On
September 17, 1968, Giants hurler Gaylord Perry spoiled Bob Gibson’s 26th
complete game of the season by no-hitting the Cardinals at Candlestick Park in
San Francisco. Gibson allowed just four hits in the contest. Perry’s effort was
one for the record books, though, and it led to the historical 1-0 no-hit win.
The first of Gibson’s four
hits allowed came just three pitches into the game. Gibby threw a fastball
inside to Ron Hunt sending who sent it over the wall in left. Little did Gibson
know that, along with Perry’s tremendous display, that one pitch moved his
record to 21-8.
After
walking Mike Shannon in the second inning, Perry was masterful. The future Hall
of Famer said that he first started thinking about a potential no-no in the
fifth inning. Ironically, he had a scare in the fifth when, according to
him, Perry served up a “fat pitch” to Orlando Cepeda. That fat one ended up
being a pop up to Willie McCovey. The closest the Cardinals came to getting a
hit was in the sixth. Dal Maxvill started that inning by ripping one up the
middle. Perry fell off the mound, snagged the ball, then threw Maxie out at
first. Two batters later, Bobby Tolan scorched one in between first and second
only to watch Willie McCovey get to it just in time to throw it to Perry who
covered first.
The
day was Perry’s. He went into the eighth having only given up the one walk. He
retired the first two he faced in that inning and gave up his second walk of
the game to Phil Gagliano. Moments later, Perry recorded his eighth strikeout
of the game.
Perry
went into the ninth having to face Lou Brock, Bobby Tolan, and Curt Flood. He
sat Brock and Tolan down on groundouts, then caught Curt Flood looking for his
ninth strikeout of the game. Gaylord Perry had joined a coveted list of men with
the words no-hitter on their resumes. It was the only no-no of Perry’s Hall of
Fame career.
Gibson,
who would not add his name to that coveted list until 1973, still pitched one
helluva ballgame that day in San Fran. He was simply outdone by his
counterpart. Gibson gave up 11 hits in his previous start and managed to walk
away with a 5-4 victory. That’s just how baseball goes. At the end of this day,
Gibson’s ERA sat at 1.13, which is where it sat before the contest began. He
had struck out 10 men and walked just two. The disappointment of this one would
not last long, because Gibson knew his number would be called on again, and
five days later that was the case… See ya then, folks.
Check out the box score here: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN196809170.shtml
Sources included: The Pittsburgh Press, The Schenectady Gazette,
The Southeast Missourian, and Baseballreference.com
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