60 YEARS AGO/77: A COME-FROM-BEHIND BLOWN LOSS + STAN IS FINALLY THE MAN

Monday, July 2, 1962 was a frustrating evening for the San Francisco Giants. Playing the league doormat, the New York Mets, their best starting pitcher (Juan Marichal) struggled, and left the game after the fourth inning with his team trailing 4-0.

Their third baseman, Jim Davenport, was initially a hero, homering in the sixth to get the Giants on the board, and tripling in two more runs in the seventh to get them close and set Willie Mays up for his patented game-saving clutch homer--which Willie promptly hit, his 22nd of the year--putting San Francisco in front, 5-4.

But...Davenport then kicked a ground ball with two on and one out in the eighth, permitting the Mets to load the bases. After Stu Miller walked in the tying run, veteran outfielder Gene Woodling slapped a bases-clearing double that put New York back in front. All four runs off Miller were unearned, but the damage had been done: the Giants gave away a game that they'd fought hard to salvage. It was that most galling of outcomes: a "come-from-behind blown loss." If they hadn't let it get away, they would have passed the Dodgers on the final day of the season. Final score: Mets 8, Giants 5.

DOWN in LA, the Dodgers played a doubleheader against the Phillies, a scheduling quirk that gave them a day off the day before the fourth of July. That prompted a bit of a dilemma for Walt Alston, who had to decide who to use in the second game. Johnny Podres pitched the opener, and looked as good as he'd been the entire year, not allowing a hit for the first five innings and striking out 11 before tiring in the 8th. Willie Davis' grand slam in the third inning off Jack Hamilton was more than enough to bring the Dodgers home a winner. Final score: Dodgers 5, Phillies 1 (first game).

Alston decided to roll the dice in the nightcap and brought back the erratic Stan Williams, who'd thrown five surreal innings of relief just three days earlier (in the game where Dodger pitchers combined to issue sixteen walks to a team en route to 120 losses on the year). Lo and behold, two days of rest seemed to agree with Stan, who found his control and threw a shutout against the Phils, striking out eight and walking no one--the first of only two times during '62 that he was able to refrain from issuing at least one free pass.

To top things off, Stan even had the game-winning RBI when he hit a solo home run in third off Billy Smith (the same Billy Smith who'd shut down the Giants for his lone major league win five days before). The Dodgers added single runs in the fifth, sixth and eighth innings to give Williams some breathing room. (Tommy Davis drove in one of them, bringing his league-leading RBI total to 82.) The sweep allowed them to gain a game and a half on the Giants in a single day. Final score: Dodgers 4, Phillies 0 (second game).

SEASON RECORDS: LAD 54-29, 52-29