Sept. 16, 1963 - Maybe the Cardinals are mere mortals, after all. The team that’s generated the biggest head of steam in the National League since the 1935 Chicago Cubs went roaring down the stretch with 21 victories sprung a slight boiler leak today. With Johnny Podres pitching three-hit ball and Willie Davis and Maury Wills dazzling the Redbirds with their bats and footwork, Los Angeles drew first blood in the showdown series by scoring a 3-1 victory before a disappointed crowd of 32,442 at Busch Stadium. Ron Perranoski (pictured) preserved Podres’ merited win by subduing Dick Groat, Stan Musial — who had homered in the seventh — and Ken Boyer without a struggle in the ninth. The Birds had captured 10 in a row and 19 of their last 20 games in all but overtaking the front-running Dodgers. In slowing down the Cards, the Dodgers rebuilt their tenuous lead to two full games and now have a three-game edge in the “lost” column. They also reduced their magic number to nine. After tonight’s game, Dodger skipper Walter Alston, smiling and sipping a cool beverage, said: “The first one is the biggest, of course, and with Koufax pitching the second one, things look a little better — but only one game better. Podres pitched a great game and had good stuff.” Alston revealed he almost took Johnny out in the seventh after Maury Wills had fumbled a ground ball, allowing Bill White to reach first, and Curt Flood had followed with a single. “But I figured if I brought in Bob Miller [a right-hander] that the Cardinals would use George Altman [a left-hander], and I didnt’ want to see him come up there,” Alston said. The Dodger manager added that Musial’s seventh-inning homer was “just one of those things.” “Musial hits home runs off anybody,” he said. “The main things I wanted Podres to do was to keep pitching to spots.” In the Cardinal clubhouse, a quiet Johnny Keane, puffing a cigar, said he thought the Cards would pull it out after Musial homered. “But the defeat isn’t fatal to our pennant hopes,” the St. Louis skippers said. “We still have our two big men to throw at them [Curt Simmons and Bob Gibson]. Broglio pitched a good game. I only took him out after the eighth because he was getting tired.” Keane said he used Gibson as a pinch hitter for Broglio in the eighth “because he is a good hitter.”
