On July 30, 1968, Bob Gibson won his 12th
straight game and recorded his 18th complete game of the season with
a 7-1 win over the Mets, at Shea Stadium in New York. The victory was
highlighted by a five run fifth inning by the Cardinals. The one run allowed
was just the third run allowed by Gibson in 101 innings.
Coming
into the day Gibson’s ERA sat at 0.96 and with the one run allowed it remained
at that impressive mark. It seems that everything that Gibson did that season
was impressive. I am sure the men on the Cardinals roster were happy it was
their opponents that had to face him. Bob Gibson was the kind of player that
one would lose a little sleep at night knowing that he would be toeing the
rubber against them the next day.
Dick Selma got the
call to pitch against Gibson in The Big Apple. He ran into trouble in the third
when Maxvill tripled to lead off the inning. Curt Flood knocked in the
shortstop on a groundout just a few minutes later to give the Cardinals a 1-0
early lead. Gibson rolled through the bottom of the third before the Cardinals
offense exploded with the five run fifth.
The big inning began with the first five players reaching
base before an out was recorded. Orlando Cepeda singled, Tim McCarver walked,
Mike Shannon reached on an error, Javier singled in two runs, Maxvill singled
in another, before Selma finally got an out when Bob Gibson flied out. That
said, even Gibson’s out hurt the New York starter as it came in the form of a
sac fly, which was followed by a groundout by Lou Brock that brought in Maxvill
to score what proved to be the sixth run of the ballgame for the rockin’
Redbirds. Two of the five runs were not charged to Selma; however, the big
inning spelled the end for the pitcher on that day.
The Mets did put a run on the board in the fourth after
Ed Charles singled with two outs, then scored when Ed Kranepool followed him
with a double. The run ended a streak of 23 scoreless innings thrown by Gibson,
He would put that run behind him quickly and go right back to work retiring
Larry Stahl to end the frame.
Bill Connors took over pitching duties for the Mets. He
had clean innings in the fifth and sixth but ran into two-out trouble in the
seventh. He allowed a double to Flood, surrendered a walk to Roger Maris, then
Orlando Cepeda knocked in Flood with a single. The score was 7-1 and Gibson
simply did his job the rest of the way.
The Cardinals hurler ran into a little trouble, allowing
two runners in the eighth, but got out of that, then set Art Shamsky, Jerry
Grote, and Jerry Buchek down in order in the ninth to end it. Once again, the
day belonged to Gibson. He trotted off the mound having moved his record to
15-5. Gibson’s final line was nine innings pitched, five hits allowed, eight
strikeouts, and one earned run surrendered. He was the most dominant man in all
of baseball.
Check out the box score
here: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN196807300.shtml
Sources include: Baseballreference.com, The Schenectady
Gazette, The St. Joseph Gazette, and The Toledo Blade
I dedicate this entry to
the memory of my dog and best friend Hoss. He watched tons of ballgames with me
and brought great joy to my life.
I will always carry him in my heart.
Hoss Forrester
Always
my Bubba
Rest in Peace my friend.
2010 ~ 2018
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