#476 - '73 World Series - Game #5

Game 5 of the ’73 World Series would be another cold nighttime affair at Shea. The Series was now tied and the game featured another rematch of starters from an earlier Series game, Vida Blue and Jerry Koosman, neither of whom did particularly well in Game 2. The chosen action shot shows Cleon Jones about to score off a John Milner single to right as Ray Fosse follows the path of the throw in and Jerry Grote celebrates. Cleon, who’d been having a pretty good but quiet post-season, was nursing a flu bug and actually had to leave Game 4 because he was so sick. This trip home probably made him feel a little better though. In this game all the NY offense came from the middle of the order and the Oakland offense came from ...well, nowhere really, but we’ll get to that now.

The Mets started the game off with two excellent defensive plays on the left side of the infield that set the tone for the game. Outside of a Sal Bando walk the bases stayed empty on both sides until the bottom of the second when Jones led off with a double over Joe Rudi’s head. After Milner’s single scored him that was the end of the offense for a while. For Oakland, Bert Campaneris singled in the third but Koosman picked him off first to end the inning. Bando singled in the fourth and a double play killed that threat. In the sixth the A’s finally got someone into scoring position on a Campy walk and a Bando smash to third that got bobbled by Wayne Garrett but a Reggie Jackson groundout stuffed the momentum. Meanwhile the Mets were threatening about every inning. In the fourth Vida escaped a bases-loaded two-out situation by getting Bud Harrleson to pop up. In the fifth Garrett made it to third on a walk, wild pitch, and a groundout before Rusty Staub grounded out for out three. In the sixth came more trouble: Grote singled to left after two outs and Don Hahn tripled him home. That brought in Darold Knowles – game five – and he ended things by striking out Koosman.

In the seventh inning a walk to Gene Tenace and double by Fosse gave Koosman his most trouble of the game and Tug McGraw came in with one out. After Tug gave up a walk to Deron Johnson he got two quick outs. Knowles had left for a pinch hitter and in came Rollie Fingers. He matched McGraw in his half and in the top of the eighth Tug got two outs before he started an Oakland rally by walking Reggie and Tenace before getting Jesus Alou on a liner to end the inning. In the bottom Milner got another single before being stranded and in the ninth Tug sent Oakland down in order. The Mets won 2-0 and for the first time had a lead in the Series. Koosman got the win, McGraw the save, and Vida took the loss. The Series was heading back to Oakland.

Oakland had only three hits in the game and at this point hadn’t homered once in the Series. Odom actually appeared as a pinch runner in the game. The pitching stats follow:

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Blue	5.2	6	2	2	1	4	3.18
Knowles	0.1	0	0	0	1	1	-
Fingers	2.0	1	0	0	2	1	-
	8.0	7	2	2	4	6	2.25
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Koosman	6.1	3	0	0	4	4	-
McGraw	2.2	0	0	0	3	3	-
	9.0	3	0	0	7	7	-