In our posts about the '62 pennant chase between the Giants and Dodgers, we've sometimes focused on the days when both teams lose. That number is, as you'd expect, rather low--17 days--but what say you regarding the opposite occurrence: days when both teams win? How many days when that happens? And is there a mathematical formula that might predict what that relationship would be like for any combination of two teams?
Of course, this is just a side issue that is unlikely to be relevant to overall outcome or any interpretive meaning within the set of events we've been chronicling. But let's stay with it as a kind of puzzle while we watch the '62 season wind down to its chaotic conclusion. Think about how many times two teams might win on the same day if they both won 100+ games (as was the case for our two teams here). If two teams each lost 61 games (what the Dodgers and Giants did prior to the playoff series...) and they lost on the same day 17 times, is there something in that ratio that might predict how many times they won games on the same day?
More on that shortly. What the table at right will show you is that our two teams won on the same day during August 1962 a total of ten times (as opposed to losing on the same day four times). On 8/31, the Dodgers had a hit-fest against the Braves in Dodger Stadium: a total of nineteen, all without benefit of the long ball. It was a vipers' nest of line drives, including four hits from Frank Howard and three each for Willie Davis and Maury Wills. LA smacked around six Braves pitchers and broke the game open with a four-run fifth. Starter Pete Richert was a bit shaky in his five innings of work, but Ed Roebuck had another stellar stint in long relief, holding Milwaukee scoreless over the final four frames. Final score: Dodgers 8, Braves 3.
UP in San Francisco, the Reds' pitching, which had sustained them so well during their three-week hot streak earlier in the month, took it on the chin again as Cincy continued to fall out of the pennant race. Willie Mays broke a 1-1 tie in the third with a two-run double, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Willie McCovey that came within a couple feet of clearing the fence. Willie Mac did hit a homer later, off Johnny Klippstein, capping a stretch in the game where the Giants scored ten unanswered runs. Billy Pierce, still pitching strongly since his return from the injury list, gave up two solo homers (to Eddie Kasko and Leo Cardenas) but nothing else, upping his season record to 13-4. Final score: Giants 10, Reds 2.
Back to that ratio of dual losses and total losses: 17 double-loss days out of 61 total losses is a ratio of around 27.5%. If we presume that the ratio doubles for days when both teams win, we calculate a "double-win days to wins" ratio at 55%, or 56 such days. The actual total of "double-win" days for the Giants and Dodgers in 1962 is: 54.
SEASON RECORDS: LAD 88-47, SFG 85-49
[REST OF THE YEAR: LAD 13-14, SFG 16-12]
