Sunday, August 9

Going for a series sweep, Jim Bunning (11-4) faced Tracy Stallard (6-14) in the series finale.

Play Ball:

With Jim Bunning giving up nothing to the Mets, the Phillies picked away with a run in the first:

• With two outs, Johnny Callison singled.
• Wes Covington doubled to score Callison.

Three more in the bottom of the fourth:

• Clay Dalrymple walked.
• Frank Thomas homered (#2 with the Phillies and #4 overall).
• Tony Taylor and Ruben Amaro hit back-to-back singles and moved up on Jim Bunning’s sacrifice bunt.
• Tony Gonzalez walked to load the bases.
• Taylor scored on Richie Allen’s sacrifice fly to make it 4-0 Phillies.

And two more in the bottom of the eighth:

• Johnny Callison beat out a bunt.
• Alex Johnson pinch-hit for Wes Covington and hit his first home run in the majors to end the scoring at 6-0.

Jim Bunning – whose last start against the Mets was the perfect-game masterpiece on Father’s Day – picked up the win (12-4). In all, he was 3-0 versus the Mets with a 1.00 ERA and three complete games.

Tracy Stallard (6-15) took the loss.

That made it three straight wins for the Phillies ─ and 12 wins in 14 games against the Mets.

Around the League:

The Giants beat the Reds 7-5 – on the strength of home runs by Willie Mays (#32) and Willie McCovey (#16) – to remain 2½ games behind the Phillies.

Mays went 4-for-5 with three RBIs and McCovey went 3-for-5 with two RBIs.

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
• Work-in-Progress A Fuckin All-American