60 YEARS AGO/130: THE DAY BEFORE THE FINAL IN-SEASON SHOWDOWN...

One nail-biter and one blowout dialed themselves up on Sunday 9/2, the day before an extremely significant late-season showdown occurred in LA between the Giants and Dodgers. 

It was see-saw time at Candlestick as the Reds' Bob Purkey (already a 20-game winner) faced off against the Giants' up-and-down Billy O'Dell. SF grabbed the lead in the fourth on a two-run singled from Willie McCovey, and extended it to 3-0 when Jose Pagan hit what might have been the most impressive homer of his career off Purkey, a prodigious blast to dead center. After the Reds got on the board (a Don Blasingame double scored Eddie Kasko), Willie Mays made it 4-1 with his 41st homer of the year.

But O'Dell weakened in the eighth, victimized by Chuck Hiller's costly error. The extra out gave Leo Cardenas a chance to bat, and his double brought in two unearned runs to tie the score.

Batting through the bottom of their order in the ninth, however, the Reds could not get Vada Pinson or Frank Robinson to the plate with men on base, and their reliever Jim Brosnan had to face McCovey-Mays-Felipe Alou in the bottom of the ninth. Brosnan retired McCovey, but Mays singled and Alou hit a 1-0 pitch over the left-center field fence to ice the game for the Giants. Final score: San Francisco 6, Cincinnati 4.

IN LA, Don Drysdale was in total command, allowing just five hits over nine innings and notching his 23rd win of the season. (With seven scheduled starts left, Big D had an outside chance at 30 wins; but, as things turned out, he didn't come close.) 

The bottom four in the Dodger lineup went 8-for-14, helping to send Braves' starter Bob Shaw to the showers after just 3 1/3 innings. #8 hitter Johnny Roseboro drove in three runs, and Drysdale himself had two hits and two RBI. 

The table at right shows how for Drysdale, the key to success against the Braves was in containing Hank Aaron. His lifetime record against the eight position players who started against him on 9/2/62 shows that he controlled seven of them quite well--but not Aaron, who hit more HRs in his head-to-head face-offs with Drysdale than the other seven batters combined. 1962 was a year in which Big D kept a lid on Aaron: he went 4-1 against Milwaukee, with just 2 HRs allowed in 40 IP, posting an ERA of 1.13. (Overall, he was 30-25 against the Braves in his career, allowing 55 HRs--almost a third of them to Aaron.) Final score: Dodgers 8, Braves 0.

SEASON RECORDS: LAD 90-47, SFG 86-50