WEDNESDAY APRIL 17, 1974
I would turn 9 on this day in real life and be at the point where I really started following baseball...although not until after hockey season came to an end.
On this day the Braves and Padres are set to meet for the third of their 4 game series. Aaron is given the day off so we will have to see if he gets the opportunity to pinch-hit. The Padres go with Jim McAndrew (1-1, 7.20) on the mound against Carl Morton (1-2, 5.96), who remains the only Brave pitcher to win a game this season.
The Padres get a run in the top of the first as Derrel Thomas scores on a wild pitch from Morton after he and Nate Colbert each singled. Atlanta gets two in the home half thanks to sac fly from Dusty Baker and an rbi single from Davey Johnson and the score remains 2-1 Braves until the fifth inning. Derrel Thomas leads off the 5th with a triple and Bobby Tolan, who hit for the cycle yesterday, continues his hot play with a 2-run homer. The Padres would get another run in the inning and lead 4-2 after 5.
The Braves pull closer in the 6th when Mike Lum delivers an rbi single. It is still 4-3 Padres heading to the bottom of the 7th and Hank Aaron is called on to lead-off the inning as a pinch-hitter for Max Leon, who had relieved Morton. Padres rookie reliever Larry Hardy is on the mound and ready to face Aaron for the first time in his career.
Aaron takes a fastball low for ball one and then fouls the next pitch off of catcher Fred Kendall. Hardy misses with his next two pitches and the count goes to 3-and-1. He winds and delivers.
Aaron connects and sends the ball to left field. Nate Colbert is looking like he might have a play on it but he runs out of room and the ball lands about 5 rows deep. A 365 foot solo homer and Aaron has tied Babe Ruth with 714 career homeruns!
The game is now tied at 4 and remains that way until the top of the 10th inning when Nate Colbert doubles in Derrel Thomas with the go-ahead run. Atlanta responds as Johnny Oates delivers a 2-out double in the bottom of the 10th to score Davey Johnson and tie the game at 5 so we go to the 11th.
It stays that way until the top of the 13th when Enzo Hernandez singles in Willie McCovey to once again give the Padres a 1-run lead. Dave Tomlin is brought in from the Padres pen to try and hold the Braves off the scoresheet in the home half. It is a 1-2-3 inning for Tomlin and the Braves suffer yet another loss - their 11th in a row.
However, the mood in the Atlanta clubhouse after the game is not that of a team in a terrible slump. There is plenty of celebration and hoardes of media members surrounding Hank Aaron, who has finally tied Babe Ruth with 714 career homers. Let's see how long we need to wait for the record-breaking blast.
OTHER SCORES
In National League play the San Francisco Giants beat Houston 4-2, Philadelphia scored in the bottom of the ninth to edge St Louis 5-4. The Dodgers continue to roll, as they improved to 10-2 on the season with a 10-0 blanking of Cincinnati. Al Oliver homered twice to lead Pittsburgh past the Cubs 7-6 and the Mets scored twice in the 9th and 3 times in the top of the 10th to rally past Montreal 5-2.
American League action saw Woodie Fryman pitch a shutout as Detroit blanked Baltimore.
Al Kaline went 1-for-4 in the game. Elsewhere, Boston doubled the Yankees in New York 4-2, Minnesota edged California 4-3, Nelson Briles pitched Kansas City past Texas 7-1, a Reggie Jackson homerun lifted Oakland past the White Sox and Cleveland won for the first time in 11 tries this season, beating Milwaukee 3-2.