Fastball John Pitches A No-No!

 

July 12 started out to be a typical mid-week Giants game at Candlestick Park. Only 3,329 fans showed up that day to watch the fifth place Giants take on the fourth place Philadelphia Phillies. 

Doug Harvey was the home plate umpire. Dick Ruthven was the starting pitcher for the Phillies and John D'Acquiso started for the Giants.

The Giants started a makeshift lineup due to a couple of injuries, most notably Bobby Bonds. But that lineup came out with a vengeance. Ruthven got hammered and was out of the game by the second inning. The Giants led 13-0 after two innings.

I checked D'Acquisto's strikeout total in the sixth inning and that's when I noticed that he hadn't allowed any hits yet. I held my breath each time a Philadelphia hitter swung. John had a typical game of lots of walks and lots of strikeouts (5 walks and 13 K's). 

The Phillies micromanager tried to work some magic with pinch hitters, but that was to no avail. Pinch hitter Tommy Hutton made the last out and John D had his no-hitter. 

Max Leon Strikes out 17!

 On July 8, Max Leon of the Atlanta Braves made the most of his first start of the 1974 season by striking out 17 batters in an 11-1 Braves victory. Leon struck out every non-pitcher at least once (including pinch hitters). None of the Pittsburgh got a chance to hit in the 11-1 laugher.

Whoops

 

• I know I haven't posted lately. We had a little problem. My four year old had a tantrum and one of the casualties was the USB drive that I had my stats on. I had the stats backed up but I forgot where I saved the file. It really took the wind out of my sails. I finally found my backup today. I backed the replay up after the game of June 30. I ended up losing about ten days worth of games but that's better than losing the whole season.
• I'll be posting again soon. Some games need to be replayed but the bulk of the replay survived. I sure hope this doesn't happen again.

Saturday Game of the Week - July 6

 

I remember this theme song vividly. It was too hot to be outside in the summer afternoons (I grew up near Phoenix, AZ) so I watched a lot of baseball games. The Reds, Pirates, Red Sox, and Yankees seemed to be on every week. 

I suspect the main game of the week this week would have been Baltimore vs. Oakland. The A's were leading the AL West and cruising on their way to another pennant. The Orioles were picked to be contenders in the AL East but were stumbling a bit at this point.

In this replay, the A's were victorious over the Orioles 3-2 in front of 32,319 fans at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Joe Rudi and Sal Bando homered for the A's. Dave Hamilton got the win with Rollie Fingers picking up the save. Ross Grimsley took the loss for the Orioles.

July 1 - How's it Going? NL Pitching Leaders

 

Atlanta's 1-2 punch of Phil Niekro and Carl Morton have kept the Braves close in the NL West. They have combined for 25 wins, 14 of them by shutout. The Braves also have ERA champion Buzz Capra in the rotation but he isn't pitching quite this well.

At this pace there should be a lot of 20-game winners in the National League.

July 1 - How's it Going? NL Batting Leaders

 

The batting average leaders include a few unexpected names, but it's only halfway through the season. Bob Bailey leads the league in RBI for the last place Montreal Expos. Joe Morgan has joined Lou Brock in the chase to break the stolen base record.

July 1 - How's it Going? - National League

 

The Cincinnati Reds have been playing at a torrid clip. They lead the NL West by 4 1/2 games over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers are playing well too, but they're having a hard time keeping up with the Reds. The Atlanta Braves are also playing better than expected thanks to the pitching of Phil Niekro and Carl Morton, but they are starting to tail off. The San Diego Padres have been brutal -- right now they have won 13 fewer games than they did in real life at this point.

In the NL East, the Pittsburgh Pirates are the only team to be above .500. Willie Stargell has been knocking the cover off of the ball.