60 YEARS AGO/150: DESPERATION RESURFACES IN DODGERTOWN

On 9/25/62 (a Tuesday) Walt Alston pushed the panic button. He sent Don Drysdale back to the mound to start against the Houston Colts on one day of rest. (Drysdale had lasted only 3 1/3 innings on Sunday in St. Louis.)

Big D had volunteered for it, and Alston must have felt he had little choice. He'd used Stan Williams and Sandy Koufax in relief in St. Louis, and he was naturally loath to hand over a now-crucial game to a mop-up man (Phil Ortega) or a farmhand (Jack Smith).

The Colts were, of course, a first-year expansion team, but they did have good pitching. Ex-Dodger Turk Farrell was going to lose 20 game, but much of that was due to terrible run support. And he was Drysdale's mound opponent that night in LA.

Maury Wills' 35th error allowed the Colts to score an unearned run in the first, and the game then quickly settled into a pitchers' duel. It was still 1-0 Colts in the bottom of the sixth when Wills bunted his way on, stole second, was sacrificed to third--and then stole home to tie the game. (Those SBs were #98 and #99 on the year.)

But the Colts' good-field, no-hit SS J.C. Hartman got his bunt past Drysdale's outstretched glove to lead off the seventh and reached base--which led to Big D's lone pitching mistake of the evening, a fat first pitch to Al Spangler, who hit it off the right-center field wall for a triple, scoring Hartman.

The Dodgers scratched back for a run in the bottom of the inning when Tommy Davis scored on a sacrifice fly by Johnny Roseboro. Duke Snider batted for Drysdale with a chance to give the Dodgers the lead; he hit a ball solidly to right, but the night air in LA cut it down and it was caught on the warning track.

LA has scoring threats in the eighth and ninth, but couldn't cash in against Farrell. In the tenth, Ed Roebuck replaced Ron Perranoski, and he got a 1-2 pitch up in the zone to Spangler just as Drysdale had done earlier--and Al hit it into the fourth row of the right field bleachers. The Dodgers got a man on in the bottom of the inning with two out, but Tommy Davis got under Farrell's 2-1 pitch and his bid for a walkoff homer to left fell short. Final score: Colts 3, Dodgers 2 (ten innings).

UP in SF, Jack Sanford hung tough, and the Giants broke through for four hits and two runs in the sixth, adding single runs in the seventh and eighth to hold off the pesky Cardinals. Bill White hit a ninth inning homer (#20) against Sanford, but it was too little, too late as Jack coasted to his 23rd win, closing the gap between the Giants and Dodgers to just two games. Final score: Giants 4, Cardinals 2.

SEASON RECORDS: LAD 100-57, SFG 98-59