Great Games: King Goes Deep Twice in the Same Inning (Again)

Jeff King has the distinction of being the only Pirate to homer twice in the same inning twice. The last time he was able to do was in late April of 1996 at Riverfront Stadium. The pitching match up featured two pitchers that were traded for each other the Pirates budding staff ace, Denny Neagle, was going up against John Smiley. The lineups for the game looked like this as the Bucs and Reds squared off:

Pittsburgh			Cincinnati
Carlos Garcia	2B		Eric Owens	LF
Al Martin	LF		Hal Morris	1B
Jeff King	1B		Barry Larkin	SS
Orlando Merced	RF		Eric Davis	CF
Jay Bell	SS		Chris Sabo	3B
Jacob Brumfield	CF		Bret Boone	2B
Charlie Hayes	3B		Eric Anthony	RF
Jason Kendall	C		Joe Oliver	C
Denny Neagle	P		John Smiley	P

The game would be scoreless through 2 and a third, until the Reds came to the plate in the bottom of the third inning. Three straight singles by Smiley, Owens, and Morris, would lead to a Barry Larkin sacrifice fly to score John Smiley to make it 1-0 Reds.

The Pirate 4th would see an offensive explosion from the Buccos. Jeff King led off the inning with his first home run, a solo shot. Orlando Merced then walked, followed by a Jay Bell single. Merced got thrown out at thrid, but Bell took second on the throw. Jacob Brumfield then lined a double to left and Bell scored. Charlie Hayes was intentionally walked to face the rookie Kendall. Kendall was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Neagle.

Neagle hit a sac fly to left to score Brumfield. Hayes would score on a Carlos Garcia base hit and a Al Martin walk would load the bases again for King. He would not face Smiley this time, as the Reds called on Tim Pugh from the pen. The result was the same, a King home run, this time a grand slam. Orlando Merced followed with a solo home run to finish the offensive onslaught of 9 runs on 6 hits.

Bret Boone would homer in the bottom of the inning and Vince Coleman would score after a lead off pinch hit triple in the 5th on a Eric Davis single.

In the Reds' 7th, Jon Lieber would relieve Neagle after Eric Owens led off with a single and was sacrificed to second. Lieber would allow Owens to score on an Eric Davis single, but Leyland then called on Dan Plesac to strike out the side to end the threat. As the score was now 10-5.

In the Pirates 8th, the Bucs had a rally going against Chuck McElroy, but Al Martin spoiled it by getting thrown out at home on a Mike Kingery infield fielder's choice.

In the bottom of the 8th, Plesac gave up a three run home run to Hal Morris, which prompted the Bucs to go to the young Francisco Cordova to take the rest of the game. Cordove would get the next four outs, even getting a hit off Jeff Brantley in the 9th to secure the win.

Neagle would go to 3-1 on the young season and Francisco Cordova picked up his first major league save.

The story of the game was Jeff King, who had now hit 2 home runs in an inning twice. He had done it the previous season in San Francisco. King, when healthy, had some pretty good pop in his bat. Add that to the fact that he played quiet a few positions and he was a pretty versatile and valuable player. Unfortunately, his Pirate days were numbered, as he would get dealt to the Royals in the coming off-season with Jay Bell. But with this game, King earned himself a special place in Bucco history.