MONDAY APRIL 8, 1974
It is a light schedule today with only 3 games on the docket. The lone American League contest is an afternoon affair between the 2-0 Yankees and the 0-2 Indians while the National League has Cincinnati taking their 2-1 record to the Bay Area to meet the 1-2 Giants. All eyes tonight will be on Atlanta as Hank Aaron makes his first home appearance of the season chasing Babe Ruth's record. The Braves opponents will be Al Downing and the Los Angeles Dodgers. In real life this is the game Aaron got #715 to pass to Ruth.
Let's see what happens:
The ball might be flying out of the park tonight as we get a homerun in the top of the first inning off the bat of Dodgers outfielder Bill Buckner, who hits a solo shot off of Ron Reed to give Los Angeles the early lead. The lead vanishes in the home half when Mike Lum continues his hot start with a 1-out solo homerun off of Downing. It is Lum's 3rd homer in 4 games after hitting just 16 all of last year. After Darrell Evans grounds out for out number two the crowd rises to cheer Aaron as he makes his first plate appearance of the season at Fulton County Stadium.
Aaron takes a pair of changeup's low and then watches a slider for a called strike. He fouls the next pitch back evening the count at 2-2. Downing misses with his first fastball of the at bat low making it a full count. The payoff pitch is also low and there is a smattering of boos as Aaron trots down to first base.
The score remains 1-1 until Bill Russell snaps the tie with an rbi single in the fourth inning. Aaron then leads off the bottom of the fourth. After taking the first pitch for a ball, Aaron goes to the opposite field with a sharp single. Not the homerun everyone is looking for but fans seem to detect a sigh of relief from Aaron after rounding first and returning to the bag. He finally has his first hit of the season. Hank would score as two batters later Davey Johnson belts his first homerun of the year putting the Braves ahead 3-2.
It is still 3-2 as Aaron steps to the plate in the bottom of the fifth but he has a chance to break the game wide open. The bases are loaded with one out as Al Downing stares in and prepares to face Aaron for the third time today. Would sure be nice to see the record-tying homerun be a grand slam but instead Aaron hits a slow roller to third baseman Ron Cey and the Penguin goes home with it to prevent the Braves from adding a run. Downing gets out of the jam by striking out Dusty Baker.
Aaron leads off the bottom of the 7th but grounds out to Cey and is now 1-for-13 on the year. Somehow the Braves, who built a 6-2 lead let it get away in the top of the ninth inning so Aaron gets one more at bat in the bottom of the ninth. Dodgers closer Mike Marshall gets Hank to hit a slow topper back to him and makes an easy throw to Steve Garvey at first base to retire the Atlanta slugger.
The game ends 7-6 and the Braves record drops to 1-3 after another heartbreaking loss.
Elsewhere, Roy White hommered twice while Doc Medich allowed just 3 hits in a complete game victory for the Yankees by an 8-1 score over winless Cleveland. The Reds, fresh off a comeback against Atlanta, saw the tables turned as San Francisco scored twice in the bottom of the ninth to win 6-5.