October 11, 1972: Reds’ 9th-inning rally dethrones Pirates in Clemente’s final game
The Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds split the first four games in the best-of-five 1972 National League Championship Series. The defending World Series champion Pirates had cruised to the Eastern Division title with a regular-season record of 96-59, 11 games ahead of the second-place Cubs. The Reds (95-59), who had defeated the Pirates in the 1970 NLCS, were just as dominant in the Western Division, finishing 10½ games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros.
The Pirates had not made any significant changes to their roster heading into the 1972 season. However, they started the campaign with a new manager. Danny Murtaugh moved from the dugout to the front office as farm director after Pittsburgh’s 1971 World Series win over the Baltimore Orioles. He was replaced by Bill Virdon, the starting center fielder for Pittsburgh’s 1960 championship team and a coach for the Pirates since 1968.
Cincinnati, after losing the 1970 World Series to the Orioles in Sparky Anderson’s first year as manager, finished a disappointing fourth in 1971. In the offseason, the Reds traded first baseman Lee May, second baseman Tommy Helms, and infielder Jimmy Stewart to the Astros. In return, Cincinnati received second baseman Joe Morgan, starting pitcher Jack Billingham, outfielder César Gérónimo, infielder Dennis Menke, and outfielder Ed Armbrister. The addition of Morgan and catcher Johnny Bench’s return to his 1970 MVP form were key factors contributing to the team’s first-place finish.
A crowd of 41,887 attended the decisive fifth game on a soggy, overcast afternoon in Cincinnati. Rain had delayed the 3 P.M. start by an hour and 28 minutes.1 Don Gullett, the losing pitcher in Game One, was matched against the Pirates’ Game One winner, Steve Blass. Gullett (9-10 with a 3.94 ERA) allowed five runs over six innings in that game. Blass (19-8, 2.49 ERA) gave up only one run during his 8⅓ innings of work in Pittsburgh’s 5-1 victory.
Roberto Clemente’s two-out single accounted for the only baserunner either team managed in a scoreless first inning. Manny Sanguillen led off the second for the Pirates with a single. Richie Hebner hit a line drive into the right-field corner. César Gérónimo made an accurate throw to second, attempting to catch Hebner before he reached the base, but shortstop Darrell Chaney wasn’t covering the bag and the ball rolled past him into foul territory.2 Sanguillen scored and Hebner advanced to third on the play. Dave Cash’s single scored Hebner, giving Pittsburgh the lead, 2-0.
Chaney singled to start the Reds’ half of the third inning with the score still 2-0. He advanced to second on Gullett’s sacrifice. Pete Rose hit a bouncer toward first. The ball skipped high off the AstroTurf, over the glove of a leaping Willie Stargell, and into right field for a double,3 driving in Chaney and cutting the Pirates’ lead in half.
Sanguillen and Hebner each singled to center to begin the Pirates’ half of the fourth inning. With runners at first and second, Pedro Borbon relieved Gullett. Cash singled to center, and Sanguillen scored to put Pittsburgh back up by two runs, 3-1. A fly out to right and a groundball double play ended the rally.
Leading off the bottom of the fifth, Gérónimo hit a home run to cut the Reds’ deficit to one run, 3-2. “I adjusted to César Gérónimo in the first game of the playoffs,” Blass said after the game. “He had hit a good fastball for a homer off me during the season, so I adjusted to slow curves in the playoffs. Well, he adjusted back and hit a slow curve out today. It is to his credit.”4
Tom Hall relieved for the Reds and did not allow a baserunner in the sixth and seventh. Bench, who singled with two outs in the sixth, was the only Cincinnati batter to reach base against Blass in the two innings.
Rennie Stennett singled to start the top of the eighth, the first Pirate hit since Cash’s RBI single in the fourth. He advanced to second on Al Oliver’s sacrifice. Hall intentionally walked Clemente and struck out Stargell looking. Sanguillen grounded to Morgan at second, who backed up on the ball but threw out Sanguillen in a close play at first.5
Joe Hague pinch-hit for Hall and walked to start the Reds’ half of the eighth. Dave Concepción ran for Hague and advanced to second on Rose’s sacrifice. With the next two hitters batting left-handed, southpaw Ramon Hernandez relieved. Second baseman Cash bobbled Morgan’s grounder but threw him out on another close play at first.6 With Concepción at third, Hernandez struck out Bobby Tolan.
Clay Carrroll retired the Pirates in order in the top of the ninth. Virdon called on right-handed closer Dave Giusti (22 saves, 1.93 ERA) to face Bench, the Reds’ leadoff batter in the bottom of the inning. Bench, whose 40 home runs topped both leagues, hit a high outside palm ball into the right-field seats, tying the game at 3-3. “It’s only the second homer I’ve hit that way and both of them were against the Pirates,” he said after the game.7
Tony Pérez followed Bench’s home run with a single to center. George Foster ran for Pérez. After two failed bunt attempts,8 Denis Menke singled to left, with Foster stopping at second. Guisti’s first two pitches to the next batter, Gerónimo, were balls. Bob Moose relieved and, after another failed bunt attempt, Gérónimo hit a fly ball to Clemente in deep right that advanced Foster to third.9
Chaney popped up to the shortstop in shallow left, and the runners at first and third held. Hal McRae batted for the pitcher, Carroll. McRae swung and missed on the first pitch from Moose. The next pitch was a ball. The third pitch landed in the dirt, wide of the plate. Catcher Sanguillen was unable to make a backhanded play on the ball as it bounced past him,10 and Foster dashed home with the winning run.
“It looked like it hit something, I don’t know what,” said Sanguillen, describing the wild pitch that allowed Foster to score. “I jumped to the ball. The ball hit me on my hand and bounced on by. No, I didn’t get my glove on it.”11
Moose said, “It was a slider. It hit in front and wide of the plate and bounced straight up – I don’t know why. I didn’t want to throw it for a strike anyway. How many do you see bounce straight up?” Answering his own question, he continued, “Oh, I don’t know. It happened.”12
During the Reds’ clubhouse celebration, Bench discussed coming to bat in the ninth. “I knew I was going to hit it,” he said. “Sometimes you get a funny feeling about that, and I had it. I just felt I was going to hit it.” Recounting his opposite-field home run, he said, “I knew it was gone as soon as I hit it.”13
Rose tried to describe the crowd’s reaction to Bench’s ninth-inning blast. “I’ve never heard people that emotional,” he said. “It was the greatest homer I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot.”14
Sparky Anderson had high praise for the Pirates. “This series proves that neither team is better than the other,” he said. “There are two number 1 teams in the National League”15
Virdon kept the Pirates clubhouse door closed long enough to talk to his players individually. Clemente summed up the emotions of his teammates. “We accept the loss as we accepted the win,” he said, “not saying we are worse because of one inning or that we are better because we think so. We have won and we have lost and we remain the same.”16
This was the last game Clemente ever played.
(Les Banos photograph courtesy of The Clemente Museum.)
POSTSCRIPT
Exhilarated by Cincinnati’s hard-fought playoff win, Reds center fielder Bobby Tolan declared, “As far as I’m concerned the World Series is over. The two best teams have played.” However, the Oakland A’s defeated Cincinnati in seven games, winning the first of three straight World Series championships.
On December 31, 1972, 69 days after Oakland defeated the Reds, a DC-7 cargo plane carrying supplies to earthquake survivors in Nicaragua crashed after taking off from San Juan, Puerto Rico. None of the five passengers survived. Clemente, who organized a committee to collect the relief materials, was one of the crash victims.
SOURCES
The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. for box scores/play-by-play information, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other data.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN197210110.shtml
https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1972/B10110CIN1972.htm
NOTES
1 Al Abrams, “Sidelights on Sports,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 12, 1972: 20.
2 Charles Feeney, “Reds Dethrone Bucks, 4-3, with Heroics in 9th,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 12, 1972: 20, 22.
3 Feeney: 20.
4 Tom Callahan, “The Pirates Showed Class,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 12, 1972: 73.
5 Feeney: 22.
6 Feeney: 22.
7 Bob Hertzel, “Foster, Who Scored ‘The’ Run, Enjoys Quiet,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 12, 1972: 73.
8 Earl Lawson, “Wild Pitch Sets Off Reds’ NL Pennant Party,” The Sporting News, October 28, 1972: 9.
9 Feeney: 1.
10 Feeney: 1.
11 “The Strike That Bounced,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 12, 1972: 20.
12 Callahan, “The Pirates Showed Class.”
13 “Reds Bench Erupts with Johnny,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 12, 1972: 20.
14 “Reds Bench Erupts with Johnny.”
15 “Reds Bench Erupts with Johnny.”
16 Callahan.
Additional Stats
Cincinnati Reds 4
Pittsburgh Pirates 3
Game 5, NLCS
Riverfront Stadium
Cincinnati, OH
Box Score + PBP:
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