MAY 8 – EL PASO — The Cincinnati Reds may have won this series, by taking rubber game in eleven innings this afternoon, but the El Paso Diablos proved to themselves and the world that they can compete with the best team in the league. After Eppa Rixey shut them out in a one-hitter yesterday, the Diablo offense was contained again today. Reds right hander Jim Maloney allowed a run in the first on a bloop single by Jason Giambi, and a solo homer by Tony Oliva leading off the seventh. Don Newcombe matched him and the game sailed into the eighth tied 2-2.
Newcombe was lifted with two on and one out in the eighth. Troy Percival came on and gave up a RBI single to Scott Rolen, then a mammoth three-run homer to Eric Davis. The Reds tacked on another after Frank Viola replaced the thoroughly ineffective Percival, who was sent down to Alamogordo after the game. Ben Sheets worked a 1-2-3 top of the ninth in his Diablos home debut.
Following a scoreless eighth by Norm Charlton, Redlegs manager Sparky Anderson asked Dolf Luque to get the final three outs of a 7-2 game. The Diablos worked the bases loaded, as Jeff Bagwell walked on seven pitches, Craig Biggio leaned into an 0-2 pitch for a cheap plunk, and Gary Pettis worked a nine-pitch walk. Charles Johnson brought the crowd to its feet with a long drive to left, but George Foster hauled it in a the wall for the second out (Bagwell scored to make it 7-3). Matt Frangino selected Chili Davis to bat for Sheets, giving him just two short words – “Get on.” Chili almost struck out (only a merciful call by the base umpire on a check swing appeal saved him) before taking a sweeping bender off the back of his leg to re-load the bags. Shortstop Jim Fregosi, the Diablos’ most consistent hitter this season, carried the tying run to the plate. Anderson, with two out still unconcerned, stuck with The Pride of Havana. Luque rewarded the skipper’s trust by hanging a curveball in the thin air on his 36th delivery of the inning, and Fregosi hammered it into the Diablos’ bullpen over the left field wall for a game-tying grand slam. Before the baseball had even landed, two things happened – 1) there erupted a scene of bedlam and all-out celebration the likes of which Chucotown had never before seen, and 2) Bryan Harvey, the droopy-drawled rookie signed just days ago out of the mountains of Tennessee, jumped up and began throwing in earnest. He wanted the job of working the tenth, and his plan for getting it was to be the first one warmed up.
With the game so unexpectedly knotted at the end of nine innings, the crowd regarded what followed as genuinely free baseball. Harvey and Aroldis Chapman each pitched a scoreless tenth. J.R. Richard came on to start the eleventh for the Diablos. Joe Morgan became a leadoff baserunner when his routine bouncer was booted by Fregosi (perhaps the gods of fortune and justice balancing his scales somewhat). A walk and a single loaded the bases for Foster, whose grand slam could be sensed throughout the ballpark before it even happened. For it was nothing if not poetic – Fregosi hit one to tie it, then helped give one back to restore the game to its rightful winners, the Reds.
The Diablos fell back to four games under .5oo at 14-18. They have not been five under since the 0-5 start. They will try to fatten up their record when the 10-24 Mariners come to town on Tuesday.
Nitorian League 
Leave a comment