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| Jerry Lynch, who set a record for pinch homers in 1961 with five, didn't homer in the pinch but certainly delivered in the clutch with a two-run shot that in the eighth inning that put the Cincinnati Reds ahead in their pennant-clinching 6-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 26. |
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| Frank Robinson, the 1961 National League MVP, stated his case on Sept. 26 with a two-run homer that tied the game in the Cincinnati Reds' 6-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs that clinched the Reds' first pennant in 21 years. Robinson also scored the Reds' final run and finished the game 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. |
By Phil Ellenbecker
It wasn't Lynch in the pinch, but it was most timely.
Jerry Lynch, who a single-season for pinch-hit homers with five in 1961, clubbed a two-run dinger in the eighth inning that snapped a 3-3 tie Sept. 26 of that year as the Cincinnati Reds clinched their first National League in 21 years. Lynch's the difference in a 6-3 over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on a Tuesday afternoon.
Lynch, the all-time leader in pinch homers with 18, started on this day in left field and was 0-for-3 when he to the plate in the eighth with two outs and Vada Pinson on first a . On a 2-2 , Lynch a pitch over the right-field bleachers off Bob Anderson for his 13th of the .
“Don’t worry, Pete, I’ll one," Lynch had Pete Whisenant before coming to bat, according to Jim Brosnan in "Pennant Race," his diary of the 1961 Reds . "Hit it on the or something.”
timely was a two-run the inning before by Frank Robinson, the 1961 NL MVP, which tied the game at 3-3. Robby's 37th of the came after Gordy Coleman led off the inning with a .
And penning an almost-perfect script for the clincher was "The Professor," Brosnan, both during and after his as an but a pretty relief pitcher, this season. Brosnan out two batters in a 1-2-3 Chicago ninth to finish with three of one-hit relief. Brosnan had pitched for the Cubs from 1954 to 1958
After Robinson tied the game in the seventh, he to do the Cubs a favor by an error in the half of the inning with two out, allowing Ernie Banks to second base. But Brosnan, who'd come on at the beginning of the inning, struck out George Altman and relatively breezed the rest of the way, an infield single by Ron Santo in the eighth the only blemish on his victory-earning outing.
Brosnan improved to 10-3 in his seventh appearance of the year in which he went three or more innings. His four strikeouts were a season high. He would finish the season at 10-4 with a 3.04 ERA and 16 saves, good for third in the NL. But he hadn't been so against the Cubs coming into this game -- 0-2 with an 8.37 ERA in eight appearances.
“'My God, I could lose three games
to these guys!' I thought," wrote Brosnan in "Pennant Race," a follow-up to "The Long Season," his diary of the 1959 . "For once, however, I I
had good stuff. My slider was fast and sharp, the best I’d had all year."
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| "The Professor," Jim Brosnan, was known as a writer both during and after his baseball playing days, but his pitches spoke loudly on Sept. 26, 1961. He threw three innings of shutout relief to nail down the Cincinnati Reds' pennant-clinching 6-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs, his former team. He also drove in an insurance run in the ninth inning. |
Robinson added to his MVP case and Brosnan helped his cause in the ninth. Robby doubled leading off and scored an insurance run on a single by Brosnan off Glen Hobbie. Robinson went 2-for-4 on the day with two RBIs and two runs scored. He'd finish the season hitting .323 (sixth in the league) with 37 homers (third) and 124 (second).
The Cubs led 3-0 through five innings. They grabbed the early advantage in the first against Bob Purkey when Altman doubled in Don Zimmer. Zimmer had singled, advanced to second on a passed ball by Reds catcher Johnny Edwards and went to third on Banks' ground out.
Edwards, having trouble with the deliveries of knuckleballing Purkey, committed passed ball that allowed Altman to third. But Purkey knuckled down to Billy Williams on a fly for the third out.
Chicago upped the lead in the fifth with a small-ball rally that included a to left field by Anderson, back-to-back singles by Richie Ashburn and Zimmer, and an error by Kasko on a ball by Banks that allowed Anderson to score. Altman then drew a bases-loaded walk for his second RBI, Ashburn crossing the plate to make the score 3-0.
Edwards, an eventual two-time Gold Glove winner at catcher, was having a tough up until then. He'd grounded into a double play his first time at bat.
But the rookie redeemed himself and broke up Anderson's shutout with a homer starting the Reds' half of the fifth. It was his second and final homer of the . His first had come back on June 28 in his second game and fourth at-bat in the major leagues -- and it against the Cubs.
Anderson forged on until Robinson's double in the ninth. He took the loss and dropped to 7-10, allowing seven and six runs, all earned, in his eight innings. He walked four and out one.
Purkey, a five-time All-Star who would finish the year 16-12 with a 3.73 ERA, allowed five hits and three runs, one earned, in five innings before giving way to pinch hitter Gus Bell. He walked two and struck out two.
Fireballing Jim Maloney on in the sixth and struck out two in his one-inning stint before Brosnan came in to slam the door. At this time Maloney was relieving more than starting, but he would emerge as one of the NL's premier power pitchers of the 1960s and would throw two no-hitters and lose in the 11th inning.
The game featured many present and future standouts, including five Hall of Famers -- Ashburn, Banks, Williams and Santo for the Cubs and Robinson for the Reds. And many people think Pinson, who went 2-for-3 in the game, belongs in the Hall.
Williams, who went 0-for-4 in the game, would win NL Rookie of the Year honors for '61 after hitting .278 with 25 homers and 86 RBIs. Santo was just in his second season but began to emerge this year with 23 homers and 83 RBIs while hitting .284.
The Reds, who'd been picked to finish sixth in the NL in the preseason, according to Tony Valley at the Society for American Baseball Research's Games Project, clinched at least a tie for the pennant with the Sept. 26 win and had the crown to themselves after the Pittsburgh Pirates split a doubleheader with second-place Los Angeles that night. They stood 92-59, 4 1/2 ahead of the Dodgers, and finished the season 93-61, four games up. Their win total was the 's highest since a 100-victory in 1940 that ended with a World Series title.
The New York Yankees beat the Reds 4-1 in the 1961 World Series.
The Cubs were 62-89 after Sept. 26, in seventh place and 30 games behind the Reds. They'd finish 64-90, seventh and 29 back, but 17 ahead of Philadelphia -- but still stuck in the doldrums they'd been in pretty much since reaching the 1945 World Series. From 1947 through 1966 they never finished higher than fifth, MVP awards by Hank Sauer in 1952 and Banks in '58 and '59 among their few bright spots. But with their Hall of Famers in tow they'd rise again with third place or better finishes from 1967 to 1972 under Leo Durocher, coming up short of a pennant or division title -- three times runner-up.
A case for Lynch
Although the Reds had the league's MVP with Robinson, a 21-game winner in Joey Jay and 19-game winner in Jim O'Toole, and probably the league's best bullpen with Brosnan and Bill Henry (16 ), Lynch might have been as vital to their cause as anybody. On a per-at bat ratio he was highly effective, hitting .315 with 13 homers and 50 RBIs in 96 games and 181 at-bats. Even more impressive was his .404 average in 47 pinch at-bats. His record five pinch homers included ones back-to-back on April 23 and 26.
He finished 22nd in MVP voting, but one noted baseball observer thought he might have deserved first. In his "Historical Baseball Abstract," Bill James , as quoted in a Baseball Almanac post:
"He hit over .400 as a pinch hitter (19-for-47), with and played 44 games in the outfield. His slugging percentage of .624 and 50 RBI in 181 at-bats was a far better rate than Roger Maris had that same season, hitting 61 home runs. More than that, Lynch had big, big hits; game after game, when the Reds were in danger of falling short, Lynch up with the big hit to put them back in front, and the Reds, picked to finish sixth, won the pennant."
Lynch was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame in 1988, and his Hall of Fame page includes this insightful quote on his pinch-hitting philosophy:
"The good pinch is
the guy who can relax enough to get the pitch he can . You almost always do
get one pitch to hit every time you bat. So you have to have the patience to
wait. And then you've got to be able to handle the pitch when you get it."
And as for how he handled those pitches, Lynch believes he stood with the best of them when it most.
"The
best pinch hitter I ever saw, by far, no , has to be Smoky Burgess.
He was gifted," Lynch told Phil Axelrod in a 1994 Baseball Digest article. "But I was the best clutch
hitter because I hit 18 dingers. I rang the bell 18 times. Hey, if you don't think
you're the best, who will?"
When Lynch rang the ball yet again Sept. 26, 1961,the Reds could start ringing up the cash registers for World Series tickets.
Sources
Play-by-play: https://www.retrosheet.org/
Jerry Lynch biographical info: https://www.baseball-
Additional background came from various sources on the Retrosheet and Society for American Baseball Research's Biography Project and Games Project websites, as well as baseballreference.com.
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