July 6, 1976 at Jerry Park 

Reds 10, Expos 7  (50-21)

The Reds ran up the score for the second straight game as they notched their 50th win of the season.  Ken Griffey had three hits, two RBIS and two runs and George Foster and Dan Driessen drove in two a piece.

Pedro Borbon got a rare start but he was shelled and didn’t make it through the fourth inning.  Rawly Eastwick then went 4 2/3 innings (not bad for a closer) and gave up three runs on five hits to improve to 5-3 on the season.  Don Gullett pitched a scoreless ninth and he earned his first and only save of the season.

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July 5, 1976 at Jerry Park 

Reds 11, Expos 2  (49-21)

The Reds hammered the Expos as they won their third straight game.  Joe Morgan had five RBIs and Cesar Geronimo scored three times.  Both Pete Rose and Ken Griffey had an RBI and two runs.

Jack Billingham improved to an even 6-6 on the season with the complete game.  He gave up two runs on eight hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

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July 4, 1976 at Riverfront Stadium 

Reds 7, Astros 2  (48-21)

With the drama of the past two days, it was nice to see the Reds coast to an easy win.  Gary Nolan went the distance and held the Astros to two runs as he improved to 8-4 on the season.

George Foster did it all in this game.  He went four for five with a homerun, two stolen bases, three RBIs and three runs.  Joe Morgan went two for four with two runs and Johnny Bench drove in two.

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July 3, 1976 at Riverfront Stadium 

Reds 9, Astros 8  (47-21)

The Reds finally figured out the Astros, but the game definitely had its difficulties.  The Astros had the lead three different times and the Reds had it three times as well in a back and forth affair.

Rookie starter Santo Alcala got off to a bad start by giving up a run in the top of the first.  The Reds answered in the bottom of the inning when Johnny Bench drove home Pete Rose with a sac. fly and Joe Morgan scored on a wild pitch.

The Astros took the lead back and shelled Alcala again.  He gave up three runs on three hits and even stranded a batter at third base.  The Astros added a run in the third, and that was it for Alcala as Sparky went to the pen and brought in Will McEnaney.

The Reds cut into the lead in the bottom of the third when Ken Griffey drove home Pete Rose with a sac. fly.  The Astros answered with a run in the top of the fifth, but in the bottom of the fifth, the Reds broke the game open.  Bob Bailey hit a huge three run shot to give the Reds a 7-6 lead.

The Astros answered in the top of the sixth as the notched another run off of McEnaney.  They took the lead in the top of the seventh by scoring an unearned run off of Rawly Eastwick.

In the bottom of the seventh, Johnny Bench led off with a solo homer to tie the game up.  Then in the bottom of the eighth, Johnny Bench reached first on Enos Cabell’s error and Ken Griffey scampered home to give the Reds the lead for good.

Pedro Borbon ended up the winner.  He pitched two perfect innings to close out the game and he improved to 2-1 on the season.

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July 2, 1976 at Riverfront Stadium 

Astros 10, Reds 8  (46-30)

The Reds dopped the front end of their doubleheader to the Astros in an extra innings hit fest.  Reds’ pitchers gave up 10 runs on 25 hits in an exciting back and forth game.

In the top of the first, the Astros tagged starter Pat Zachry for a single run but the Reds answered with three runs in the bottom of the first.  A two run double by George Foster and a one run double by Tony Perez accounted for the three Reds runs.

Then the game calmed down.  Neither team scored for the next four innings, and then in the sixth, the Reds added what looked like an insurance run on Dave Concepcion’s solo homerun.  The Astros weren’t done though, and they knocked Pat Zachry and Rawly Eastwick around for three runs.  Neither team scored in the eighth or ninth and the game went into extra innings.

In the top of the tenth, neither team scored but in the top of the eleventh, the Astros seemed to put the game away.  Will McEnaney gave up three runs on five hits and the game looked pretty much done.

The Reds wouldn’t say die.  Pete Rose led off the bottom of the eleventh with a double and then moved to third on a passed ball.  Ken Griffey hit an infield single that Rose couldn’t score on, but Joe Morgan followed that up with a single that scored Rose.  Two batters later, Johnny Bench drove Griffey and Morgan home with a double to the game up.

The twelth and thirteenth went into the books and the Astros once again exploded in the fourteenth.  This time it was Rich Hinton who gave up three runs on five hits and unlike in the eleventh inning, the Reds couldn’t come back.  Joe Morgan drew a bases loaded walk with two outs to cut the Astros lead to two runs, but George Foster stranded three batters when he struck out to end the game.

July 2, 1976 at Riverfront Stadium 

Astros 3, Reds 2  (46-31)

The Reds were edged by the Astros in the second game of their double header despite getting twice as many hits as their opposition.  The Astros big inning came in the eighth when they tagged starter Fred Norman for two runs.  The Reds scored in the ninth but the game ended when Pete Rose tried to stretch a single into a double and got gunned down.

Norman dropped to 6-2 on the season and Sparky rode him the distance because of all the innings his penned logged in the first game.  He gave up three runs on five hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

Ken Griffey went three for three and stole his 20th base of the season.  Pete Rose had two hits, a run and an RBI.

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