Cards: Swept the Mets more due to NY's ineptness than their dominance.  Their OF is punchless and their starters have been less than stellar, sans Curt Simmons who is 3-0.  Broglio has been an enigma.  He has great stuff but seems to never get the big out.  Tim McCarver is hitting .314, but he's the only regular over .300.

Series Results:
Pirates 2, Cards 1: Overall, the Cards had 44 hits – and Pitt had 51!!!! There was no pitching and very little defense in this series.

The Cards breezed to a win in Game 1…..8-4, in which all 8 runs from the Cards were unearned on 3 errors by Pitt. The game was highlighted by Clemente and Mazeroski both hitting their 3rd homers of the year – only to be topped by C James who hit 2 homers in the game and had 5 RBI’s. R Craig, for the Cards, pitched fairly well. Each team managed 10 hits apiece.

Pitt came storming back early in Game 2 with 3 runs in the 1st inning with help of a Stuart homer, his 6th on the year. H Smith hit a homer in the 3rd for an 8-1 Pitt lead. The Cards fought back for 2 runs in the 4th with help from a homer by Javier – and another 4 runs in the 7th by hitting 3 doubles in the inning. The Cards were now down 8-7 after 7. The teams traded runs in the 8th – and Pitt led 9-8 after 8. The Cards put in Bakenhaster for the top 9th, who then walked in a run and gave H Smith his 2nd homer of the game – for a total of 4 runs. Pitt went on to win 13-8. The Cards had 20 hits and Pitt had 16. But, the best was yet to come.

For Game 3, Pitt once again jumped to a quick 3-0 lead in the 1st with Clemente hitting his 4th and Stuart hitting his 7th, which now extended his hitting streak to 17 games. The Cards bounced right back with 3 runs of their own in the 1st with some scrappy hits. The Cards then go on to score 5 more in the 2nd inning with 2 of the runs being walked in – for an 8-3 lead after 2. The Cards score 5 more in the 5th, for a 13-5 lead, in what could be considered a very strange inning. Pitt looking for answers, began a strange sequence of events in the 6th that would see them score 9 runs in these next 4 innings. Pitt scored 3 in the 6th off a couple of hits. They score 2 in the 7th on a couple of more hits – and score 3 more in the 8th on another blast by H Smith. Pitt had scored 8 unanswered runs – and the game is now tied at 13 apiece entering the 9th. Pitt went on to score its 9th unanswered run in the top 9th – and the Cards could not counter such an onslaught. Pitt went on to win 14-13 – by having 25 hits. The Cards themselves managed 14 hits. Clemente was 4 for 6 with 4 RBI’s and Skinner was 4 for 7.

For Pitt:
Clemente was 8 for 15 – with 2 homers and 9 RBI’s.
H Smith had 3 homers and 6 RBI’s – in just 2 games played.
For the Cards:
C James was 7 for 14 and had 8 RBI’s
Groat was 7 for 14 as well.

Boxscores:
St. Louis Beats Pittsburgh 8-4, James,C With 2 HRs
Pittsburgh Beats St. Louis 13-8, 2 HRs For Smith,H
Pittsburgh Edges St. Louis 14-13

Managers:
Cardinals (George Bseirani), Pirates (CPU)

Reds: Fell deeper into the second division after dropping 2 of 3 to the Phils. Other than Frank Robbby they just aren't hitting.  Their pitching has been average, but without any run support what can you expect.  There's a good chance their bats will come alive vs New York's arms.

Series Results:
Reds 3, Mets 1: Cincy got just what it needed:  A good dosage of the Mets...a team anyone can beat on any given day.  Just as predicted the Reds bats came alive thanks to the elixir we call, "Mets pitching".  Cincy even scored 3 runs in the one game they lost.  Joey Jay blanked the Mets in the series finale.  Frank Robby was as hot as ever and Don Blassingame showed his ability to be a table setter. The Mets keep riding the hot bat of Frank Thomas who is up near the league lead in the triple crown categories.

Boxscores:
Cincinnati Defeats New York (N) 8-1
New York (N) Upends Cincinnati 6-3
Cincinnati Edges New York (N) 5-4 in 10
Jay Blanks New York (N) 6-0

Managers:
Reds (Marc Weiss), Mets (Andy Weinrib)

Braves: The Braves are getting killed by their bullpen.  Their starters almost need to close out every game or they'll lose.  Buhl and Spahn have pitched well enough for their records to be reversed.  Henry Aaron is pacing the offense with 4 HR's and a .305 BA.  Unfortunately they have 2 dead spots at the top of the order (Bruton / Schoendienst) who are hitting at or below .200, so Hammerin' Hank has had limited RBI ops..

Series Results:
Braves 2, Phillies 1: The Braves decided to make some noise in this pennant race and took 2 of 3 from the Phils.  Jim Bunning was masterful in game 1, even though he faltered in the 9th.  The Braves seemed to own the pitching match-ups as Burdette and Spahn were their dominant selves in games 2/3.  Milwaukee should be concerned with the lack of power being displayed by Hank Aaron.  One suspects that his bat will heat up with the weather.

Boxscores:
Philadelphia Edges Milwaukee 4-3
Milwaukee Beats Philadelphia 6-2
Milwaukee Beats Philadelphia 5-3

Managers:
Phillies Game 1 (Marc Weiss), Braves Games 2/3 (Marc Weiss)

Colt 45's: This expansion group has been impressive.  Sure they dropped 3 of 4 to the Dodgers, but who can beat Drysdale and Koufax on successive nights ?  Still 2 games over .500 and in 4th place the Colts have relied on pitching although that might not be the case for this series since the bottom of their rotation is starting.  Firstbaseman Norm Larker is hitting .417 and Roman Mejias (.317, 3, 17) are pacing an offense that has little talent.  Bob Aspromonte is hitting .300 in the lead off role.

Series Results:
Colt 45's 2, Cubs 1: It was tough to tell which team was the expansion team in this series.  The young Colts pitching held tight and in game 1 the Cubs couldn't hit Dean Stone.  Roman Mejias hit 2 big homers in game 2 to pace Houston, which seems to get just enough hitting to stay afloat.  The series finale saw young Dave Giusti get rocked and the Cubs seemed to be cruising toward victory.  Unfortunately these Cubs never cruise.  A big lead began to evaporate and the Cubbies had to hold on for dear life to at least salvage 1 game.  Dan Holm was heard to say, "No wonder this team had 4 managers...nobody could win with them".

Boxscores:
Houston Edges Chicago 4-3
Houston Beats Chicago 4-2, 2 HRs For Mejias
Chicago Defeats Houston 10-6, 2 HRs For Thomas

Managers:
Colt 45's (Marc Weiss), Cubs (Dan Holm)

Dodgers: Alone atop the league in 1st place purely on the arms of All-Stars Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax (8-0 combined).  The hitting wasn't expected to be explosive, and it has lived up to it's billing.  Leadoff man Maury Wills has been on fire since returning from the DL, where he started the season.  Last year's MVP is hitting .391, but has not really found his base stealing stride yet.  Ron Fairly (.405, 2, 11) has been the other big offensive threat.  Light hitting second baseman Nate Oliver has surprised all with his .339 average.

Series Results:
Giants 2, Dodgers 1: The rivalry continues...It traveled 3,000 miles less than half a decade and it's as strong as ever.  Even the way both teams are made up fosters rivalry.  The Dodgers are the ultimate pitching/defense team.  The Giants are all about the bats.  In this series the Giants go the better pitching and the Dodgers won the finale due to their bats.  In Game 1, lefty Bill O'Dell battle Bob Miller in a neat pitcher's duel with SF edging LA 3-2.  Game 2 had the feature match up with future HOF'ers (Marichal/Drysdale) facing each other.  Both teams plated 2 runs in the first inning and one suspected that we were in for a shootout and not a duel.  Like most great pitchers, Marichal and Drysdale settled down and starting posting round numbers on the score board.  With the game tied at 3 both pitchers were still on the hill going into extra frames.  Ace fireman Ron Perranoski entered the game to get 1 out in the 10th as the Giants were threatening and Drysdale, who threw 153 pitchers was out of gas.  Marichal stayed on the hill and completed the 10th.  In the top of the 11th Mays led off with a walk.  Manny Mota was summoned off the bench to pinch hit for the light hitting Matty Alou.  Mota laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt and the Say Hey kid moved into scoring position with one out.  Up stepped the Baby Bull (Orlando Cepeda) who promptly drove a double off the wall to plate Mays.  Perranoski settled down to get the next two batters out, but the damage had been done.  With Marichal virtually out of gas the Giants called on Bobby Bolin to shut the door on the heart of the LA lineup.  Bolin struck out Nate Oliver, who is hitting .323, and got both Ron Fairly and Frank Howard to ground out weekly.  Game 3 saw the Dodgers looking to salvage a win, while the Giants were going for the sweep.  The Dodgers were pinning their hopes on spot starter Larry Sherry, while the Giants had all the confidence in the world riding on 20 game winner Jack Sanford.  The Dodger bats came alive in this one to the tune of 8 runs, which was more than enough for Sherry who went the distance and only gave up 2.

LA:  Both Ron Fairly and Maury Wills are hitting over .350.  Nate Oliver cooled off a bit in the final 2 games of the series and his average dropped to .304.  Fleet footed Willie David banged out 2 hits to get to .200 even.  Ron Fairly's 12 game hitting streak came to an end during game 2.

SF:  Curiously Mays was moved to the #2 spot in the lineup.  He's hitting .342, and could probably hit anywhere in anyone's lineup.  Cepeda is batting over .400 and his ability to knock in runs is off the charts.  His play, along with LF Harvey Kuenn's is keeping young Stretch McCovey out of the lineup..

Boxscores:
San Francisco Edges Los Angeles (N) 3-2
San Francisco Slips Past Los Angeles (N) 4-3 in 11
Los Angeles (N) Beats San Francisco 8-2

Managers:
Giants (Marc Weiss), Dodgers (George Bseirani)