60 YEARS AGO/37: THE CARDINAL AMBUSH CONTINUES IN LOS ANGELES...

The reason why the Los Angeles Dodgers did not win the 1962 NL pennant is shockingly simple: they could not beat the St. Louis Cardinals in Dodger Stadium that year. They lost seven of nine games to them in their bright, shiny new home, including three in a row at the end of the season: just one additional win against these pesky Redbirds was all they needed to avoid a playoff with the Giants and advance to the World Series.

On Saturday, May 19, 1962, the best you could say about the game at Dodger Stadium was that the Dodgers only squandered a 1-0 lead. Don Drysdale lost that lead in the fourth inning when St. Louis bunched together four singles and a walk, winding up with four runs in the inning when Curt Flood's single slipped by Willie Davis in center field, allowing Cardinals' starter Ray Sadecki to score.

Sadecki was a bit wobbly, allowing six hits and five walks, but the Dodgers helped him out by going just 1-for-8 with RISP while also hitting into two double plays. When Drysdale faltered in the fifth, he was replaced by Phil Ortega, making only his third appearance of the year and continuing a trend of appearing in games where his team was losing. (By the end of the 1962 campaign, Ortega would appear in a total of 24 games--and the Dodgers' record in those games was...2-22.) Final score: Cardinals 8, Dodgers 1.

In San Francisco earlier that afternoon, a mercurial career was quickly closing in on its final act. Right hander George (Red) Witt had been a sensation in 1958, posting a 9-2 record with a 1.61 ERA over the second half of the year. (His last ten starts that year were particularly eye-popping: 7-0, 0.99 ERA.) Arm miseries quickly intervened, however, and Witt never came close to that performance again; at the end of the 1961 season, he was sold to the Los Angeles Angels, where he flunked an April '62 tryout, appearing in five games (two starts), posting an unsightly ERA of 8.10.

The Angels sent him back to the Pirates, who quickly sent him on to the Colts, who figured they had nothing to lose except ball games. Three days after acquiring Witt, Houston supplied him with an acid test--a start against the first-place Giants, a team that also happened to be tearing the cover off the ball (a .297 team batting average). 

Witt made it through the first two innings unscathed, but the wagon wheels disintegrated in the bottom of the third: Willie Mays doubled, scoring starting pitcher Mike McCormick (making his first start of the year for the Giants). Chuck Hiller and Orlando Cepeda followed with singles, knocking Witt out of the game. Dave Giusti, some years away from being a top closer, had a messy long relief outing, ultimately giving up homers to Mays, Cepeda and Ed Bailey, turning the game into a laugher for the Giants. 

McCormick pitched well, scattering nine hits over eight innings, and it was looking like San Francisco was loaded with pitching. But McCormick would struggle all year, and "young Gaylord Perry" would regress, leaving them with a hole in the back of the rotation that would plague them later in the year.

Witt would get one more start for the Colts; it wasn't really all that bad, but they decided he wasn't starting pitcher material, and put him in the bullpen. As it so happens, we'll have a ringside seat at Witt's final outings in the major leagues...stay tuned. Final score: Giants 10, Colts 2.

SEASON RECORDS: SFG 27-10, LAD 23-14, STL 20-13, CIN 19-14, PIT 16-16, PHI 15-17, MIL 14-19, NYM 10-19, HOU 12-22, CHC 10-24