Monday – June 29

The Phillies moved from St. Louis to Houston to begin a two-game set with the Colt 45s. They’d played seven games against each other thus far with the Phillies winning six times and the Colt 45s once.

The Colt 45s were tied for eighth place – 11 games out of first place – and coming off a four-game series with the Cubs in which they lost the first three games before salvaging the final game.

A pair of seven-game winners were facing each other:

• Art Mahaffey (7-2).
• Bob Bruce (7-4).

Despite jumping off to a 7-2 start on the season, Art Mahaffey had been complaining about tenderness in his pitching arm over the last three weeks. So Gene Mauch had been giving him extra time off between starts.

On to the Action: Art Mahaffey got off to a disastrous start in the bottom of the first:

• With one out, Mahaffey hit Nellie Fox with a pitch.
• Mike White forced Fox at second for the second out – but then moved to second on a wild pitch.
• Walt Bond singled to score White and make it 1-0.
• Joe Gaines singled and Bond moved to third.
• After Gaines stole second on the first pitch to Rusty Staub, Mahaffey walked Staub to load the bases.
• Bob Aspromonte then cleared the bases with a grand slam (#8) to make it 5-0 Houston.

Mahaffey got Jerry Grote on a grounder to short for the third out, but it was now painfully obvious – pun intended – that something was wrong with his arm.

The Phillies scored a run in the top of the second:

• With one out, Wes Covington singled and moved to third when Clay Dalrymple doubled.
• After Roy Sievers tapped out to the mound – the runners holding.
• Cookie Rojas singled to score Covington and close the gap to 5-1.

With Art Mahaffey’s arm hurting, Gene Mauch sent Danny Cater up to pinch-hit for him. After Cater grounded out to end the inning, Cal McLish came in to pitch.

Cal McLish

Cal McLish was a 38-year-old veteran the Phillies acquired from the Chicago White Sox two years earlier. McLish made his pitching debut way back in 1944 with the Brooklyn Dodgers

In his two years with the Phillies, he went 11-5 and 13-11, but he’d been nursing a sore arm since spring training.

This was his first outing of the season.

Back to the Action: From there, Cal McLish and Bob Bruce traded zeroes into the fifth – and then the Colt 45s ended the scoring at 6-1 in the bottom of the fifth:

• Mike White singled.
• After Walt Bond struck out looking, Joe Gaines reached first on an error by Richie Allen – White moving to third.
• White scored when Rusty Staub hit into a force at second.

Bob Bruce (8-4) closed out the Phillies on four singles to pick up the win and Art Mahaffey (7-3) took the loss.

Around the League: The Giants lost to the Mets 4-3 on the strength of Jesse Gonder’s two-run homer (#3) in the top of the ninth – and thus missed an opportunity to lengthen their ½ game lead over the Phillies.

After the Game

The Phillies made two moves:

1. They placed Art Mahaffey on the Disabled List.
2. They sold Johnny Klippstein to the Minnesota Twins. Klippstein had compiled a record of 2-2 in 12 relief appearances with a 5.64 ERA and one save.

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