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| 6 2/3 inn of no hit ball |
Big D had it going from the onset. By the bottom of the 7th inning the Halos were still hitless and the Dodgers had themselves a 7-0 lead. After getting the first 2 outs in the 7th Don Drysdale jammed Lee Thomas, who fought it off to drop one into right to break up the no hitter. Pinch hitter George Thomas would then walk to put runners on 1st and second. Buck Rodgers would hit a dribbler up the first base line that Ron Fairly hurried and wound up booting for an error that loaded the bases. Quickly things went from bad to worse as Yost lined a 2 run single to right to make it 7-2. Koppe would follow with an RBI single of his own to make it 7-3. In the top of the 8th the Dodgers would answer back with 2 run of their own to make it 9-2. Game over...well not so fast. Drysdale was still rattled from the previous inning and the Angels knew they still had a chance if the got to him quickly. Albie Pearson kept fouling of pitch after pitch, which succeeded in irking the tall right hander. Eventually Drydale missed the strike zone and Pearson worked out a walk. Moran lined a single to left to put runners on 1st and second. Drysdale was now at defcon-1 and proceeded to brush back Leon Wagner with two pitches that came very close to surgically removing his right ear. Drysdale then reared back and blew 3 hard ones right by the Angels slugger for the first out of the inning. That same approach was aimed at Lee Thomas, but was met with a negative result for Big D. Thomas stood his ground and lined one into left center to score Pearson. A ground out by George Thomas scored Moran and a wild pitch from the downright furious Drysdale scored Thomas. The score was now 9-6. This game was a laugher just 2 innings earlier and now it was one of those wild games that you usually see in Wrigley. After Bobby "Boom" Botz got the Dodgers to go down in order in the 9th Drysdale returned to the hill to close it out in the bottom of the inning. Popular convention would have dictated that the big man would be through, but he was not going to be denied his opportunity of redemption. After tossing 314 innings in the regular season and earning the league's Cy Young award, Drysdale earned his right to close out this game. His first victim was Eddie Yost who fanned on 4 pitches. Koppe grounded weakly to third for the second out and pinch hitter Ken Hunt is still standing at home plate shaking his head at a borderline called strike that ended the game.
Dodgers lead series 3-1
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