60 YEARS AGO/60: STAN IS NOT THE MAN + KRYPTONITE IN CINCINNATI

"In-a-gadda-da-vida, baby..."

If you've been paying attention, you know that the Giants and Dodgers started to lose in tandem more in June than had been the case during the first two months of the 1962 season. If you look back a few posts for the overview of the first half of June, you'll know that June 14th (a day once best known as "Flag Day," but now sullied forever as the necronexic natal day of that ever-perfidious Orange Menace, still pulling the wings off butterflies on his sixteenth birthday...) is the fourth time during the month that the two teams lost in tandem.

(And if you're really paying attention, you can figure out exactly how many such games occurred in June without having to do the research yourself. Best of luck with that...)

Luck didn't shine down on the Dodgers and Stan Williams on the 14th, of course. (We'd also already prepared you for two very stinky starts by Stan in June: this is the second one.) It started badly right off the bat (so to speak...) when the first batter that Stan faced--the "lesser Aaron" (Hank's brother Tommie) reached safely when LA third baseman Daryl Spencer played kickball with his grounder. From there it was off to the races: single from Roy McMillan, sac fly from Eddie Mathews (1-0 Braves), and a booming homer from the "greater Aaron" (Tommie's brother Hank--or Henry, as we now are instructed to refer to him).

Stan followed Aaron's homer with a walk to Lee Maye, then gave up a single to Del Crandall--and Walt Alston came and got him. It was still 3-0 Braves at this point, and Alston probably figured his reliever would stop the bleeding right there and then the game would still be (theoretically, at least) within reach.

But Ed Roebuck didn't cooperate with that scenario: he walked Mack Jones to load the bases, then got a grounder that couldn't be turned into a double play, making it 4-0 Braves. Then the Braves' starting pitcher Bob Shaw slapped a hard grounder off the toe of Roebuck's shoe that careened into foul territory between home and third, bringing in the fifth run of the inning. 

Roebuck would settle down in the second and eventually hurl 4 2/3 innings of relief (though this outing is not on our list of "heroic lengthy relief appearances" posted a few days ago, because it didn't result in a win for the Dodgers). But it didn't matter, because Shaw was on his game, limiting LA to just three hits, lowering his league-leading ERA to 1.92 and cruising to his eighth win. (Final score: Braves 7, Dodgers 1.)

OVER in the Ohio Valley, the Giants' hitting trough widened, as Joey Jay (who'd won 21 games for the Reds the year before and would do so again in '62) matched the performance of Bob Purkey the night before and shut down SF on just three hits. More troubling than the loss, perhaps, was a first-inning injury sustained by Giants' starter Billy Pierce, one that would keep him on the shelf for a month, further thinning out their pitching staff. 

Frank Robinson, heating up after a slow start (.186 in April) , was the prime agent of doom on behalf of the Reds, hitting his eighth homer and driving in four; he would eventually lead the NL in OBP (.421), SLG (.624), OPS (1.045), OPS+ (173) and doubles (51)...and somehow finish fourth in the MVP voting. (Final score: Red 8, Giants 0.)

SEASON RECORDS: LAD 44-21 SFG 42-23