Tuesday, May 15, 1962 saw the Giants and Dodgers both back at home after completing successful road trips (both teams went 6-3). Surprisingly, the Giants outdrew the Dodgers on this evening by nearly 12,000, but those who attended the Dodgers-Colts game were treated to a notably elevated level of in-game excitement.
AND now: "drama"--which seemed to gravitate around many of the Dodgers-Colts games in '62. The first few innings were relatively quiet: the Dodgers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first thanks to a Willie Davis triple and a single from Duke Snider (who would start only two more times before spending the better part of the next three months picking splinters out of the Dodger bench).
Don Drysdale, starting on two days rest after his brief, unsuccessful effort as a reliever on May 12, sailed through the first three innings, but in the fourth he hit a wall of flying hooves when five Colts hitters reached base (four singles and a walk). After retiring Merritt Ranew on a fly ball, Big D then surrendered two more singles (including one by ex-Dodger Bob Aspromonte), permitting the Colts to build a 5-1 lead.
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| A very rare 4-RBI game for Maury Wills... |
In the seventh, Larry Sherry took over for Williams and was even more erratic, eventually surrendering a run on a bases-loaded walk (to, of all people, Bob Bruce). The frustrating see-saw pattern of the game seemed to tilting the wrong way for the Dodgers.
But then they staged an "A-team" version of the rally that the Colts had engineered earlier in the game. And, more dramatically, they did it with two outs. After Willie Davis and Snider had made out, Tommy Davis singled. Wally Moon followed with a double to the wall in right-center, scoring Davis. Johnny Roseboro worked the count to 3-2, then walked. After a pitching change (Bobby Tiefenauer in for Bruce), Larry Burright then proved that his "era" was not yet past by singling in another run, cutting the Colts' lead to 7-6.
The unsinkable Doug Camilli then batted for Sherry, hit a very long and loud foul on the first pitch, and then blooped one over Colts' second baseman Billy Goodman for an off-the-end-of-the-bat single, scoring Roseboro to tie the score. After another pitching change for the Colts (Don McMahon for Tiefenauaer), Maury Wills then came up and slapped a 2-2 pitch into right field to score Burright, taking second base when right fielder Roman Mejias played kickball in his attempt to retrieve Wills' liner. With the Dodgers now ahead 8-7, Jim Gilliam smoked a low liner up the middle that kicked off shortstop Bob Lillis' glove, allowing both Camilli and Wills to score.
Willie Davis then batted and made out, thus bookending an inning where he went 0-for-2 and the Dodgers scored six runs in the in-between. Seven consecutive hitters reached base: five singles, one double and a walk--a style of rally that was significantly more prevalent in 1962 than in the present day.
Ron Perranoski fended off the Colts in the eighth and ninth to close out what is universally described in journalistic textbooks as "a thrilling, come-from-behind victory." And it most certainly was--but possibly even more so due to the fact that it was accomplished with the ball remaining in play all the way throughout the rally. Final score: Dodgers 10, Colts 7.
SEASONAL RECORDS; SFG 25-8, LAD 21-12
