Mets Top Dodgers in L.A.

Apr. 20, 1965 - Even if a man is 43, doesn’t have much hair left, and has pitched 19 years in the bigs, the Mets can give him a thrill. Welcome to the Mets, Warren Spahn.

“Nice easy game, fellows,” Casey Stengel lied as he led the Mets into the clubhouse tonight. The tipped third strike had stuck in the catcher’s mitt, and Spahn had beaten the Dodgers in Los Angeles, 3-2. The Adam’s apples that had been in the throats of Met fans since the Mets scored in the top of the eighth could not settle.

The Mets had given Spahn a 1-0 lead without hitting the ball out of the infield in the eighth, and the Mets had hit only two balls beyond the infield dirt until Johnny Lewis’ two-run single in the top of the ninth made it 3-0. But baseball games were not made to come easily to the Mets, even when Spahn is pitching.

In the bottom of the ninth, Wes Parker looped a single to right. Then Willie Davis grounded to Ed Kranepool. Kranepool scooped and reached into his glove, but the ball was not there, and the Dodgers were in business.

Tommy Davis lined a high inside pitch past the second baseman. “He swung at that ball inside out,” Spahn recalled. 

Then Spahn made the one bad pitch, a fat fastball that Johnny Roseboro lined for a single. Now it was 3-2, and the tying run was on third with none out. Stengel visited the mound and decided to stick with the man who had 356 victories to his name.

Jim Lefebvre struck out for the third time, and it was the 2,500th strikeout of Spahn’s career, but at a time like that, who’s counting? 

Spahn threw two strikes at Ron Fairly’s knees. The third Fairly hit on two bounces back to the mound, and the whole life of the Mets flashed before Spahn’s eyes. A double play would end the game.

Spahn quickly gathered the ball, ran at Tommy Davis at third, threw to third baseman Charley Smith, and Smith chased Davis 60 feet down the line before making a diving tag. 

But there was still one out to go.

So, Spahn simply made John Kennedy his 2,501st strikeout. He made a little leap off the mound and shook both fists in the air when Bob Taylor held the foul tip.

“There weren’t any bigger strikeouts in my life, either,” Spahn said. “I still feel I can pitch. There are a lot of skeptics around. I had to prove a point. I feel good. The things I was fouling up last year, I’ve got straightened out.”

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