On
July 12, 1968, Bob Gibson hurled his 15th complete game, won his
ninth in a row, and celebrated an 8-1 victory over the Astros at Busch behind a
15-hit attack. Gibson had come into the game having not allowed a run in 17
innings. Sportswriters around the nation were enthralled by his dominance.
Eleven days earlier his 47-inning streak had come to an end, and it seemed like
he simply picked up right where he left off. However, the club from Houston did
grab a run against him in the seventh, ending that streak at 23, but that did
not mean it was not Bob Gibson’s day. He owned the Astros that day and so did
the rest of the men who wore the Birds on the Bat.
The
only man who did not pick up a hit against the Astros was Gibson. One through
eight enjoyed a hit parade. The parade started early with Lou Brock leading off
the bottom half of the first with a triple. Julian Javier knocked him in with a
sacrifice fly to make it 1-0 good guys.
Houston’s
starter Denny Lemaster did toss some clean innings. He worked through a
scoreless second but ran into some two-out trouble in the third, which came in
the form of three singles in a row by Curt Flood, Orlando Cepeda, and Mike
Shannon who picked an RBI to make it 2-0.
Lemaster
worked through scoreless fourth, but he could not do the same in the fifth. Brock
opened the inning with a single, stole second, moved to third on an error, then
scored on a one out single by Curt Flood to make it 3-0. The 3-0 lead held steady
until the seventh. Gibson gave up a one out single to Rusty Staub, then struck
out Jim Wynn before watching his scoreless innings streak end when Denis Menke doubled
in Staub to make it 3-1. The streak may have ended, but Bob Gibson went right
back to work and retired Doug Rader to end the inning.
Lemaster’s
day ended in the top of the eighth after being lifted for a pinch hitter, and
in the bottom of the eighth his replacement Tom Dukes imploded. He watched the
entire Cardinals bat around in the inning and watched five runs cross the dish
in the process. The true hit parade started with a single by Cepeda who moved
to second on a bunt groundout by Shannon. The Cardinals catcher Johnny Edwards
singled to left to bring Cepeda in, which was followed by a big blast by Bobby Tolan
to make it 6-1. Dal Maxvill reached with a one out single, Gibson moved him
over with a sac bunt, he then scored on a single by Javier. Flood topped things
off with his fourth hit of the day, scoring Brock to make it 8-1. Dukes was
finally able to get out the inning after facing Cepeda for the second time in
the frame.
Bob
Gibson came back to the mound in the top of the ninth with the more than comfortable
lead. Granted, a one or two run lead may have felt comfortable to Gibson. He
set the last three men down in a row with successive groundouts. I’m sure it
had to feel good for Bob Gibson that day to not only get the victory, but to also
have the bats come alive around him. His final line was nine innings pitched,
three hits allowed, one earned run, no walks, and eight strikeouts. The one run
allowed kept his ERA at 1.06. His dominance
was far from over, as the Summer of ’68 continued...
Check out the box score here: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN196807120.shtml
Sources included: The
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Victoria Advocate, The Southeast Missourian, and
Baseballreference.com
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