Cincinnati Reds'
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CCIINNCCIINNNNAATTII RREEDDSS PPRREESSSS CCLLIIPPPPIINNGGSS OCTOBER 20, 2014 THIS DAY IN REDS HISTORY: OCTOBER 20, 1990 – THE REDS SWEPT THE A’S TO BECOME WORLD CHAMPIONS FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1976. RHP JOSE RIJO WAS NAMED THE MVP COLLECTING TWO WINS WITH 15.1 INNINGS PITCHED, 14 STRIKEOUTS AND A 0.59 ERA. CINCINNATI ENQUIRER Eric Davis' NLCS throw stands the test of time John Erardi In the 24 years since the Reds last won a World Championship, Eric Davis has never been asked about the amazing play he made in Game 4 of the 1990 National League Championship Series when, manning left field in Pittsburgh, he backed up center fielder Billy Hatcher on a carom off the wall and threw a one-hop strike to third baseman Chris Sabo to nail Pirates star Bobby Bonilla, who was trying to turn his hit into a triple. The play is arguably the second greatest defensive play in baseball's postseason history, behind only Willie Mays' center field catch- and-spin-throw of Vic Wertz' deep drive at the Polo Grounds in the 1954 World Series. Here is what the great baseball writer Roger Angell, who was nine years old when he began watching games at Yankee Stadium in 1930 (Babe Ruth hit 49 bombs that year), wrote about the Davis play: ''I couldn't believe any of (it), even as it was happening; Davis had come over so swiftly from his place in left that I didn't see him at all, and my first feeling, even as the throw was in flight, was who was that? ... It was a famous play on the instant. (Pirates manager) Jim Leyland said, 'They'll be talking about that play forever.'" In the same article, then-Reds manager Lou Piniella is quoted, ''Eric Davis has the greatest baseball instincts of any player I've ever seen.'' At the moment of that glove-it-and-whirl play, Davis looked just like the shortstop he was when the Reds signed him out of high school in Los Angeles. ''You can see it on the highlight,'' said Davis, laughing in a telephone interview during the Reds' 2012 NL Division Series in October vs. the San Francisco Giants. ''After 'Sabes' tags out Bonilla, Bonilla says to the third base coach, 'Who threw that?' He'd seen Billy approaching the wall, and he could tell Billy wasn't going to be able to catch the ball (or even retrieve it) and that's when he went for third.'' As Davis was being interviewed, it was the eighth inning of Game 4 of the NLDS at Great American Ball Park. The Reds were trailing 8-3. In 1990, there was no NLDS. There were only two divisions in each league, and the winners of the NL East, the Pirates, played the winners of the NL West, the Reds, with the winner going directly to the World Series. ''I consider it one of the great series in postseason history,'' Davis said. ''It had everything but a no-hitter. It had doubles and triples and home runs, a lot of plays on the bases, and great defense. We (the Pirates and Reds) were mirror images of one another. Our bullpen was better, but other than that the teams were very evenly matched. The Pirates were favored, but not by a lot.'' The NLCS is ''where the real pressure is, because you're right on the edge of going to the World Series,'' said Tom Browning, one of the Reds starting pitchers in 1990, who outdueled that year's NL Cy Young winner, Doug Drabek, in Game 2. Some of the greatest plays take place annually in the NLCS and ALCS. It was certainly true in the 1990 NLDS. Here's how The Enquirer ranks the five greatest plays of that series: 1. Davis' wheel-and-throw nailing Bonilla in Game 4. 2. Reds right fielder Glenn Braggs' leaping grab at the wall at Riverfront Stadium in Game 6, robbing Carmelo Martinez of an HR. 3. Reds right fielder Paul O'Neill throwing out Andy Van Slyke at third base in Game 2. 4. Reds center fielder Billy Hatcher throwing out Sid Bream at home in Game 4. 5. A variety of excellent plays by shortstop Barry Larkin in Game 2. O'Neill also threw out Bream at second base in the eighth inning of Game 1 at Riverfront. It was the Reds' first outfield assist in the 1990 NLDS. When Davis threw out Bonilla three games later, it gave the Reds' four outfield assists for the series. In the 24 years since, only one team has surpassed that throwing show in a postseason series, the New York Mets (five outfield assists in the 1999 NLCS), and only two other teams have had as many as the Reds' four. The record for most outfield assists in a postseason series is six. (All this, courtesy of Frank Labombarda of the Elias Sports Bureau.) Where does Browning rank the 1990 NLDS? ''It's my favorite, because it's the only one I went to,'' he said, laughing. Browning remembers the Davis wheel-and-throw. All of the Reds players do. ''He materialized out of nowhere,'' recalled Braggs, also in a telephone interview recently from his home in Santa Clarita, Calif. ''It was like Captain Kirk on Star Trek. 'Beam me up, Scotty.' All of a sudden, he was just there.'' Braggs' great play on the second-to-last out of Game 6 preserved the Reds' 2-1 lead and ultimately their trip to the World Series. ''I was positioned correctly,'' recalled Braggs modestly. ''(Reds closer) Randy Myers was throwing his nasty stuff on the (outside) black. Martinez had power. He liked going the other way.'' You better believe the 1990 Pirates remember those plays. Bonilla surely remembers Davis' throw. Bonilla wasn't watching Davis. Nobody was. Everybody in Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh was watching the ball and watching Hatcher. But Davis, coming over from left field to back up the play, quickly realized as he gauged Hatcher's location and where the ball was going to hit on the wall, that this was going to be his – Davis' – play. The play has been talked about forever in some circles, but it hasn't become part of lore. Bullpens separate Royals and Reds C. Trent Rosecrans Ever since he became the general manager of the Reds, Walt Jocketty has stressed pitching and defense as the keys to success. And while that combination didn't lead to much success for the Reds in 2014, it was a winning formula for both the Royals and Giants, who will begin the World Series on Tuesday. "I love seeing these teams that pitch and play good defense," Jocketty said. "The Giants are a team that scrap for runs and they seem to come up big. It's the same with the Royals, it's been incredible. They really feed off those guys that came up through the organization and they're fun to watch." Jocketty's 2014 Reds, who finished 76-86, were good at pitching and defense — but that's really three things, starting pitching, relief pitching and defense — and the Reds bullpen wasn't good. The Royals, on the other hand, have been good at all three, with the bullpen better than the rotation — something that has more value in the postseason. The Royals weren't a great offensive team. They averaged 4.02 runs per game, less than the American League average of 4.18 runs per game. They were ninth in the American League in runs per game as well as ninth in on-base percentage and 10th in OPS (on- base plus slugging). The thing is, and this is a point missed by some, the game isn't won by scoring a lot of runs, it's won by just scoring more than the other team. In the regular season, the Royals were just 22-25 in one-run games. In the playoffs, of course, they're 4-0. The key, of course, is limiting the other team to fewer runs than you're able to score. The Royals had the fourth-best ERA in the American League at 3.51. While their starters were good (5th, 3.60) their relievers were the best in the AL at 3.30. Let's look at the Reds (and I keep these rankings as NL vs AL because the rules difference make offense a little more prevalent in the AL). The Reds were ninth in the National League with 3.59 ERA, but most of the damage was done against the bullpen. Reds starters were third in the NL with a 3.37 ERA and the relievers were 14th with a 4.11 ERA. The 31 losses on the bullpen were tied for the most in the National League, with the Rockies and one behind the White Sox for the MLB-high. While the Rockies' bullpen had as many Ls as the Reds' bullpen, they had twice as many Ws. Wins and losses as pitching statistics aren't a great way to measure things, but they do show the Reds' receivers weren't real good in 2014. The Reds' bullpen had just 11 wins — the lowest in the majors (and much of that can be blamed on the bad offense, as well — which again, a reason I don't like W-L as a pitching stat), seven fewer than the 29th team in that stat, the Dodgers' 18. "With all the problems we had with our offense, our bullpen was a huge problem," Jocketty said.