Gary Redus stood on second base with one out in the top of the first when Cesar Cedeno dug in against Rick Honeycutt. He must have ate his Wheaties because he jacked it over the fence for a quick 2-0 lead for the Reds.
Cincy was up 3-0 by the bottom of the second, but back to back RBI hits by Steve Sax and Dave Anderson closed the lead to one. The Reds responded in the top of the fourth. This time it was Cedeno standing on second when Dave Parker went big-fly for the second two-run homer of the game.
The Dodgers kept chipping back, especially in the bottom of the seventh when Ken Landreaux launched his own two-run bomb but John Franco recorded the last four outs to save the game for the Reds.
Winning Pitcher - Joe Price
Losing Pitcher - Rick Honeycutt
Save - John Franco
Player of the Game - Cesar Cedeno, 2-4, HR, 2RBI, 2R's, SB
It was a scoreless game until the top of the second, when the Rangers sent nine batters to the plate against Minnesota starter John Butcher. Gary Ward walked to start that inning and then stole his first base of the year. But Dave Engle air-mailed the throw allowing Ward to score on the error. Marv Foley followed later with a two-RBI single.
By the bottom of the ninth the Rangers had a 6-1 lead. Danny Darwin was masterful, and the only run he allowed was unearned thanks to a Buddy Bell throwing error. With the five run cushion Tom Henke trotted to the mound to close things out. His real 1984 was atrocious and his Statis Pro form is even worse. He maintained that rep by allowing a double to Dave Engle and then a hit plus a fielding error on a Jim Eisenreich single. Pinch-hitter Randy Bush walked and that brought up Kirby Puckett. He was 0 for 4 up to that point but jumped all over a Henke fastball to zap a triple that plated two. All of a sudden the Twins were only down two! Henke got yanked for closer Dave Schmidt. With Puckett on third Mickey Hatcher flew out deep enough in right field to score Puckett. That made it a one-run lead with two outs and Kent Hrbek at the plate. But Schmidt dug deep and K-ed Hrbek for the ballgame.
There were eight total errors in the game, which I'm pretty sure was a record for the season.
Winning Pitcher - Danny Darwin
Losing Pitcher - John Butcher
Save - Dave Schmidt
Player of the Game - Darwin, 8IP, 1R, 7K's, 6H's, 0BB's
Hall of Famers in the Game - Kirby Puckett
This was Eisenreich's last game of the Statis Pro season. In the real 1984 he left baseball for three years to overcome his case of Tourettes. He was quite the inspiration for others who suffer from the symptom when he came back to baseball in 1987 and found success with the Phillies and Marlins among other teams.
Let's see how he did in the real 1984 compared to this Statis Pro season:
Real 1984: 1R, 7H, 2B, 3RBI, 2S, 2BB, .219/.250/.250
Statis Pro: 3R, 9H, 0B, 1RBI, 2S, 5BB, .391/.500/.391
Yikes - that's a huge difference. In a very small sample size (28 plate appearances on the Statis Pro season) Eisenreich got very lucky. In the real 1984 his departure from the team cleared the way for future Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett. I've been playing Puckett since day one, though. I'm bringing in Pat Putnam to replace Eisenreich's spot on the roster.
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