60 YEARS AGO/46: DIFFERENT CITIES, SAME RESULT

By May 30, 1962, the National League was beginning to get the idea that two teams were very likely to be battling things out for the pennant. The two doubleheaders played by the Giants and Dodgers on this day did nothing to dispel such a perception: the results on this day were identical to what had happened on the west coast three days earlier.

IT took the Giants 12 innings to win the first of their games against the Phillies, however. With their five .300 hitters in their lineup, SF was still slapping out base hits, but they stranded many runners thanks to the clutch pitching of Phillies starter Cal McLish and led only 3-2 after eight and a half innings. Phils' manager Gene Mauch played for the tie after Roy Sievers singled to start off the bottom of the ninth, having slugger Don Demeter lay down a sacrifice bunt. Weak-hitting infielder Billy Klaus then squirted a single to right, and pinch-runner Mel Roach just beat Felipe Alou's throw to plate to tie the game.

In the 12th, though, Mauch's strategy backfired after the Giants had pushed over a run to take the lead. After Klaus singled again (this time off Stu Miller), Chris Short popped up his bunt attempt and Klaus was doubled off first. Tony Taylor then grounded out to end the game. Final score: Giants 4, Phillies 3 (12 innings).

Game Two was not so closely fought. The Giants slapped around Jack Hamilton (who sported a 5.92 ERA coming into the game) and knocked him out in the second (the decisive blow: Tom Haller's two-run homer); they added a run off Dallas Green in the fourth to take a 5-0 lead. Mike McCormick gave a little ground in the sixth, allowing a two-run homer to Roy Sievers, but Don Larsen and Stu Miller kept the Phillies at bay the rest of the way. Final score: Giants 5, Phillies 2.

UP the road in New York, the Dodgers were having an emotional return to the Polo Grounds. Even with Sandy Koufax on the mound for LA, the game bore a greater resemblance to 2019 than 1962, as the Dodgers hit four homers (including two from mighty mite Maury Wills--one of them was an inside-the-park job) and slapped out nineteen hits--OK, that sounds more like 1996 than 1962. In addition to Wills' four hits, Ron Fairly, Willie Davis and Frank Howard each had three hits. 

Koufax had his weakest game in the skein that would go into overdrive with his next start, but he had a 10-0 lead when he surrendered three runs and four hits to the Mets in the bottom of the fourth (including a homer by Gil Hodges). He weakened again in the ninth, but convinced manager Walt Alston to let him stay in to complete the game (a matter of pride, as he recounted in his 1966 autobiography). When the dust had finally settled, a total of 32 hits had been made--and there was still another game to play. Final score: Dodgers 13, Mets 6.

The second game was a much tighter affair, as Hodges continued to plague his former teammates by hitting two more homers, with the second one giving the Mets a 4-3 lead after five innings. This game was much more like post-modern baseball, with six homers--three for each team--out of a total of just fourteen hits for both teams (who combined to hit .212 in Game Two: 14-for-66).

Frank Howard homered in the seventh to put the Dodgers back ahead, but the Mets tied it in the bottom of the inning when Joe Christopher tripled and "that man again"--Elio Chacon--singled him in. Willie Davis hit the Dodgers' third homer of the game--and the seventh on the day--to break the tie in the ninth, however, and Larry Sherry survived an eventful bottom of the inning (aided by a baserunning gaffe by Richie Ashburn, who was thrown out attempting to stretch a single). Final score: Dodgers 6, Mets 5.

SEASON RECORDS: SFG 35-14, LAD 33-15, CIN 26-17, PIT 25-18, STL 24-20, MIL 21-26, HOU 18-27, PHI 16-28, CHC 15-31, NYM 12-29

NL RBI leaders: Cepeda, SFG 49; T. Davis, LAD 47; Mays, SFG 41; Pinson, CIN 40; F. Alou, SFG 37

NL SLG leaders: Mays, SFG .690; Sawatski, STL .662; Thomas, NYM, .650; Cepeda, SFG, .623; Pinson, CIN .622, B. Williams CHC, .603; T. Davis, LAD .580