Northern Expos-ure

Reds 5, Expos 4
Woodie Fryman vs Jack Billingham

Reds 4, Expos 0
Don Carrithers vs Don Gullett

Call this one:  the battle of the Don's.  Both Don's were on their "A" game early on.  Cincy broke a scoreless tie with a solo shot by Mike Lum in the bottom of the 5th.  Dan Driessen's RBI single in the 6th made it 2-0.  The bottom of the 7th saw Carrithers completely fall apart along with his defense.  Nate Colbert was handcuffed by a sinking liner by Gullett with 1 out in the 7th.  A walk to Rose and a single to Griffey loaded the bases for Joe Morgan who lifted an elevator in a silo to shallow center.  Pepe Mangual kind of nonchalanted it assuming the pitcher would not try to tag up.  Instead Gullett broke from third, while Mangual double clutched, which was just enough to allow him to score and make it 3-0.  Dan Driessen would make the previous play insignificant by lining a bases clearing double off the right center wall just below the orange stripe to make it 5-0.  Gullett, who seemed to get up slowly from that play at the plate, was not the same pitcher when he went back out to the mound to start the 8th.  A walk to Mangual and a long homer to Bombo Rivera told the tale that this lefty was hurting and he needed to go.  Pedro Borbon would be summoned from the pen and given unlimited time to warm up.  Borbon would allow just one hit in two innings of work to post his second save of the year.

Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati
Reds 4, Expos 0
Dan Warthen vs Gary Nolan

Astros 6, Expos 2
Larry Dierker vs Steve Rogers

Expos 9, Reds 8 (11 inn)
Don Gullett vs Steve Renko

After dropping ther first 2 games of the series to the "Big Red Machine", the lowly Expos were not optimistic about their chances in game 3 with the injured Steve Renko returning to the rotation.  Renko, who had been Montreal's ace for the better part of the past 6 seasons, was not himself last year and hasn't looked himself all spring.  After pitching well over 200 innings in 4 of the last 5 seasons Renko was hoping to use '76 as his bounce back season just like he used 1973 when he went 15-11 with a 2.81 ERA.  Giving up a leadoff double to Pete Rose was not a good sign, nor was a two strike single to Griffey to put runners on the corner.  Getting Morgan to pop out to center and only giving up a sac fly to "Doggie" enabled Renko to get out of the first just down 1-0.  The top of the second started exactly the same way the first did.  This time Bench led off with the double, but from Renko's perspective he thankfully was able to get the next 3 hitters easily.  Renko would not be as lucky in the top of the 3rd. Back to back singles by Rose and Griffey were followed by a 5 pitch walk to Morgan to load the bases with nobody out.  Doggie uncharacteristically popped out to short and did not produce a run, but surprise starter Bob Bailey lined a single to center to score 2.  Renko was able to collect himself and get Bench and Geronimo out to end the inning, but he was down 3-0.  The bottom of the 3rd would see the Expos strike back against Don Gullett.  Renko, who is a pretty good hitting pitcher, flared a singled to right.  The next 3 batters would follow suit and the Expos were now on the board.  Parrish struck out looking at a called strike 3 that painted the corner and Mackanin popped out to right with the bases loaded for the second out of the inning.  Gullet got to fine and lost the next two batters to walks to tie the game at 3-3.  Light hitting Pepe Frias would fight off 4 pitches with an 0-2 count before landing a parachute into the no-man's land of right center to score 2 and put the Expos up 5-3.  10 Expos would come to the plate in the 3rd as the lead changed hands for the first time today.  Montreal would score solo runs in the 4th and 6th and Cincy would net 2 in the 6th to keep the status quo.  Renko would be gone after getting 1 out in the 6th, but he still clung to his lead.  Gullet was gone after 5, giving up 6 and not looking like an ace.  Steve Dunning would take the hill as Renko's replacement and get out of the 6th and pitch a scoreless 7th.  The 8th would be Dunning's swan song as the Big Red Machine flexed its mighty muscles.  With the bases loaded and nobody out George Foster would come off the bench and line a 2 run double off the wall in left.  Pete Rose would follow that with his 5th hit of the day, an RBI single to right to give the Reds an 8-7 lead.  Fans at Jarry Parc were thinking, "here we go again".  In the bottom of the 8th Red reliever Rawly Eastwick would give up a 1 out triple to Pepe Mangual.  Jerry White was given an intentional pass to create a double play opportunity.  On deck was Gary Carter, who had a single and two near miss home run opportunities on his resume for the day.  In a surprise move Montreal called back their young catcher in favor of the hot pinch hitting bat of Jose Morales.  Morales once again delivered with a line shot to left center to tie the game at 8-8.  The Expos were alive again !  Morales, who usually pinch hits and then sits, was rewarded with the opportunity to stay in the lineup and play first base as Barry Foote shifted behind the plate.  After a scoreless 9th inning the game headed to extra innings.  The 10th was also scoreless thanks to the Santo Alcala getting Parrish and Mackanin out to strand Mangual at second.  Don Stanhouse, who already pitched 2 scoreless innings added a third to his linescore by not allowing a run in the 11th.  Alcala would start the 11th for Cincy and quickly give up a clean single to Ellis Valentine.  Barry Foote executed a perfect hit and run and with nobody out there were runners on the corners for Pepe Frias, who immediately began to take off his helmet and his batting gloves.  Mike Jorgensen was called on to pinch hit for Frias and hit a frozen rope through a drawn in infield to easily score Valentine and help Montreal salvage the final game of this 3 game set.


Record Tracker:
Real Life (5-8) & Replay (5-8)

Reds 6, Expos 3
Pat Zachry vs Steve Rogers

Reds rookie sensation

Reds 7, Expos 6
Gary Nolan vs Dan Warthen

7 time 100 RBI man

With the mercury on the thermometer barely touching 50 at game time most fans expected to see a fast game with little or no hitting.  Instead, they were treated to a long drawn out 4 hour event featuring 13 combined runs and 23 combined hits.  Right off it was easy to tell that both starters were not exactly Cy Young candidates.  Cincy had the bases loaded in the first, but somehow Dan Warthen was lucky enough to get Johnny Bench to fly out weakly to center.  In the second Warthen was lucky to escape with just 1 run allowed, a Pete Rose RBI single with 2 outs.  Montreal would get to Nolan in the bottom of the second thanks to a combination of walks (3), errors (1), wild pitches (2) & some good old fashioned hitting.  Pepe Frias and Jerry White would knock in runs the conventional way, with sigles to give the Expos a 3-1 lead.  After Gary Carter narrowly missed a two run homer in the bottom of the third, Larry Parrish would line an RBI single to right to make it 4-1.  This was the high point of Montreal's day.  With Warthen on the hill it was only a matter of time before the Big Red Machine began producing their assembly line of hits and runs.  That time would come in the top of the 4th.  Rose led off the inning and flew out to the warning track.  Ken Griffey singled then stole second in the blink of an eye.  Morgan walked to put runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out.  Foster did the same to load the bases.  "Doggie", Tony Perez, the RBI man for these great Red teams did what he does best...launch an 2 run double off the left center fence, which made it a 4-3 game.  Montreal's lead was evaporating faster than sweat in the Sahara.  Parrish booted a hard grounder by Bench to third to allow the game to be tied and a walk to Geronimo would force in another run to give the Reds a 5-4 lead.  Warthen was now gone.  He hit the showers after getting just 1 out in the 4th and blowing a 3 run lead.  Don Carrithers was brought in to relieve him and allowed all of the inherited runners to score, plus he was charged with an unearned run via Parrish's gaffe at third.  Pedro Borbon was now on the hill for the Reds, replacing Gary Nolan who was as awful as Warthen.  Borbon was in a groove pitching shutout ball until the bottom of the 7th when the Expos showed signs of life once again.  Pepe Frias led off with a single, which was followed by a single from pinch hitter extraordinaire Jose Morales.  Jerry White grounded out weakly for the first out, but he was able to move the runners up into scoring position.  After a most productive out by White, Bombo Rivera was called upon to pinch hit for Jim Dwyer.  Rivera delivered a two run double and lo and behold Le Expos were now on top by 1.  All 5,306 fans in attendance at Jarry Parc began to cheer like they had never cheered before.  Their lowly Expos were now leading the defending world champions by 1 run after 7 innings.  Montreal's lead was to be short lived.  Fred Scherman would see to that.  Montreal's lefty reliever began his day's worth of work in the top of the 8th by giving up a single to Dave Concepcion and an RBI triple to left handed hitting Cesar Geronimo.  If Sherman can't get lefties out, what good is he to this team ?  Two batters later he would serve up an RBI single to another lefty Ken Griffey, which now put the Reds on top by 1.  The Reds weren't playing around here and immediately went to their star closer Rawly Eastwick, who shut the door on the Expos with 2 scoreless innings.  Eastwick did what no other Red pitcher could do on the day, not allow an Expo run.  Montreal showed that it could hang with the big boys, but without strong pitching they won't have enough to win plus they can not count on scoring 6+ runs every game.  The Big Red Machine really is a machine !

Cubs 5, Expos 3
Clay Kirby vs Bill Bonham

3-4 with a homer on the day

Cubs 5, Expos 4 (10 inn)
Woodie Fryman vs Ray Burris

Game winning squeeze bunt

Wrigley Field - Expos 11, Cubs 3
Don Stanhouse vs Rick Reuschel

Turns back the clock going 3-5

April 15, 1976
Larry Christenson vs Woodie Fryman
Expos 6, Phillies 1

Another sub 50 degree day seemed to favor one pitcher, Woodie Fryman.  The "Wood-man" posted his second consecutive masterful performance of this young season.  After shutting the Mets out in Flushing Fryman now had to try his hand at keeping a much more potent lineup at bay.  After a shaky first two innings Fryman settled into a nice groove.  In the first he walked Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski with 2 out and had to make a quality pitch to get Maddox to pop out to short.  In the second Bob Boone hit one to the warning track that Nate Colbert corralled. Fryman gave up a clean single to Bobby Tolan with 2 out then suffered the indignity of handing a two bagger to his opposite number Larry Christenson to give the Phils a 1-0 lead.  The cold weather helped Fryman in the second, because Boone's long fly to left most likely would have been a round tripper in the heat of the summer.  While the weather seemed to help Fryman, it had the opposite effect on Christenson.  The bottom of the 3rd looked to be one of those pedestrian innings that you don't give much thought to.  Tim Foli led off with a single, then moved to second on Bombo Rivera's grounder to short.  Fryman bunted Foli over to third and gave himself up for the second out of the inning.  This is when the inning took a turn for the bizarre.  Christenson couldn't get a good grip on the ball and lost his control.  Jerry White and Mike Jorgensen both walked to load the bases.  The count went to 3-0 on the next batter, Larry Parrish, so Christenson was forced to put one straight down Broadway.  Parrish lined it right back through the box to score Foli and White to make it 2-1.  Gary Carter followed that with a single of his own to score "Jorgy".  Nate Colbert's blast hit the top of the fence to plate two and on the play to the plate the big man cruised into third.  Light hitting Pete Mackanin topped it off with an RBI single to make it 6-1.  Philly had a chance to make it a 2 run game when Luzinksi got a hold of one in the 5th and drove Colbert to the wall.  With Bowa and Cash on base ahead of him, Luzinski narrowly missed a 3 run homer.  As the innings pased the temperture began to drop even further.  Ball hitting bat became almost painful for the batsman.  Fryman left the game to a standing ovation after recording the first out in the 8th.  He gave way to Joe Kerrigan, who showed no mercy on the hitters and began busting them inside.  On cold days like this one nothing hurts a batter more than a "jam job".  Kerrigan ended the 8th by jamming pinch hitter Ollie Brown and getting an easy around the horn 5-4-3 DP.  In the 9th he struck out the side (Boone, Tolan, McCarver) to lock the game down.  Phightin's manager Hayes said, "Can you tell we mailed that inning in ?"  Hard to blame the hitters for wanting to get out of the frigid ice box call Jarry Parc.  The 'Spos split the series with the Phils, but their game 1 loss looks to be a foreshadowing of just how this season might go.

Record Tracker:
Real Life (2-3) & Replay (2-3)

April 14, 1976 - Jarry Parc
Jim Lonborg vs Don Stanhouse
Phillies 7, Expos 5

2 run homer made it 4-0

After all the pomp and circumstance associated with opening day was complete a game had to be played.  The 1-3 Expos treated the home fans to a quick 4-0 lead.  Jerry White led off the bottom of the 1st by working out a walk.  Pete Mackanin doubled him over to third.  Mike Jorgensen lifted a fly ball to right and White raced home easily to make it 1-0.  Two batters later Larry Parrish delivered a 2 out RBI single to make it 2-0.  A 2 run homer by Jerry White in the second made it 4-0 and all was good in Montreal.  Don Stanhouse was busy mowing down Philly batters and after 7 innings the score was still 4-0.  The top of the 8th would see the Phightin's finally solve the frigid 46 degree weather and get to Stanhouse. Johnny Oates would pinch hit for Lonborg and work out a lead off walk.  Dave Cash would double home Oates with one out to make it 4-3.  Good teams find a way to minimize the damage and not allow big innings.  Montreal is not a good team, so disaster loomed.  An error by Parrish at 3rd and a Wild pitch on a called strike three allowed extra runners to reach base or score errantly.  The "secretary of defense" Garry Maddox's single accounted for the third run and just like that a safe 4-0 lead was now a tenuous 1 run lead at best.  The Expos struck back in the bottom of the frame when "the kid" Gary Carter doubled home Mike Jorgensen with 2 out.  This put the Expos up 5-3 heading into the top of the ninth.  Closer Dale Murray was called on to protect a two run lead and deliver a home opener victory to the fans.  Four runs later the Expos were down by 2.  An RBI double by pinch hitter "Downtown" Ollie Brown got it all started.  Larry Bowa would chip in with a game tying RBI single.  "The Bull", Greg Luzinski would add an RBI single of his own to give Philly their first lead of the day.  Mike Schmidt would hit a bullet to third to score Bowa.  The ball was hit so hard it handcuffed Parrish, who was lucky to just get the force at second.  Ron Reed would stroll in from the pen to pitch the 9th and close out the demoralized 'Spos.  After Nate Colbert went down swinging, Tim Foli singled to show some sign of life.  Bombo Rivera would also go down swinging and pinch hitter Jose Morales would fly out weakly to center to end this fiasco.  Hats off to the Phightins for coming back from two deficits to seal the deal.

Record Tracker:
Real Life (1-3) & Replay (1-3)