Aug. 1, 1964 - Rookie hurler Rick Wise (pictured) and the amazing Phillies won a ballgame, 10-6, the hard way tonight before 32,030 screaming fans at Connie Mack Stadium — by spotting Don Drysdale four runs. They did it with one of the weirdest assortments of hits imaginable.
“I never saw anything like that,” said Dodger manager Walter Alston. “At least not all at one time — in one inning.”
The inning Alston was talking about was the second. That’s when the Phils scored five runs on six hits. Among them was a bloop, two Baltimore chops, and a checked-swing single by Wes Covington that knocked in the last two runs.
“There’s nothing much you can do about it when they’re hitting off the plate and bouncing up in the air,” shrugged Alston.
The Phillies had one run across and runners on second and third when pinch-hitter John Briggs touched off the rash of fluke hits by beating out a bouncer over Drysdale’s head.
Then came the strangest play of all. Tony Gonzalez, batting with Ruben Amaro on third and Briggs on first, hammered a pitch off the plate. The ball bounced so high that Amaro nearly didn’t score. He thought it was a pop fly.
“It happened so quickly,” said Ruben, “I thought the ball was in the air until I heard Myatt holler. Maybe my eyeballs are going bad.”
Third base coach George Myatt had to rush down the line towards the plate to catch Amaro’s attention and get him to run home. Myatt was limping to prove it.
“I twisted my knee pretty bad,” he said.
“A similar play happened to another player of mine once,” said Phillie manager Gene Mauch afterward. “It was in 1960, and the player was Tony Curry. A ball was hit off the plate, and he thought the ball was popped up too. That was the winning run — except he never scored it.”
The run Amaro belatedly scored on Gonzalez’s Baltimore chop cut Drysdale’s lead to 4-3. The hit that put the Phils ahead to stay was Covington’s accidental single after a two-out walk to Johnny Callison that loaded the bases.
Drysdale wasn’t the only Dodger victim of odd happenings. Ron Perranoski, who relieved in the fourth, had two strikes on John Herrnstein when the left-handed hitter bounced another infield hit off the plate.
“I think he threw me a low sinker,” said Herrnstein. “Listen, I’m tickled to get any kind of hit. I’m struggling.”
Before John quit struggling for the night, he boomed a long homer off lefty Jim Brewer and outlegged another infield single.
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