After the clubs were introduced to the national television audience on NBC and the Saturday afternoon gathering of 46,000 in Oakland, the home team got to work almost straight away. With two outs and no one aboard in the bottom of the 2nd, Jesus Alou and Ray Fosse singled and Dick Green (three regular-season HRs) drove a surprising four-bagger into the left-field seats to stun both Jon Matlack and the Coliseum crowd. A John Milner fielding error on Reggie Jackson's bouncer to lead off the 4th led to another run (further damage avoided thanks to Willie Mays' throw home to nail Gene Tenace at the plate), and a Joe Rudi RBI double and another poorly-timed error pushed two more across in the 5th - with the score now 6-0 in favor of the A's, it was going to take some real doing for the Metropolitans to get back into the contest. And Ken Holtzman was having absolutely none of that - he was completely overmatching the New Yorkers, allowing only three hits in the first seven innings and cruising to a complete-game victory which was only blemished by May's four hits, including a two-run homer that broke the shutout in the 9th. Green's three hits and four RBI were more than enough on offense, and the conversation in the press box after the game centered around where this Mets club, which finished next-to-last in the NL in runs scored, was going to find the offense to contend. These concerns were only heightened by the sight of Mays leaving the Mets' locker room hours later with ice still wrapped around his balky left knee. Oakland 6-10-0, New York 2-6-2. [scoresheet]
In what was to become a Series theme, the pitchers had their way early in Game Two, with a combined five hits by the two clubs over the first four innings. The top of the 5th started innocently enough with Bud Harrelson singling, moving to second on Koosman's bunt and then to third on Wayne Garrett's ground out to the right side. But then the Mets burst to life with three hits and a walk in succession, capped by Milner's three-run home run which tied the bow on a five-run NY inning. Cleon Jones homered with a man on in the 7th and, in a mirror image of Game One, Koosman was untouchable on the slab for the Mets. The left-hander, who at one point during the season lost 14 of 18 decisions despite a sub-3.00 ERA, was not going to allow run support to be an issue this afternoon, holding Oakland to only three hits and a walk in a masterful shutout that got New York a split on the road and evened the Series. New York 7-10-0, Oakland 0-3-0. [scoresheet]
With the Series relocated to the Big Apple, it was Oakland who made the first noise when Sal Bando hit a solo shot with two outs in the 1st. The Mets answered with a Rusty Staub double and Jerry Grote triple in the 4th, and then took the lead in the 5th after Harrelson doubled and later scored on Garrett's sac fly. Continuing to chip away at Hunter with two-out hits, NY added another in the 6th on Don Hahn's two-base hit, but Bando took Seaver deep again to lead off the top of the 7th and the Mets' lead was back down to a single run. Darold Knowles came on in the 8th in relief of Hunter, and his leadoff walk to Staub came back to haunt the As - Grote doubled him home with (again) two outs, and then Oakland scored one run in the top of the 9th after Tug McGraw got Fosse to ground into a game-ending twin killing with the tying and go-ahead runs on base. New York 4-8-0, Oakland 3-8-1. [scoresheet]
This is how you win ballgames when you have trouble scoring runs - another Mets masterpiece on the mound, as Matlack bounces back from a poor Game One showing to spin a shutout in which he allowed only three Oakland singles while striking out eleven Athletics (including six batters in a row at one point). The New Yorkers got on the board in the 3rd when Harrelson tripled and scored on Garrett's base hit; they added one in the 4th when Milner singled across Staub after a leadoff walk, and another in the 6th when Felix Millan (!) drove a Holtzman delivery into the seats to start the inning. Oakland got a brief scent of hope in the 9th when Matlack walked a pair, but Jesus Alou tapped weakly back to the mound for the final out and the Mets had ridden their rotation to within a single victory of a World Series title. New York 4-8-0, Oakland 0-3-0. [scoresheet]
Backs against the wall, and nearly 55,000 packed into Shea Stadium smelling blood. but Oakland came out swinging - Bert Campaneris drew a walk to start the game and, one out later, Bando homered again to give the visitors a quick 2-0 lead. But New York fought back immediately, scoring one in the bottom half of the inning on a walk and two singles, and another via some 2nd-inning small ball when Blue walked Harrelson and Garrett singled him home after a sacrifice. It was Koosman's turn to display a little bit of wildness in the 4th, walking the first two batters before Green singled home Tenace to give the A's the lead once again. The Mets got men to second and third with one out in the 5th after a walk, a single and a wild pitch, but Blue fanned Milner and got Grote to bounce out to third to end the inning, and that was really the last significant threat of the game for the home team. They got a runner to third with two outs in the 7th, but Blue was up to the challenge again and protected the one-run lead all the way to the end, allowing NY only six singles and pitching around five bases on balls while ensuring that the Series will go back to the West Coast. Oakland 3-9-0, New York 2-6-0. [scoresheet]
Again there was very little in the way of offensive activity in the early going, as Hunter retired the first nine Mets while Seaver allowed just two singles over the first three innings. But the A's finally put something on the scoreboard when Bando belted his fourth homer of the Series (one of his three hits in the game) to lead off the 4th inning. The starters continued to tighten the screws from there - Oakland put two on with two out in the bottom of the 6th before Seaver fanned Deron Johnson, and the Mets got a runner to second with one away in the 7th but Hahn's line drive was stabbed by Campaneris and flipped to second to double off the runner. The score was still 1-0 when Reggie Jackson homered off McGraw with the bases empty in the 8th and Rollie Fingers pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning to put away the Mets and send the Series to a seventh game. Oakland 2-9-0, New York 0-6-1. [scoresheet]
A crowd of fifty-thousand in the Coliseum for the do-or-die contest, and they saw a tight and tense affair. Unsurprisingly, neither team could mount much of an offensive threat in the early innings - Oakland got Bando to third with two out after a double in the 4th, but Tenace fanned, and New York didn't get a runner into scoring position until Johnson's error and a walk put two on in the 6th. Through seven full innings, the teams had combined for a total of four base hits and it seemed as if there would be no end to the zeros, but the dam finally broke in the 8th. Hahn led off the top of the inning with a double, and took third on Harrelson's dribbler back to the mound. The ailing Mays came off the bench to pinch hit for Matlack, and Fingers came on to relieve Holtzman; Mays' October swan song continued, though, as he singled to left to score Hahn and put NY two innings from a Series win. That brought McGraw on for the Mets and, shockingly, his first pitch of the 8th was drilled into the stands by Johnson to tie the game; this put the Coliseum crowd at fever pitch as Green then singled, moved up to second on an Angel Mangual sacrifice, and scored the go-ahead run on Rudi's two-out single. Now it was Fingers' turn to see if he could put the game on ice, and he struck out Staub and Jones to start the 9th inning before Milner's routine grounder to short found its way into Johnson's glove for the final out and an Oakland championship. Oakland 2-5-0, New York 1-4-0. [scoresheet]
A total of 36 runs were scored by the two teams across seven games, as starting pitching dominated the offenses (only two starters failed to go at least 6.2 innings). Three of the final five games were decided by a single run as neither team managed double-figure hits in any of those games; NY actually outscored Oakland for the Series but, after the Mets built a three games to one advantage, they scored only three runs in the final three games of the Series. Game Seven was a thrilling, fitting climax to the Series, with Oakland managing to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat at almost the last possible moment. One of the great sidelights of the Series was Willie Mays limping his way to a 6-for-7 cameo performance with a double, a homer and an outfield assist. Say Hey! [Series stats]
In a Series so dominated by pitching, it might be expected that a hurler takes home the individual award but, as impressive as Matlack and Holtzman might have been, no single pitcher earned more than one win; it was Athletics 3B Sal Bando (9-for-27 with four home runs - as many as the entire Mets roster - and a Series-leading five runs scored) who proved to be the big difference between the clubs. Three of his four homers gave Oakland the lead and his final four-bagger provided the game-winning RBI in Game Six.
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