Mario Soto took the mound for the Reds and Bob Knepper was handed the ball for Houston, and both pitchers were dominant early. In fact, through the first four innings, it was all goose eggs on the scoreboard.
In the bottom of the fifth, though, Houston finally came up big. Craig Reynolds reached on an error with one out and then moved to third on a Ray Knight double. That brought up Mark Bailey he launched his first homer of the year, good for three RBI.
The sixth and seventh innings were uneventful but the Reds finally put some runs on the board in the eighth when Cesar Cedeno took Knepper deep for a two-run blast. But Houston picked up three insurance runs in the bottom half of the inning to guarantee the win.
Winning Pitcher - Bob Knepper
Losing Pitcher - Mario Soto
Player of the Game - Mark Bailey, 1-3, HR, 3RBI
Hall of Famers in the Game - Tony Perez
Fernandomania was in full effect in this game. Valenzuela struck out the first two batters he faced. Meanwhile, in the bottom of the first, LA posted an early 3-0 lead thanks in large part to a two-run bomb from Pedro Guerrero. Guerrero is showing signs of finally heating up after a dismal start to the Statis Pro season.
Valenzuela picked up two more K's in the second and another in the third and I started to think something special was going on. I wasn't disappointed! In the fourth inning he fanned another two Giants and then he struck out the side in the fifth!!! The Statis Pro single game strike out record so far is 15, by Steve Carlton, and it looked like he might fly by that. But he "only" got one strike out in each of his last four frames to fall short of 15 by just one. What a game!!!
Winning Pitcher - Fernando Valenzuela
Losing Pitcher - Mark Davis
Player of the Game - Fernandomania, 14Ks, CG, 1R, 4Hs, 3BBs
No comments:
Post a Comment