April 16th fell on Monday in 1962, and it fell all over the Dodgers as they traveled to Candlestick Park for the first of what would turn out to be 21 games against their arch rivals. The result was the second highest scoring game of the entire 1962 season, one of only four games in which the combined number of runs scored equaled or exceeded 25.
We can label these as "extreme high scoring" games. They are strange anomalies in a "system" that mostly produces results where teams combine to score less than ten total runs in any given game. (For the record, the percentage of such games--9 total runs or less--over all games played since 1900 is just under 62%).
Our patented "time grid" chart™shows the yearly incidence of these games. The overall average is about seven games per year. As you can see, the 1960s proved to be the time frame in which such games were particularly scarce.
BUT let's get back to the Stick, that now-demolished beautiful eyesore commemorating a jauntier, more innocent form of graft. It certainly looked as though things were tilting the Dodgers' way when Tommy Davis, their cleanup hitter who'd wind up with 153 RBI for the year, strode to the plate with the bases loaded and no one out. But Giants starter Billy O'Dell wiggled his way out of the scoring threat by getting Davis to fly out to shallow right. Lee Walls then popped to second base, and Ron Fairly lofted a fly ball down the right field line that Felipe Alou caught in foul territory.
That moment of deflation did not immediately set the Dodgers on course toward the ruin that was to follow. Stan Williams looked sharp in the bottom of the first, but after O'Dell had picked Johnny Roseboro off to end the Dodger half of the second, the roof began to collapse in stages. Stage 1: Felipe Alou, the hottest hitter in the NL, hits a homer. Three batters later, after pesky Jose Pagan singles, steals second and goes to third on catcher Roseboro's throwing error, Jim Davenport homers. It's 3-0 Giants.
The Dodgers get a run back when Tommy Davis--currently the second hottest hitter in the NL--singles in Wills. But shapeshifting Stan Williams brings out his evil cousin in the bottom of the third: he proceeds to walk the first three batters he faces. Alston replaces him with the reliable middle reliever Ed Roebuck, who would go on to fashion a ten-game winning streak as the Dodgers' "third man" behind Ron Perranoski and Larry Sherry.
But Roebuck walks Orlando Cepeda, and then ties an unbreakable record by allowing two sacrifice flies in a single inning (think about it). He also gives up a single, which when you read it this way doesn't sound so bad...and yet the Giants score four runs in the inning to take a 7-1 lead.
Alston decides not to waste Roebuck in such a lopsided game, and bats for him in the top of the fourth. But this means that he'll need to go deeper into his bullpen: enter "mop-up man #1", Phil Ortega, a wild young righthander that the Dodgers were portraying to the media as a Hispanic when, in fact, he was actually a Native American. Naturally, Ortega loaded the bases (a single, two walks) with two outs. Jim Gilliam then unleashed a wild throw that allowed two more runs to score: 9-1 Giants.
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| We can't find a baseball card for Willard Hunter, but this photo of him as a Dodger is almost as scarce... |
Bottom of the sixth: Willard has put the first two Giants on base (walk, single). Up strides Willie Mays. First pitch: BOOM! Over the left-center field fence. It's 12-1 Giants.
Willard retires the next three batters, and the Dodgers show some signs of life in the top of the seventh, scoring twice. But the bottom of the seventh was probably still playing out in Hunter's mind when he passed away in 2021: it's one of those consummately messy innings where a combination of maladroit and malodorous forces congeal into a fright-wig-adorned nightmare.
Ten Giants came to the plate; seven of them scored. The most unseemly event in this entire miasma came late in the action, when the score was already 17-3: for reasons known only to him, Orlando Cepeda stole home. (Oddly, Felipe Alou, the runner on first, did not break for second base on the play, indicating that it was entirely the Baby Bull's idea.)
Hunter's pitching line for his turn in the Monday night funhouse: 2 IP, 6 H, 10 R, 9 ER, 4 BB, 1 K. The score was now Giants 19, Dodgers 3.
As you might suspect, Willard Hunter's debut for the Dodgers was his swan song for them as well. He was sent back to Spokane, and late in May he was shipped off to the New York Mets, where he fit right into Casey Stengel's cockeyed caravan.
Alston decided to give Perranoski some work in the bottom of the eighth, and that looked more like what you'd expect: one inning, one hit, one strikeout.
Not Al Dark, however. Even though it was clear that O'Dell was pitching on fumes (and barely noticeable fumes at that...), the man who is a finalist in the "Most Inappropriate Nickname" competition (look it up!) just let the ninth inning churn on as O'Dell failed to retire five of the first six batters he faced. Even Dodger scrubeenies such as Doug Camilli and Tim Harkness smacked the ball around. O'Dell finally induced Maury Wills and Larry Burright to make the final outs, but not before the Dodgers had scored five runs.
That left O'Dell with one of the ugliest complete game pitching lines that you're likely to see: 9 IP, 15 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 4 SO. He faced a mind-blowing 47 batters--enough for two starts based on today's usage patterns.
But, then again, without Dark's coma-at-the-controls approach, we'd have one fewer "extreme high scoring" game for 1962, and the Giants would've had none for the year. (The Dodgers had another one of these a bit later--we'll leave it to you to guess which team it might be. Clue: the Dodgers were on the winning end in that one.) Final score: Giants 19, Dodgers 8.
SEASON RECORDS: SFG 6-1, LAD 4-3.
