1981 AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
OAKLAND ATHLETICS vs MILWAUKEE BREWERS
The Brewers are making their second straight postseason appearance, and the second in franchise history. Milwaukee lost the ALCS to Chicago in 7 games last year.
The Oakland Athletics dominated the AL West in it's early days, winning 6 times in the first 8 years of division play but this will be the A's first meaningful games in October since 1975. Oakland won it all that season and also were World Champions in 1970. In all, the Athletics franchise has 5 World Series Trophies, with the first 3 coming while the club was based in Philadelphia.
GAME 1 - The series gets underway in Oakland as Vida Blue faces Bill Travers. It is scoreless through 7 as each pitcher has yielded just 4 hits. With 1 out in the bottom of the 8th Travers allows a single to Ken Singleton. Travers is tiring so the Brewers go to the pen and call on setup man Gary Beare. Jeff Cox pinch runs for Singleton and takes third base on a hit from Rich Aurebach. Pinch hitter Claudell Washington and first baseman Steve Garvey follow with rbi singles before Beare settles down. However, the damage is done as the A's lead 2-0 with the Brewers down to their final 3 outs. Blue allows a lead off single to Ron Theobold to start the ninth but he retires Pedro Guerrero. With the ever dangerous Gorman Thomas up next the A's take no chances and turn the ball over to closer Rollie Fingers. Fingers fans Gorman Thomas and then retires Dan Thomas to end the game.
GAME 2 - Jim Nash scatters 6 hits in going the distance as the A's take game 2 rather easily by a 5-1 score. Ken Singleton's 2 run double in the 6th is the key to the Oakland offense. Reggie Jackson had a pair of hits and scored twice for the A's, who totalled 10 hits off of loser Larry Sorenson and reliever Frank Dipino. Paul Molitor's rbi double in the 5th accounted for the Milwaukee run.
GAME 3 - Charlie Moore hits two solo homeruns and Fred Lynn has a two-run double as the Brewers blank the A's 5-0 at County Stadium in Milwaukee. Each team had 10 hits but the Brewers capitalized on their chances against Oakland starter Mike Norris while Milwaukee starter Moose Haas always found a way out of a jam.
GAME 4 - First inning rbi's from Steve Garvey and Reggie Jackson help the A's build a 5-1 lead. Vida Blue allowed just 4 hits through 7 innings before giving the ball to Mike Morgan to get the final out of the 8th. Morgan started the ninth but nearly gave the game away, allowing Milwaukee to score 3 times to pull within a run before Rollie Fingers closed the door to preserve the 5-4 Oakland win. A big loss for the A's came when Reggie Jackson left the game after hyperextending his knee running the bases in the first inning. Jackson is likely gone for the season.
GAME 5 - Pedro Guerrero hits a 2 run homer and an rbi single as the Brewers win Game 5 by a 6-2 score. Jim Slaton goes the distance for the win with Jim Nash taking the loss. For the second game in a row the A's lose a player as Manny Trillo gets hit by a Slaton pitch. Trillo is diagnosed with blurred vision and could miss the rest of the postseason.
GAME 6 - Mike Norris pitches a 7-hit shutout as the A's blank Milwaukee 4-0 to win the series in 6 games. Shortstop Rich Aurebach has a pair of hits and drives in 2 of the Oakland runs.
Aurebach is named the series MVP after batting .480. The A's move on to face Pittsburgh for the World Series.
1981 WORLD SERIES
OAKLAND ATHLETICS vs PITTSBURGH PIRATES
For the third time in the History of Baseball Replay it will be the Pirates and Athletics for the World Series. The A's won the 2 previous meetings between the clubs but they were a long time ago and it was a cross-state rivalry at the time. In 1925 the then-Philadelphia Athletics topped Pittsburgh in 6 games while in 1942 it took the Philadelphia A's the full 7 games to beat their Pennsylvania rivals. Game 7 of the 1942 series was one of the most exciting World Series games of its era. Solo home runs from Jimmie Foxx and Bob Johnson helped the A's to a 2-1 victory and the Series.
Jimmie Foxx was the big slugger for the A's back then. If the A's are to win again this time they will have to do it without their top slugger as Reggie Jackson is definately out for the series. Second baseman Manny Trillo is also expected to miss the entire series for Oakland. The Pirates will be missing pitcher John Candeleria but he was not likely to start in the series even if he was healthy.
GAME 1 - Rick Aurebach hits a first inning homer and the A's add a run in the second off Pittsburgh starter Rick Langford. Dwight Evans has rbi singles off of Vida Blue in the third and 8th inning to even things up at the end of 9. In the top of the 10th Tony Armas hits a two-out triple off of Oakland reliever Masanori Murakami, the ex-Giant closer. Rollie Fingers takes over for Oakland but promptly surrenders a single to Willie Randolph and the Pirates lead for the first time in the game, 3-2. Al Holland strikes out 2 of the 3 batters he faces in the bottom of the inning to preserve the victory.
GAME 2 - Joe Rudi and Dave Duncan each homer in a 6-3 Oakland victory. Jim Nash gets the win with Pascual Perez taking the loss. The A's built up an early 5-0 lead and then put it on cruise control.
GAME 3 - The series shifts to Pittsburgh tied 1-1. Game 3 is a wild affair that turns into the Claudell Washington show. Each team scores 3 times in the ninth inning as the A's hang on for a 9-8 win. Washington goes 6-for-6 in the game to equal a World Series record for hits in a game. John Stone of Detroit first did it in the 1928 World Series with the Mets Bob Christian equalling the feat in 1976. Reggie Smith of Boston also had 6 hits in a postseason game - that was in the 1972 ALCS. Washington had 2 rbi's and scored twice in the game. Steve Garvey also had 2 rbi's and 2 runs for Oakland while Tony Armas led Pittsburgh with a homer and 4 rbi's.
GAME 4 - Ken Singleton gives Oakland an early lead with a 2 run homer in the first inning but the Pirates gets rbi singles from TOny Pena and Tony Armas in the 7th and 8th inning to tie the game. With one out in the bottom of the ninth Tony Pena doubles off of A's reliver Dick Calmus. Rollie Fingers takes over for Oakland and quickly retires Craig Reynolds but with 2 out Tony Armas bloops a single to score Pena with the winning run as the Pirates even the series with a 3-2 win.
GAME 5 -Tony Armas is the hero once again. Trailing 3-2 with 2 on and 2 out in the bottom of the ninth, Armas rips a single off of Fingers to score Willie Randolph and Bob Watson to end the game. Al Holland gets his second win of the series. Fingers takes the loss spoiling a terrific effort from Jim Nash.
GAME 6 - It is all Pittsburgh as Darrell Evans homers and drives in 3 runs while Craig Reynolds has 5 hits and 2 rbi's in a 7-2 Pirates victory. The Pirates celebrate their first World Series title since 1946.
Tony Armas is named the series MVP mainly for his game 4 and 5 heroics. He batted .321 (9-28)in the World Series with 7 rbi's and 4 runs scored.
[ December 23, 2001: Message edited by: Tiger Fan ]
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