Sunday – May 31

The Phillies made it three straight wins thanks to the combined efforts of Art Mahaffey and Ed Roebuck – plus some power-hitting from Richie Allen and Ruben Amaro.

The Phillies got started in the first:

• Cookie Rojas led off with a single.
• Richie Allen followed with his 10th home run to put the Phillies ahead 2-0 – and giving him 24 RBIs.

And added to the lead in the fifth:

• John Herrnstein led off with his second triple in two games.
• One out later, Ruben Amaro hit his first home run to boost the Phillies lead to 4-0.

Holding a 4-0 lead going into the top of the seventh, Art Mahaffey suddenly developed a wild-streak and walked the bases loaded with one out. So Gene Mauch replaced Mahaffey with Ed Roebuck.

And the Colt 45s ended the shutout:

• Roebuck allowed a run-scoring single to Al Spangler.

But Roebuck got two straight come-backers to the mound to end the inning with the score 4-1. And he retired the Colt 45s one-two-three in the eighth and ninth to pick up the save (#6).

Art Mahaffey (4-2) got his second straight win and Jim Owens (1-4) took the loss.

That gave the Phils a 6-and-1 record in the season series with the Colt 45s.

Around the League – The Giants swept the longest doubleheader in MLB history – a combined 9 hours and 52 minutes – with a 5-3 win in the first game and an 8-6 victory in 23 innings in the second game.

Mets first-baseman Ed Kranepool played all 32 innings in both games.

The two wins inched the Giants to within ½ game of the Phillies.

And that’s the way May ended. The Phillies were 25-15 after the first two months of the season and in first place by ½ game.

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