[JimMorrison]

Los Angeles Dodgers (15-5) vs New York Mets (8-10) - April 29-30, 1963

The Dodger have been on fire to start the 1963 season and have won four straight and won eight of their last ten games. Their rotation has been the best in the National League so far with a 2.12 ERA. The 1-2 punch of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale has been great as expected but the rest have been stellar too, especially Stan Williams (4-0, 1.48 ERA) Their offense has been great too and they look to try and get their first pennant since their championship run in ‘59.

LAD 2 NYM 10 - Huge win at home here as we got a seven run seventh inning as pitcher Ray Washburn had a crazy two run shot, a two run single from Joe Morgan and a Hobie Landrith grand slam! Washburn had a great complete game start as well and only gave up two runs, all around solid victory here.

LAD 6 NYM 3 (10) - We really should have had this one as we had a 3-1 lead going into the ninth, but we gave up two in ninth to tie and then three in the tenth to lose this one. Zimmer, Al Jackson and Kranepool all got RBIs in a loss and it wasn’t enough to take this series. Al Jackson though had a great bounce back start here as he went nine and held this potent Dodgers lineup in check. We need him to pitch more like this! Can’t complain about splitting a quick series with a really good LA team.

April Award Winners:

AL
Hitter of the Month: 1B Boog Powell (Baltimore) - 6 HR, 25 RBI, .352 AVG
Pitcher of the Month: SP Dean Chance (LA Angels) - 3-1, 1.65 ERA
Rookie of the Month: RP Chi-Chi Olivo (Minnesota) - 1-0, 2.70 ERA, 9 K in 10 IP

NL
Hitter of the Month: LF Frank Robinson (Cincinnati) - 4 HR, 20 RBI, .432 AVG
Pitcher of the Month: SP Jim Maloney (Cincinnati) - 5-0, 1.07 ERA
Rookie of the Month: SP Bob Heffner (LA Dodgers) - 2-0, 3.13 ERA

April Best Teams: Cincinnati Red (16-3), New York Yankees (12-4), Los Angeles Dodgers (16-6)
April Worst Teams: Houston Colt 45’s (4-18), St. Louis Cardinals (5-14), Washington Senators (6-14)

Houston Colt 45’s (4-18) vs New York Mets (9-11) - May 1-2, 1963

It was not a great first season for our fellow expansion brethren, going 59-103 but they were still nine wins better than us in ‘62. This season though has been a complete disaster in Texas though as they have lost seven straight games coming into this one and have been the worst team in baseball. This should be a fun series to compare how each team has been built so far into these massive rebuilds.

HOU 4 NYM 3 - Struggling Houston starter Bob Bruce outpitched Don Larsen tonight as the Mets lose another close one here. Our offense could not do anything here except a big Kranepool 2 RBI single. Three hits all game is pretty inexcusable facing a team that is struggling as bad as the Colt 45’s are.

HOU 3 NYM 0 - Another brutal offensive showing here today as we only get four hits and no runs. Willie Smith got hit hard in the first, giving up three runs but then he settled down and pitched some really good innings.

San Francisco Giants (12-11) vs New York Mets (9-13) - May 3-5, 1963

The defending champions have come into this season really looking not up to par with other National League contenders. They are currently 2-8 in their last ten and have not found a real consistent rhythm thus far. Their line-up has actually been really solid as stars like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Felipe Alou have all been mashing it. Their rotation has been great too and the talent is all still there, I think they have just been incredibly unlucky. 1-5 in one run or extra inning games and they have a pythagorean record of 16-7 which shows they should be winning some more games based on the numbers they have. This should be a good series for them to turn it around and a bad one for us as we have really struggled.

SF 2 NYM 7 - Heck of a start to the series here as Luis Arroyo pitches a great game and completely neutralizes a great San Fran order. Most of our runs came in the fourth off a Grote two-run single and a McFarlane two-run double. Hoping to split this series as we need to stop the constant fall down the standings here.

SF 2 NYM 1 - The Juan Marichal and Ray Wasburn duel lived up to expectations here as both pitchers were excellent in this one. Marichal was just a bit better and held on for the Giants today. Can’t really complain here as I didn’t expect much offense off a starter as good as Marichal.

Doubleheader Sunday...

SF 1 NYM 7
SF 4 NYM 5

Thoughts: Going into this week, I thought this could be a stretch that could sink our hopes but we really rallied back after a really awful two games in Houston for a 4-4 week. I do think we have gotten unlucky in a couple of close games this season, but we are still looking like a pretty average team so far and I am more than satisfied with that after losing 112 games the year before.

Ernie Banks is starting to heat up again, going 10-27 with 2 HR and 3 RBI in this past week. I have also been happy with Jerry Grote who is hitting really well when given the ABs. He started three games this week and went 7-10 in those at bats. Al Jackson and Ray Washburn were also fantastic in their two starts this week with both holding an ERA under 1.

Next week we continue our homestand with three games against the Philadelphia Phillies and then four more games at home against the 20-3 Cincinnati Reds, woo!