60 YEARS AGO/107: FOUR MEN AND A CLOUD OF DUST...

Now for the Giants' side of the long, simmering August. After a long bout of mix-and-match, manager Al Dark was able to finally implement his original plan for a four-man starting rotation and those four (Juan Marichal, Billy Pierce, Jack Sanford and Billy O'Dell) gave him solid if not brilliant work during the month.

The Giants' bats stayed steady, buoyed by the strong month turned in by the previously struggling Orlando Cepeda, and they provided excellent run support during August, assisting Jack Sanford to a 6-0 mark. Pierce was better overall, with pinpoint control (5 walks in 50 2/3 IP): he went 5-1. All in all, the Giants recovered from their late July shellacking in Dodger Stadium and gained back a game and a half in the standings. 

On this day (August 7) Juan Marichal pitched his way out of several jams thanks to excellent control (no walks), scattering nine hits in out-finessing the Phillies' Art Mahaffey. SF put the game away with three runs in the sixth, keyed by Harvey Kuenn's homer leading off the inning; Cepeda previewed his strong month with a run-scoring double. Final score: Giants 4, Phillies 2.

DOWN in LA, Don Drysdale was a busy man fending off the upstart Mets, who took a 3-0 lead early in the game before the Dodgers chased Craig Anderson with four in the fourth, adding two more in the sixth to take a 6-3 lead (with the last two runs coming on Drysdale's triple, one of seven that Don hit during his career). The Mets kept coming, however, eventually amassing eleven hits off Drysdale, but Big D buckled down in the late innings, getting some help in the ninth from a base-running blunder by Felix Mantilla. Final score: Dodgers 7, Mets 5.

SEASON RECORDS: LAD 77-37, SFG 72-41