The games on 8/30/62 wound up closer than they were for most of the time they were being played...does that make sense? We need another way to quantify the actual closeness of a game beyond what we see in the final score...for example, a 1-0 game decided on a walkoff hit is as close a game as you'll possibly see.
The Dodgers trailed 4-0 after the top of the first, and 5-0 after five innings, but nearly pulled things out with a furious four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth. Jim O'Toole carried a shutout into that inning, but it took two relievers (Bill Henry and Jim Brosnan) to hold off LA. It was also a game in which there was only one extra-base hit (a double by Jerry Lynch): how many such games occur during the average season? (Stay tuned for that answer as well.) Final score: Reds 5, Dodgers 4.
The Giants hit three solo homers off Warren Spahn--Willie Mays (#40), Orlando Cepeda (#32) and Jim Davenport (#13)--and it was just enough, because Jack Sanford allowed only two solo HRs (back-to-back in the seventh, which knocked him from the game): how many such games where five or more runs are scored in a game that all came on solo homers? You are doubtless very intrigued to know the result...but we don't know what the answer is. (So many mysteries, so little time.) Final score: Giants 3, Braves 2.
SEASON RECORDS: LAD 87-47, SFG 84-49
