On
September 6, 1968, Bob Gibson lost just his second game in his last 20 starts,
falling 3-2 to the San Francisco Giants during the first game of a doubleheader
at Busch. Gibson went just eight innings in the contest, which ended a string
of six complete games. The loss moved Gibson’s record to 20-7 and raised his
ERA from 0.99 to 1.03.
Many
of the Cardinal faithful expected Gibson to go head-to-head with Juan Marichal.
However, the Giants manager Herman Franks shuffled his starters at the
beginning of the game and called on Bobby Bolin to pitch in the first game.
Bolin was no Juan Marichal, but he got the job done for his club.
The
Cardinals did get to him in the third after Dal Maxvill led the inning off with
a single. He scored later in the inning when Curt Flood came up with a two out
single to make it 1-0 Redbirds. Gibby ran into trouble immediately thereafter.
He surrendered a leadoff single to Ty Cline in the top of the fourth. Willie
McCovey reached on an error by Maxvill before Gibson was able to record one
out. The next two batters, Jesus Alou and Jack Hiatt came up with back-to-back
singles that plated two, and, just like that, the score was 2-1 Giants.
The
Giants added a run in the sixth. Gibson gave up a single to Hart who stole
second, then moved to third on a wild pitch. Gibson then retired two men in a
row. He may have had visions of getting out of the inning unscathed, but Hal
Lanier had other thoughts in mind. Lanier singled, Hart scored to make it 3-1,
which proved to be the winning run.
Bolin
seemingly had the Cardinals on the ropes after his third inning hiccup. He had
only allowed two hits heading into the eighth when they finally got to him. It was
in that eighth inning that Red Schoendienst lifted Gibson for pinch hitter
Johnny Edwards, who came up with a one out single. Shoendienst was not done
pushing buttons. He sent Ron Davis to pinch run for Edwards, then watched Lou
Brock hit a grounder to retire the lead man. Brock stole second, then scored
when Flood knocked him in with a single. It was 3-2 and the Cardinals were
knocking on the door.
The Giants
skipper then called on Fred Linzy to answer the door, or shut it I should say,
as he was able to get Roger Maris to ground out. Shoendienst called on Ron
Willis to take over pitching duties in the ninth. He worked his way out of a
bases loaded jam to keep the Birds in it, but Linzy shut them down with a 1-2-3
ninth. As they say “You can’t win them all.” However, Lord knows that with Bob
Gibson on the mound, there was always a chance. He would give it his all as he
helped lead the way to the National League Pennant.
Check out the box score here: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN196809061.shtml
As it
turned out, Marichal would go onto claim his 25th win of the season
in what proved to be a shootout 8-7 victory for the Giants in the second game.
Linzy was able to get the save in that game as well. Not a good day for the
Redbirds. With that said, they were counting down the wins until they won the
pennant and had their sights set on October baseball. In the end it was just
one of those days. Move on to the next one and get right back to work. In a lot
of ways that’s what baseball is all about. Win or lose, you gotta put it behind you and
focus on the task at hand.
Sources included: The
Southeast Missourian, The Pittsburgh Press, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Kentucky
New Era, and Baseballreference.com
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