Two Wild Games in Chicago in August 1976

Aug. 11, 1976: Reds come back after trailing 10-1 after 3 innings to beat the Cubs 13-10 in 10 innings. Grandma’s notes say it was “A Wild! Wild!! Game”. In T7 Johnny Bench hits a 3-run home run that hits the left field foul pole off Paul Reuschel driving in Joe Morgan and George Foster. In T9 Ken Griffey hit a 2-run home run (Line Drive to Deep CF) off Joe Coleman driving in Dave Concepcion.  Reds scored 3 more in T10.

August 12, 1976: The next day, the Reds beat the Cubs 8-3 and Grandma’s notes say it was “Another Wild one!!! (Rick) Reuschel thrown out of the game, because of something he said to the plate umpire (John Kibler) about 2 pitches he called balls on Bench in T8. He thought pitches should have been strikes when the calls went ball 2 ball 3 then Bench got a single.” This was a mistake by Grandma because Rick Reuschel left the game after giving up the solo home run to Joe Morgan. According to Baseball Reference, Bruce Sutter came in and faced only 2 batters in T8. He gave up a solo home run to George Foster and the single to Bench, so Bruce Sutter got ejected for arguing with home plate umpire John Kibler. Mike Garman then relieved Bruce Sutter.

T8 Reds get back-to-back solo home runs from Joe Morgan (Deep RF) off Rick Reuschel and George Foster (Deep CF) off Bruce Sutter.

T9 Reds get back-to-back home runs off Mike Garman from George Foster a 3-run homer (Line Drive to Deep CF) and a solo home run (Line Drive to Deep LF) from Johnny Bench.