Baseball Game of the Week - August 14

Saturday Game of the Week 8/14/76

Cincinnati at New York

Pat Zachary (12-3, 3.10 ERA in 18 starts) vs. Nino Espinosa (2-0, 3.50 ERA – both games were complete-game wins)

Top of 1^st: Ken Griffey singled to left. Joe Morgan grounded into a force play and then scored on George Foster’s double to left center. Reds 1, Mets 0

Top of 4^th: Dan Driessen led off the inning with a single. Cesar Geronimo followed with a double to left center but Driessen was thrown out trying to score.

Bottom of 6^th: John Milner homered to left with one out to tie the game. After Mike Vail struck out Joe Torre singled and Rod Staiger walked. Jerry Grote singled to score Torre and send Staiger to third. Bud Harrelson walked to load the bases and then Espinosa singled to left, scoring Staiger and Grote. Zachary was replaced by Manny Sarmiento. Bruce Boisclair hit a home run to right to make the score 7-1. Reds 1, Mets 7

Top of 7^th: Mike Lum hit for Sarmiento and drew a walk. Pete Rose lined out and Griffey singled to send Lum to third. Morgan walked, loading the bases. George Foster hit into a double play to end the threat. Reds 1, Mets 7.

Bottom of 7^th: Joe Torre hit a solo home run off of reliever Pedro Borbon with two out. Reds 1, Mets 8

Espionsa pitched seven innings and allowed one run to earn the win and improve his record to 3-0. Zachary took the loss and is now 12-4. The Mets are now 78-40 and lead the NL East by eight games over the Philadelphia Phillies. The Reds are 83-34 and lead the NL East by 23 ½ games over the LA Dodgers.