Dodgers Destroy Giants at Candlestick

May 8, 1965 - Except for the 37,548 refunds that would have been necessitated, the Giants would have been better off if they hadn’t shown up at Candlestick Park today.

Don Drysdale and the Dodgers pulverized them, 9-0. The Giants could have done just as well with a forfeit.

You can’t take anything away from Walter Alston’s National League leaders. Everything they did, they did superbly.

Drysdale gave up only three hits and didn’t walk a man.

The Dodgers, totaling 14 hits, stole everything in sight, including first base five times with bunts. 

The Giants are hurting. With Orlando Cepeda on the disabled list because of his injured knee, Harvey Kuenn suffering from an aching back, and Willie McCovey’s foot sore after it was stepped on by Maury Wills last night, Ed Bailey had to play first base.

Then, making manager Herman Franks’ life even more dismal, Willie Mays was bruised and shaken when he slammed into the center field fence trying to prevent Drysdale’s triple in the fourth inning (pictured).

Leo Hughes, the Giants’ trainer, said Mays was all right, but Willie left the game after the sixth inning, when L.A. led, 4-0.

In a tribute to Mays, Drysdale said: “It was one of the finest efforts I’ve ever seen a man make to catch a ball.”

Don affected a modest attitude and observed that “anytime you hold down the Giants, you’ve got to be lucky.” But he noted he was getting all his pitches over, and the Giants concurred that he was moving the ball around and shaving the corners.

It was Mays who broke up Drysdale’s no-hitter in the fourth on a 3-2 pitch.“I gave him a slow curve, and I could see his eyes get bigger and bigger,” said Don. “I guess he couldn’t believe it. Golly, did he tomahawk that ball!”It was a double in the left field corner.

Drysdale didn’t let the booing worry him. And he shrugged off queries as to whether he was conscious of the recent warning against knockdown pitches issued by the league president. 

“I never thought about it, and I don’t think [Juan] Marichal did either,” he explained. “The whole incident has been overplayed. I think like Herman Franks. Let the ballplayers play the game and the others watch and not worry. If anybody hits me, they do me a favor by putting me on base.”

The Dodgers now have won five in a row. Any explanation for this year’s upsurge?“Pride,” said Drysdale. “We won in ’63 and then flopped in ’64. That hurt. So, we have gotten together and are bearing down harder.

Asked for a comment on today’s game, manager Herman Franks said: “What can I say after a walloping like that?”

The nightmare may not be over yet. Sandy Koufax is the Dodger pitcher tomorrow.

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