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
|
-
|
