The two clubs trotted out their workhorses to start Game One, and it was Drysdale who found the going tough in the early innings as he struggled with his command. A one-out walk to Russ Snyder in the 1st came back to bite when Brooks Robinson singled him home with two outs, and a Maury Wills error helped load the bases for Snyder to draw another base on balls that forced home a run in the 2nd. Los Angeles put together three singles in the 3rd to get on the scoresheet, and Drysdale showed command with the bat when he doubled home a run in the 3rd, took third on Andy Etchebarren's passed ball, and scored on Wills' sacrifice fly to give the home team the lead. The early action on the basepaths petered out in the middle innings as the two hurlers gradually reasserted control; a baserunner didn't reach second again until Lou Johnson's two-out walk in the 7th pushed Wills to second base, but Tommy Davis grounded into a force play to end the threat. With the Dodgers still hanging onto a 3-2 lead, Wes Parker drew a one-out walk in the 8th and moved to third on Jim Gilliam's base hit. That was the afternoon for McNally, and Johnny Roseboro greeted Frank Bertaina with a fly ball to center that was long enough to send Parker home for a two-run lead. Drysdale was in the groove at this point, and he dispatched the O's quickly in the top of the 9th to give the Dodgers the early leg up in the Series. Los Angeles 4-9-1, Baltimore 2-8-0. [scoresheet] [broadcast]
The Series was barely underway, but it felt as if Baltimore were already facing pressure - down a game, playing on the road, and today staring down the barrel of "The Left Arm of God". In response, they were trusting their fate to 20 year-old phenom Palmer, who appeared to be up to the task. Palmer faced only ten men over the first three innings, Maury Wills reaching on an infield single in the 4th, but Koufax faced only nine while striking out four of them. The Orioles managed a walk in the 4th and reached on a Wills error in the 5th, but they were completely overwhelmed by Koufax until trouble bubbled to the surface in the Baltimore 8th. With two outs, Boog Powell walked and Koufax hit Davey Johnson on the foot with a curveball; Paul Blair then grounded one to the left of Jim Lefebvre, but the sharp-fielding 2B could not come up with it cleanly and the Orioles had the bases full and a chance to take the game in their hands. But Etchebarren could only manage to ground out into a force out that ended the inning and let what seemed to be a chance which they were unlikely to get again slip through their fingers. Palmer was matching Koufax pitch-for-pitch, and the game went to the 9th scoreless . . . and with the Orioles still looking for their first hit of the game. Koufax retired the first two men quickly, but Powell drew another free pass and the Davey Johnson broke the spell with an RBI double that ended the no-hitter and the shutout, and gave BAL the lead. With the magic now dissipated, Blair singled home a second run and then Etchebarren drove a shocking two-run homer out of the field of play and Baltimore suddenly had the 4-0 advantage in a game in which it seemed they were doomed never to score. It was Palmer's time to shine, as the young right-hander got three groundouts in the bottom of the 9th to finish off a dominant run of fourteen consecutive outs to end the game and get the Orioles even before heading home to Memorial Stadium. A pitcher's duel for the ages, on the game's biggest stage. Baltimore 4-3-0, Los Angeles 0-2-2. [scoresheet] [broadcast]
The Series traveling show moves East, and the change of venue and time zones seemed to have thrown off the pitchers more than the hitters. The Orioles jumped on Osteen for three straight singles to start the bottom of the 1st and groundouts pushed two of those runners across the plate. But Los Angeles responded with a two-run homer from Lou Johnson and an RBI single by Parker in the 3rd, then added two more when Roseboro homered in the 3rd. Two singles and a walk with one out in the 4th chased Bunker from the game, and the Dodgers ballooned their lead to 7-2 before Frank Robinson tripled with two men aboard, and Brooks singled him home, in the bottom half. Osteen settled down, and the Oriole bullpen put a lid on the chaos on their side, and the game stuck at 7-5 LA into the late innings. With one out in the 8th, Blair tripled and PH Russ Snyder singled him home with two outs to cut the BAL deficit to a single run, but Phil Regan retired the final four Orioles in order to preserve the win. Wills and Johnson had three hits apiece for the Dodgers. Los Angeles 7-14-0, Baltimore 5-11-1. [scoresheet]
It was obvious early in the game that this was not to be the same Drysdale that suffocated the Orioles in Game One. Snyder singled with one out in the 1st and Frank Robinson followed with his first home run of the Series to jump the home team in front by two. In the 3rd, a walk and a wild pitch conspired with two singles to produce three more Baltimore runs, and Curt Blefary sent the Dodger righty to the showers with a three-run blast in the 6th that put the O's way ahead. McNally was uninterested in giving Los Angeles any hint of a chance to come back, taking advantage of two double-play balls to pitch seven shutout innings before yielding to John Miller for mop-up duty. The Baltimore native completed the shutout in front of the home crowd with a pair of clean innings and the Series was tied once again with a rematch of the epic Game Two coming tomorrow. Baltimore 8-11-0, Los Angeles 0-9-0. [scoresheet]
Palmer and Koufax warmed up to a buzz in the stands, as the crowd of nearly 55,00 wondered if they could possibly see anything to top the drama when these two arms wrestled on the West Coast four days ago. Both clubs got. two men aboard in the 1st, and the visitors had first-and-third with one out in the 2nd, but no one crossed the plate and the game settled into a pace familiar to the previous meeting - the Dodgers had only two hits off of Palmer through four innings, and Koufax had again held Baltimore hitless through the first three innings. The script changed slightly, though, in the home 4th - Frank Robinson singled to start the inning, and moved to second when Johnson looped a hit into short right with two outs. That brought Blair, who had delivered an RBI single against Koufax in the fateful 9th of Game Two, to the plate and he hit a ball down the right-field line for two bases that scored Robinson and would have plated Johnson as well if not for a perfect relay from Ron Fairly to Lefebvre to Roseboro that cut down the second run. Palmer didn't have complete command (six walks), and walked a pair in the 5th before whiffing Roseboro to end the inning, then allowed two singles in the first three batters in the 7th before Hank Bauer came out to take the ball from the post-pubescent pitcher. With the left-handed Parker and Willie Davis coming up, Bauer turned to his lone lefty in the pen again, and Bertaina got Parker to ground to second with the infield pulled in and the slow-moving Koufax at third and then indiced a fly ball from Davis which Blefary put away routinely to douse the Dodger threat. Koufax fanned the side in the 8th and two of the three Orioles in the 9th, but Baltimore fireman Stu Miller came on to put Los Angeles down in the final two innings, stranding the tying run at second by retiring Parker on a ground ball to second. Baltimore 1-4-0, Los Angeles 0-6-1. [scoresheet]
Dodgers come home to a sellout crowd of 56,000 needing to win two in a row, and their hopes are dashed almost before those fans have settled into their seats. Luis Aparicio singles to start off the game and, one out later, Frank Robinson hits one into the seats for two runs; Brooks singles behind him, and then Powell muscles one out to right to make it 4-0 after only five men have come to the plate against Osteen. It gets worse in the 2nd, when Wills fumbles Etchebarren's grass-cutter to start the inning, Watt singles, Aparicio bunts the two men into scoring position and Blefary singles to left-center to score two more. The Dodgers fight back, scoring four runs in the 3rd on six singles and and key error by Johnson, but Frank homers again in the 6th and Johnson strokes an RBI double later in the inning to restore a four-run cushion. Watt provides serviceable pitching into the 7th, and then three relievers combine to shepherd the lead; it doesn't proceed without drama as the Dodgers load the bases on three singles with two outs in the 8th, but Moe Drabowsky retires Fairly on a fly to deep center field and then Stu Miller shrugs off a lead-off double by Lefebvre in the 9th to get to the final out of the Series without damage. Baltimore 8-11-1, Los Angeles 4-16-1. [scoresheet]
An odd Series in some ways - the two clubs had essentially identical offensive production (.662 OPS for LA, .665 for BAL) yet the Orioles scored twice as many runs. The 13-to-5 gap in extra-base hits had a little bit to do with that, but the real difference was batting with runners in scoring position - Baltimore hit a scalding 500 in these situations (12-for-24) while the Dodgers failed miserably with an average of .192 (10-for-52). In a Series where there were a pair of two-run games and a one-run game, that was more than enough to swing the outcome. The two Koufax-Palmer tilts will linger long in the memory. [Series stats]
Frank Robinson had a postseason befitting of a reigning Triple Crown winner (.333, three HR, seven RBI) but Orioles RHP Jim Palmer was the story of the Series. He did not allow a single run in 15.1 innings of work, allowing only six hits, and needed every last pitch of that to win two games matched up against the seemingly invincible Koufax (who only allowed seven hits in 17 innings while striking out 22).
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