PEREZ RUNS AMOK AS REDS MAUL BRAVES
2 HR, 3B, 8 RBIs for Cincinnati 1B
ATLANTA, Sept. 4 (AP) - Tony Perez had a huge day at the plate leading a 20-hit
attack as the Cincinnati Reds pounded the Atlanta Braves 16-1 at Fulton County
Stadium. Perez had four hits, including a pair of home runs and a triple
and drove in eight runs. The eight runs batted in ties a major league
season high; Perez's teammate, Joe Morgan--the top RBI man in all of
baseball--has accomplished the feat twice, on April 11 against Houston and on
June 7 at Pittsburgh.
Cesar Geronimo had four hits of his own and five other Reds managed multi-hit
games as well. The 20 hits matched a club high for the year, first set on
June 5 at St. Louis and duplicated on July 29 versus San Diego.
Pat Zachry was the recipient of the offensive largess but needed little of it,
surrendering just one run in a complete game effort. It was Zachry's first
win since August 2 after receiving no-decisions in five of his last six starts
and his first complete game since tossing a shutout against Los Angeles on June
21, a span of 13 starts.
The Reds broke the game open in the very first inning, sending nine men to the
plate and scoring five times. Pete Rose drew a lead-off walk from Braves
starter Frank LaCorte and advanced to second on Ken Griffey's base hit.
Joe Morgan walked, filling the bases. LaCorte fanned Johnny Bench for the
first out but then issued his third free pass of the inning to George Foster,
forcing in a run. Perez then got the fastball he was looking for and
launched a grand slam into the bullpen in left field, giving the Reds a 5-0
lead. It was Perez's second grand slam of the season; the first came in a
14-1 throttling of the Cardinals in St. Louis on June 5. Before the inning
was over Geronimo had singled and stolen a base and LaCorte had uncorked a wild
pitch but by retiring Dave Concepcion and Zachry further damage had been
avoided.
It wasn't long before the Reds had added to their lead. Griffey drew a
one-out walk in the second and advanced to third when Morgan followed with a
single. Morgan then stole second base. LaCorte got Bench on strikes
again for the second out but walked Perez--his fifth walk of the game--to load
the bases. When Perez followed by drawing a free pass of his own, forcing
in the sixth Cincinnati run of the contest, LaCorte's day was done. He was
replaced on the mound by Pablo Torrealba who yielded an infield hit to Geronimo,
scoring Morgan to make it 7-0 and Concepcion's base hit drove in Perez to give
the Reds an eight-run lead. For the second straight inning Cincinnati sent
nine men to the plate and the ninth--Zachry--struck out to end the frame with
the Reds on top 8-0.
At that point, the game was effectively over. Ken Henderson's solo homer
in the bottom of the second put Atlanta on the board, but that's about all it
did. The Reds picked up two more runs in the fourth when Foster singled
and scored on Perez's triple. Perez then scored on Geronimo's ground out
to make it 10-1.
The Reds drove in the stake with two runs in each of the final three
innings. In the seventh, Morgan and Perez each laced RBI singles.
Griffey's two-run double in the eighth made it 14-1. Perez's second home
run of the game, a solo shot, came in the ninth and upped the lead to
15-1. Later in the same frame, Joel Youngblood, brought in as Cincinnati
manager Sparky Anderson was emptying his bench, singled home Geronimo with the
16th run of the game for the Reds.
14 times this major league season a team has tallied at least 15 runs. The
Reds have been responsible for nine of those 14 occurrences. 13 of the 24
teams in Major League Baseball have failed to do it at all and only two other
clubs--the Boston Red Sox (3) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (2) have done it more
than once.
9/4/1976, Cin76-Atl76, Fulton County Stadium 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1976 Reds 5 3 0 2 0 0 2 2 2 16 20 0 13 3 1976 Braves 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 3 1 Reds AB R H BI AVG Braves AB R H BI AVG Rose 3b 4 3 2 0 .315 Royster 3b 3 0 1 0 .279 Youngblood rf 1 0 1 1 .146 Gilbreath 2b 4 0 0 0 .235 Griffey rf 4 3 2 2 .328 May,D lf 4 0 0 0 .215 Bailey 3b 1 0 0 0 .310 Montanez 1b 4 0 0 0 .314 Morgan,J 2b 2 2 2 1 .314 Henderson,K cf 3 1 1 1 .268 Flynn 2b 1 0 0 0 .306 Chaney ss 1 0 0 0 .270 Bench c 5 0 0 0 .252 Devine p 0 0 0 0 .000 Armbrister pr 1 0 0 0 .364 Wynn ph 1 0 0 0 .193 Foster,G lf 3 3 2 1 .321 Capra p 0 0 0 0 .000 Plummer c 1 0 0 0 .223 Paciorek rf 2 0 2 0 .309 Perez,T 1b 5 3 4 8 .266 Correll c 3 0 0 0 .220 Geronimo cf 6 1 4 2 .284 LaCorte p 0 0 0 0 .130 Lum lf 0 0 0 0 .165 Torrealba p 1 0 0 0 .000 Concepcion ss 6 0 2 1 .272 Rockett ph 2 0 0 0 .000 Zachry p 6 1 1 0 .105 28 1 4 1 46 16 20 16 Reds INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Zachry W 11-5 9.0 4 1 1 3 5 115 68 3.52 9.0 4 1 1 3 5 115 68 Braves INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA LaCorte L 5-6 1.2 4 8 8 6 3 72 33 4.88 Torrealba 3.1 5 2 2 1 3 56 31 3.43 Devine 2.0 5 2 2 1 0 40 23 3.08 Capra 2.0 6 4 4 1 3 41 29 9.00 9.0 20 16 16 9 9 209 116 Cin: Armbrister ran for Bench in the 7th Flynn inserted at 2b in the 7th Armbrister moved to lf in the 7th Plummer inserted at c in the 7th Youngblood inserted at rf in the 8th Bailey inserted at 3b in the 8th Youngblood moved to cf in the 9th Armbrister moved to rf in the 9th Lum inserted at lf in the 9th Atl: Rockett batted for Torrealba in the 5th Rockett moved to ss in the 6th Wynn batted for Devine in the 7th 2B-Griffey(17), Paciorek(12). 3B-Perez,T(9). HR-Perez,T 2(18), Henderson,K(15). RBI-Griffey 2(48), Morgan,J(125), Foster,G(110), Perez,T 8(98), Geronimo 2(55), Concepcion(68), Youngblood(3), Henderson,K(61). SB-Morgan,J(47), Geronimo(15). K-Rose, Bench 2, Concepcion, Zachry 3, Plummer, Bailey, May,D 2, Chaney, Correll, Rockett. BB-Rose 2, Griffey 2, Morgan,J 2, Foster,G 2, Perez,T, Royster, Chaney, Paciorek. HBP-Morgan,J. HB-Torrealba. WP-LaCorte. GWRBI: Foster,G Temperature: 82, Sky: clear, Wind: right to left at 4 MPH. Attendance: 19,430 Game Time: 2:58