The 1974 National League Championship Series was a best-of-five series that matched the East Division champion Pittsburgh Pirates against the West Division champion Los Angeles Dodgers. It was the sixth NLCS in all. The Dodgers won the Series three games to one and lost the 1974 World Series to the Oakland Athletics. Summary Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Pittsburgh Pirates Game summaries Game 1 The Dodgers had been winless in six games played at Pittsburgh during the regular season but they remedied that situation in postseason play. In the opening game, Don Sutton of the Dodgers was opposed by Jerry Reuss. The Pirate lefty yielded just one run in seven innings (on a bases-loaded walk to Davey Lopes in the second), but left the game in favor of an ineffectual pinch-hitter. Dave Giusti came on in the eighth inning and gave up two insurance runs in the ninth on Jim Wynn's RBI double with one on, followed by Joe Ferguson's RBI single. Meanwhile, Sutton set the Pittsburgh club down on four hits and no runs. Game 2 The Dodgers struck first in Game 2 on Steve Garvey's RBI single in the first with two on off of Jim Rooker. Ron Cey's leadoff home run in the fourth extended their lead to 2–0. The Pittsburgh string of scoreless innings was extended to 15 before the Pirates finally got on the board in the seventh inning off of Andy Messersmith. After two leadoff singles and sacrifice bunt, one run came in on a Richie Hebner groundout and the other on an Al Oliver high bouncer that escaped third baseman Cey's glove and was scored a single. With the game tied going into the eighth inning, it was a battle between ace relievers Mike Marshall, of Los Angeles, and Dave Giusti. Giusti could not retire even one batter. After a leadoff double and subsequent single, back-to-back RBI singles by Willie Crawford and Manny Mota aided by an error by catcher Manny Sanguillén put the Dodgers back in front 4–2. Davey Lopes's RBI single off of Larry Demery extended their lead to 5–2 while Marshall retired six straight batters in the last two innings to give the Dodgers a 2–0 series lead heading to Los Angeles. Game 3 A record crowd for Dodger Stadium (55,953) showed up for Game 3 with the home team one win away from the World Series, but the Pirates hammered