Sept. 30, 1964 - The Cardinals took sole possession of first place in the National League tonight by humiliating the once-proud Phillies, 8-5, behind the five-hit pitching performance of 35-year-old southpaw Curt Simmons.
The Reds, who had been tied for first with St. Louis, dropped a full game back when they lost a 16-inning, 1-0 decision to Pittsburgh.
For 6⅔ innings at Busch Stadium tonight, Simmons did not give up a hit. Then Richie Allen hit a single.
“I just wanted to get on base,” said Richie. “But it don’t make any difference if you’re no-hitted. If you lose, it don’t make any difference.”
Philadelphia manager Gene Mauch reacted with stunned courtesy to most of his ballclub’s 10-game losing streak. Tonight, he stared into space and seemed unreachable. To one question, he muttered: “We worked hard. We gotta work harder.”
The rest of the Phillies kicked beer cans and hung their heads and forgot to pack their shower slippers or their spiked shoes. Shock does that to you.
“There’s nothing to say,” losing pitcher Jim Bunning said. “The season is ruined. All that good work is ruined. I don’t want to hear anyone saying, ‘Poor Phillies, they blew a 6½-game lead.’ It’s our own fault. All of our own fault.”
The Phillies committed multiple errors tonight, and Bunning was pitching with two days’ rest, but he wouldn’t alibi.
“I don’t care what people think about two days’ rest,” he said bluntly. “I had good stuff. I made one mistake to Tim McCarver, getting the ball up, and he hit it out. Other than that, I don’t feel I have to apologize.”
Bunning doesn’t have to apologize for an 18-8 record. But when the autopsy is performed on the Phils’ dead pennant hopes, the coroner will want to know why Bunning had to pitch three games with two days’ rest.
“It’s a disgrace,” Ed Roebuck said simply. “We’re disgraced.”
Many of the Phils have been thoroughbreds. A special niche is reserved for massive Gus Triandos, a 34-year-old catcher who may never come this close again.
All summer long, when the Phillies did marvelous things, Triandos marveled and called this “the year of the blue snow.” It had a mythological Paul Bunyan ring to it. The other night, Triandos pronounced: “The blue snow has turned black.”
Triandos thought out loud about the champagne celebration they had planned so many losses ago. “Some of the guys wanted to spray it,” he said. “Some of them wanted to throw it around. Some of them wanted to guzzle it down. All I wanted to do was taste it.”
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