60 YEARS AGO/116: RICHERT HANGS ON, WHILE MARICHAL WALKS THE PLANK

The NL in 1962 was certaonly a bouncy pennant race--and August 17, 1962 added another variation to the already boisterous mix. The Dodgers attempted to continue a rebound from a five-game losing streak, while the Giants looked for some consistent momentum.

Sandy Koufax' "replacement under duress," Pete Richert, got the call on this evening in Cincinnati, where the Reds had been making slow but steady gains on the top two teams for the past ten days. Tommy Davis returned to the outfield as Lee Walls was inserted into a lineup mostly geared to take advantage of the Reds' lefty starter Jim O'Toole.

The game was scoreless into the fourth, when the Dodgers pushed over an unearned run. Richert was doing a passable Koufax imitation into the sixth, by which time LA had added two more runs. But Cincy had the top of its order up in the bottom of the inning, and they finally started to get to the Dodger rookie; Walt Alston decided to come get him when Frank Robinson (by now giving Tommy Davis a serious chase in the BA and RBI departments) came to the plate representing the tying run. Larry Sherry kept Robinson from tying the game, but he did single in a run before the Reds were retired.

Sherry would (as was often the case) made things interesting in the seventh, but he managed to escape a two-on, one-out situation without allowing the typing run to score. In the eighth, Ron Fairly gave the Dodgers some breathing room with a three-run homer off Bill Henry.

Ron Perranoski, brought in during the seventh to stamp out the burgeoning blaze started by Sherry, shut down the Reds in the eighth and ninth to keep LA in the win column. Final score: Dodgers 6, Reds 2.

OVER in Milwaukee, the Giants got solo homers from Willie Mays (#38) and Orlando Cepeda (#24) but Juan Marichal weakened in the fourth and fifth innings; the game spiraled out of reach in the seventh when Juan allowed a two-run homer to Lee Maye (who been hitting .220 two weeks previously, but was now as hot as any hitter in the NL). Claude Raymond bailed out Bob Shaw in the eighth and continued his fine relief pitching for the Braves, striking out Felipe Alou with the tying runs in the ninth. Final score: Braves 6, Giants 4.

SEASON RECORDS: LAD 81-42, SFG 77-45