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Colts Top Dodgers as Rusty Staub Homers

June 3, 1963 - Dick (Turk) Farrell, a 20-game loser last season, held the Los Angeles Dodgers hitless until there was 1 out in the eighth inning today in pitching the Colts to a 2-1 victory in Houston. Dick Tracewski got the first hit off Farrell, a clean single to center, and the 29-year-old right-hander lost his shutout in the ninth when Jim Gilliam tripled and scored on Tommy Davis’s sacrifice fly. Rookie Rusty Staub struck the deciding blow for Houston against Don Drysdale with his first major league homer following a walk to Carl Warwick in the fourth. Farrell, a former Phillie and Dodger who was selected to the All-Star team in 1958 and 1962, finished with a flourish, striking out big Frank Howard for the fourth straight time to the immense delight of 15,659 Colt partisans. Houston bought Turk from the Dodgers for $125,000 when Los Angeles put him up for grabs in the National League expansion talent pool in the fall of 1961. The oil-rich Houston management also paid a $125,000 bonus to Staub after the 1961 season. A New Orleans prep product, Rusty turned 19 last April 1, and the kid can sure swing that bat. Staub’s homer brought a galling defeat to Drysdale, who struck out 13 batters and walked but one man in the 7 innings he toiled. Don regained the major league lead with a total of 90 strikeouts, but Farrell won the game. The Dodgers now trail the league-leading Giants by 4 games.

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