Saturday, April 9, 2011

1964 Round 2 – Bucs upset Phightins’ in 4

GAME 1 - Connie Mack Stadium
Pirates 2, Phillies 1
Bob Friend vs Jim Bunning
Roberto_Clemente The game remained scoreless until the top of the 4th when the Bucs scored solo runs in successive innings to take a 2-0 lead.  After Stargell's 1 out triple in the 4th, backup catcher Jim Pagliaroni singled to make it 1-0.  Roberto Clemente's 2 out RBI single in the 5th would make it 2-0 and eventually would count as the game winner.  Back to back doubles by Richie Allen and Wes Covington in the bottom of the 6th made it a tight 1 run game again, but Friend would make all the pitches he would need until walking Covington with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th.  Al McBean would enter from the pen and get Callison to fly out to left for out number 2.  Clay Dalrymple's 2 out single put runners on the corners as the tension level mounted.  Vic Power, who entered the game in the 7th for defense made his first plate appearance of the game and grounded weakly to short to end it.
Pirates lead series 1-0

GAME 2 - Connie Mack Stadium
Phillies 5, Pirates 3
Gibbon vs Bennett
Gibbon could not protect the 3 run opening salvo his team staked him to.  An error byTony_Gonzalez his  shortstop, Dick Schofield in the bottom of the first allowed it to become a 3-1 game.  Richie Allen's RBI triple in the second made it 3-2 and another Schofield error off of another Tony Gonzalez' slicing grounder tied it a 3-3.  Three consecutive singles, a hit batsman and an error by Gibbon on Bobby Wine's knubber in front of home gave Philly 2 more runs and the lead which they would never relinquish.  All 3 runs given up by Philly starter Dennis Bennett were unearned, but he still managed to go 8 and get the victory.  Cookie Rojas, Richie Allen and Johnny Callison would combine for 6 of Philly's 10 hits.  Bob Bailey would post 3 hits for the team on the short side of the ledger.
Series tied 1-1

GAME 3 - Forbes Field
Pirates 3, Philles 2
Chris Short vs Vern Law
Willie_Stargell The grizzly old veteran Vern Law outlasted young guy Chris Short on a day where control would be king.  Both teams combined for 14 strikeouts and now bases on balls, which surely is a tournament record for accuracy.  Richie Allen's RBI single in the 6th gave his squad a 2-0 lead.  After Clemente's 1 out triple Willie Stargell lifted a sac fly to center to get Pittsburgh on the board and leave them down by just 1.  Short and reliever Johnny Klippstein could hold down the Bucs, who scored solo runs in each of the next two innings to take a 3-2 lead.  Willie Stargell's solo shot in the 8th would turn out to be the game winner.  McBean would pitch a perfect 9th in relief of "the Deacon".
Pirates lead series 2-1

GAME 3 - Forbes Field
Pirates 5, Philles 3
Art Mahaffey vs Bob Veale
Mahaffey was less than stellar, but his team's offense rallied to try to keep the franchiseAl_McBean in the tournament.  With Pittsburgh up 4-1 thanks to a Mazeroski 2 run blast and RBI tallies by Schofield and Veale the Phightins rallied.  Johnny Callison's near miss grand slam in the 6th could have put the Phightins up 5-4.  Instead it counted as a sac fly and made the score 4-2.  Butters, who had to replace the fading Veale got the outs needed to limit the damage to 1.  This would loom large as Ruben Amaro would pinch hit in the 9th and knock in Herrnstein to make it 4-3.  With runners on 2nd and 3rd and 1 out Al McBean would get the call once again and not disappoint.  A weak grounder by Tony Taylor was followed by a series ending line out by Covington.  McBean would notch his 4th save of the tournament.
Pirates win series 3-1

No comments:

Post a Comment