Aug. 24, 1964 - The Philadelphia Phillies are in such good shape in the National League pennant race that they can come out on the short end of a sandlot-type game and still be philosophical.
Five Phillies pitchers were mauled tonight as the Braves won, 12-9, at Milwaukee County Stadium, but Philadelphia manager Gene Mauch took the affair in stride.
“The good still outweighs the bad,” Mauch said. “We’re a lot better off than we were a month ago. Now we just have to keep playing our game, making as few mistakes as possible.”
Despite the drubbing by the Braves, the Phils are 6½ games in front of San Francisco and seven games ahead of Cincinnati in the flag chase. And time is running out. Philadelphia has only 38 games left.
“I figured at the start of the season that if we played .600 ball, we’d get the job done,” Mauch said. “We’ve done a lot better, and that explains our lead. But we haven’t clinched anything, and we have to keep going to get the job completed.”
The Phils finished last in 1960 and ’61 before they began to move up under the direction of Mauch and general manager John Quinn. They finished sixth in 1962 and fourth last year.
“I don’t count ’60 and ’61,” Mauch said. “Those were two years in which we went through a disassembling process. It was a job of getting healthy again. We made many changes to get some spirit going. Now we have it with a bunch of fellows who know how to play.
“This isn’t just a bunch of players just arriving, although we have many young players. Don’t forget, after June 25 last year, we played at a clip 21 games over .500. This year, we just picked up where we left off last fall.”
The Phils swung two major trades that are paying off. One deal brought Jim Bunning from Detroit last winter. The other was the recent acquisition of Frank Thomas from the Mets.
Bunning has won 14 games. Thomas has been slugging in a fashion that has helped his new mates post a 14-5 record since his arrival.
“The Bunning trade certainly has helped us,” Mauch said. “And Don Demeter, a player I’d take back any time from Detroit, would have been a platoon player for us at the most. He would have platooned with Wes Covington in left. You just can’t keep Covington’s bat on the bench.”
Tonight, Covington showed what Mauch meant. He hit his 10th and 11th homers and belted a pair of doubles, driving in six runs in the loss to Milwaukee. However, it wasn’t enough to offset five straight hits, including a homer and two doubles by Rico Carty, and other slugging Braves.
Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s
Comments