Page 302 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 295
epic journey.Tiant took third on Denny Doyle’s single, but he initially held up at third on Carl Yastrzemski’s soft line drive to right, not sure whether Ken Gri ey would catch it. Tiant still came home with the rst run of the day... well, he got credit for the run after he went back to touch the plate he missed the rst time through. Dave Concepcion tried to alert cuto man Tony Perez about Tiant’s misstep,3 but like ev- erything the Reds did in Game One, they were just a bit behind. A better read — or less entertaining baserunner—might have resulted in a two-run hit for Boston. en again, Tiant’s last day on the bases had come during Richard Nixon’s rst term, in 1972. And the Red Sox would score again soon enough.
Clay Carroll replaced Gullett and walked Carlton Fisk to plate the second run. Sparky Anderson — “Captain Hook” as advertised — came right back out and replaced Carroll with Will McEnaney. Rico Petrocelli swung at a 1-and-0 pitch and singled home two runs. Rick Burleson knocked home another teammate before Cooper hit a yball deep enough to score a run. e Fenway crowd cheered Tiant’s second at-bat of the inning, even as he fouled out to nally end the seventh. Five singles, a bunt, a
walk, and a long y equaled six runs, the biggest World Series inning since 1968. e Reds had allowed only seven runs in their three-game sweep of the Pirates in the NLCS.
“You open the door,” said Johnny Bench after the World Series opener, “and they score runs.”4 Put like that, it sounded simple. Figuring out Luis Tiant? at was di cult.
“In the National League,” said Pete Rose, “we don’t face anyone who throws a spinning curve that takes two minutes to come down.”5
Tiant retired the last six Reds in order, the nal touch on a ve-hit shutout in the 34-year-old veteran’s rst career World Series start. October had a new star, a Falsta in stirrups with an assortment of ba ing pitches and contortionist windups to distract Cincinnati batters and entrance NBC cameramen. e only thing Tiant was missing on the mound was his trademark cigar, but he chomped on that in the Red Sox locker room. is World Series would not be a Big Red Runaway. El Tiante and the opportunistic Red Sox lineup ensured that the 1975 Series would be unpredictable. It proved to be far more.
Game Two:
October 12, 1975, at Fenway Park, Boston
Reds 3, Red Sox 2
If the Red Sox taking the World Series opener from the Big Red Machine was surprising, Boston taking a two-games-to-none lead over Cincinnati would have been a complete shock to the baseball system. And for the better part of Sunday afternoon, it seemed that the Red Sox would do just that.
For the second straight day, Boston’s starter retired the rst 10 Reds. And unlike Luis Tiant in Game One, who had to start his own rally after the game entered the bottom of the seventh scoreless, the Red Sox put a run on the board in the rst inning. Cecil Cooper, getting the leado assignment, doubled to open the game against Jack Billingham. After an
in eld single by Denny Doyle put runners on the corners, Carl Yastrzemski bounced back to Billingham, who held the runner and threw to second, but when Cooper took o for home, shortstop Dave Concepcion threw to catcher Johnny Bench and Cooper was caught in a rundown. It look like a wasted opportunity until Carlton Fisk came to the rescue and singled home Doyle with the rst run.
e Reds had been shut out on successive days only once in 1975 — they were shut out just ve times during the season—and it only made sense that the team that led the major leagues in scoring would not be blanked forever. Cincinnati ended its 13-inning score-