60 YEARS AGO/5: A LAUGHER AND A SQUEAKER

THE Giants and Dodgers kept winning on Saturday, April 14, 1962, but the means of victory in their respective games proved to be quite different.

At Candlestick Park, "young Gaylord Perry" (a phrase that seems completely inappropriate given Perry's now-famous grizzled personality and indelible veteran guile) did not have either a spitball or a greaseball at his disposal, and was forced to make a quick exit in his first big league start.

None of that fazed his teammates, who broke a 4-4 tie in the bottom of the third with a six-run outburst aided by the Reds' fifth and sixth errors in the game. (The defending NL champs settled down after that, and wound up with "just" six errors in the game...)

The Giants' hottest hitters, Orlando Cepeda and Felipe Alou, each hit two homers, while Harvey Kuenn upped his average to .438 by going 3-for-3 and driving in four runs rom the leadoff slot. Don Larsen followed Perry with 6 1/3 innings of solid relief as San Francisco laughed its way to its fifth straight win. Final score: Giants 13, Reds 6. 

DOWN in Los Angeles, the Dodgers scored single runs off Warren Spahn in each of the first three innings, but Johnny Podres had back-to-back shaky innings in the fourth and fifth, allowing the Braves to take the lead, 4-3. The slumping Wally Moon tagged Spahn for a homer in the seven, tying the score. 

Milwaukee manager Birdie Tebbetts stayed with his ace into the ninth inning, but Spahn could get no one out in the inning, surrendering a walk-off RBI single to platoon player Lee Walls after loading the bases with two singles and an intentional walk. 

Frank Howard made his first start of the season and went 1-for-4, but it was his baserunning that shocked the Dodger Stadium faithful: manager Walt Alston had the big man on the move in a hit-and-run play that worked when Daryl Spencer rolled a single into right field and Big Frank lumbered all the way to third, scoring when Norm Sherry beat out what at first looked like a double play ball when it left his bat.

Jim Gilliam had three more hits for the Dodgers, raising his early-season batting average to .400. Larry Sherry (yes, Norm's younger brother) threw three shutout innings in relief of Podres and got the win. Final score: Dodgers 5, Braves 4.

SEASON RECORDS: SFG 5-0, LAD 4-1.