World Series: Game Four

I'm not going to summarize yesterday's game -- you can read the live blog, and by now everyone knows what happened.  Instead, I want to talk about the 1975 Cincinnati Reds.

These days, of course, we remember the Big Red Machine of the 1970s as one of the greatest teams in the history of baseball.  Between 1970 and 1976 the Reds won four pennants and back-to-back World Championships.  Almost 50 years later, they are still one of the greatest teams I've ever seen.

But for most of October 1975, the situation was quite different.  In 1970, the Reds won the pennant and were flattened in five fairly easy games by the Orioles.  Two years later, the Reds returned to the World Series -- and were beaten in a seven-game thriller by Oakland.  In 1973, the Reds went back to the playoffs -- and were stunned by a not-very-good Mets team that happened to be white-hot at the time.  They were beaten by the Dodgers in 1974, but roared back in 1975 with their best team ever.  They won 108 games.  They beat the Dodgers by 20 games.  They crushed Pittsburgh to win the pennant.  And all they had to do was beat a surprising Red Sox team to capture their first world title in 35 years.

From the beginning, it was a struggle.  Luis Tiant shut them out in Game One.  The Reds fought back to win two close games, but the Tiant beat them 5-4 in Game Four.  But then things started to go their way.  They crushed Boston 6-2 in Game Five.  Five days later, after sitting through several days of rain, they finally got to Tiant, and were up 6-3 and cruising heading into the bottom of the 8th.  Surely now they had the title they had been seeking for so long.  But Rawley Eastwick gave up a three-run homer, and the Red Sox won in 12 on Carlton Fisk's home run.  The next day -- the last game of the season -- the Red Sox led 3-0 going into the sixth inning.  At that point, according to Baseball Reference, the Big Red Machine had only an 18 percent chance of victory.  If they couldn't do something pretty spectacular -- in Fenway Park, against a smart, lucky team, they were going to lose again.

Of course, they came through.  They scored two runs in the sixth, one run in the seventh, and one more in the ninth.  They shut out Boston the rest of the way.  And the finally won the 1975 Championship.

The next year they crushed everyone and didn't lose a single game in the post-season.

Here's the point:  last night's game proved that the Rays, like the 1975 Red Sox, have caught lightning in a bottle.  They are not going to get buried.  Instead, they are riding a wave that could take them all the way to the title.  If the Dodgers win this World Series, they will have to beat the Rays, not just intimidate them.

The Dodgers will also have to overcome their own history.  Like the Big Red Machine, they've lost a lot of heartbreakers:

In Game Two of the 2017 World Series, they were up 3-2 going into the 9th, and lost 7-6 in 11 innings.

In Game Four of the 2018 World Series, they were up 4-0 going into the 7th, and lost 9-6.

In Game Five of the 2019 Divisional Playoffs, they were up 3-1 going into the 8th, and lost 7-3 in 10 innings.

And last night they were up 7-6 going into the 9th, and lost 8-7 in humiliating fashion.

If they can overcome this history, and win the title, they could establish themselves as a historically great team.  They have the talent.  But they don't yet have the results.

Los Angeles and Tampa Bay are tied 2-2.