Editor’s note: How good were the 1975 Cincinnati Reds? The best way to end the speculation is to challenge the team with a 162-game season against some great teams. This is a series that will include each game played with the Strat-o-Matic cards and dice, while hoping to reach the 108-54 record that the Reds had that season. Game stories will be published periodically on Press Room Pass through out the year. What’s your predicted victory total?
Baseball games can be decided by attrition.
Case in point at the Polo Grounds as New York was able to outlast Cincinnati as the Giants posted a 7-6 victory over the Reds in 20 innings.
After the Reds scored to take the lead in the top of the 20th on a RBI double by Dave Concepcion, the Giants quickly bounced back to send their fans home happy.
Cincinnati’s Clay Kirby (0-5) was beginning his third inning of work in the bottom of the 20th when he surrendered a solo homer to Wes Westrum that tied the contest.
Kirby then retired Hank Thompson and Whitey Lockman before he made a mistake.
Al Dark smacked a Kirby offering over the fence to provide the Giants with a walk-off victory.
See-Saw Battle
Both teams held advantages, but they were also able to fight back to extend the game.
The Giants scored a run in the second off Reds starter Jack Billingham, who would eventually leave the the game with one out in the ninth.
Billy Gardner beat out a Reds double play attempt as Willie Mays came home to give the Giants the lead.
A RBI single by Johnny Bench tied the affair at 1-1 in the top of the fourth, but the Giants responded in the bottom of the frame as Mays blasted a solo homer.
Dan Driessen‘s RBI triple in the sixth tied the game again at 2-2.
Cincinnati took control in the seventh with no outs as Ken Griffey‘s two-run bomb ended the day for Giants starter Sal Maglie.
New York reliever Marv Grissom quickly stopped the uprising in the seventh, however, in the eighth Cesar Geronimo gave the Reds a 5-2 lead with a run-scoring single.
When Grissom got the Reds out in the top of the ninth, the stage was set for some heroic moments in what would become the longest game of the season for both teams.
With one out, Billingham gave up a single to pinch-hitter Monte Irvin and then he was sent to the showers after a double by Westrum.
Cincinnati manager Sparky Anderson went to Will McEnaney to end the threat and unfortunately for the Reds it didn’t go well.
Thompson, who entered the game in the seventh, doubled to get the Giants closer at 5-4.
One out later, Dark tied it with a single to send the game to extra innings.
Neither team could pose a serious opportunity from the 10th inning to the 19th.
Clay Carroll, Pedro Borbon and Rawly Eastwick held off the Giants, while the Reds were stopped by Windy McCall and Hoyt Wilhelm.
Wilhelm had knuckle-balls flying everywhere for eight innings as he would get the win. He would allow the unearned run in the 20th as he gave up three hits and fanned seven.
Pat Darcy (8-4) is set to start the middle contest of the three-game series for the Reds as the Giants send Don Liddle to mound.
National League Standings
(Records involve games only with Reds)
East Division
1971 Pirates (3-2)
1969 Mets (7-5)
2016 Cubs (3-4)
1975 Expos (2-7)
1967 Cardinals (1-4)
2008 Phillies (2-10)
West Division
1975 Reds (71-40)
1954 Giants (6-3)
2017 Astros (5-8)
1957 Braves (4-7)
1981 Dodgers (5-9)
1975 Padres (3-11)