KINGMAN'S 13TH INNING BLAST EXTENDS METS 'W' STREAK TO 6
Final 20 Giants Batters Retired in Order
NEW YORK, Sept. 2 (AP) - Dave Kingman led off the bottom of the 13th inning with
his 28th home run of the season, giving the New York Mets a hard fought 3-2
victory over the San Francisco Giants at Shea Stadium. The win completed a
three-game series sweep and was New York's sixth consecutive victory. The
Mets have now won 15 of their last 18 games and have moved into second place in
the National League East.
New York starter Jon Matlack allowed only two runs in nine innings of work but
drew a no-decision. Giants starter John D'Acquisto was touched for two
runs--only one of which was earned--in 6-1/3 innings. D'Acquisto's effort
was marred by issuing seven bases on balls. It was the sixth time this
season that D'Acquisto has walked at least seven batters in a game. For
the season, the San Francisco right-hander has issued 105 free passes in 91-2/3
innings.
The Mets drew first blood with a run in the bottom of the second. Ed
Kranepool led off with a base hit and advanced to second when Roy Staiger
walked. John Stearns then grounded out with the runners advancing to
second and third. With the pitcher on deck, D'Acquisto pitched around Bud
Harrelson, eventually walking him to load the bases. Matlack then grounded
to Gary Thommasson at first base, who threw to the plate to force Kranepool for
the second out. But, after a long battle, D'Acquisto walked Bruce
Boisclair to force home Staiger with the game's first run. Felix Millan
grounded out to second to end the inning.
The Giants took the lead in the top of the fifth. Ken Reitz led off with a
single to center. Thommasson then drew a walk, but ball four was a wild
pitch that rattled around the perimeter of the playing field between the
dugouts. While Stearns chased the ball down, Reitz and Thommasson ended up
on third and second respectively. A deep sacrifice fly off the bat of
Johnnie LeMaster tied the game and advanced Thommasson to third with one
out. Matlack jammed Mike Sadek to force a pop up for the second out but,
on an 0-2 pitch, D'Acquisto rolled a single into left field, scoring Thommasson
to give San Francisco a 2-1 advantage.
The Mets tied the game in the home half of the inning, courtesy of the Giants
defense. Boisclair led off by reaching on third baseman Reitz's fielding
error and took third on Millan's base hit to left-center. John Milner
lifted a sacrifice fly to center to knot the score at two.
Matlack pitched out of a jam of his own making in the sixth. He walked
Marty Perez to open the inning and, after retiring Gary Matthews on an infield
pop fly, allowed Perez to advance into scoring position by uncorking his second
wild pitch of the game. Bobby Murcer's fly out to center allowed Perez to
advance to third. Reitz was walked intentionally and Thommasson grounded
out to end the inning.
The Mets had a threat of their own in the seventh. Matlack and Boiscliar
opened the inning with bases on balls, putting runners on first and
second. Millan attempted to sacrifice the runners along but the Giants
executed the wheel play perfectly, with Reitz throwing to LeMaster covering
third for the force on Matlack. At this point, San Francisco replaced
D'Acquisto on the mound with Mike Caldwell who rose to the occasion brilliantly
by striking out Milner and Kingman to extinguish the threat.
From that point, until deep into extra innings, scoring opportunities were
effectively non-existent. Caldwell, Dave Heaverlo and Charlie Williams
combined to toss 5-2/3 innings of relief for the Giants through the 12th and
scattered three baserunners between them. Beginning with one out in the
seventh inning, Matlack, Bob Apodaca and Nino Espinosa pitched 6-2/3 perfect
innings for New York--20 batters up, 20 batters down.
Finally, in the bottom of the 13th inning, Randy Moffitt came on to pitch for
the Giants in place of Williams who had been removed for a pinch hitter in the
top of the frame. On a 1-1 pitch to Kingman Moffitt fired a fastball and
Kingman hit a towering fly ball to left which cleared the wall by 15 feet for a
game-winning home run. It was the only extra base hit of the
contest. With a combined total of only 11th safeties, the game tied the
season low for hits in extra inning affairs longer than 10 innings. The
Giants and Padres combined for 11 hits in a 14-inning 1-0 game won by the Padres
on May 28.
9/2/1976, SF 76-NYN76, Shea Stadium 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1976 Giants 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1976 Mets 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 R H E LOB DP 1976 Giants 0 2 5 1 5 2 1976 Mets 1 3 6 0 10 0 Giants AB R H BI AVG Mets AB R H BI AVG Herndon cf 4 0 0 0 .305 Boisclair cf 4 1 1 1 .269 Ontiveros ph 1 0 0 0 .096 Millan 2b 5 0 2 0 .298 Williams,C p 0 0 0 0 .200 Espinosa p 0 0 0 0 .111 Adams,G ph 1 0 0 0 .254 Milner lf 5 0 0 1 .283 Moffitt p 0 0 0 0 .000 Kingman rf 6 1 1 1 .227 Perez,M 2b 4 0 0 0 .285 Kranepool 1b 5 0 1 0 .272 Matthews lf 5 0 0 0 .266 Staiger 3b 3 1 0 0 .232 Murcer rf 5 0 0 0 .240 Stearns c 5 0 1 0 .294 Reitz 3b 4 1 1 0 .300 Harrelson ss 3 0 0 0 .229 Thomasson 1b 4 1 1 0 .275 Matlack p 2 0 0 0 .203 LeMaster ss 4 0 0 1 .219 Torre ph 1 0 0 0 .324 Sadek c 3 0 1 0 .168 Apodaca p 0 0 0 0 .000 Rader,Da ph 2 0 0 0 .212 Phillips ph 1 0 0 0 .228 D'Acquisto p 2 0 2 1 .321 40 3 6 3 Caldwell p 0 0 0 0 .160 Heaverlo p 0 0 0 0 .000 Evans,D ph 2 0 0 0 .224 41 2 5 2 Giants INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA D'Acquisto 6.1 3 2 1 7 1 97 49 5.89 Caldwell 1.0 0 0 0 0 2 21 14 5.61 Heaverlo 1.2 0 0 0 0 2 12 10 2.74 Williams,C 3.0 2 0 0 1 1 38 24 3.57 Moffitt L 5-2 0.0 1 1 1 0 0 3 2 2.02 12.0 6 3 2 8 6 171 99 Mets INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Matlack 9.0 5 2 2 3 1 108 66 2.31 Apodaca 3.0 0 0 0 0 1 29 20 2.32 Espinosa W 4-2 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 14 9 4.15 13.0 5 2 2 3 2 151 95 SF : Rader,Da batted for Sadek in the 10th Evans,D batted for Heaverlo in the 10th Ontiveros batted for Herndon in the 10th Thomasson moved to cf in the 10th Rader,Da moved to c in the 10th Evans,D moved to 1b in the 10th Adams,G batted for Williams,C in the 13th NYN: Torre batted for Matlack in the 9th Phillips batted for Apodaca in the 12th Phillips moved to 2b in the 13th E-Reitz. HR-Kingman(28). RBI-LeMaster(6), D'Acquisto(1), Boisclair(29), Milner(54), Kingman(63). CS-Thomasson, Millan. K-Murcer, Reitz, Milner 2, Kingman 2, Staiger, Stearns. BB-Perez,M, Reitz, Thomasson, Boisclair 2, Millan, Staiger 2, Harrelson 2, Matlack. SH-D'Acquisto. SF-LeMaster, Milner. WP-Matlack 2. GWRBI: Kingman Temperature: 62, Sky: clear, Wind: in from right at 8 MPH. Attendance: 8,311 Game Time: 3:20