But on June 17, Sanford caught a good break when his battery mate Tom Haller hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth, snapping a 3-3 tie. (Final score: Giants 6, Cardinals 3.) It was the first of 16 consecutive wins for Sanford, and his steady presence helped the Giants stay in the race. From this point to the end of the '62 season, Jack was 18-1.
That said, much of it had to do with the Giants' hitters consistently scoring runs for him. In this stretch, SF scored 6.2 runs per game for Jack, whose ERA during the time frame (3.34) was not that much different from what it had been up to June 13 (3.59). Fans of FIP might notice that Jack improved his HR/9 ratio during the span, which projects him in that system to be pitching better; what's most germane, of course, is that consistent run scoring.
There are seven pitchers who pitched in 26 games, started at least 25 of those, and had a WPCT of .947 or higher: of that group, Jack has the seventh best ERA.
Only Whitey Ford (who also received tremendous run support and was bailed out of several very poor starts by the '61 Yankees offense), had a higher ERA during the course of these stratospheric skeins of winning percentage. The WHIP values also tell the tale--Jack's is the worst of the bunch. The Pythagorean methods cuts all of these skeins down to size in terms of projecting a won-loss record from the runs scored vs. runs allowed: when we work that out, it appears that Jack "should have" gone either 14-5 or 15-4. Swap in 15-4 for 18-1 during this stretch and Jack's W-L record is 21-10 instead of 24-7...definitely not of sufficient quality a year to befit a second place finish in the Cy Young voting.
DOWN in LA, Tommy Davis' three-run homer was the key blow in a five-run rally in the bottom of the sixth as the Dodgers finally got the drop on the Colts. Ed Roebuck did not quite have a "lengthy relief appearance" according to our rather extreme definition (4+ IPs), but he threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings and received credit for the win thanks to being in the game when the Dodgers turned it around. (We'll get around to those 3-3 2/3 inning relief appearances shortly...) Final score: Dodgers 6, Colts 2.
SEASON RECORDS: LAD 45-23, SFG 44-24
