RetroSimba

(Updated July 26, 2020)

In 1970, Cardinals pitcher Steve Carlton could do almost nothing right against the Reds. The Cincinnati hitter who hurt him the most was Johnny Bench.

On July 26, 1970, a muggy Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati, Bench went 4-for-5 with three home runs, seven RBI and three runs scored in the Reds’ 12-5 victory against the Cardinals. All three home runs were hit versus Carlton. Boxscore

To give Bench a break from catching in the midsummer heat, Reds manager Sparky Anderson started the 22-year-old in left field that day. It was one of 17 games Bench started in the outfield in 1970. Pat Corrales, a former Cardinal, was the Cincinnati catcher.

“If that boy didn’t have to catch, there’s no telling what you might see,” Anderson told the Dayton Journal Herald.

Bench said to the Dayton Daily News, “If I can hit like that, I don’t care where I play, but there’s no question I feel stronger when I’m playing in the outfield.”

Hardball tactics

In the first inning, Bench, batting in the cleanup spot, hit a Carlton fastball over the right-center field wall at Riverfront Stadium for a three-run home run. When Bench followed by hitting a slider for a two-run home run to left in the second, Carlton fired a brushback pitch at the next batter, Lee May, sending him sprawling to the dirt.

“Carlton throwing at May is, well, it’s just baseball, but I don’t like anybody throwing at my hitters,” Anderson said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Said Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst: “A pitcher doesn’t have a chance any more. There’s the lively ball and the AstroTurf and the smaller strike zone … If you’re a pitcher, you have to brush back those hitters.”

Reds starter Wayne Simpson delivered payback the next inning when Carlton batted and was struck in the right calf by a pitch. Anderson approached Simpson about it between innings. “I told him I didn’t want him bothering with Carlton,” Anderson said. “I don’t like that type of baseball.”

When Simpson came to the plate in the bottom half of the third, Carlton threw a pitch inside. Simpson made a move toward Carlton, but no fight erupted.

Bench let his bat do the talking. He led off the fifth by belting a fastball over the wall in left for his third home run of the game against Carlton. “That’s the best day I’ve had since I hit three homers one day as a nine-year-old playing Little League ball at Cement, Okla.,” Bench told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Said Anderson: “He’s only 22 and already he’s the best there is. Name me another catcher of our time you’d match him against.”

Fine wine

In his book “Chasing the Dream,” Joe Torre, who was Carlton’s roommate on Cardinals road trips in 1970, recalled, “After the game, Lefty and I commiserated over dinner and a little wine. I guess we had more than a little wine. When we got back to our hotel suite, I think we broke every stick of furniture in the room. When we awoke in the morning and realized what we had done, we tried to glue everything back together.

“When we left the suite, we had to make sure we didn’t close the door too hard because we were afraid the noise would cause everything to fall apart.”

Bench was the first Reds player with seven RBI in a game since Frank Robinson did it in May 1963, and he was the first Reds player with three home runs in a game since Art Shamsky in 1966. Bench went on to lead the National League in home runs (45) and RBI (148) in 1970, winning the Most Valuable Player Award and powering the Reds to the pennant.

Carlton made four starts against the Reds in 1970, posting an 0-4 record and 7.82 ERA. In 25.1 innings versus Cincinnati, Carlton yielded 24 runs and 35 hits.

Three years later, on May 9, 1973, Bench, catching and batting third, again smashed three home runs against Carlton, who was with the Phillies, in Cincinnati’s 9-7 victory at Philadelphia. Boxscore

“I don’t see how a man can cover so much of the plate,” Carlton told The Sporting News. “I threw Bench six inches inside and six inches outside, but it didn’t matter.”

Bench hit .305 (39-for-128) against Carlton in his career. The 12 home runs Bench belted against Carlton were the most he hit in his career against a left-hander.

Both Bench and Carlton are enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.