Sunday, January 23, 2011

Dodgers sweep series in 4 vs arch rival Jints

GAME 4 - Dodger Stadium - LAD 5, SFG 3
Billy Pierce vs Don Drysdale
Tommy_Davis Right from the very start it was apparent that Pierce was not the right man for the job of extending the Giants season past today.  With the melodious prose of Vin Scully being broadcasted off of the transistor radios that more than half of the 54,000 fans in attendance brought, the happy sounds of Dodger runs crossing the plate numbered 3 after the first inning ended.  Wills led off the game with a bunt single, then began dancing off of first in what looked like a perfect imitation of the way Jackie Robinson harassed pitcher a decade earlier on the other side of the continent.  Wills need not imitate anyone, for his base running artistry was an original unto itself.  In this case Pierce was convicted to keeping Wills for pilfering second, and in a sense the veteran lefty was quite successful in his designated task.  Unfortunately for him and Giants Wills was able to reach second and beyond on the second pitch to batter Junior Gilliam.  This would occur thanks to Gilliam getting a flat fastball that cut right down the middle of the plate like the double yellow line cuts through a major thoroughfare.  Gilliam wasted no time in turning on the offering and lining it just over the 3 foot railing in left field to make it 2-0 for the home team.  Piece was now beyond rattled as evidenced by the ball Willie Davis hit to the base off the wall that Matty Alou barely was able to track down.  Left fielder Harvey Kuenn would not be so lucky with the long fly ball Tommie Davis would hit to left that not only cleared the wall, but wound up 15 rows deep in the  left center field pavilion.  Drysdale with a 3-0 lead looked like a sure thing.  It was anything but a sure thing when Mays hit a solo shot in the 2nd to make it a 1 run ball game.  San Fran had now scored solo runs in consecutive innings and Drysdale looked to be struggling with his control.  Thanks to back to back walks to Ron Fairly and Frank Howard to lead off the 4th the Dodgers were able to push across a fourth run on a ground out to put Big D up by 2 again.  Matty Alou, who was getting his first start of the series, made the most of it with an RBI single in the top of the 5th to make it a 1 run game again.  Fairly would single home Willie Davis in the bottom of the inning to bump the lead back up to 2.  This time Don Drysdale would lock it down by allowing just 1 hit over the final 4 innings of play and striking out 4.  In the end the Dodgers out hit and out pitched their rivals to the north who relied purely on the long ball and had no answers for Wills on the base paths.
Los Angeles wins series 4-0

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