4
games
0 gamesDon Drysdale vs Jack Sanford
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| 4 hit shutout by Big D |
This much anticipated duel between 25 game winner Don Drysdale and 24 game winner Jack Sanford turned out to be a dud. Drysdale was dominant from the beginning and San Fran's fabled lineup stood no chance vs the tall righty. Sanford on the other hand began leaking oil from the get go. LA scored a Maury Wills manufactured run in the first as the mobile shortstop singled and stole second so fast the echos from the National Anthem were still reverberating. Junior Gilliam's single put runners on the corners for Ron Fairly who doubled home Wills. Gilliam attempted to score as well and was pegged at the plate by right fielder Felipe Alou. "Jumbo" Frank Howard crushed one to deep left, but Fairly got a bad jump and was thrown out at the plate by a great throw from Harvey Kuenn. All in total the Giants outfield threw out 4 Dodgers attempting to score. Without those arms he score would have been much worse. With one out in the 5th Tommy Davis was hit in the ribs by an errant pitch and trotted down to first. Up stepped "3-Dog" Willie Davis and what the fans were then treated to was the most exciting play in baseball: The inside the park homer. Davis launched one into the right center gap that even the great Willie Mays couldn't track down. By the time Alou could gather the ball Davis was heading for third and not letting up. Alou hit his cutoff man (Hiller) perfectly. Hiller turned and threw a perfect one hopper to Haller who turned to tag Davis, but was a hair too late. LA
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| Inside the park HR - 3Dog |
Dodgers lead series 1-0
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
GAME 2 - ‘62 NLCS - LAD 13, SFG 4
Sandy Koufax vs Bill O'Dell
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| 4 RBI’s & HR – by Hondo |
The Dodgers staked Koufax to a 10-0 lead after just 3 1/2 innings worth of play. The lanky lefthander from the Dodgers former home (Brooklyn) let his guard down and gave up 2 runs in both the 4th and 5th innings before blanking the Giants for his final 2 frames. By the time Phil Ortega took over in the 8th the score was 13-4 and the outcome was no longer in doubt. LA banged out 17 hits with Ron Fairly being the only regular not to reach base safely via the bat. Willie Davis went 4 for 6 with 3 runs scored and 3 runs knocked in. Frank Howard and Daryl Spencer each had 4 RBI's and a homer. Spencer was 3 for 4 and Howard was 2 for 5. Wills only had a 1 for 6 day, but that didn't seem to matter one bit. For their part the San Fran offense had 10 hits, but couldn't seem to string them all together like LA did. Mays did have a homer and 2 hits on the day in a losing cause.
Dodgers lead series 2-0
Saturday, January 22, 2011
GAME 3: Dodgers go up 3-0 with extra inning win
GAME 3 -
Dodger Stadium - LAD 3, SFG 2 (11 inn)
Juan Marichal vs Johnny Podres
Heading back to Southern California the Dodgers had the Giants right
where they wanted them, which was down two games to none. San Fran had
one trump card left to play, their ace,
Juan Marichal. The high
kicking "Dominican Dandy" was trusted to get the Giants back into the
series. His opponent, 1955 World Series MVP, Johnny Podres, was given
the assignment to keep it close and hopefully LA could steal the game.
Marichal played prominently in the scoring of San Fran's first run as he
led off the top of the 3rd with a clean single to left. He would move
over to second thanks to a beautifully executed sac bunt by Pagan.
Felipe Alou's single to center was not deep enough for Marichal to
score, so runners were on 1st and 3rd for the Say Hey kid. Willie Mays
lashed a 2-2 Podres change up into left that a hard charging Tommie
Davis barely caught on his shoe top. Davis wound up sliding head first
on the grass and was lucky to keep the ball in the webbing of his
glove. Marichal would walk home from third to give the Jints a 1-0
lead. The Dodgers would finally score in the bottom of the 5th and take
a 2-1 lead when Daryl Spencer led off the inning with a clean single to
right. Spencer wasn't
even in the starting lineup when the Dodgers took the field in the 1st,
but wound up being pressed into action after veteran Andy Carey booted
his second grounder of the inning to load the bases for the Giants.
LA's manager had had enough of Carey's poor display with the leather and
yanked him right on the spot, which sent a message to his team that he
would not tolerate lackadaisical behavior. Spencer would capitalize on
his opportunity by going 2 for 5 on the day. He would also score the
Dodgers first run of the day on a two run single by
Junior Gilliam. Prior to
Gilliam's single Maury Wills, who singled himself, stole second to put
both runners in scoring position. Once again Wills' legs played a
prominent role in the Dodger offense.
As the game progressed the Giants started looking like a beaten team.
Only Marichal's guile and assortment of pitches kept the Dodgers off
stride and his team in the game. In the top of the 8th Pagan hit a one
hopper that went off Spencer's chest for the Dodgers third error on the
day at the "Hot Corner". Alou popped out to catcher John Roseboro in
foul territory for the first out of the inning and Pagan was nailed by
Roseboro at second attempting to steal to make it 2 outs. To make
matters worse the man at the plate was
Willie Mays, and wouldn't
you know it the Say Hey kid launched a double down the right field line
that would have scored Pagan if he was still on the base paths. The
Baby Bull, Orlando Cepeda was next to bat and on the first offering hit
a clean single to right center to score Mays and tie the game as
reliever Larry Sherry couldn’t not protect the lead Podres handed him.
Nether team could push across a run during regulation. The Dodgers had
a chance in the bottom of the 10th when they had runners on the corners
with 1 out, but the diminutive Stu Miller was able to get his sinker
working and Roseboro hit into a tailor made 6-4-3 DP. Miller would not
be able to produce any miraculous escape acts in the 11th, which started
out poorly for him when Manny Mota airmailed a throw from 3rd over
Cepeda's head to allow Spencer to reach 1st safely.
Don
Drysdale, who is one heck of a hitter for a pitcher, was
sent up to bunt. Miller quickly got 2 strikes on Big D, who was then
given the green light to swing away. Drysdale hit one off the top of
the wall in left center that bounded back to the infield which prevented
Spencer from scoring the winning running. Wills came up and hit a
bullet right at Pagan who was playing in like the rest of the infield.
Inexplicably Spencer broke for home and was thrown out by 15 feet.
Wills didn't stay on first for too long, as he stole second easily on
the 1st pitch. Gilliam was then given an intentional pass to load the
bases and create a force everywhere as well as a possible DP chance.
3-Dog, Willie Davis rendered that strategy useless as he hit a ball just
shy of the tack that Mays easily caught and Drysdale easily scored the
winning run on.
Los Angeles leads series 3-0
Dodgers sweep series in 4 vs arch rival Jints
GAME 4 - Dodger
Stadium - LAD 5, SFG 3
Billy Pierce vs Don Drysdale
Right from the very start it was apparent that Pierce was not the right man
for the job of extending the Giants season past today. With the
melodious prose of Vin Scully being broadcasted off of the transistor radios
that more than half of the 54,000 fans in attendance brought, the happy sounds
of Dodger runs crossing the plate numbered 3 after the first inning ended.
Wills led off the game with a bunt single, then began dancing off of first in
what looked like a perfect imitation of the way Jackie Robinson harassed
pitcher a decade earlier on the other side of the continent. Wills need
not imitate anyone, for his base running artistry was an original unto itself.
In this case Pierce was convicted to keeping Wills for pilfering second, and
in a sense the veteran lefty was quite successful in his designated task.
Unfortunately for him and Giants Wills was able to reach second and beyond on
the second pitch to batter Junior Gilliam. This would occur thanks to
Gilliam getting a flat fastball that cut right down the middle of the plate
like the double yellow line cuts through a major thoroughfare. Gilliam
wasted no time in turning on the offering and lining it just over the 3 foot
railing in left field to make it 2-0 for the home team. Piece was now
beyond rattled as evidenced by the ball Willie Davis hit to the base off the
wall that Matty Alou barely was able to track down. Left fielder Harvey
Kuenn would not be so lucky with the long fly ball
Tommie Davis would hit to left that not only cleared the wall,
but wound up 15 rows deep in the left center field pavilion.
Drysdale with a 3-0 lead looked like a sure thing. It was anything but a
sure thing when Mays hit a solo shot in the 2nd to make it a 1 run ball game.
San Fran had now scored solo runs in consecutive innings and Drysdale looked
to be struggling with his control. Thanks to back to back walks to Ron
Fairly and Frank Howard to lead off the 4th the Dodgers were able to push
across a fourth run on a ground out to put Big D up by 2 again. Matty
Alou, who was getting his
first
start of the series, made the most of it with an RBI single in the top of the
5th to make it a 1 run game again. Fairly would single home Willie Davis
in the bottom of the inning to bump the lead back up to 2. This time
Don Drysdale would lock it down
by allowing just 1 hit over the final 4 innings of play and striking out 4.
In the end the Dodgers out hit and out pitched their rivals to the north who
relied purely on the long ball and had no answers for Wills on the base paths.
Los Angeles wins series 4-0