60 YEARS AGO/44: DIFFERENT PARTNERS, SAME DANCE...

Perhaps the Phillies and Mets waved to each other across the dark, turbid California air space as they swapped places on their West Coast journeys. 

If so, it was unquestionably a forlorn exchange. The Phillies, in fourth place two weeks previously, were in the midst of a 1-8 road trip west of the Mississippi that was part of a stretch in which they'd lose seventeen of twenty. 

The Mets, not to be outdone, followed a successful opening road series in Milwaukee (winning three of four, a feat they would not duplicate until 1964) with a losing skein that moved with them like an occluded front. It followed them home, and stalled over the Polo Grounds for another week, refusing to move on until the consecutive body count reached seventeen.

As you can see, bad pitching can really jump-start a protracted string of losses; the Phillies (above right, from May 12-30) and the Mets (at left, from May 21-June 5) clearly personify that principle. (And, no, that's not a misprint--Roger Craig really did strike out only three batters in his four losing starts during this period. Note, though, that he had a pretty respectable ERA--a long losing streak tends to require at least one guy pitching well but without luck.)

The Mets did try their darnedest, however, to snap this losing streak in two on Saturday, May 26, cuffing around Billy O'Dell for seven hits in three innings and taking a 3-2 lead into the fourth. Unfortunately for them, however, they had Jay Hook on the mound, and not Craig or Bob Miller, and the former electrical engineering student kept giving back the lead--meaning that he kept pitching to Willie Mays (who hit two homers and a triple against him).

Those Mays homers, somewhat unsurprisingly, came at crucial points in the game--the first in the eighth to erase a 5-4 Mets lead, and the second in the tenth with a man on to overturn a 6-5 Mets lead and send them to another defeat. Why Hook was still in there pitching in extra innings is slightly mysterious, but a look at the relief pitcher ERAs in the graphic covering the Mets' pitching during their 17-game losing streak probably explains it. (Of course, we won't dismiss the "Stengel napping on the bench" theory out of hand--this was a day game after a night game.) Final score: Giants 7, Mets 6 (10 innings).

DOWN in LA, the Phillies did manage to score against Sandy Koufax (a Roy Sievers homer in the first), but they could manage only another unearned run the rest of the way as they began to flail at his deliveries in increasing helplessness as the afternoon progressed. Koufax would wind up with 16 strikeouts, and would even contribute an RBI single in the seventh when the Dodgers broke a 3-3 tie. Willie Davis added an insurance run with a homer in the eighth, and "the left arm of God" struck out the side in the ninth to nail down his sixth win and the Dodgers' sixth win in a row...in a streak that would eventually reach thirteen. Final score: Dodgers 6, Phillies 3.

SEASON RECORDS: SFG 31-14, LAD 29-15