Aug 5, 1963 – Forbes Field
GAME 4 - LAD 1, PIT 0
Sandy Koufax vs Bob Friend
Competitors like Bob Friend and Sandy Koufax are prideful men who can not live with the type of subpar performances that they port forth in game 1. Both men took the hill with the sole purpose of showing the fans that what they saw 4 days ago was just an aberration. For 8 fantastic innings both hurlers posted goose eggs on the board. LA had their chances to score off of Friend, who was able to get out of jams in the 1st, 3rd and 7th innings. LA kept knocking on the door, but they just couldn't find anyone home. On the other side of the tracks Sandy Koufax was locked and loaded and ready to dominate. A second inning lead off double by Bob Bailey would be the only hit the Bucs would get on the day. This meant that Friend had no margin for error. That error would occur in the the top of the 9th. Maury Wills would lead off with a clean single. Friend tried to concentrate on the task at hand, getting Junior Gilliam out, but in the back of his mind he had to also focus
on the speedy Wills on first. Gilliam, who has been executing hit and runs like it was mere child’s play since his early 50's beginning in Brooklyn, lined an outside pitch into left. Wills easily raced to third to put runners on the corners with nobody out. The infield was drawn in, but it didn't matter as Ron Fairly floated a fly ball to center that had more than enough distance to score Wills. With the scoreless deadlock broken the Bucs were in trouble. LA failed to push ahead an insurance run, but it didn't matter one bit as Koufax set the Bucs down in the 9th to close out the game and the series. Sandy would get himself a 1 hit shutout and fan 8 on a day when his stuff was electric, because it had to be.
Dodgers win series 3-1
No comments:
Post a Comment