'Giant Whale Reuschel crush shabby humans trying to dodge him and other Giants!'
Duran Duran's Rio... Reema Ruspoli
The heartbreak of defeat
'Hey boys... They just sent me up from AAA to make you Buccos more offensive...
1990 EOBHR REPLAY #36: DAY 13 OF 16 N.L.
168 SF (9-4/3xT1st) 5-14-0 LD (9-4/3xT1st) 6-11-0
Yes, it is now becoming clearer and clearer who will be the three teams in the N.L. West Tourney. The Dodgers (9-4) win their 4th game in a row to pull into a 3-way tie with the stumbling Giants (9-4)and the devoted Padres (9-4). The next pair of teams in the NL West standings (Cincy and Houston) are 3 games back at 6-7, with just 3 games left to the saison reguliere...
So in order for one of them to crash the Tourney, they would absolutely have to win all three of their remaining games PLUS one of the top three teams would have to lose their last three games in a row. Also, since the best a 6-7 team can do is tie one of the three top current teams, they would also have to be superior to the team they tie on the tiebreakers used to decide which club will move ahead to the first Tourney Round.
This game starts out as if the Dodgers, with Fernando Valenzuela hurling (and in their batting order...Freddy can flat out hit!), are playing an exhibition with one of the old minor league S.F. Seals team of the Pacific Coast League. The Bums rush out to a 4-1 lead after four, with poor S.F. pitcher Ricky 'The Whale' Reuschel needing to face 24 L.A. batters... And the Dodgers are very efficient in offense in this game, stranding a mere five baserunners in the entire contest.
Hubie Brooks blasts a towering 2-run Dodger homer B1st and slugging Kal Daniels provides an RBI double and C Mike Scioscia a 2-out RBI single in the home B3rd as L.A. jumps to a 4-1 advantage.
Then, in the 5th, the Giants outscore the Dodgers 3-2 as Kevin Mitchell hits his 4th bomb and 3B Matt Williams -- two slugging brutes, caveman-type throwbacks to the Cro Magnon or maybe even the Neanderthal era -- hits his 5th of the '90 replay, tying the game 4-4!! 'Giants squash Dodger so no more dodging Giant. ,' says Williams after tying blow.
However, a timely 2-out 2-run double by L.A. 2B Juan Samuel B5th puts the Dodgers ahead for good. Renowned Giant 1st-sacker Will Clark homers to make it a narrow 6-5 lead T7th, but then long reliever Tim Crews settles down as the Dodgers 'cruise' thru the rest of the game and on to the winner's circle with Crews at the pitching helm throughout all three of the last three frames!
167 HA (6-7/T4th-2.5g) 1-3-0 CN (6-7/T4th-2.5g) 2-3-0
In this game between two teams each with an outside chance at a Tourney berth (Top 3 Division Finish) in the N.L. West Round 1 of the Tourney, both clubs display feeble offense (or, was it great pitching and defense??).... As, counting the prior 5-0 Padre win over the Braves in another Intra-A.L. West, three of the four teams involved in the last two games have managed to collect only 3 hits... This, in a league with a .265 BA including pitchers... Definitely on the high side for EOBHR Replays. 1990 run scoring has also been high for short-season, pitching-intensive EOBHR, at about 4.5 runs per team per game.
So, we have the losing Braves of Game 166 collecting 3 hits while being shutout, while the Astros (1 run) and Reds (2 runs) each are limited to three hits in this game, Game 167 of 1990 EOBHR.
For winner Jose Rijo (2-0/2.35) -- he was just doin his regular thang... But for Mark Portugal (0-3/4.95 after this performance), he was showing EOBHR '90 a new, more effective side to his pitching.
The Reds win the game T4th as all-around-solid 2B Bill 'Duran' Doran draws a one out walk against Portugal, steals 2nd, and scores on 1 for 12 Hal Morris' looping single into RCF. Then 1B Morris entertains the home crowd by blithely stealing 2nd, and reliable Cincy star, RF Paul O'Neill (11-39/8BB), lines what proves to be the winning-margin single over 2nd.
...Because all the anemic Astros (2.3 runs/game, .211 BA, 6 homers: lowest in league... but the BEST ERA: 2.62... that's Houston of this era, alright!) can produce is an 8th inning manufactured run that involves no base-hits (walk, steal, groundout advance, sac fly)...
The game ends with Rob Dibble facing down and fanning Mark Davidson.... with tying run speedy Gerald Young dancing off of 1st.
His name is Rijo: pitches dance forth from his hand,
he pitches like a river twisting through a dusty land,
And when he shines he really shows you all he can,
Oh Rijo, Rijo, dance across the Rio Grande
Of course, stolen from Duran Duran's (NOT Bill Doran Doran) great recording 'Rio'
166 SD (9-4/2nd-.5g) 5-18-1 AB (3-10/Lst-X*) 0-3-0
X = Mathematically eliminated from any possibility of Tourney involvement
How about the Padres have 18 hits to the Braves' 3 in the game's nine innings? How about San Diego's Bruce Hurst (3-0/1.67) in the same contest shifting into high gear and facing 31 Bravos in his CG win, four over the mathematical minimum of 27*?!?
*27 must be the # of batters faced in a 9-inning perfect game, which considers fielding errors by any of the pitchers' teammates to ruin the perfection. However, facing only 27 batters in 9 innings does not fully define a perfect game, since, for example, a player may triple and then be picked off 3rd = 27 batters faced, but that game isn't even a no-hitter, let alone a perfecto... Or all 27 opposing players may get hits, with the pitcher retiring no one in their at bat, but then each may be picked off base by the crafty hurler...Now that obviously is not a perfect game, but an interesting strategy for opponent conquest. You would think eventually the base coaches would tell the runners to never leave the base until the ball has been struck...or maybe even until the struck ball has hit the ground!)
Brave P Jeff Parrett, courageous to even take on this dangerous assignment against the earthy, slugging Padres, is not able to parrot Hurst's low-hit regime for opposing batters.
For instance, Padre SS Garry Templeton (.375: 4-5/R/RBI) has more hits than the entire opposing Brave but weak team (3). And Padres Robby Alomar (.463/3-6/D/RBI), Tony Gwynn (.327: 3-6/R/RBI) and Mark Parent (3-4/R/RBI/BB) Parent: 'Braves should be seen and not heard...') each have AS MANY hits as the entire opposing Atlanta squadron.
On the other hand, the Padres, while receiving high grades for productivity, are given exceedingly low grades for efficiency!!! They strand an amazing 16 Clerics in hostile Indian territory -- Padres perhaps more interested in chatting with and converting the indian Braves than running the bases' -- albeit their habits may make that dangerous, with many going head-over-sandals!
The efficient Braves on the other hand, making their bit of inconsequential fire with dry twigs, strand only four...
Padres massacre Braves in appalling blowout*
* Note: Padre in pathetically small picture above is brandishing a leaf-blower -- not a rifle or other weapon of mess(y) destruction
165 PH (3-10/5th) 5-7-2 SC (2-11/Lst) 10-13-3
The N.L. has the corner on really bad teams in this '90 replay, and here we enjoy the hijinks as the 3-9 Phillies play the 1-11 Cardinals!
To make a long story short, Joe Magrane goes the distance for the Birds (not the Byrds... they're '8 Miles High' and thus not in proper condition to play a nice relaxing game of hardball)....
Plus the Cardinis score five runs in the B1st in a grim 1 2/3 innings performance for Phillie starter Jason Grimsley, jumping to a 5-0 B1st advantage.... And tacking on a deciding 6th run B3rd on a long homer by solid 3B Terry Pendleton (Nifty Cards dialectical slogan: 'You kin dependle a ton on de Pendleton... a slogan invented by one of the hillbilly white guys on their team')...Terry's HR making it a DECISIVE 6-0 before the Phillies can dribble a run or two onto the board...the Quakers finally squirting a pair of runs on the tallysheet in one inning. the T8th. But the final score is still 10-5 after that minor T8th explosion... Which in fact is the final tote.
So even tho' the Phils had the Cards tripled up (3:1) on wins at game opening, the Cards double them up (10:5) on runs in this game... reinforcing the inanity of doing ratios based on thin samples of information.
Joe Magrane (1-1/4.63) hangs in as Cardinal starting P until all is said and done and the game is over, the field crew rolling the tarp back on the field... then goes and takes his migraine medicine and lies down in a quiet part of the clubhouse....
Frustrated Phils hitter: You know, I think I'll call him Joe Migraine after this one... What a headache I got after the game!!!!....
164 CC (9-4/1st+1g/NM) 3-7-0-2LOB PT (7-6/T3rd/ME - 2g) 0-6-0-9LOB
The Cubs leave a miniscule two men on base (not to say that the stranded players themselves were Albie Pearson or Spud Webb size!). The only hits the Cubs really need are a hard ground single by HOFer Ryne Sandberg that scoots by a perhaps wee-bit-slow-responding 2B Wally Backman (Ryno would have had it for sure...) Thus, a 9-game hit streak for HOFer Ryno... Then the leading slugger of this 1990 replay, Andre Dawson (.477**/6*HR/18**RBI), adds a go-ahead, game-winning 2-run HR lifted to deep RCF... to his sensational 1990 EOBHR resume .
Second-string Cub C Damon Berryhill adds a punctuation mark (!) by opening the 2nd with a dingler way out to LF. (Damon makes this sinister-sounding comment after the game: 'You know... Cub is just Buc spelled in reverse...heh...heh...think about it....and who's in the middle? U...you...heh...youse....heh...heh...cough...)
Demonstrating the lack of Bucco clutch thinking and clutch hitting (9 LOB to just 2 for winning Cubs): With his team down 3-0, Wally Backman knocks a nice leadoff hit... but is out trying to stretch it into a 2-bugger! (Wally explains after the game: 'You know how they say -- if everything's going wrong, try playing the game backward -- like the 8th is the 2nd, and we're ahead 3-0 not down 3-0....You know what I mean?? Huh? Anybody?')
But even the winning Cubs seem to play parts of this game backward... In the T5th, already up 3-0, Marvelle Wynne is out trying to score on a P Harkey one out single...then in a 'makeup attempt' that instead turns into a double-whammy, Harkey is out trying to score from 1st on Shawon Dunston's long double!
Marvelle Wynne? Nope, Muddled Loss