The 1974 Cincinnati Reds won 98 games and had a lineup featuring four all-stars, Tony Perez, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Pete Rose. Unfortunately for the Reds, they were in the same division as the Los Angeles Dodgers in a year that the Dodgers won 102 games.
The Dodgers' four game cushion in the NL West was earned in large measure by the team's 12-6 record against the Reds. One of the most thrilling of the 12 wins came on July 4th in Cincinnati when the visitors from the west coast sent the holiday crowd at Riverfront Stadium home unhappy following a 3-2 Dodgers win.
The game started out as a pitchers' duel, with the Dodgers' Andy Messersmith and Cincinnati's Jack Billingham each allowing only one run in seven innings. The Dodgers touched Billingham for a run in the fourth when Steve Yeager's sacrifice fly scored Jimmy Wynn, and the Reds' got even in the seventh on Cesar Geronimo's RBI single.
The Reds appeared to take control of the game in the 8th when a daring two out squeeze bunt by Bench plated Pete Rose from third base to give Cincinnati a 2-1 lead. The Dodgers struck back quickly in the top of the ninth off of Pedro Borbon as back to back doubles by Steve Garvey and Willie Crawford tied the score. Three batters later, a single by Bill Russell scored Crawford to give the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.
It was up to Dodger ace reliever Mike Marshall to hold down the fort for the visitors in the bottom of the ninth, but that inning started out shakily as Davey Concepcion singled and was sacrificed to second by Geronimo. Phil Gagliano then walked to put the winning run on base, and the Reds had Pete Rose and Ken Griffey waiting in the wings to try to drive the run in. With the game on the line, Marshall showed his Cy Young Award winning form as he struck out the two dangerous hitters to win the game. The win was Marshall's 11th in 14 decisions, and moved the Dodgers 30 games over .500 on the season.
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