Aug. 10, 1964 - “We had the better goalie out there — he kept the puck out of the net,” Ray Sadecki said. Translation: Cardinal catcher Tim McCarver (pictured) tagged out two San Francisco Giants trying to score after taking excellent throws from Lou Brock and Mike Shannon.
St. Louis Manager Johnny Keane, whose Cardinals defeated the Giants, 2-1, at Busch Stadium today, reached for the superlatives.
“I never saw two such great throws that meant so much in the same game,” Keane said. “There wasn’t a foot to spare with either man.”
The two saves enabled the idle Phillies to stretch their advantage over the second-place Giants to five games in the loss column. The fifth-place Cardinals, who have won five of their last six games, climbed within one game of the fourth-place Pirates.
Besides continuing his improved work on the mound, Bob Gibson came out of a batting slump that had been obscured by his pitching dilemma.
“They’ve been pitching me tough,” Gibson said after singling to drive in the Cards’ second-inning run.
Last season, Gibson had 20 RBI’s. Tonight, he doubled his previous 1964 RBI total — one.
Gibson, lifting his record to 10-9, was rolling with a 2-0 lead until the fifth. Tom Haller, leading off, got the first of his three singles. With two out, Harvey Kuenn singled, and Haller stopped at second. Then Hal Lanier followed with a single to right, but there was Shannon. His on-the-fly throw went right to its mark, McCarver’s mitt, and Haller was cut down.
After a home run by Giant rookie Jim Hart was followed by two singles in the seventh, Gibson was replaced by knuckleballer Barney Schultz.
After retiring the dangerous Willies — Mays and McCovey — in the eighth, Schultz gave up hits to Orlando Cepeda and Jim Hart. Then Haller singled to left. Cepeda unwisely looked over his shoulder when he reached third, then tried to score standing up.
McCarver, moving up the line a bit, took Brock’s strike and tagged Cepeda.
Would Cepeda probably have scored had he slid?
“I’d rather not comment,” said Giant manager Alvin Dark. “We should have scored the inning before anyway. We had lots of chances.”
Chances are the baserunning mistake will result in a shrunken paycheck for Cepeda.
“I never announce fines,” said Dark. “That would have to come from somebody else. But you saw the same game I did.”
St. Louis third baseman Ken Boyer said he never saw a better throw by Brock.
“Lou got rid of the ball cleanly with a lot on it,” said Boyer, who decoyed well on the play.
“If it was anything short of a good throw in that situation, I would have cut it off,” Boyer added.
Brock said it was the best throw he had ever made.
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