Giants Top Mets at Shea

June 8, 1965 - The Giants beat the Mets tonight at Shea Stadium, 2-1, on two runs scored in the top of the first. Ron Swoboda’s homer in the fifth was the Mets’ run — but the 20-year-old also learned a little more about the perils of playing in the majors. (Pictured below, Willie Mays avoids getting picked off at first as catcher Chris Cannizzaro threw to Ed Kranepool in a vain attempt.)

“The trouble was in the first inning,” Casey Stengel analyzed. “If you go and ask the boy [Swoboda], I’ll be you money he says he slipped.”Galen Cisco opened the game by hitting Ducky Schofield with a two-strike pitch. Jesus Alou grounded a single past third, and that brought up Willie Mays, who was 0-for-18. Mays lifted a fly off the end of the bat to left-center, between Swoboda and Johnny Lewis. It was a tough spot but high enough to be caught.

It isn’t Swoboda’s fault that it poured before the game and that there’s no dome on Shea. “I slipped when I took off,” Swoboda said. “I lost stride. I thought I should’ve caught it.”

Swoboda finally caught up to the ball off the fence, Mays had his double, and the Giants had two runs, and Cisco had another loss.

San Francisco starter Bob Shaw, tiring in the heat was removed in the seventh. Frank Linzy, a relief specialist, turned back seven straight Mets until the ninth.

Linzy got Joe Christopher on a routine grounder at the start. Then things began to happen.

Ed Kranepool, who has been hitting Giant pitching at a .464 clip, got his third hit of the game on an infield roller. Billy Cowan replaced him as the runner. Charlie Smith then slammed a single to right, Cowan stopping at second.

Swoboda slapped a single through the legs of Linzy, but Jim Davenport made a glove grab behind second to keep Cowan from scoring the tying run.

With the bags jammed, Stengel sent Hawk Taylor to bat for Roy McMillan, but he hit into a force out at home.

Stengel then sent up Hickman as a pinch-hitter for Larry Bearnarth. Hickman slammed a low liner to right, where Jesus Alou moved in to make the final putout.

“You got to take the good with the bad,” Swoboda said afterward.

Sure, that’s just what Mets fans have known all along.

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