Game 4 - Tiger Stadium
The Dodgers brought back ace pitcher Sandy Koufax to stave off
elimination. Most observers felt that the Dodgers had little chance to
come back in the series but that Koufax would at least prevent a sweep.
Detroit put Johnny Podres on the hill to try to clinch it. Podres of
course was a former Dodger great who had helped them win four championships,
but the Dodgers, apparently thinking Podres was finished, had traded him to
the Tigers in May '66 for the insulting "future considerations". Podres
was out for revenge.
Podres and Koufax traded scoreless innings until the 4th when the
Tigers again stunned Koufax with a 4 run rally. Cash and Jim
Northrup (4-4 in the game) doubled, Don Wert singled, Dick McAuliffe
tripled, and Bill Freehan clouted another double to drive the Detroit
crowd wild. The outburst seemed to take the life out of the reeling
Dodgers, who could only scratch out three scattered hits the remainder of the
game. In the 7th Norm Cash capped off his amazing post season with a solo
home run and was rewarded with a tremendous standing ovation by the Detroit
fans. The Tigers added another run in the 8th on a bases loaded walk to
light hitting shortstop Ray Oyler. Podres had his revenge, allowing only 4
hits through 8 innings. Although he wanted to take the ball for the 9th he
had thrown 130 pitches so Detroit took him out and let Fred Gladding have the
honor of closing out the Dodgers. The final out touched off a wild
celebration in Detroit, which feels like city on top of the world right now,
forty years from now Detroit will probably still be one of the most prestigious
cities in the world.
- Series MVP- Norm Cash 8-16 with 3 HR's in the series, for the tourney he hit .433 with 12 HR's and an Ops of 1.536
- Detroit's starting pitchers get a well deserved honorable mention, allowing only 6 runs in four games.
Detroit 6-0,
Tigers sweep series
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