Pitchers and catchers, who report early to spring training together, sometimes cast an outsized shadow on the outcome of a game. That was certainly the case on Friday, May 11, 1962 as the Dodgers and Giants swapped opponents.
In St. Louis, first-string catcher Johnny Roseboro was finally back in the lineup, and he celebrated by banging out four hits, raising his batting average to .351. The Dodgers broke a 2-2 with a four-run sixth, spearheaded by a pinch bases-loaded triple by Duke Snider, who was batting for Daryl Spencer (who was batting for starting pitcher Stan Williams).
Ed Roebuck nearly gave away that lead in the bottom of the sixth, when Cardinals catcher Carl Sawatski doubled in two runs. Ron Perranoski was quickly thrown into the breach, and responded with four innings of shutout relief to seal the win for Williams--but not before catcher Roseboro was thrown out attempting to steal home! Final score: Dodgers 8, Cardinals 5.
In Houston, the buzzsaw the Giants ran into was all pitcher-catcher related. Ex-Dodger
Dick (Turk) Farrell blanked San Francisco on six hits; he and batterymate
Merritt Ranew each hit homers--back-to-back, no less--as the ex-Dodgers "doing time" with the Colts made things dicey for "young
Gaylord Perry," who had to be relieved in the second inning and found himself removed from the Giants starting rotation as a result. Another ex-Dodger,
Bob Aspromonte, had a single and a double and two RBI. It was the first time all seaosn that the Giants had been shut out. Final score: Colts 7, Giants 0.
SEASON RECORDS: SFG 22-8, LAD 19-11.
