60 YEARS AGO/2: TWO VERY DIFFERENT LEFTIES DOMINATE

As we follow the peregrinations of two teams (Giants/Dodgers) who met in a memorable playoff series sixty years ago, we see that the teams' second game of the year--April 11, 1962--featured very solid starting pitcher performances from two very different southpaws...

In Los Angeles, flamethrower Sandy Koufax took a one-hitter into the ninth inning and scuffled through the final frame (slapped hard by Vada Pinson, Frank Robinson and Wally Post: single-double-single), but was bailed out by a backhanded grab from Jim Gilliam on a hard grounder that was turned into a double play to snuff out the Reds' rally. 

The Dodgers were a single short of the cycle in the third inning against Moe Drabowsky (Maury Wills, triple; Gilliam, homer; Duke Snider, double). In the bottom of the fifth, free-swinging Willie Davis may have had a singular event in his career: a bases-loaded walk (we'll have to research that in bb-ref's event files...will report back on that later). Final score: Dodgers 6, Reds 2. 

In San Francisco, nibbler Billy O'Dell was changing speeds and hitting spots with exceptional precision against the Braves (who'd been shut out the day before by Juan Marichal). O'Dell pitched a four-hit complete game (an occurrence that is now as scarce as those proverbial hen's teeth...), finishing with nine strikeouts--two more than "the Left Arm of God."

Willie Mays hit another first-inning homer--a two-run shot; the Giants added a run in the second and O'Dell made it stand up. Final score: Giants 3, Braves 1.

SEASON RECORDS: SF 2-0, LA 1-1. (They will face each other at Candlestick in less than a week.)