1966 replay: Braves and Giants let loose some steam

So far, I am two full days into July in my 1966 NL replay. To be sure, the mid-sixties is not an offense-laden period in baseball history and this bears out in the pitching stats so far. Even with pitching staffs like the Cubs’ and the Mets’, it seems to be a pitcher’s game.

So far in July, while total offense does not seem to be on the rise, homeruns are being hit. Case in point, in Claude Osteen’s 2-1 win for LA over Bob Gibson and the Cardinals, all three runs were scored on solo homeruns.

It was the last game of July 2 that was the anomaly. The Atlanta Braves were visiting the San Francisco Giants. Both teams have proven they can hit and score runs.

However, the July 2nd game was one for the record books. In fact, more runs were scored in the Braves-Giants match-up than the five other games combined.

Atlanta was in the lead for the entire game scoring in the second at-bat and never looking back. They plated six times in the first two innings sending Bobby Bolin to the showers. The Giants kept it interesting thanks to a Tom Haller grand slam which brought it within one 6-5.

Felipe Alou responded with a grand slam of his own off Ray Sadecki and the Braves put up a five-spot in the third inning. And it just kept going. It was just a bad day to be a pitcher at Candlestick Park. When all was said and done, Atlanta defeated San Francisco 18-12.

The game was one of the most unusual ones I have played especially compared to the 1-0 pitching duels I am used to in my 1966 replay.

Some of the highlights from the game:

• 30 total runs on 37 hits
• A total of nine homeruns, three doubles and a triple
• Felipe Alou 5 for 7 with 4 runs, 4 rbis and a grand slam
• Mack Jones 4 for 5 with 2 HR, 4 runs, 4 rbis (his only out was a 22-8)
• Tom Haller 2 HR, 6 rbis, 4 runs (go Illini!)
• The Giants hit for the cycle in the 7th all after two outs.
• Fielding 3 San Francisco committed five errors. This included two by Willie Mays on the 1st and 2nd boards!
• Joey Jay managed to stick around for 5 innings for the win. He gave up 9 hits and 8 runs, 7 earned.

You can see the full boxscore here but take a quick look at the Braves hitting.

Yes, even Joey Jay who didn’t pitch that well, scored two runs.

By the way, I wanted to document this game for posterity’s sake so I used BallScore to re-enter the score so I would have a nice neat format. I have been playing around with BallScore recently and may do a review sometime soon. I will say that doing this helped me find a mistake in my scoring (oops!).

The win is Atlanta’s fourth in a row. They are now in second place having just passed the Pirates. At 48-32, they now have the same amount of wins as first place Los Angeles (48-27). Meanwhile, the once tough Giants have sunk to fifth place below the hot Phillies.

10 APBA days till the 1966 All-Star Game!!