Reds Top Phils at Connie Mack Stadium

May 12, 1965 - The Phillies had the tying run on third and the winning run on second with nobody out in the ninth. The Reds had a confused pitcher on the mound. 

The confused pitcher struck out Johnny Briggs, walked Cookie Rojas intentionally, struck out Tony Gonzalez, and then got Richie Allen to hit into a force play.

The Reds won, 4-3, at Connie Mack Stadium. The last man was out, the game was over, but the confused pitcher still didn’t know it. It was that kind of game.

“I thought when Tony Taylor hit that double, they had tied the score,” Jim O’Toole confessed afterward. “I wanted to keep the next guys from hitting a fly ball. I walked off the mound, and the guys congratulated me, and I wondered what was going on.”

O’Toole wasn’t even supposed to pitch tonight. He was scheduled to start Saturday, but the Reds have this ritual of throwing in the bullpen between starts instead of on the sidelines.

Sammy Ellis had a five-hitter going and a 4-2 lead with two out in the eighth. O’Toole was in the bullpen playing catch.

Johnny Callison doubled, and Wes Covington was the next hitter, and all of a sudden, Dick Sisler was waving for O’Toole.

“I’ve been down there lots of times without getting in a game,” the southpaw said. “I was the most surprised guy in the park. I’d just been throwing fastballs, so I threw a couple of quick sliders.”

O’Toole got Covington out, and then the Reds loaded the bases for the umpteenth time without scoring in the ninth. They left 14 men on base and messed up a squeeze play and a couple other bunts. If they had lost, maybe it would have been Sisler shoving furniture behind locked doors instead of Gene Mauch.

“The key play of the game as far I was concerned,” Sisler said, “was when he used up Alex Johnson. It gave me an opportunity to take Ellis out and bring in a lefthander. I’m sure Gene had his reasons, but to me, it was the key play.”

Mauch used Johnson, Frank Thomas, and Cookie Rojas as right-handed pinch hitters against the righthanded Ellis. He must have had his reasons, but he wasn’t sharing them with anybody. He stalked out of the nearly empty clubhouse 40 minutes after the game without saying a word.

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