Friday – June 19 – First Game

From Chicago, the Phillies traveled to New York for a rare five-game weekend series with the Mets – with doubleheaders on Friday night and Sunday afternoon wrapped around a single game on Saturday.

The Phillies had taken three-of-four from the Mets the previous weekend in Philadelphia and the Mets were now solidly in last place – already 18 games behind the Phils.

Back to the Action – Starters Carlton Willey and Art Mahaffey threw shutout ball thru the first five innings – before the Phillies hit the scoreboard in the sixth:

• Johnny Briggs led off with a single and Johnny Callison homered (#8) to take a 2-0 lead.

That’s all the Phillies would score.

Meanwhile, Mahaffey tossed a seven-hit shutout thru eight innings. But then he ran into trouble and needed help finishing:

• Charley Smith led off with a single and Rod Kanehl walked.
• After Amado Samuel bunted the tying runners to second and third, Casey Stengel sent George Altman up to pinch-hit for the pitcher.
• Altman grounded out for the second out – but the runners moved up a base with Charley Smith scoring to cut the deficit to 2-1 – Kanehl moving to third.

With the tying run on third and two outs, Gene Mauch replaced Mahaffey with Ed Roebuck – and Roebuck proceeded to get Jim Hickman on a routine fly to center to end the game.

Art Mahaffey (7-2) picked up the win and Ed Roebuck the save (#10).

Larry Bearnarth (4-4) took the loss.

The win made it two in a row for the Phillies – and six wins in seven games against the Mets.

Friday – June 19 – Second Game

The Mets took the lead against Ray Culp in bottom of the third inning of the nightcap:

• Jim Hickman led off with a double and Ed Kranepool homered (#3) to give Mets a 2-0 lead.

But the Phillies responded immediately with four runs in the top of the fourth:

• Tony Taylor led off with a home run (#2).
• Johnny Briggs followed with a single.
• One out later, Richie Allen singled to send Briggs to third.
• John Herrnstein hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game 2-2.
• With Allen on first and two outs, Roy Sievers – struggling with a .146 batting average – unloaded a two-run shot (#3) to give the Phillies a 4-2 lead.

From there, the Phillies put the game out of reach with two more runs in the sixth and one in the seventh.

Phillies Sixth:

• Johnny Callison and Richie Allen led off with back-to-back singles.
• After John Herrnstein flew out, Roy Sievers drove Callison home with a double to center to make it 5-2 Phillies – Richie Allen stopping at third.
• With runners on second and third and one out, Bill Wakefield walked Clay Dalrymple intentionally to load the bases.
• The runners moved up a base when Wakefield uncorked a wild pitch – allowing Allen to score and up the lead to 6-2.

Phillies Seventh:

• Tony Taylor doubled, moved to third when Johnny Briggs flew out to deep right, and scored on Johnny Callison’s single to end the scoring at 7-2.

After giving up those two runs back in the third inning, Ray Culp shut out the Mets the rest of the way – giving up just two more hits.

The win made it:

• Five straight wins.
• Five straight wins over the Mets.
• Seven-of-eight on the season from the Mets.

Ray Culp (3-5) got the win and Galen Cisco (3-8) took the loss.

Around the League – The sweep of the doubleheader from the Mets – combined with the Giants 3-1 loss to the Cardinals – enabled the Phils to move 2½ games in front of the Giants.

In addition to being the official Eagles Outsider for BlameMyFather.com – Barry Bowe is also the author of:

• Born to Be Wild
• 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant
• 12 Best Eagles QBs
• Birth of the Birds
• Soon-to-be-published sexy, police procedural Caribbean Queen
• Soon-to-be-published novel Stosh Wadzinski
• Soon-to-be-published novel Polish Widow