the NL West for virtually the whole season. Recently, a week or so ago they extended their lead to 6.5 games over the Giants. 

At this point, the team showed no signs of slowing down. Their pitching was still magnificent and their hitting was getting it done. 

The Padres also seemed to show no signs of having a major weakness, even though they didn’t have a major strong point besides their pitching staff. 

It has surprised me, as a San Francisco Giants fan, that the Padres entire pitching staff has been so successful though. 

Garland? Richard? LeBlanc? Correia? Everyone of these guys has had an average to above average year so far. But how have they continued this success throughout the whole year? Well it may be the teams that they have been playing, and their schedule having a big part of it because they were a last-place team last season.

Their ace, Mat Latos, this season is a rookie. He has been absolutely outstanding the entire season. He has the poise of a veteran out there on the mound, but you have to remember that he is still a rookie. Down the stretch he may falter a bit, but we will have to see.

So what are the reasons for this Padres losing streak? 

Well since the Padres do not have a prolific scoring attack in their arsenal, they rely almost entirely on their pitching. There are exceptions though. Since the Padres have been playing teams with mediocre or worse pitching staffs almost all season, they can still win without a perfect pitching performance.

But now that the Friars schedule has started to get harder, they are faltering a bit. They have been playing small ball all year long, and this has worked when playing weaker teams and by pitching well. How many times have you seen them score on sacrifice flies, RBI groundouts, or heads-up plays? 

Too many to count. That has been a main part of their offense, but things are changing. They can’t play small ball if their pitching fails them against the Phillies or Cardinals, and the Padres don’t have enough of a scoring threat to overcome large deficits.

Once in a while it may happen, but their home ballpark isn’t Coors Field, where all you need is a broom and a whiffle ball to hit one out. They are playing in a pitchers’ friendly ballpark where comebacks are scarce.

They can still overcome this losing streak and win the West, but there is a long road ahead of them.

They have to fend off the pesky Colorado Rockies first, who are slowly creeping up in the standings. Then the Giants come in town for a four-game series on Thursday. This will be a huge part of the season for both teams.

The Giants are now only two games back in the division, and are gradually building momentum, while the Padres have hit a brick wall. 

The Padres have to dig deep to stay in first place and reach the postseason, but with their lack of experience how will they do down the stretch? 

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For the entirety of the San Francisco Giants 2010 season, there has been an air of inconsistency that can only be described as Duane Kuiper has: torture. 

The team itself had a real good April (.591) followed by a .500 May, a sub-par June (.481), a torrid July (.714), and a dismal August (.464). 

This is the team that scored one run in three games against Oakland in May and then scored 11 runs in three straight games against the Reds in August. 

After having one of the top defensive teams in the country over the first portion of the season, San Francisco has made 23 errors in their last 30 games. 

They have had stellar starting pitching. In their best two months (April and July), the starters had ERAs of 2.64 and 3.29, respectively. The starters pitched 80% of the innings, keeping the bullpen fresh and sharp. 

But in their worst two months, it was a different story. In May they maintained a respectable ERA of 3.80, but in August it ballooned to 4.55, and it showed in other places as well. In August, the runs allowed jumped 20 runs from July, and the batting average against leapt up 40 points.

The starters only pitched 67% of the innings, meaning a lot of long relief and bullpen games, which can be both physically and emotionally draining for the team and the fans. 

But if you’re going to have a bad month followed by a good month, there’s no better time to have a spike in performance than September. We’re seeing that from the Padres right now: if you perform well all season and drop off in the last month of the season, nobody cares about the first five. 

On Wednesday Tim Lincecum followed up an abysmal August (0-5, 7.82 ERA) with a dominant start to September, hurling eight innings of one-run, five-hit ball and striking out nine batters for the first time since July 30. 

Hopefully Barry Zito can emulate that against the Dodgers. Usually a strong second half pitcher, Zeets had an equally rough August (0-4, 7.76 ERA) that included three losses in one week (one in emergency relief). But his career line in September (27-14, 3.65) is encouraging, to say the least.

Many were ready to write off Pablo Sandoval as a one-season wonder. His first-half line was unimpressive (.267/.322/.382) compared to 2009’s production. But then August came around, and even though the Giants didn’t have a great month on the pitching side, Sandoval suddenly rediscovered his stroke.

After hitting a low point on August 1 of .263, the Panda’s August average of .321 has raised his average significantly and is certainly encouraging to this Giants team. He also pounded six homers in August, matching the amount of dingers he hit in the entire season up to that point. 

In the middle of August, Freddy Sanchez had significantly cooled off from his torrid return from the disabled list, hitting a low point of .255 on August 11. Since then, he’s raised his average 40 points in 17 games, including back-to-back 4-hit games against Cincinnati. This comes at a good time for San Francisco, as Juan Uribe’s stats have dropped every month so far this year.

Baseball is a streaky game, and the Giants have been playing well lately. If not for the “Broken Bat Heard ‘Round the West” on Monday, they could have swept the Rockies (how often does that happen?). 

And even though there’s been our fair share of fan heartbreak in 2010, there have been just as many games that the Giants have proved worthy of praise. This 2010 team can come back from the dead (10-1 against the Reds to 12-11), can make things exciting (any time Brian Wilson comes in), and can win when they need to most (Darren Ford flying home against Ubaldo Jimenez). 

Now they’re entering the final month of the season in the heat of a pennant race. There are still four head-to-head games with San Diego, and six games against the Dodgers. 

And if we base this final month on the season as a whole, I can promise you that the rest of the way will be about as far from boring as possible. 

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In 1995, the owner of the Oakland Athletics, Walter Hass Jr., died. Successors Stephen Scott and Ken Hofman had watched Hass spend an abundant amount of money on players, and they wanted to go into an entirely different direction.

The duo immediately implored then-general manager Sandy Alderson to become cost-effective—to slash payroll, focus more on the farm system’s development, and abide by sabermetric principles in obtaining relatively undervalued players.

Alderson did what they said, but it didn’t translate into success. The Athletics had losing records from the time the new mindset was put in place until his departure after the 1997 season.

Billy Beane took over for his mentor and did what he could not. He didn’t spend much money but saw a steady increase in wins. The team improved drastically from year to year, and it was all because of Beane’s drafting, infatuation with their minor league system, and desire to continue the thriftiness.

He especially excelled in the pitching department, which was my focus in this 2009 piece praising his genius:

“He was behind the drafting of right-hander Tim Hudson in 1997, and wasted no time in his first year at the helm stocking the minor league system with more prime pitching talent, drafting left-handed pitcher Mark Mulder out of Michigan State with the second overall selection. His pick was a wise one; starting his minor league career in Triple-A, Mulder became the Athletics’ top prospect…second-ranked in all of baseball, and was in the majors to start the 2000 season.

“On June 7th, 1999, the day before Tim Hudson struck out 11 San Diego Padres in his five-inning debut, and while Mulder was in the midst of his fast track to the major leagues, Beane selected left-hander Barry Zito with the ninth overall pick. Zito, a UC-Santa Barbara product, nearly beat him to the majors despite being drafted a year after Mulder, and like Mulder, as well as Hudson before him, he flourished immediately. So, watching his team from his suite, Beane saw his three draftees, three immediate aces, take the mound every fifth day.”

The trio of aces led the A’s to four straight playoff appearances from 2000-2003; in 2001 and 2002, the team won 102 and 103 games. But then the three were gone. In line for big contracts, they left. Beane couldn’t afford them. It was as simple as that.

The rebuilding would begin, right? Surely the A’s couldn’t keep up their winning ways with such formidable pitchers elsewhere.

Beane found a way: The A’s won 91, 88, and 93 games from 2004-2006. And he’s still finding a way, growing a new crop of young arms to pick up an offense that is unflattering statistically yet somehow effective enough to put the Athletics in the playoff hunt.

From ’04-’06, the A’s were led by third baseman Eric Chavez before his career came to a sad, injury-plagued end; up-and-coming Nick Swisher, who is now extremely valuable for the New York Yankees; and in the latter of the three seasons, Frank Thomas, who amazingly hit 39 homers in just 137 games as a 38-year-old, clubbing the most per plate appearance of his Hall of Fame career.

Oakland didn’t manage winning records the next three seasons, but considering their payroll sat near the bottom of the league, the 75, 75, and 76 wins they did collect weren’t all that bad. This year, they are on a better pace, with 65 wins and 32 games remaining.

That .500 record has them just 7.5 games behind the Texas Rangers in the American League West. Now, unless the Rangers have a Metsonian collapse, the A’s won’t make the playoffs. But an 80-win season is in their sights. This is hard to fathom.

But not entirely unbelievable when the following is considered: Their pitching staff is among the best in baseball and, obviously then, the main reason behind their success. Their team ERA, even after allowing 11 runs to the New York Yankees, is 3.48, which is second in the major leagues.

Trevor Cahill, their 22-year-old ace, leads the team with 14 wins and has a 2.82 ERA, and as a result is in the Cy Young conversation. He has allowed just 119 hits in 158 innings, and that is after surrendering eight runs on nine hits in just four innings against New York.

Twenty-four-year-old Gio Gonzalez, who was acquired a few years back from the White Sox for Swisher, is 12-8, and Dallas Braden, 27, who tossed a perfect game earlier this season, is 9-9 with a 3.28 ERA.

There is a new trio of aces in town—and that’s not all that has Oakland buzzing. Their offense is an eyesore statistically, but improbably it has done enough to back the pitching. The A’s don’t have a hitter hitting over .300. Catcher Kurt Suzuki is leading the team in home runs with twelve. Twelve. Think about that.

Their offense is 24th in the majors in runs, 19th in batting average, and 26th in RBI. Yet their offense is well versed in small ball, manufacturing just enough to back their pitching staff. Case in point: Oakland is 22-18 since the All-Star break despite batting .241. Why such a good record? Their team ERA is 2.64. In the A’s case, averaging four runs a game is enough.

Despite their poor statistics, the A’s offense has some productive hitters. Coco Crisp anchors their lineup and has hit .275 in the 58 games he’s played this year, while Daric Barton has been their best hitter, batting .294 with seven homers and 46 RBI.

Kevin Kouzmanoff is tied with Suzuki in the home run category, has a team-leading 65 RBI, and has been stationed in the middle of their order for all but two games this year. Yet he has a .260 batting average and an obscene .295 on-base percentage.

The team isn’t far behind in the on-base percentage category, and their batting average is worse than his mark. But an 80-win pace is what good pitching and good situational hitting can do.

It’s pretty much only their pitching, as they aren’t a particularly good fielding team, ranking 18th with 80 errors. Again, how in the world are they conceivably within range of Texas? Situational hitting and top-of-the-line pitching: two things the A’s, run by the genius that is Billy Beane, have always successfully and remarkably been built around.

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Apparently the San Francisco Giants are trying to set the record for most outfielders acquired in one season.

In the last three months, they have brought in Pat Burrell and Jose Guillen, and now they have brought in Cody Ross from the Florida Marlins.

The Giants claimed Ross off waivers on Friday, and he was awarded to the Giants yesterday. Ross was batting .263/.315/.404 with 11 HRs in 119 games for the Marlins in 2010.

Where Ross will fit in with the Giants is unclear at this point, but the Giants didn’t get him because they really wanted him. They got him to keep him away from the San Diego Padres, who needed a center fielder thanks to an injury suffered by Tony Gwynn Jr.

In college, we used to a call this a “Blank a-doodle-doo” block. If the Giants did indeed try to blank a-doodle-doo block the Padres, then I dig it. Ross won’t hurt the Giants, and as a matter of fact, he is an upgrade over Guillen in right.

What’s funny about all these offensive acquisitions is that it’s not the Giants’ offense that has been the problem lately. It’s been the starting pitching that’s been the problem for San Francisco. Giants starters have a 4.69 ERA in August.

Perhaps the Giants should spend more time figuring out how to get Tim Lincecum right than worrying about getting more outfielders.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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The Oakland A’s took the first two games of the 1972 World Series from the favored Cincinnati Reds in Cincinnati. The A’s were in an enviable position since no team had ever lost the first two games at home and won the Series.

The teams traveled to Oakland for the next three games, but rain caused the third game to be moved up a day.

One of the Series’ most memorable plays, which has been almost forgotten with the passage of time (which means it is no longer considered memorable, but still is worth remembering) occurred in the eighth inning.

The Reds sent right-hander Jack Billingham to the mound to face Oakland’s John “Blue Moon” Odom. California Governor Ronald Reagan threw out the first ball, and as was expected, both pitchers were on their games. There was no score after six innings.

The Reds struck in the seventh inning.

Tony Perez led off with a single to left field. Denis Menke sacrificed him to second, bringing up Cesar Geronimo, who singled to center.

The field was still wet from the previous day’s rain, which caused Perez to slip rounding third, but Oakland center fielder George Hendrick had already made his relay to the infield, no Oakland player noticed Perez’ quandary, and Tony scored the game’s only run.

The play occurred in the Reds’ eighth inning.

Left-hander Vida Blue came in to pitch. Future Hall of Famer Pete Rose hit a screaming line drive to the right side that second baseman Ted Kubiak speared for the first out.

Future announcing great Joe Morgan walked and moved to third on a Bobby Tolan single to center. That was it for Blue.

Manager Dick Williams brought in Rollie Fingers to face Johnny Bench with runners at the corners and only one out.

Tolan stole second, which dictated an intentional pass to the second greatest catcher in baseball history, but Dick Williams marched to his own tune. He had Fingers pitch to Bench, with Tony Perez on deck.

Forget the potential inning-ending double play. Forget about the potential force out at home. Pitch to Bench.

The count went full when Williams had a change of heart. He strolled to the mound, made the signal to give Bench ball four, and had a brief conference with Fingers and catcher Gene Tenace.

Tenace went back behind home plate, stood tall, and signaled for ball four as he moved to the right.

Fingers nodded assent and went into his delivery, but Tenace quickly jumped back behind the plate as Fingers was delivering the ball.

Fingers fired a slider that caught Bench sleeping as it caught the outside corner for a called third strike.

It was a play that is thought about often, but that is rarely executed. Williams had the guts to pull it off in the World Series. Turn an “intentional” ball four into strike three.

Tony Perez really was walked intentionally to load the bases. Fingers retired Menke on a pop-up to second to end the threat.

It was all for naught when Billingham and Clay Carroll combined to shut out the A’s, but all turned out fine when the A’s won the Series in seven games.

Those who saw the third game will never forget what happened to Johnny Bench.

Neither will Johnny.

Reference

by JOSEPH DURSO. Special to The New York Times. (1972, October 19). Reds Win, 1-0, on 3-Hitter, A’s Now Lead Series, 2-1: Reds Win on 3-Hitter, 1-0; A’s Lead, 2-1 Carroll Saves the Shutout for Billingham. New York Times (1923-Current file), p. 97. Retrieved August 19, 2010, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2006). (Document ID: 79475397).

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