Joey Votto’s game on Sunday (3 homers capped by a walk-off grand slam, in case anyone’s forgotten already) brought up the discussion about some of the Reds’ greatest offensive efforts..
Today’s Enquirer has a listing by John Erardi of some of the greatest efforts since 1970:
10: July 8, 2000 : Griffey Jr drove in 8 runs (2 HR, double, single) in a 14-5 win over the Indians in Cincinnati.
9: September 15, 1987: Dave Parker went 5-5 with 8 RBI (2 HR / Double) in a 21-6 whippin’ of the Braves in Atlanta.
8: July 14, 1977: George Foster homered in his final 3 ABs & Tom Seaver pitched a 2 hitter in a 7-1 win over Atlanta at Riverfront.
7. May 29, 1980: Johnny Bench hit 3 homers (4 total RBIs) in the Reds 5-3 win at San Diego. All came off Padres starter Randy Jones.
6. April 29, 1978: Pete Rose hit 3 homers against the Mets at Shea in a 14-7 Reds win on national tv.
5. July 26, 1970: Bench hit 3 homers off the Phillies Steve Carlton at Riverfront, logging 7 RBIs.
4. May 3, 1987: Eric Davis hit 3 homers in Philly in consecutive ABs in a 9-6 win. The bookended solo shots surrounded a grand slam. In the 3 game stretch in Philly, he had 5 HR (2 of them grand slams) and 11 RBI.
3. August 19, 1974: Joe Morgan drilled a 3 run homer in his 1st AB, a grand slam in his second en route to a 14-0 Reds lead. To the relief of the Philly bullpen, Sparky gave Joe the rest of the night off. (Morgan also owns the best performance w/o a hit, once scoring 5 runs on 3 walks and 2 errors.)
2. June 28, 1991: Barry Larkin hit 3 HR (6 RBI), all off Houston’s Jim Deshaies, in a Reds 8-5 win at Riverfront, giving Larkin 5 homers in 2 games, tying a major league record. He was the first Red and first SS to do it.
1. May 9, 1973: JB torched Carlton again for 3 at the Vet in a Reds 9-7 win. Each gave the Reds the lead at the time. He homered to CF in the first, walked in the 2nd, hit the next one out to RF in the 5th, and off the LF foul pole in the 7th. RBI count: 7. He had also homered in his last AB the previous night, making 4 homers in 4 ABs. Carlton and another HOFer, Don Sutton were Bench favorites..he hit 12 off each of them.
In the pre-Riverfront category, Lance McAllister came up with this one:
Reds catcher Walker Cooper was 6 for 7 with 3 HR, 5 R and 10 RBI in a game July 6, 1949 vs Cubs. The Reds won the game 23-4 at Crosley Field. Cooper is one of 11 players in MLB history with 10+ RBI in a game.
Which game would you call “the greatest”? How does Votto’s stack up? Thoughts?