60 YEARS AGO/62: THE APEX OF MARICHAL + THOSE PESKY EX-DODGERS

Juan Marichal reached the apex of his effectiveness in the 1962 season with his brilliant performance on Saturday, June 16th; lowering his ERA to 2.52 and improving his won-loss record to 10-4, he tossed a two-hit shutout to give the Giants a much-needed win against the St. Louis Cardinals. The win snapped a five-game winning streak for the Cards in head-to-head competition with San Francisco.

Felipe Alou's tenth homer, hit in the first inning with Willie Mays on base, was all the Giants needed on this day; Mays doubled home two more runs in the fifth just in case. Final score: Giants 5, Cardinals 0.

Marichal would fade significantly over the next six weeks, compiling a 3-4 record with a 5.12 ERA over his next ten starts, allowing 13 HRs in 65 IP. (The Giants were only 3-7 in those ten games, extending through August 3rd). He would regain a good bit of his form over his final ten starts of the 1962 season, going 5-3 with a  3.22 ERA and just eight HR in 72 IP. In 1963, Marichal would reach Hall of Fame performance levels, thanks in part to the strike zone change: most strikingly (no pun intended...) his BB/9 would be cut almost in half, improving to just 1.7 BB/9 as opposed to 3.1 BB/9 in '62.

DOWN in LA that evening, the pesky ex-Dodgers who now played for the Houston Colts gave their former team some serious trouble. Foremost among them was Dick (Turk) Farrell, who tossed a three-hitter, holding the Dodgers hitless until the sixth inning and yielding only one run (in the seventh, when Ron Fairly's groundout scored Willie Davis, who'd tripled). 

Four of the eight hits that the Colts produced that evening came from ex-Dodgers, including one from Farrell--and, of course, one from freshly minted ex-Dodger nemesis Bob Aspromonte. Another alumnus, Norm Larker, drove in the Colts' second run in the sixth after scoring their first run in the fourth. The ex-Dodger trifecta of Aspromonte, Bob Lillis, and Farrell set up the Colts' final run by loading the bases in the eighth inning, with Farrell reaching thanks to an error by Maury Wills. 

The Colts were playing quite well at this point, particularly for an expansion team (28-34)--but they'll hit a big speed bump in July (a woeful 5-24 record in that month).

Johnny Podres took the loss for the Dodgers, his record falling to 3-6. Final score: Colts 4, Dodgers 1.

SEASON RECORDS: LAD 44-23, SFG 43-24, PIT 36-26, STL 34-26, CIN 33-27, MIL 30-33, HOU 28-34, PHI 26-35, CHC 22-242, NYM 16-42

NL BATTING LEADERS (as of 6/16/62)

BA: F. Alou SFG .344, B. Williams CHC .341, Musial STL .331, Callison PHI .328, T. Davis LAD .323, W. Davis LAD .320, Altman CHC .320

OBP: B. Williams CHC .417, Mays SFG .413, Fairly LAD .409, Musial STL .402, Gonzalez PHI .394, Altman CHC .393, Callison PHI .391

SLG: Mays FG, .655, B. Williams CHC .584, Aaron MIL .574, Pinson CIN .559, Cepeda SFG .557, Mejias HOU .540, F. Thomas NYM .537

HR: Mays SFG 21, Cepeda SFG 17, Banks CHC 17, B. Williams CHC 13, Aaron MIL 13, F. Thomas NYM 13, Pinson 13

RBI: T. Davis LAD 65, Cepeda SFG 60, Mays SFG 56, F. Robinson CIN 49, Aaron MIL 47, White STL 47