Oakland gets off to a running start at Riverfront as Rickey Henderson draws a leadoff walk and, one out later - Bash! - a Jose Canseco double and Mark McGwire home run quickly make it 3-0. Three singles in the bottom half of the inning get one back for the Reds, but that is canceled out in the 3rd when Canseco singles, steals second, and scores on Terry Steinbach's base hit. Jose Rijo fights back to leave the bases full in that inning, and Cincinnati claws their way back. Three straight singles to start the home 4th score one run, and Eric Davis and Hal Morris start the 6th with back-to-back jacks to tie the score and hand decision rights over to the bullpens. In the top of the 7th, Rickey does Rickey things - a leadoff walk and a stolen base - before Canseco again doubles home a run to put Oakland back in front again. In the 8th, a Chris Sabo error gets things off on the wrong foot for Rob Dibble and a walk, sacrifice bunt, sacrifice fly and Rickey's RBI single provide two insurance runs for the A's, and their late-inning relief is flawless as Honeycutt and Eckersley toss two hitless innings to lock it up. Canseco and Billy Hatcher had four hits apiece, while Morris and Carney Lansford collected three each. Oakland 7-11-1, Cincinnati 4-12-2. [scoresheet]
The A's are again in the mood to do some early business; with two outs and one on in the 1st McGwire and Dave Henderson deliver base hits that push across the first run of the game. Sabo leads off the 2nd with a homer to get even, but Lansford (three hits) triples to start the top of the 3rd and Henderson doubles down the line to send him home. The score remains 2-1 through five complete, but Danny Jackson throws the ball away attempting pick Willie Randolph off of first with two outs in the 6th and Ron Hassey makes it hurt with a clutch single that fluffs the OAK cushion to two runs. After Sabo's home run Bob Welch is in complete control, shutting the Reds down into the 8th inning before Gene Nelson and Eckersley toss another 1.2 innings of hitless relief to close out Cincinnati. The Reds now face the daunting prospect of having to win four of five with three of those games on the road. Oakland 3-9-0, Cincinnati 1-7-1. [scoresheet]
For the third straight game, Oakland gets on top of Cincinnati right from the start. This time, in front of the Coliseum crowd, the A's get a leadoff homer in the 2nd, and follow that with a walk and three straight singles to score twice more and grab a 3-0 advantage. The Reds fight back with a run in the 3rd and two in the 4th on Sabo's second homer in three games. and then take their first lead of the Series when a single, groundout, wild pitch and sac fly coax a run home in the 6th. But the joy is short-lived as Tom Browning comes unglued in the bottom half - singles by Harold Baines and McGwire start the frame and then Steinbach drives one into the seats in left to end both Browning's evening and the CIN lead. Oakland tacks another one onto the score later that inning to take a 7-3 lead, and the teams exchange runs in the 7th (Barry Larkin HR; three walks by Norm Charlton and a Willie McGee pinch-hit single) before Honeycutt and Eckersley again turns out the lights in the final two innings. This time Eck allowed a leadoff single in the 9th, but PH Glenn Braggs bounced into a double play to short-circuit any hopes for a Reds rally. Dave Henderson had three hits and Steinbach drove in four. Oakland 8-14-0, Cincinnati 5-9-1. [scoresheet]
Nothing says Game Four of a pre-2000 World Series like both aces coming back to start on three days' rest! And Rijo and Stewart were up to the task, tossing zeros until Joe Oliver hit what appeared to be a routine single to center to lead off the 6th. Dave Henderson got caught in between, charged the ball at the last minute, and let it skip under his glove and roll all the way to the LCF wall as Oliver circled the bases. Oakland's defense didn't help them in the 7th either when, with one out and a man at first, Wille McGee misplayed a line drive to right field for a two-base error in front of Chris Sabo's third homer of the series and a 4-0 CIN lead. This was more than enough for Rijo, who was outstanding into the 9th when, just one out away from the complete game, he walked two men and allowed an infield single to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate. That brought on Randy Myers, who allowed a single that scored one run but then struck Rickey out swinging to end the game and give Cincinnati life in the Series, with a road win under their belt and Canseco out of action with back and finger injuries. Cincinnati 4-7-0, Oakland 1-7-3. [scoresheet]
In what had by now become a tired refrain for Cincinnati, Oakland jumped out quickly again. In the bottom of the 1st Rickey walked and stole second, then scored on Lansford's double before the thirdbaseman scored himself on Dave Henderson's two-bagger and OAK was up by two runs before Jackson had retired a man. But Hatcher threw out Hendu at home to help CIN escape the opening stanza and this seemed to put a jolt into the visitors. In the top of the 2nd, Morris led off with a single and, with two outs, Oliver walked, Mariano Duncan tripled, and Larkin singled to vault the Reds into a 3-2 lead. Three more singles (Larkin again with the RBI) in the 4th made it 4-2, but sloppy play would cost Cincinnati in the bottom half of the inning. With one away, Steinbach doubled and Galego singled him to third one out later. With Rickey at the plate, Jackson uncorked a wild pitch that scored Steinbach and moved Gallego into scoring position, from whence Rickey delivered him with a game-tying RBI single. In the 6th it was Rickey again, as a Randolph single and Gallego sacrifice put a runner on second for him to again provide the two-out run-scoring base hit, this time for the lead. And again, a late deficit was a death knell for the Reds as Todd Burns, Joe Klink, Nelson and Eckersley allowed just one hit and one walk over the final three frames, while whiffing four, to slam the door shut on the game and the Series. Oakland 5-10-1, Brooklyn 4-10-0. [scoresheet]
Nearly every game followed the same pattern - Oakland jumps out to an early lead, Cincinnati fights back to get close, and then the Oakland pen slams the door closed in the late innings. The Nasty Boys got all of the press, but Athletics relievers tossed 8.2 innings and allowed zero runs on a grand total of three hits; the Reds pen wasn't bad, either (14 ip, 4 er), but they only had the lead for nine innings in the entire Series (and not once after the 6th other than in Game Four). Rickey Henderson did what you'd expect, getting on-base at a near-.500 clip and running wild on the bases, and the entire A's lineup took the free pass when it was offered to the tune of a .365 team OBP. [Series stats]
I mean, this is the sort of nonsense that batters in this Series had to contend with in the late innings - yikes.
Athletics CF Dave Henderson (8-for-17 with five RBI and a 1.209 OPS) didn't even play in Game One, yet led the Series in RBI and extra-base hits. He was in the middle of almost all of Oakland's quick starts with three 1st- or 2nd-inning RBI, and knocked in the game-winning run in Game Two.
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