...which was overheard by a fellow named Bacharach, who was visiting friends in Houston at the time, and--
--OK, OK, not true. Forgive us, please: it's been a long season...
Actually, Dark prayed for a bunch of runs (what manager wouldn't?). And, on this evening, he got 'em. Colts starter George Brunet opened up the first by surrendering four straight singles (Harvey Kuenn-Chuck Hiller-Felipe Alou-Willie Mays). He was quickly removed by Harry Craft, the Colts' long-suffering manager.
Brunet (whose career would get more notorious as the sixties continued, eventually exposed as a man who preferred to go without underwear*) actually got credit for a third of an inning, because Colts right fielder Roman Mejias threw wildly to third trying to throw out Hiller, who scored as the ball bounced wildly in foul territory; Alou tried to make it to third, though, and was thrown out.
IN St. Louis, all eyes were on Sandy Koufax as he made his first start since recuperating from his mysterious, alluring but dangerous finger injury. What they saw wasn't pretty: Koufax was wild, throwing four straight balls to Julian Javier, then walking Curt Flood on a 3-2 pitch that legitimately could have gone either way.
Sandy regrouped by striking out Stan Musial and getting Ken Boyer to hit a high pitch on 2-and-1 to left for the second out, but then he lost the strike zone with Bill White, walking him on four pitches to load the bases.
The seventh pitch was shoulder-high and off the outside corner, but James leaned into it and hit it in the air to right, where it sailed high in the air--and carried just enough to get it over the short right field wall at Busch Stadium. Grand slam; 4-0 Cardinals.
Sandy then walked catcher Gene Oliver on four pitches, and Walt Alston came and got him. Ed Roebuck then pitched 4 1/3 innings of "heroic relief" that kept the Dodgers in the game, at least until the sixth. When the Cards came up in the bottom of the inning, their lead was just 4-2.
But Stan Williams (originally scheduled to start the game) and Ron Perranoski were both unable to get an out while they were on the mound during that inning--eight straight Cardinals reached based against them, and seven scored. Dodger pitchers allowed 10 walks and 10 hits in the game, and did it without breaking a sweat. It was the beginning of a scorched-earth interaction with the mercurial Cardinals that would involved losing five of six games to them during the final ten days of the regular season. Final score: Cardinals 11, Dodgers 2.
As Koufax wrote in his autobiography: "We were three games ahead of the Giants after having played 154 games. But this was the first expansion year, with a schedule that consisted of 162 games. Those eight extra games killed us."
SEASON RECORDS: LAD 99-55, SFG 96-58
*according to the eyewitness testimony of Jim Bouton in Ball Four...
