KOOSMAN'S 12 K EFFORT SUSTAINS METS' ROLL
NY Wins 9th in Last 10
CHICAGO, Sept. 6 (AP) - Jerry Koosman struck out a personal season high 12 to
lead the New York Mets past the Chicago Cubs 3-1 at Wrigley Field. It was
the fourth straight win for Koosman and his third complete game in his last four
outings. The Mets are baseball's hottest team, having now won nine of
their last ten games and are 18-6 since August 11. They remain a seemingly
hopeless 10 games behind first place Philadelphia in the National League East.
Despite the great effort, Koosman trailed for a healthy portion of the
contest. He made his only major mistake of the game on a 3-2 offering to
Jerry Morales leading off the bottom of the second inning. Morales
deposited the down-the-middle fastball into the left field bleachers for his
15th home run of the season.
Koosman's counterpart, Steve Stone, took a perfect game into the fifth inning
before yielding a two-out double to Leo Foster, but Stone kept the shutout
intact by retiring John Stearns on an infield pop up.
The Mets finally drew even in the sixth. With one out, Koosman took
matters into his own hands by lining a double to right-center. Stone
fanned Bruce Boisclair for the second out but Mike Phillips singled to right,
scoring Koosman with the game-tying run.
The contest remained tied at one into the ninth. Facing reliever Joe
Coleman, Billy Baldwin opened the inning for the Mets with a base hit.
Coleman struck out Dave Kingman and Ed Kranepool but Foster picked out a
fastball and hit his first home run of the year in timely fashion. The
two-run shot gave New York a 3-1 lead. Koosman retired the Cubs in order
in the bottom of the inning, closing out the game by fanning George Mitterwald
and Rob Sperring to punctuate the 12-strikeout performance.
In fact, after the Morales homer, Chicago never had a runner past second
base. Koosman struck out at least one batter in every inning but the
sixth.
The one-run complete game drops Koosman's ERA to 2.74, its lowest point since
May 12.
9/6/1976, NYN76-ChN76, Wrigley Field 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1976 Mets 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 3 8 0 5 1 1976 Cubs 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 0 Mets AB R H BI AVG Cubs AB R H BI AVG Boisclair cf 4 0 0 0 .267 Monday 1b 3 0 0 0 .299 Phillips 2b 4 0 1 1 .234 Cardenal lf 4 0 0 0 .294 Baldwin,B lf 4 1 1 0 .222 Trillo 2b 4 0 0 0 .223 Kingman rf 4 0 0 0 .223 Morales,Je rf 4 1 2 1 .257 Kranepool 1b 4 0 0 0 .276 Mitterwald c 4 0 2 0 .176 Foster,L 3b 4 1 2 2 .296 Sperring 3b 3 0 0 0 .333 Stearns c 4 0 2 0 .387 Kelleher ss 3 0 1 0 .211 Harrelson ss 4 0 1 0 .231 Wallis cf 2 0 1 0 .210 Koosman p 2 1 1 0 .314 Stone p 2 0 0 0 .074 34 3 8 3 Coleman p 0 0 0 0 .182 Schultz p 0 0 0 0 .000 29 1 6 1 Mets INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Koosman W 13-10 9.0 6 1 1 2 12 129 89 2.74 9.0 6 1 1 2 12 129 89 Cubs INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Stone 7.1 5 1 1 0 3 71 47 3.21 Coleman L 2-12 1.1 3 2 2 0 2 34 23 5.31 Schultz 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 4 4 15.32 9.0 8 3 3 0 6 109 74 E-Morales,Je. 2B-Foster,L(2), Koosman(3), Morales,Je(12). HR-Foster,L(1), Morales,Je(15). RBI-Phillips(17), Foster,L 2(5), Morales,Je(67). CS-Monday. K-Boisclair, Kingman 3, Kranepool, Harrelson, Monday 3, Cardenal, Trillo, Mitterwald, Sperring 2, Kelleher, Wallis, Stone 2. BB-Monday, Wallis. SH-Koosman, Sperring, Stone. GWRBI: Foster,L Temperature: 69, Sky: clear, Wind: in from right at 15 MPH. Attendance: 15,206 Game Time: 2:21