Wednesday – May 6

After a scoreless top of the first by Ray Culp, the Phillies took a 4-0 lead over the Braves in the bottom half:

• With one out, Richie Allen and Johnny Callison hit back-to-back singles – sending Allen to third.
• Tony Gonzalez also singled and Allen scored to make it 1-0 Phillies. But there was a play at the plate on Allen that allowed Callison to take third and Gonzalez to move up to second. It was the 10^th and 11^th RBIs for Gonzalez.
• Bob Sadowski walked Wes Covington intentionally to load the bases.
• John Herrnstein cleared the bases with a double to the deepest part of center-field to make it 4-0 Phillies.

Sadowski was lifted for a pinch-hitter and replaced by lefty Billy Hoeft (0-0) – a former starter who’d gone 20-14 with the Detroit Tigers in 1956. But he’d been relegated to the bullpen for the past two years.

While Hoeft allowed just one run on four hits over the next four innings, the Braves started chipping away:

• An Eddie Mathews double leading off the third – followed by a Hank Aaron triple and a Joe Torre ground out – cut the Phillies lead to 4-2.
• With one out in the top of the fifth, Eddie Mathews hit his second straight double, Hank Aaron singled, and Joe Torre homered (#4) to put the Braves on top 5-4.
• After Gene Mauch replaced Culp with Johnny Klippstein (2-0), Ed Bailey singled and Frank Bolling doubled.
• Then Klippstein walked Denis Menke intentionally to load the bases.
• Batting for himself, Hoeft drew a walk to force home a run and expand the lead to 6-4 Braves.

The Phillies scored a singleton in the fifth on Richie Allen’s triple and a Johnny Callison ground out to trim the deficit to 6-5.

Bob Tiefenauer replaced Hoeft in the bottom of the sixth and faced the minimum six batters over the next two innings to hold the score at 6-5 Braves. But he ran into trouble in the bottom of the eighth:

• Richie Allen walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and moved to third on a come-backer to the mound.
• After Tiefenauer fanned Tony Gonzalez for the second out, Wes Covington crushed his second home run over the rightfield wall to put the Phillies back on top 7-6.

And that’s the way the game ended.

Ed Roebuck (1-0) picked up the win in relief while Bob Tiefenauer (1-1) blew the save and took the loss.

Around the League – The Giants lost to the Cubs 4-2 – allowing the Phillies to creep into a second-place tie with the Braves, one game behind the Giants.

1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant was originally published two years ago – but please don’t purchase it right now. I’m in the final stages of streamlining the original to make it a better reading experience.

I’ll let you know when it’s ready.

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