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1972 World Series: Game 4
CINCINNATI REDS @ OAKLAND ATHLETICS
OCTOBER 19, 1972
TIMELINE 35
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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8
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9
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10
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11
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R
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H
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E
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Cincinnati Reds
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0
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0
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0
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0
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2
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0
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2
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0
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0
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0
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1
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5
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12
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3
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Oakland Athletics
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0
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1
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0
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0
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2
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0
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1
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0
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0
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0
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0
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4
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11
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0
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Bench's Sac Fly in 11th Caps Wild Seesaw as Reds Prevail, 5-4
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Bando's home run in the second inning traveled 418 feet into the October night, the longest ball struck by either side in four hours and twenty-one minutes of baseball, and it would prove to be a kind of thesis statement for the evening — a declaration that this game intended to be large, to be contested, to change hands often enough that by the end neither team could be said to have controlled it so much as survived it. The 1912 World Series went eight games because one ended in a tie called by darkness, and when the Red Sox finally won the decisive eighth in the tenth inning it was said that neither club deserved to lose. The 1960 Series changed leads so many times in its final game that the box score reads like a fever chart. What unfolded here at the Coliseum, in fifty-three degrees with the wind blowing across the field at thirteen miles an hour, belonged to that same tradition of games that refuse to declare a winner until every last possibility has been exhausted.
McRae answered Bando's blast in the fifth, turning on a 3-2 pitch from Holtzman and driving it 376 feet into the left-field seats with Rose aboard — Cincinnati's first lead of the night, held for exactly half an inning before Concepción's error opened the door for Rudi's double and Mincher's single and Oakland had reclaimed what it had momentarily lost. In the seventh, Rose walked, McRae singled at 105 miles per hour through the left side, and when Fingers entered to face Morgan with the bases loaded and one out, Morgan lined his first pitch into left to score two — 4-3 Reds, the third lead change in three innings. Oakland tied it in the bottom half through Alou, a Borbon error, and Epstein's sacrifice fly. Four-all. And then three innings of nothing, three innings of each team threatening and retreating, the game sitting at its fulcrum point like a coin balanced on its edge.
In the eleventh, against Blue Moon Odom, Tolan beat out an infield single that barely reached the mound, Pérez lined a single through the left side to advance him to third, and then Bench — who had two hits and an RBI already, who had been present at every significant moment — lifted a fly ball to center field, deep enough, 101.2 miles per hour off the bat, and Tolan tagged from third and scored standing up on Mangual's throw. Not a home run. Not a line drive into the gap. A sacrifice fly — the most ordinary of productive outs, the kind of play that happens three or four times in every game ever played and is forgotten by the seventh-inning stretch. But in the eleventh inning of the thirty-fifth telling of this same October Thursday night, it was enough to end everything.
Simpson retired the side in the bottom half — Concepción committing his second error of the evening to put one more Oakland runner aboard, one more ghost of possibility, before Rudi grounded to third and Bando grounded to third and it was over. The Coliseum emptied into the dark for the last time, and what remained was what always remains after baseball is finished: the box score, the numbers, the irreducible fact that on this particular night, in this particular arrangement of the same twenty-five men against the same twenty-five men on the same diamond with the same white lines running toward the same distant fences, the Cincinnati Reds won 5-4 in eleven innings. That it could have gone differently — that it had gone differently, thirty-four other times — is the game's oldest truth. Every pitch is new. Every night is the only night. The lineup cards are exchanged and the umpire points toward the mound and it begins again, and the fact that it has all happened before changes nothing about what it means when it happens now.
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CINCINNATI 1972 BATTING LINESCORE
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OAKLAND 1972 BATTING LINESCORE
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Player
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AB
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R
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H
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RBI
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BB
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K
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LOB
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AVG
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HR
|
RBI
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J. Morgan
2B
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5
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0
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1
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2
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1
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1
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2
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.200
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0
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2
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B. Tolan
CF
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6
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1
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1
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0
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0
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1
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3
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.167
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0
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0
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T. Perez
1B
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6
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0
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2
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0
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0
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2
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2
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.333
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0
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0
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J. Bench
C
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5
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0
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2
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1
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0
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1
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3
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.400
|
0
|
1
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D. Menke
3B
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4
|
0
|
2
|
0
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2
|
1
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1
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.500
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0
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0
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P. Rose Sr
LF
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4
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2
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0
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0
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2
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0
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5
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.000
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0
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0
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H. McRae
RF
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5
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2
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2
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2
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0
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2
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4
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.400
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1
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2
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D. Concepcion
SS
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5
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0
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1
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0
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0
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1
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6
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.200
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0
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0
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D. Gullett
P
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2
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0
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1
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0
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0
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0
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0
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.500
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0
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0
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T. Hall
P
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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.000
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0
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0
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a-
C. Geronimo
PH
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0
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0
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0
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0
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1
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0
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0
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.000
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0
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0
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P. Borbon
P
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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.000
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0
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0
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E. Sprague Sr
P
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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.000
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0
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0
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b-
J. Hague
PH
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1
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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.000
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0
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0
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C. Carroll
P
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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.000
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0
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0
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c-
J. Javier
PH
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1
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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2
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.000
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0
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0
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W. Simpson
P
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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.000
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0
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0
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Totals
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44
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5
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12
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5
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6
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9
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28
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a - C. Geronimo pinch hit for T. Hall in the 7th
b - J. Hague pinch hit for E. Sprague Sr in the 9th
c - J. Javier pinch hit for C. Carroll in the 10th
BATTING
Home Runs:
H. McRae
(1, 5th Inning off K. Holtzman, 1 on, 2 outs)
Total Bases:
J. Bench
2
,
D. Gullett
,
B. Tolan
,
T. Perez
2
,
J. Morgan
,
D. Menke
2
,
H. McRae
5
,
D. Concepcion
2-out RBI:
H. McRae
Runners left in scoring position, 2 outs:
J. Bench
,
P. Rose Sr
,
T. Perez
,
J. Morgan
,
D. Concepcion
,
J. Javier
Sac Fly:
J. Bench
Team LOB:
13
BASERUNNING
SB:
B. Tolan
(1)
FIELDING
Errors:
D. Concepcion
2
,
P. Borbon
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Player
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AB
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R
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H
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RBI
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BB
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K
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LOB
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AVG
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HR
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RBI
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B. Campaneris
SS
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6
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0
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2
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0
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0
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1
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0
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.333
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0
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0
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M. Alou
RF
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6
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2
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3
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0
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0
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0
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1
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.500
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0
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0
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J. Rudi
LF
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5
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1
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1
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1
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1
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0
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3
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.200
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0
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1
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S. Bando
3B
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4
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1
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2
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1
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2
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0
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5
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.500
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1
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1
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D. Mincher
1B
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3
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0
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1
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1
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0
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0
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3
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.333
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0
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1
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a-
M. Epstein
PH, 1B
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1
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0
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0
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1
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0
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0
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3
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.000
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0
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1
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A. Mangual
CF
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5
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0
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1
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0
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0
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1
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4
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.200
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0
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0
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G. Tenace
C
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5
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0
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0
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0
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0
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3
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5
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.000
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0
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0
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D. Green
2B
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5
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0
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1
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0
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0
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2
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1
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.200
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0
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0
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K. Holtzman
P
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3
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0
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0
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0
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0
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2
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1
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.000
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0
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0
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R. Fingers
P
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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.000
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0
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0
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V. Blue
P
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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.000
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0
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0
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b-
D. Duncan
PH
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1
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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.000
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0
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0
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B. Odom
P
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1
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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.000
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0
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0
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Totals
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45
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4
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11
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4
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3
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9
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26
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a - M. Epstein pinch hit for D. Mincher in the 7th
b - D. Duncan pinch hit for V. Blue in the 8th
BATTING
Doubles:
J. Rudi
(1, 5th Inning off D. Gullett, 1 on, 1 out)
Home Runs:
S. Bando
(1, 2nd Inning off D. Gullett, 0 on, 0 outs)
Total Bases:
M. Alou
3
,
J. Rudi
2
,
D. Mincher
,
A. Mangual
,
D. Green
,
S. Bando
5
,
B. Campaneris
2
Runners left in scoring position, 2 outs:
,
G. Tenace
2
,
D. Mincher
,
S. Bando
Sac Fly:
M. Epstein
Team LOB:
12
BASERUNNING
CS:
B. Campaneris
(1)
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CINCINNATI 1972 PITCHING LINESCORE
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OAKLAND 1972 PITCHING LINESCORE
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Player
|
IP
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H
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R
|
ER
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BB
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K
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HR
|
PI
|
PS
|
ERA
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D. Gullett
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5.0
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7
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3
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3
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2
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4
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1
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90
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61
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5.40
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T. Hall
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1.0
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1
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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7
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5
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0.00
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P. Borbon
BS (1)
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1.0
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2
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1
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0
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0
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1
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0
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17
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13
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0.00
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E. Sprague Sr
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1.0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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2
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0
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10
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8
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0.00
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C. Carroll
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1.0
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0
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0
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0
|
1
|
0
|
0
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20
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11
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0.00
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W. Simpson
W (1-0)
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2.0
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1
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0
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0
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0
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2
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0
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26
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17
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0.00
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PITCHING
Game Score:
D. Gullett
43
Batters Faced:
D. Gullett
25,
T. Hall
3,
P. Borbon
6,
E. Sprague Sr
3,
C. Carroll
4,
W. Simpson
8
Ground Outs - Fly Outs:
D. Gullett
6-5,
T. Hall
0-2,
P. Borbon
0-2,
E. Sprague Sr
1-0,
C. Carroll
1-2,
W. Simpson
3-1
Pitches - Strikes:
D. Gullett
90-61,
T. Hall
7-5,
P. Borbon
17-13,
E. Sprague Sr
10-8,
C. Carroll
20-11,
W. Simpson
26-17
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Player
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IP
|
H
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R
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ER
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BB
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K
|
HR
|
PI
|
PS
|
ERA
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K. Holtzman
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6.1
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5
|
4
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4
|
3
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6
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1
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103
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60
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5.68
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R. Fingers
BS (1)
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0.2
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2
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0
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0
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1
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1
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0
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19
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8
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0.00
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V. Blue
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1.0
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0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
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14
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9
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0.00
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B. Odom
L (0-1)
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3.0
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5
|
1
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1
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2
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0
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0
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54
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35
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3.00
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PITCHING
Game Score:
K. Holtzman
50
Batters Faced:
K. Holtzman
27,
R. Fingers
5,
V. Blue
3,
B. Odom
16
Ground Outs - Fly Outs:
K. Holtzman
8-5,
R. Fingers
1-0,
V. Blue
0-1,
B. Odom
5-4
Pitches - Strikes:
K. Holtzman
103-60,
R. Fingers
19-8,
V. Blue
14-9,
B. Odom
54-35
Inherited Runners - Scored:
R. Fingers
3-2
,
V. Blue
2-0
WP:
B. Odom
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GAME NOTES
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Player of the Game:
Hal McRae
Ballpark:
Oakland Coliseum
Weather:
Partly Cloudy (53 degrees), wind blowing left to right at 13 mph
Start Time:
6:07 PM Pacific
Time:
4:21
Attendance:
49,419
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