The 1975 World Series might have been the greatest World Series ever. And Game 6 might have been the greatest game of that or, perhaps, any World Series.

Prelude

Through five games, the Cincinnati Reds led the Boston Red Sox 3 games to 2. To that point, three of the five games had been decided by one run, including a 10-inning Game 3. The Reds were 2-1 in the one-run games with the Reds and Red Sox trading blowout wins (Boston won Game 1, 6-0; Cincinnati won Game 5, 6-2).

Both of the Red Sox wins in the series had been complete game victories by Luis Tiant. Game 6 was postponed for three days because of rain, which allowed the Red Sox to bring Tiant back to try for his third win to help the Red Sox stave off elimination. The Reds countered with Gary Nolan who had won 15 regular-season games and started Game 3 (which the Reds, but not Nolan, won).

The Game Itself, as it unfolded in real-time

Red Sox Strike First

Luis Tiant worked around a one-out walk and got out of the top of the first inning without allowing a run.

In the bottom of the first, Gary Nolan retired the first two Red Sox, but then gave up back-to-back singles to Carl Yastrzemski and Carlton Fisk. Fred Lynn followed with a 3-run home run and the Red Sox were in business with a 3-0 lead.

Lull 1

For the next three innings, it looked like Lynn's home run might be all of the offense the Red Sox would need. Luis Tiant continued his brilliant postseason. The Reds managed three baserunners over the next three innings - two singles and an E6 - which Tiant worked around fairly easily with three strikeouts and two infield foul outs.

The Red Sox offense also failed to score, despite putting runners on second and third with only one out in both the third and fourth innings.

And so, the game moved to the fifth inning with the Red Sox leading 3-0.

The Reds Strike Back

Cesar Geronimo led off the top of the fifth inning by flying out to right field. But pinch hitter Ed Armbrister drew a walk and Pete Rose singled to center (Armbrister moving to third on the play) and the Reds looked to have their best scoring opportunity of the game so far.

They didn't waste it. Ken Griffey tripled, scoring two runs and one out later, Johnny Bench singled home Griffey.

Tiant struck out Tony Perez to end the inning and the threat. But not before the Reds had tied the score, 3-3.

Lull 2

Clay Carroll, the Reds' fourth pitcher of the game (a good example of how Reds manager, Sparky Anderson, earned the nickname "Captain Hook"), gave up a leadoff single to Carl Yastrzemsi to lead off the bottom of the fifth, but followed that up with three quick outs.

The Reds got two two-out singles - from Geronimo and Terry Crowley - but Pete Rose grounded into an inning-ending force play.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Pedro Borbon (the Reds' fifth pitcher of the game) retired the Red Sox 1-2-3.

The Reds Pour It On

The game entered the seventh inning still tied 3-3. While the Reds were on their fifth pitcher of the game, the Red Sox were sticking with their starter, Luis Tiant. The Reds started the seventh with back-to-back singles by Ken Griffey and Joe Morgan. But Tiant got Johnny Bench and Tony Perez to fly out and it looked like he might still get out of it.

Alas, it was not quite to be. George Foster stroked a double to center field, scoring both Griffey and Morgan, and the Reds had their first lead of the game, 5-3. Tiant did get Dave Concepcion to ground out to end the inning.

Pedro Borbon worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh.

Cesar Geronimo led off the top of the 8th inning with a home run to right field to give the Reds a 6-3 lead and finally prompt Darrell Johnson to pull Tiant. Rogelio Moret retired the first three batters he faced, but the Reds led by three runs and were only six outs away from the franchise's first World Championship since 1940.

Four Outs Away

In the bottom of the 8th inning, the Red Sox started off well. Fred Lynn led things off with a single and Rico Petrocelli followed with a walk. That brought out Sparky Anderson, who brought in his sixth pitcher of the game, Rawley Eastwick.

Eastwick had led the Reds in games finished (40) and saves (22) in 1975 and was one of four Reds relievers to pitch over 90 innings in 1975 (although Clay Carroll did start 2 of his 56 games in amassing 96.1 IP). Relief roles were not always as well defined in 1975 as they are today, but, essentially, Sparky Anderson was calling on his closer to close out the World Series for him.

Eastwick started strong. He struck out Dwight Evans swinging and got Rick Burleson on a soft liner to short left field.

The Red Sox were down to their final out in the 8th inning and four outs away from losing the World Series. The pitcher's spot was due up next and the Red Sox sent up reserve outfielder Bernie Carbo to pinch hit.

This was Bernie Carbo's second World Series. His first had come five years earlier as a member of the Cincinnati Reds. Carbo had gone 0-for-8 in that series as the Reds lost in five games to the Baltimore Orioles. This would be only Carbo's third plate appearance of the 1975 World Series, although he had gotten his first World Series hit three games earlier with a pinch-hit solo home run in the 7th inning of Game 3 (which the Red Sox lost 6-5 in 10 innings).

Carbo had hit well in the 1975 regular season, batting .257/.409/.483 with 15 home runs in 407 plate appearances, but he had gone only 2-for-12 as a regular-season pinch hitter with 1 double, 1 walk, and two RBIs (a batting line of .167/.231/.250). Carbo's pinch-hit home run in Game 3 had been his first pinch-hit home run of the season in his 15th pinch-hit plate appearance.

His second pinch-hit home run came in his 16th pinch-hit plate appearance as Carbo put a 2-2 pitch from Eastwick over the center field fence. Lynn and Petrocelli scored in front of him and suddenly the score was tied 6-6.

Cecil Cooper struck out to end the 8th inning, but it was too late for Eastwick and the Reds. The damage was done and the score was tied, 6-6.

Lull 3

Even the most exciting baseball games have periods where it seems as if nothing happens. But that's part of baseball's charm. You get a chance to catch your breath and savor what just happened, while the anticipation grows, knowing that something exciting could be just around the corner.

And what seems like a lull in retrospect may not feel like a lull at the time. It's one thing to look back at a box score and see that neither the Reds nor Red Sox scored any runs in the 9th, 10th, or 11th innings.

But that misses the fact that the Red Sox loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth inning before Denny Doyle was thrown out at home plate by George Foster (supposedly, Doyle misheard the third base coach's "No, no, no!" shout as "Go, go, go!"). Even looking at the play-by-play can make the game seem less dramatic than it was when you were there. The play-by-play merely shows one out and a runner on first base in the top of the 11th when Joe Morgan flied out to Dwight Evans. What the simple words-on-paper miss is that the ball would have been a 2-run home run if Evans hadn't caught it.

All of which is to say, there really aren't any boring moments in extra innings of a potential elimination game in the World Series.

Inning 12

Johnny Bench led off the top of the 12th inning by fouling out to the catcher. But Tony Perez and George Foster followed with singles to give the Reds their best scoring chance since at least the 10th inning. But Rick Wise settled down and got Dave Concepcion on a fly ball to right field. Cesar Geronimo then struck out swinging and the game moved on to the bottom of the 12th inning, still tied at 6.

Carlton Fisk led off the bottom of the 12th inning for the Red Sox. The first pitch was a ball. On the second pitch, this happened!

The Red Sox lived to fight another day.

Final Score: Red Sox, 7; Reds, 6

Player Wins and Losses for Game 6

Details of the game are shown below. First, I show Player won-lost records for all of the players who participated in the game. Baseball Player won-lost records are constructed so that the players on the winning team earn two pWins and one pLoss in the game while the players on the losing team earn one pWin and two pLosses. I also show expected wins and losses, eWins and eLosses, which are context-neutral. Full play by play details of the game are shown below the won-lost tables. My Player won-lost records are described in more detail in this article and throughout my website.

Retrosheet Box Score and Play-by-Play

All articles are written so that they pull data directly from the most recent version of the Player won-lost database. Hence, any numbers cited within these articles should automatically incorporate the most recent update to Player won-lost records. In some cases, however, the accompanying text may have been written based on previous versions of Player won-lost records. I apologize if this results in non-sensical text in any cases.

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