Beyond Astrodome: The Managerial Career of Dale McGovern - Page 2

jksander · 03-29-2024, 08:55 PM

May 17, 1965: The talk around the clubhouse today was the recent smear op-ed by a local sportswriter about our poor start, but I told the players in the clubhouse this afternoon that all we can do is go out and play the games, we can’t control how people see us ... at least beyond the way we go out there on the field. “Don’t let them decide who we are,” Nellie Fox told everybody. “When you’ve been around this league as long as I have, you figure out it’s about digging in for the long season, and keeping a smile on your face even if you want to just disappear.”

Turk Farrell (2-3, 3.63 ERA, 39.2 IP, 32 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) was fully focused on the task at hand, which meant facing down Sandy Koufax (6-0, 1.97 ERA, 59.1 IP, 70 K’s, 1.01 WHIP) for the second time in less than a week. Koufax, who will be a free agent after the coming season, has been having the best start of his career and if he can stay strong, he looks to draw a ton of interest from other teams if the Dodgers don’t lock him up long term. Our focus was on the 7:05 p.m. first pitch in front of the nearly 9,000 Astros fans who did make the trip out this evening. Last week against a hostile crowd in LA, Farrell went six innings with just eight hits and two earned runs (though our fielding didn’t help him, adding three unearned ones as well). We hoped this game could be a fresh start.

Los Angeles got on the board in the top of the first, thanks to a Willie Davis RBI single, but we kept them from turning it into an early blowout, Wes Parker grounding out to get us into the bottom of the frame with two runners stranded in scoring position. Koufax walked Gaines and Staub in the bottom of the first on one out, and Wynn hit into a fielder’s choice that got Staub out at second, putting runners on the corners. Koufax walked Bond to load the bags, and Aspromonte had a hit up the middle that should have been a run scored, except Jim Lefebvre made a spectacular reach toward second and snagged it. No runs, three walks, no hits, three stranded. Willie Davis tripled for the Dodgers in the top of the fourth, coming in to score off a sac-fly by Jim Gilliam to make it a 2-0 Dodgers lead, and in the top of the fifth they started to opening things up, batting in a run with a single by Maury Wills, though Farrell never lost his composure on the mound. Joe Morgan doubled to start the bottom of the fifth, just our second hit of the game, but was left stranded as is typical against Koufax -- once you’re on base, it’s almost impossible to catch him napping and find ways to advance. We added two singles in the bottom of the sixth but again came up frustratingly empty. Farrell got us through the seventh inning, leaving Wills stranded on third after a two-out triple, and in the bottom of the inning pinch-hitter Johnny Weekly got us on board with a single and Morgan walked him into scoring position, Koufax’s fifth walk of the game. Gaines hit into a double play that moved Weekly to third, but Staub struck out, leaving another potential run stranded. Don Larsen came in to finish the game, getting three quick outs in the top of the eighth, but Koufax struck out the heart of our order -- Larsen did his job again smoothly in the ninth, but we were in a tough spot in the final frame. Morgan got a hit in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, but closer Jim Brewer came out to get Gaines to ground into a fielder’s choice, getting Morgan out at second to end this as another 3-0 defeat.

Koufax got his seventh win in a row, and Brewer picked up a save, holding us to six hits while walking us six times -- 12 baserunners and we couldn’t score. That’s futility right there, folks. Turk Farrell fell to 2-4 on the year but only allowed seven hits, walking one and striking out four, allowing three earned runs and keeping his ERA pretty steady at 3.66. Joe Morgan hit twice and walked once and Wynn hit twice, but fans left disappointed ... but the Dodgers are a much deeper team than we are and we didn’t embarrass ourselves. Two more games in the next two days give us a chance at redemption.

May 18, 1965: Ken Johnson (4-2, 3.75 ERA, 57.2 IP, 29 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) is up on four days’ rest, going up against Claude Osteen (2-2, 2.08 ERA, 26.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.31 WHIP), who is riding a hot streak. We loaded the bases in the bottom of the first and came up empty, adding to our depressing streak of men left on base without finding a way to score. Two more were stranded in the bottom of the second, and in the top of the third the Dodgers unleashed on us, scoring on a Lefebvre RBI double, adding a pair with an RBI single by Willie Davis, and getting out of the frame with a three-run lead that (the way we’ve been hitting) looked damned near insurmountable. Jimmy Wynn walked and stole second to start the bottom of the third, and Walt Bond got a hit into center to finally get us a run scored, and finally I started seeing some energy from these guys! Aspromonte drove Bond to third with a single, and Weekly hit into a fielder’s choice, the Dodgers getting Bond at second but allowing the run to score from third. Weekly took second on a wild pitch, but Kasko grounded out, bringing up backup catcher Dave Adlesh with two outs and a man in scoring position. They walked him to bring up Johnson, who made good contact but batted it straight to left field for out number three. Still, we were only down a run heading into the fourth which was a huge improvement on the start of this one!

With two outs and men on first and second in the bottom of the sixth, Joe Games tied the game up with an RBI double and they walked Wynn to load the bases for Walt Bond, who grounded out to first, keeping us from taking the lead -- but our small crowd of fans was starting to come alive! Jim Owens came in to pitch in the top of the seventh, score tied 3-3, and he got three quick outs, two off soft contact and one via strikeout, to keep momentum on our side heading into the stretch as the Dodgers went to Brewer again from the bullpen. Owens stayed sharp into the ninth, striking out Lefebvre and Davis in the top of the frame and then getting Wes Parker to bat out to short, bringing us up in the bottom of the ninth with a chance to walk this one off ... but our bats remained cold and this one was headed for extras.

We brought Claude Raymond out to pitch in the 10th inning, and of course his second pitch of the night resulted in a goddamned triple by Johnny Roseboro. But he got Maury Willis to ground out to first, struck out Bob Miller looking and then got Gilliam out with a grounder to second and a quick out at first ... still 3-3 heading into the bottom of the frame, but again we couldn’t find a way to get on base. Dierker came in with two outs and a man on third in the top of the 11th, striking out Willie Davis to keep it knotted up, and finally we got ourselves a hit -- Adlesh belted one into deep center, coming up with a much-needed double, but Dierker screwed up a bunt attempt, popping up to the catcher who made the throw to third instead of first, getting our first out there. With Dierker on first, Joe Morgan came up and thought he had a hit into the outfield, but Lefebvre made a great catch at second to snag it, and Gaines batted out to left for the third out. More innings! Dierker stayed out in the 12th and our luck ran out with one out in the frame, Maury Wills hitting a single that drove in Wes Parker to put the Dodgers up 4-3. Johnny Werhas hit an RBI double to add another run, and we had to bring out Woodeshick to put the fire out. It did not work out in our favor. By the time we came back up to bat in the final half of the inning, the Dodgers led by three runs and we were completely gassed. Walt Bond hit a solo homer in the bottom of the inning with one out, cutting their lead to two, but that was our last gasp as we lost this one 6-4 in 12 innings.

Dierker can’t catch a break -- he fell to 0-5, allowing three hits and three runs in the 12th to negate his excellent strikeout moment in the 11th, his ERA falling to 7.18 along with his confidence. The Dodgers outhit us 13-8 in this game, but we’d kept it close for so long, fighting back from down 3-0 that we thought we could pull it off. Bond hit twice with two runs and two RBIs, and backup catcher Dave Adlesh hit twice with a walk. We play the Dodgers again tomorrow, but this team is in desperate need of a day off to rest -- we’ve played fourteen games in the last twelve days and after tomorrow’s off day we’ll play nineteen more in the next seventeen, and unless our GM calls up some reinforcements from AAA, I think we’re in trouble.

May 19, 1965: Bob Bruce (3-3, 3.56 ERA, 52.2 IP, 28 K’s, 1.04 WHIP) started tonight against Bill Singer (1-5, 4.10 ERA, 41.2 IP, 38 K’s, 1.34 WHIP). We switched up the order, batting Kasko first and Morgan third, and right out of the gate we found success -- Aspromonte doubled and Morgan got him in to score with an RBI double, getting us on the board quickly. With Morgan on third and two outs, Rusty Staub hit a run-scoring single and we went into the top of the second leading LA 2-0. In the top of the third, Dodgers right fielder Ron Fairly hit a solo homer to get them on the board, and in the top of the fourth a two out, two RBI double by pitcher Bill Singer gave them the lead back, 3-2. Bruce surrendered another RBI double to add to the damage, finally getting us out of there with a two run deficit ... and he was growing tired, with our bullpen decimated from last night. John Bateman walked the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the fourth, but we stranded them all. Bruce got us through the fifth but was running out of gas. We got going in the bottom of the inning, with three hits in a row by Morgan, Wynn and Staub, and Staub’s double batted in two runs to tie it up! Walt Bond laid a line drive down the right field line and got him around to score with a double, giving us the lead again. And Bob Bruce kept it going, hitting a line drive into right with two outs, coming out with an RBI double of his own! Kasko batted in two more with a single and we batted around, Morgan batting out to the shortstop to send us into the top of the sixth suddenly leading 8-4!

Bruce found a second wind after the longer rest durng the fifth, getting us through the sixth inning quietly and setting Dan Larsen up nicely to come in for the seventh and get us through the remainder. In the bottom of the eighth, Joe Morgan hit a two-run homer over the right field wall, his second four-bagger this year -- from there, Larsen just had to close it out, and though he let two runners into scoring position, we stranded them both and held tough to the 10-4 come-from-behind blowout win!

Bob Bruce improved to 4-3 with a 2.91 ERA, allowing 10 hits, a walk and two strikeouts while giving up four earned runs. Don Larsen came in for a three-inning save, his second save of the year, allowing two hits and striking out one to keep his ERA a solid 1.93 overall. In a real slugfest, we came out on top 14-12, led by Morgan who hit three times for three runs and three RBIs, while Staub hit three times for a run and three RBIs, giving him a team-high 20 runs batted in so far this year.

Finally, a rest day, and then another gruelling stretch of games to get us into June. Next up: four games in three days, with a doubleheader on the second day, against the San Francisco Giants (3rd in the NL, 21-14 record, 4.5 games back). We go into this stretch while in dead last place in the NL, holding a 12-24 record and trailing the Mets in 9th place by a full game.

jksander · 03-29-2024, 11:05 PM

May 21, 1965: Mike Cuellar (0-1, 3.05 ERA, 20.2 IP, 16 K’s, 1.45 WHIP) started this evening’s game against San Francisco’s Bob Shaw (2-4, 5.12 ERA, 45.2 IP, 27 K’s, 1.40 WHIP). Cuellar quickly surrendered a run in the top of the first off a groundout to first with men in scoring position, and it got no better from there -- by the time we batted for the first time, we did it facing a three run deficit and Cuellar had thrown just 22 pitches to get us there. But Gaines started us off with a single and Aspromonte doubled him over to third, their pitcher walking Morgan to load the bases without an out. Jimmy Wynn hit a sac-fly to Willie Mays in deep center, driving in a run, but Staub hit into a double play to end the frame with us trailing by two. Cuellar settled in and struck out the side in the top of the second.

In the bottom of the fifth, Joe Morgan hit an RBI triple to cut the lead to a run, and Jimmy Wynn hit one into left field to bring him home and tie it up! Jim Owens came in to pitch with two outs and a man on first in the top of the sixth, getting Tom Haller to hit one straight to Aspromonte for an easy throw out at second, getting us out of the inning still tied at three. In the bottom of the sixth with two outs, Joe Gains hit a powerful shot into left, legging out a two-run RBI triple to put us in the lead 5-3! Jim Owens stayed out for the seventh, having thrown just two pitches, but he gave up two hits in a row, including an RBI double, to quickly put our lead in jeopardy. With one out, Aspromonte made a throwing error to first, pushing Jim Davenport to third and putting Jim Ray Hart on second. But a pop-out to Morgan at second kept the runners in place, and Claude Raymond came in at that point, catching a high flying ball from Orlando Cepeda to get us out of the inning with our one-run lead safe. Joe Morgan tripled to start the bottom of the seventh, but we couldn’t get him around to score for any insurance. Still leading by a run in the top of the ninth, Claude Raymond stayed out there and got an out but walked Harvey Kuenn, and we brought in Woodeshick to try and finish the job. He got Jim Ray Hart to hit into a fielder’s choice, taking out the runner at second, and then struck out their final batter of the night, Jesus Alou, to hold on to the 5-4 victory!

Cuellar had a solid night despite his rough first inning, lasting 5.2 innings with just five hits, a walk, six strikeouts and the three earned runs, giving him a 3.42 ERA. Owens came in and though he allowed two hits and a run, he got the win and improved to 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA with an inning of work. Raymond got our first hold of the season, with a hit a walk and a strikeout through 1.2 innings, and Woodeshick earned his seventh save of the season with a two out, one strikeout effort. We outhit the Giants 9-8, led by Morgan with two hits, two walks, a run and an RBI while leadoff-man Gaines hit once, walked once and scored once, driving in a pair. Tomorrow’s a doubleheader day, and those have not been great to us, but we’ve got to keep riding this momentum and trust our hitters to continue to find ways to manufacture runs.

May 22, 1965: Turk Farrell (2-4, 3.66 ERA, 46.2 IP, 36 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) got the start in game one today against Ron Herbel (1-2, 2.93 ERA, 30.2 IP, 17 K’s, 1.01 WHIP). Farrell has been building his confidence, going up against Koufax twice already this year, and he came in this afternoon ready to go. It was a duel early, nobody’s offense able to get a foothold. Wynn and Staub picked up back to back hits in the bottom of the fifth with the score still knotted at zero, and Walt Bond took advantage by hitting a hard shot into the left field corner, easing into second with an RBI double to put us up 1-0! Farrell got into a bit of a jam in the sixth, two outs and men on second and third, but he got a groundout to first to get us out of it with the lead safe. Rusty Staub doubled to start the bottom of the seventh, and they walked Bond to bring up Kasko, who grounded out at first to put the two runners into scoring position. Turk Farrell came up and we made the decision to let him hit so we’d still have him to pitch in the eighth, and it paid off! He got a hit into left field, driving in both runs with a single, giving us a 3-0 lead! Woodeshick was ready to go, but I let Farrell stay out there and complete his game as we won our third game in a row, this time as a 3-0 shutout!

Farrell improved to 3-4 with a 3.07 ERA, allowing seven hits with five strikeouts -- no walks, no runs, and he even picked up a two-RBI hit to ice the game in the eighth. We picked up seven hits ourselves, led by Staub who hit twice for a run, while Walt Bond added a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI. Morgan was frustrated, going hitless in four at-bats, but six others stepped up to have his back.

Ken Johnson (4-2, 3.82 ERA, 63.2 IP, 36 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) pitched in the second game of the doubleheader, facing Giants lefty Dick Estelle (0-0, 0.96 ERA, 9.1 IP, 6 K’s, 0.96 WHIP), a 23-year-old hurler who has only played in four relief efforts so far this year so we go in knowing very little about his tendencies. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, Johnson beat out a weak infield hit to take first safely, driving in a run and keeping them loaded! Joe Gaines then hit one to the wall in center, sliding in safely to third with a triple that scored three more runs, Aspromonte then driving him home with a sac-fly to put us up by five runs out of nowhere! Rusty Staub got a hit into center to drive in a run with a single, and we went into the top of the third leading 6-0 thanks to three hits and six walks off Estelle. In the bottom of the third, Joe Gaines hit another RBI double, and Aspromonte doubled to drive him home for run number eight. Johnson stayed in through the seventh inning, with Don Larsen coming in for the last two innings to protect our eight-run lead, and he was locked in as we completed the 8-0 shutout! That’s two shutout wins in six hours, by a combined 11-0 margin!

Ken Johnson improved to 5-2 with a 3.44 ERA, allowing five hits with a walk and three strikeouts through seven innings. Larsen remained red hot, allowing one hit with two walks and a strikeout in his two innings of work, improving his ERA to 1.78 through 25.1 innings over 13 appearances.We outhit them 9-6, with Estelle spotting us with six walks in his 2.2 innings of work. Gaines was a maniac from the leadoff spot, hitting twice with a walk, two runs and four RBIs, putting himself into a tie with Staub for the runs-batted-in lead for our team this year. Morgan walked twice and scored a run, though he did not pick up a single hit today in either game.

Heading into our last game with the Giants in this homestand, we’re now 15-24 and riding a four-game win streak that has pushed us into ninth place in the NL, just half a game behind the Cubs (15-23) and within two of the Cardinals (16-21) and three of the Reds (17-20) who we’ll face next!

May 23, 1965: Don Nottebart (0-4, 3.94 ERA, 29.2 IP, 18 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) pitched in our final game against the Giants, going up against Joe Marichal (6-1, 1.78 ERA, 65.2 IP, 46 K’s, 0.87 WHIP). With two outs in the bottom of the second, Kasko reached base on an error, and then took second off another error, coming around to score when John Bateman hit an RBI double just moments later! But they tied it up with two outs in the top of the fourth with a solo homer by McCovey (his 13th of the season!), their first run scored against us in 23 innings! Willie Mays scored the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh, off an RBI single by Jim Davenport, and Claude Raymond came in to pitch in the eighth as we tried to claw our way back in. Joe Owens came in to pitch in the ninth, with the score still 2-1 Giants, and he quickly gave up a solo homer to Willie Mays, his ninth of the year, to add to the deficit. Two outs later he gave up another, this time a two-run blast by the f---ing pitcher, to make it a four-run hole we had to dig out of. And we did not ... this one started solid and ended as an ugly 5-1 loss.

Don Nottebart can’t seem to get a win no matter how well he pitches. He pitched seven innings with just five hits, two walks and three strikeouts, but he allowed a pair of earned runs and got no run support, falling to 0-5 with a 3.68 ERA. Raymond was solid in his inning with a hit and a strikeout, but we pinch-hit for him and had to bring in Owens who allowed two hits (both homers) with a walk and three earned runs. He has a 3.18 ERA through 17 innings, so it’s hard not to trust him in situations like this ... it’s just bad luck all around. They outhit us 8-6, Kasko scoring our only run while Bateman batted it in. Gaines picked up two hits, bringing his average back up to .197, and Morgan got a hit and a walk to keep his at .260 ... right now he has 34 hits this year and has walked 39 times, giving him an on base percentage of .429!

Tomorrow we’ll play Cincinnati for the first time, the Reds coming in wth a 17-21 record. I’m still amazed I haven’t heard anything from our GM about bringing up guys from AAA ... so far here’s the list of guys who have had solid starts down there:

CF Jim Beauchamp, age 25 ... hitting .349 with three doubles, two triples and 21 homers ... 4.2 WAR, get his ass up here!
RF Sonny Jackson, age 20 ... hitting .329 with seven doubles, a homer and 21 stolen bases
SP Dave Giusti, age 25 ... 4-3, 3.70 ERA, 58.1 IP, 41 K’s, 1.03 WHIP ... a four pitch starter with defense for days and control ... we need him!

jksander · 03-31-2024, 08:26 PM

May 24, 1965: Bob Bruce (4-3, 2.91 ERA, 58.2 IP, 30 K’s, 1.12 WHIP) got the start against Cincy this evening, facing Jim O’Toole (2-3, 3.68 ERA, 51.1 IP, 29 K’s, 1.44 WHIP). The Reds got on the board in the top of the third with an RBI double by Johnny Edwards, adding another off a single by Vada Pinson to dig us a quick two-run hole. The Reds added a run in the fourth off a groundout to first, and Bruce gave up a three-run homer to Deron Johnson in the top of the fifth that just took all the wind out of us. Claude Raymond came in to pitch in the top of the sixth, and we showed signs of life in the bottom of that inning, loading the bases with Staub driving in a run to keep them that way. With one out, John Bateman stunned EVERYONE by hitting a grand slam home run out to right, cutting the Reds’ lead to one in the blink of an eye! In the bottom of the eighth, still down a run, Walt Bond got us going with a single, and Bateman doubled him over to third ... and with one out, Nellie Fox hit one into right field to drive in two to put us in the lead! Hal Woodeshick came in for the top of the ninth, leading by one, and on just his second pitch of the inning he gave up a solo blast to pinch-hitter Don Pavletich, just his second of the season, and we were knotted up 7-7. Leadoff man Vada Pinson hit a damned triple moments later, and with two outs the Reds got the lead back with an RBI single by Tommy Helms. I suppose Woodeshick was bound to blow one for us eventually, but god ... DAMN! By the time we got the final out the Reds had a two-run lead and we were scrambling. Jimmy Wynn picked up a single with one out in the bottom of the ninth, and Staub hit a slow roller that stayed in the infield but allowed him to reach safely as well, giving us a runner in scoring position. Walt Bond batted out to right, deep enough for Wynn to advance to third, but Bateman popped out to second and ended this as a frustrating 9-7 loss. What a waste of a comeback!

Bruce gave us five innings with eight hits, two walks, two strikeouts and six earned runs, while Raymond pitched for three innings with one hit, one walk, three strikeouts and enough chutzpah to keep us in this one when it looked like all was lost. Then Woodeshick came in and blew it, allowing four hits with a walk, a strikeout and three earned runs, blowing the save and taking the loss as his ERA plummeted to 4.50 through 12 innings. They outhit us 13-12 ... we were led by Bateman with three hits, two runs and four RBIs, while Staub hit three times with a run and an RBI. Bateman’s grand slam was amazing, but what we wouldn’t have given for a two-run double in the ninth to add to it.

May 25, 1965: Mike Cuellar (0-1, 3.42 ERA, 26.1 IP, 22 K’s, 1.37 WHIP) is up to pitch tonight, facing Joe Nuxhall (1-5, 3.54 ERA, 48.1 IP, 47 K’s, 1.16 WHIP). In the bottom of the first, Aspromonte got to first with one out off being hit by a pitch, they walked Morgan, and with two outs Rusty Staub got a hit into the outfield which allowed us to score a quick two runs! By the time they got the final out we led 2-0 and their starter, Nuxhall, had thrown 33 pitches. We continued to wear Nuxhall out early -- in the second, he walked Cuellar, his third of the game, and then after taking the count full Gaines reached first safely on an infield hit. We didn’t add any runs, but Nuxhall was visibly frustrated, having thrown 60 pitches in just two frames as we maintained our lead. In the bottom of the third, Staub hit a homer over the center field wall to make it a 3-0 lead thanks to his second homer of the year, and Aspromonte hit an RBI double in the fourth to give us a four-run lead, hitting safely in his 11th game in a row! Moments later, Wynn hit his third homer of the year, and we went into the top of the fifth leading 5-0! Cuellar gave up his first hit of the game in the top of the fifth to Gordy Coleman for a single but then stranded him there with three quick outs, and when we came up in the bottom of the inning they’d gone to the bullpen. We brought Owens in to pitch in the top of the sixth, with Cuellar starting to wear out having started on short rest, still leading by five shutout runs. We added a run in the bottom of the seventh off an error in right field with the bases loaded, allowing Bateman to score another run while Aspromonte reached first safely, though Morgan struck out to keep us from doing more damage. Don Larsen came in to pitch in the top of the ninth, getting three quick outs to close out the 6-0 shutout win!

Cuellar took the win, improving to 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA, allowing just one hit with one walk and a strikeout in his five innings, and Jim Owens held tough through three innings with two hits and three strikeouts to keep his ERA at 2.70. Larsen’s final inning was perfect through 16 pitches and improved his ERA to 1.71 through 26.1 innings and 14 appearances. We outhit them 11-3 tonight, led by Staub with two hits, a run and three RBIs. Wynn had his homer as well, and Gaines hit twice, walked twice and scored a run. In total six batters scored our six runs, making this a great all-around team win. Now let’s go out there and take the series win tomorrow!

May 26, 1965: Larry Dierker (0-5, 7.18 ERA, 31.1 IP, 19 K’s, 1.60 WHIP) came out for a spot start this afternoon, going up against Joe Maloney (3-1, 3.10 ERA, 69.2 IP, 67 K’s, 1.16 WHIP). The Reds got on the board with an RBI single by Tommy Harper in the top of the third, and like every other time he’s pitched, our batters could make absolutely nothing happen, ramping the presure up on the 18-year-old. In the top of the fourth, both Morgan AND Kasko failed him by just letting weak grounders pass them by into the outfield, and the Reds added a second run off a flyout to right by Lee Cardenas. Morgan and Wynn walked to start the bottom of the fourth, and with two outs and the count 1-0 against Kasko they pulled off a double steal to both get into scoring position. But with the count full, Kasko swung and hit one straight to their shortstop, Cardenas, and it made for an easy out at first -- another scoreless inning. Aspromonte got a hit with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, pushing Dierker over into scoring position, and they walked Morgan to load the bases and bring up Jimmy Wynn, who quietly walked in a run as Maloney (with six walks to that point) started to look vulnerable. But Staub popped out to third and we went into the top of the sixth trailing 2-1. Nellie Fox came in to pinch hit for Dierker with two outs in the bottom of the sixth and he got a great hit into right field, driving in the tying run!

We brought Don Larsen in to pitch in the top of the seventh, and he struggled to prevent contact, with Yada Pinson driving in a run to put the reds back on top with a double. But in the bottom of the inning, Jimmy Wynn hit an RBI double to tie it back up, and Walt Bond hit a single a few minutes later to drive in another and put us in the lead for the first time this afternoon! Larsen stayed out and got two quick outs, only to then put two into scoring position and forcing us to go to Woodeshick for the final out of the eighth ... and he pulled it off, getting Tommy Helms to ground one to Kasko, who made the throw to first for our final out. In the bottom of the frame, Aspromonte grounded into a double play to keep us from adding any insurance, so Woodeshick came out in the top of the ninth to try and close it out, still leading by a run. He performed perfectly, getting popouts from the two batters at the bottom of their lineup and then striking out Pinson for the final out as we won 4-3 and took the series win!

Dierker didn’t get himself a win tonight, but he gave us six innings with just six hits and two earned runs, improving his ERA to 6.51. Larsen got the win, improving to 2-1 with a 1.98 ERA with four hits and an earned run in 1.2 innings, while Woodeshick saved his eighth game of the year with a strikeout and no hits, improving his ERA to 4.05 through 1.1 innings. They outhit us 10-6 and we still came out on top thanks to eight walks. Wynn led the team with a hit and two walks for a run and two RBIs, and Aspromonte went 1 for 5 and, though he didn’t score, he did add a game to his 12-game hitting streak.

jksander · 03-31-2024, 11:11 PM

May 27, 1965: Heading into a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals (18-23) we’re now within a half a game of the Cubs in eighth place, trailing them by just half a game. Our record stands at 17-26, and a series win here could help push us up several spots in the NL standings. We’ve won six of our last ten games, and with six games left in this homestand we’re really looking to find ways to keep our win streak alive.

Ken Johnson (5-2, 3.44 ERA, 70.2 IP, 39 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) got the start against St. Louis’ Larry Jaster (1-2, 3.04 ERA, 47.1 IP, 27 K’s, 0.97 WHIP). Johnson didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, but that was when the Cardinals pounced, getting on the board with an RBI double by Bill White on just their second hit of the game. In the bottom of the seventh, still trailing 1-0, Johnson led off with a walk but our next three batters all batted out to various outfielders and we remained unable to find ways to manufacture a scoring opportunity. In the bottom of the ninth Wynn got on board with just our fourth hit of the game, and Bond batted him over to third with a single on one out. Johnny Weekly came in to pinch hit for Dave Adlesh, and they walked him to load the bases. And it was at that moment we took control of our destiny -- Bob Lillis hit a double into the outfield, driving in two runs to jump us into the lead, sending us into the top of the ninth with Ken Johnson staying out to complete his game! He pitched around a hit to get the three outs we needed, and we held on to win this one 2-1!

Johnson pitched a complete-game three hitter tonight, striking out four and allowing just one earned run as he improved to 6-2 with a 3.16 ERA! We outhit the Cardinals 6-3, led by 34-year-old backup shortstop Bob Lillis who hit three times and batted in both runs in only his third game of the season. Aspromonte walked once and hit once to keep his streak alive, though he did not score. Wynn and Bond each hit once and scored once, while Morgan had to settle for three walks and being stranded each time.

May 28, 1965: Turk Farrell (3-4, 3.07 ERA, 55.2 IP, 41 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) started against Dick Hughes (5-1, 1.12 ERA, 72.0 IP, 45 K’s, 0.75 WHIP), and on the first pitch of the night we wound up allowing a baserunner thanks to a throwing error by Morgan trying to get the ball to first. That runner made it over to third after a sac-bunt and a stolen base, coming home to score an unearned run off a Bill White single. But we tied it up quickly in the bottom of the first thanks to a Joe Morgan RBI double, and Walt Bond hit a three run homer to blast us into the lead! That’s his third this year. The Cards got a run in the top of the second, thanks to an RBI double by Bob Uecker, but we stranded him at third to get out of the inning still leading by a pair. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth, Farrell laid down a perfect squeeze bunt, Staub using his explosive speed to beat out the play at home for a run,the bases staying loaded! Bob Lillis hit a sac-fly to center, driving in another, and we went into the top of the seventh leading 6-2! Wynn hit a solo homer into the left field seats to make it a five-run lead in the bottom of the seventh, his fourth homer this year. The Cards got a run back in the eighth but left a pair stranded as their rally fizzled, and in the bottom of the eighth Nellie Fox hit a solo homer as a pinch-hitter for Farrell, putting the lead back up to five runs! Jim Owens came out and shut them down in the top of the ninth and we won our fourth game in a row, this time by an 8-3 margin!

Turk Farrell is now 4-4 with a 2.97 ERA, thanks to an eight inning effort with eight hits, two strikeouts and three runs scored, two earned. Owens then came in and made sure it stayed that way, notching a strikeout against just one hit in the final frame. We outhit the Cardinals 10-9, led by Bond with a hit, a walk, two runs and three RBIs. Bob Lillis continues to hit well also, picking up two hits with a run and an RBI, bringing his average up to .462 through his first 13 plate appearances.

May 29, 1965: Bob Bruce (4-3, 3.53 ERA, 63.2 IP, 32 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) got the start against Bob Gibson (2-5, 4.39 ERA, 65.2 IP, 47 K’s, 1.25 WHIP), and the word is starting to get out about our recent performance improvements -- 12,500 fans showed up this afternoon, our strongest single-game attendance since opening day! The Cardinals took an early 1-0 lead, Tim McCarver hitting a solo homer in the top of the second, and Bruce was uncharacteristically off his game early, allowing six hits in the first three innings while Gibson only allowed a pair. But he settled down and this one turned into a duel, and in the bottom of the sixth, Nellie Fox hit a single up the gap, driving in the tying run with a double! Johnny Weekly pinch-hit for Bruce in the bottom of the seventh, hitting a clean single into left, and Gaines hit a two-run homer out of right field, putting us up 3-1! Don Larsen came out and laid an egg in the top of the eighth, giving up three hits in a row including an RBI double to McCarver, and Woodeshick came in to clean up his mess ... no outs, two in scoring position. He got two quick outs on soft infield contact and then struck out Carl Warwick swinging, getting us out of the inning with a one-run lead still intact -- what a masterful performance under pressure! He came back out in the top of the ninth and got us through it with only a single baserunner as we closed out our fifth win in a row, this time a 3-2 squeaker that completed the series sweep!

Bob Bruce improved to 5-3 with a 3.31 ERA, thanks to a nine hit effort in seven innings, striking out five and allowing just one earned run. Larsen allowed a pair of hits, a walk and an earned run without securing even one out, but Woodeshick threw a two-inning save with one hit and a pair of strikeouts, his ninth save of the season, improving his ERA to 3.52 through 15.1 innings! The Cardinals outhit us 12-7 but Gibson walked us four times and Gaines got us where we needed to go with two hits, a walk, a run scored and two more batted in.

Our win streak has us holding a 20-26 record and we’re in seventh place in the NL standings, half a game behind the Cubs in sixth. The Milwaukee Braves (23-18, 6 GB) are coming into Houston ranked fourth in the league, but we only trail them by five and a half games. More important, we’re really starting to gel as a team, and if we can keep playing like this we’re going to catch a lot of teams off their guard.

jksander · 04-01-2024, 06:40 PM

May 30, 1965: Mike Cuellar (1-1, 2.87 ERA, 31.1 IP, 23 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) got the start this afternoon against Milwaukee’s Denny Lemaster (4-3, 4.13 ERA, 65.1 IP, 47 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) in front of 13,500 Astros fans. Cuellar struggled a bit in the first inning, loading the bases on one out and allowing a run to score off a sac-fly to center by Mack Jones, but he got us through with just that run scoring. They added another run in the top of the second thanks to a wild pitch, and a third run scored off an RBI double by Woody Woodward in the top of the fourth to dig us a pretty solid hole. Cuellar got the hook with one out and a man on first in the top of the fifth, with Jim Owens coming in to keep the game from getting out of reach. We loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth, a run scoring when Eddie Kasko took the count full and then walked one in. Joe Morgan hit a sac-fly to deep left, driving in a second run, and Lemaster walked Jimmy Wynn to load the bases again. Rusty Staub laid down a perfect hit into left field, coming out of it with a double that scored three runs and put us into the lead 5-3! Claude Raymond came in with one out and men on the corners in the top of the sixth, and a sac-fly by Eddie Mathews drove in a run to cut our lead to one. Raymond then struggled to get that final out, allowing the tying run to score on a single by Joe Torre, though we did escape the frame tied 5-5. They took the lead back with an RBI single in the top of the seventh, and we had to bring Larry Dierker in with a man on first and no outs in the top of the eighth -- he did his job, getting us through the eighth and ninth innings without any additional runs scoring, and with one out in the bottom of the ninth Joe Morgan hit himself a double to get into scoring position! Morgan reached third off a sac-fly to center by Wynn, but they struck out Staub with a knuckleball and our win streak came to an end in a 6-5 loss.

Cuellar struggled in this one and it put us behind the eight ball early ... he only lasted 4.1 innings and allowed nine hits and three runs with just one walk and two strikeouts. Owens allowed three hits and two runs in his inning of work, but it was Raymond who blew the save chance and took the loss, falling to 0-4 with three hits, two walks and an earned run in 1.2 innings of work. Dierker got us through the last two with a hit and two strikeouts, improving his ERA to 6.18, but let’s be honest -- it’s hard to win games when you allow five earned runs and 16 hits. In the end we only got eight hits, though we walked six times to keep ourselvesin this one. Staub led the way with two hits and three earned runs, but he was no match for knuckleballer Phil Niekro in the final frame.

May 31, 1965: Don Nottebart (0-5, 3.68 ERA, 36.2 IP, 21 K’s, 1.20 WHIP) gets to go tonight against Tony Cloninger (1-4, 5.03 ERA, 48.1 IP, 27 K’s, 1.61 WHIP). And he got rung up early, Joe Torre hitting an RBI double that drove in two runs with one out in the top of the first. Jimmy Wynn picked up an RBI double to get us on the board in the bottom of the inning, but the Braves got it back in the top of the fourth with a homer over the wall in right field by Denis Menke. And Nottebart wore himself out early, being replaced in the fifth inning by Larry Dierker, who got three quick outs in the fifth with just six pitches to keep us in the game. He held on through the sixth and seventh, but our bats did him no favors and we continued to trail by two runs heading into the eighth with Don Larsen coming in to pitch. In the bottom of the eighth, Morgan reached base on an infield hit and with one out Wynn batted him over to third with a double that gave us two in scoring position ... and that’s when Rusty Staub hit a three-run homer over the wall at right, shooting us into the lead 4-3!

Larsen stayed out in the top of the ninth, and should have had a quick out against Rico Carty, except Morgan made a terrible throw to first that was off the mark, an untimely error. Mack Jones hit another to Morgan, who this time made the throw safely to first for an out, though Carty moved the potential tying run into scoring position. Of course their third batter, Lee Maye, hit one to deep center and drove in that run, tying us up. Woodeshick came in with the runner on second and just one out, getting us out of there with a strikeout and a flyout to left, and we’d get a chance to finish this in the bottom of the inning. Up to bat first in the inning, Woodeshick took the count full against the knuckleballer Niekro, but struck out trying to bunt for a hit. Niekro then struck out Gaines swinging, and Aspromonte popped out to first ... extra innings for this one!

Woodeshick let two runners on in the top of the 10th but got out of the inning with a double play, but Niekro stayed unhittable and this one kept going. Rico Carte singled and was sent to second via a sac-bunt in the top of the 11th, but Woodeshick struck out Gene Stephens, walked Lou Kimchock and got Mike de la Hoz to pop out to left field to get us out of the inning still knotted at four runs apiece. They brought in Don Osinski to pitch in the bottom of the fame and he walked Bond to put the go-ahead run on base. Kasko popped out to left, but Nellie Fox, pinch-hitting for our catcher, Dave Adlesh, got a hit into center field and drove Bond over to third! Dave Roberts pinch hit for Woodeshick but he struck out swinging, setting up Gaines with two outs, men on the corners, and a chance to avoid more innings. But he popped to right and this one just wouldn’t end. John Bateman came in to catch and Jim Owens to pitch in the top of the 12th, and he set their batters down quickly to get our boys back up to bat, but again we couldn’t score! Owens got us through the 13th without incident, but Staub, Bond and Kasko all came up empty. With two outs in the top of the 14th, Owens gave up a pair of singles to Felipe Alou and Eddie Mathews, and we had to bring in Claude Raymond, our only remaining bullpen arm, who threw 39 pitches last night. He got Hank Aaron to hit a weak popout to Morgan at second, however, and this one stayed alive! But again our bats failed us, and this one was getting ridiculous ... Raymond had no choice to stay in unless we want to burn a starter.

It had to break down eventually. Raymond gave up two doubles in a row to put the Braves into the lead, and another run scored on a wild pitch. We went into the bottom of the 15th trailing by two runs, and Aspromonte led off with a single. Morgan batted into a fielder’s choice and they picked off Aspromonte at second. Wynn struck out swinging for the second out, but then STAUB HIT A HOME RUN OUT OF RIGHT FIELD ... WE’RE TIED UP AGAIN, 6-6! Jesus H. Christ, we’re heading into the 16th, folks, and it’s past 11:30 p.m. here in Houston and Raymond’s back out there looking dazed. But he found an inner reserve and despite putting runners on the corners, got us through the top of the frame still tied, but we NEEDED to finish this. With Cuellar warming up in the bullpen -- I don’t want to risk an injury to Raymond -- Eddie Kasko came up and grounded out to first. John Bateman took his base on balls, and Raymond was able to bat him into scoring position with a well-placed sac-bunt. Gaines struck out swinging, however, and this interminable game just won’t end.

We had no choice but to bring in Cuellar in the top of the 17th, ten minutes to midnight. Frank Bolling hit a double into the right field corner, and Bob Sadowski grounded out to first, moving him to third. Lou Kimchock flew out to left but drove in the go-ahead run, and de la Hoz popped out to the same spot to end the frame. With one out in the bottom of the 17th, Joe Morgan hit a nice one into right field for a single, Jimmy Wynn struck out swinging, and Staub then electrified the remaining fans in the place by hitting a two-run blast out of center field, a walk-off homer that gave us a 17th inning 8-7 victory! The game took 4 hours and 58 minutes to complete and we got the win, but unless our GM calls up reinforcements from AAA to get us through the next few days of worn-out bullpen arms, this long game victory may hurt us more than it helps us.

This was a game won by true grit ... we were outhit 19-13 over the course of the 17 innings played, but outscored them 4-3 during the eight extra innings to power out the win. Nottebart struggled in his four innings, allowing five hits and three earned runs with a walk and two strikeouts, but Dierker handled himself well through three innings, allowing only two hits and improving his ERA to 5.74. Larson went 1.1 innings with a hit and an unearned run, and then Woodeshick and Owens combined for 5.1 innings with just six hits, a walk and five strikeouts between them. Claude Raymond then came out and threw 34 pitches a day after throwing 39, surviving 2.1 innings with four hits, a strikeout and two earned runs, but in the end it too Cuellar coming in for the final inning -- he improved to 2-1 with a 3.44 ERA with a hit and an earned run. As for our bats, Rusty Staub made himself into an Astros legend in one night, hitting three times for three runs and SEVEN runs batted in, ALL OF THEM HOMERS ... he went yard in the 8th inning off Cloninger, in the 15th off Bob Sadowski, and in the 17th off Hank Fischer. He now has a .281 average, five homers and 35 RBIs.

jksander · 04-02-2024, 06:51 PM

June 1, 1965: Tonight’s our last home game until the middle of the month, but we’re going to have to fight for the win with a depleted bullpen -- only David Larsen is at all rested, but luckily for us we’ve got iron man ace Ken Johnson (6-2, 3.16 ERA, 79.2 IP, 43 K’s, 0.99 WHIP) up to pitch tonight, and he’s got six complete game starts so far this year. He’s going up against Dick Kelley (3-0, 3.23 ERA, 47.1 IP, 23 K’s, 0.99 WHIP) in a game where I expect batters are going to have their work cut out for them. Milwaukee scored first, Felipe Alou hitting a solo homer in the top of the third, and they added another in the top of the fourth off a Lou Klimchock RBI double, giving them a 2-0 lead in the middle of the fourth. Walt Bond got a hit up the gap for us to drive in a run with a single in the bottom of the fourth, but Carty hit an RBI double for the Braves in the top of the fifth to get the run back, and they added another with two outs off a Gene Oliver single. We got two into scoring position in the bottom of the fifth but came up empty, and Johnson was not on his usual game, seeming to give up hits left and right. They added a run in the top of the eighth and that seemed to seal it. Larsen came in with two outs and men on second and third, getting the final out but by then we trailed by four and looked utterly lost on offense. They shut us down from there, though at least Larsen kept things from blowing up further, beating us 5-1.

Ken Johnson fell to 6-3 with a 3.40 ERA, allowing 13 hits in 7.2 innings, with one walk, five strikeouts and five earned runs. Larsen got us through the rest with two strikeouts and no hits, but we were outhit 13-3, there was no getting around that. Bond had a hit and an RBI, and Gaines had a hit and a run scored. Beyond that it was all quiet on our offensive front as we slipped to 21-28.

We now have a road trip to deal with ... two games against Cincinnati (22-25) and four in three days over the weekend against St. Louis (18-29) before we finally get a day off. We’ll then face Pittsburgh (31-18) for three and Philly (27-20) for three before returning home to play four against the Cubs (24-25), two against Pittsburgh and four in three days against the Phillies. We’re going to have to find ways to win games with the team we have, because it’s becoming increasingly clear that our owner and GM have no interest in either calling up or trading for players to give our worn down players any chanc e to catch their breath.

June 2, 1965: Tank Farrell (4-4, 2.97 ERA, 63.2 IP, 43 K’s, 1.16 ERA) is ready to pitch tonight in our first appearance at Crosley Field this season. He’ll be going up against Joey Jay (2-4, 5.40 ERA, 46.0 IP, 34 K’s, 1.46 WHIP). Cincinnati got on the board quickly in the bottom of the second, A Johnny Edwards double batting in Pete Rose for a run, followed almost immediately by an RBI single by Joey Jay, who scored Edwards to put them up 2-0. Pete Rose hit his third homer of the season in the bottom of the fourth, a solo blast that made it a three run lead. But in the top of the fifth we evened things up with a two-out, three-run homer by Bob Aspromonte (his third of the year!) out of left field that tied the score 3-3. And just a few minutes later Jimmy Wynn hit one out of the park to right, scoring two more runs to make it a 5-3 lead heading into the middle of the frame. Farrell settled in well from there and kept us firmly in control, and we added a run in the top of the ninth off an RBI single by Aspromonte to make it a three-run lead. With our bullpen still exhausted from having to pitch so heavily over the last three nights, we left Farrell in to complete his game, but he gave up a double to Deron Johnson and a two-run homer to Gordy Coleman, cutting our lead to a run as Woodeshick hurried to warm up. Aspromonte made a great catch at third base for our first out, but Cardenas got a hard hit into left to put the potential tying run on second. Woodeshick came in to pitch, one out, man on second, and he gave up a hit into right to drive in the tying run ... what a disasterous turn! And in the end they were able to walk it off with a Tommy Harper single and we blew this one, losing 7-6.

Woodeshick only got one of the two outs we needed, allowing two hits and an earned run so he took his second blown save of the year and his record fell to 0-3 with a 3.44 ERA. But he never should have had to come in at all ... Farrell had only allowed seven hits prior to the ninth inning, and he finished with nine hits, two strikeouts and six earned runs. If our GM isn’t going to call up pitching reinforcements when our bullpen gets blown up, we are going to need our top starters to be able to handle complete games when the situation calls for one, and up three runs in the top of the ninth this shouldn’t have required the bullpen. We outhit the Reds 12-11 in the game, led by Aspromonte who hit twice for a run and four RBIs, while Morgan, Wynn, Staub and Farrell each hit twice as well. But we couldn’t hold on ... what a disappointing way to lose.

June 3, 1965: Bob Bruce (5-3, 3.31 ERA, 70.2 IP, 37 K’s, 1.20 WHIP) got the start tonight against Jim O’Toole (3-3, 4.12 ERA, 67.2 IP, 43 K’s, 1.45 WHIP). Cincy again scored in the bottom of the second, again thanks to Edwards, who hit an RBI single. Jim O’Toole doubled in another run, and we went into the third trailing 2-0 for the second night in a row. Our bats went ice cold through this one, and they finally broke Bruce again in the bottom of the seventh, three hits in a row off him culminating in a two-run triple by Frank Robinson that turned this into a four-run game. Robinson scored on a two-out fly ball into left via Coleman for a double, and then Pete Rose singled for another run, sending us into the top of the eighth trailing by six. Larry Dierker came in for the bottom of the eighth, getting three quick outs and we went down quietly in the final frame, losing this one in a 6-0 shutout.

Bob Bruce fell to 5-4 with a 3.71 ERA, allowing 11 hits and six earned runs with a walk and four strikeouts. Dierker got through his inning unblemished and improved his ERA to 5.61. They outhit us 11-4 ... no one hit twice and we only had five baserunners all night. We’ve now lost three in a row since the 17-inning victory over Milwaukee, and we’ve still got a four-game set over the next three days in St. Louis before we even get a day off.

jksander · 04-02-2024, 11:39 PM

June 4, 1965: Mike Cuellar (2-1, 3.44 ERA, 36.2 IP, 25 K’s, 1.34 WHIP) is up to start tonight in St. Louis, going up against Ray Washburn (2-3, 4.42 ERA, 53.0 IP, 22 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) at Sportsmans Park. He threw 11 pitches four nights ago in the 17th inning, and 77 pitches five days ago, but is now fully rested. Tonight we got going quickly, with Gaines doubling and then Aspromonte hit one out of the park to right, putting two on the board barely a minute into the game ... and in the bottom of the second, with two outs, Bateman hit himself a single and then Cuellar put one out of the park to right, another two-run blast that made it a 4-0 ballgame! Really loving that short porch in right, Cardinals! Bottom of the third, Staub added a two-run triple to really start to blow this one open, and Kasko drove him in with a double to make it a seven-run game midway through the third inning. Things quieted from there, but we’d made our presence felt and you could tell the fans were growing restless. Cuellar allowed runners on the corner in the bottom of the sixth but got a groundout and a double play to end the frame with us still up 7-0. Walt Bond added a run with an RBI single in the top of the seventh, and John Bateman batted in another with a double. Don Larsen came in with a man on first, no outs, in the bottom of the seventh, and though a second runner reached base on an error at short, he shut them down efficiently with three quick outs to keep the nine run lead unblemished. But in the bottom of the eighth he wasn’t as lucky -- two runners reached base quickly, and Lou Brock scored from third on a wild pitch to spoil the shutout before Larsen again locked in and got the next three outs via contact. He stayed out in the ninth and put them away easily as we held tough to a 9-1 road win!

Mike Cuellar improved to 3-1 with a 2.95 ERA, allowing seven hits, striking out four and surrendering no runs in this six inning effort. Larsen then came out and threw 34 pitches in a three-inning save, his third of the year, allowing only three hits with a strikeout and an unearned run, keeping his ERA at 1.87 through 33.2 innings in 19 appearances. We outhit the Cardinals 12-10, led by Aspromonte and Cuellar who each hit once, walked once and batted in two with their homers. Staub was also solid, hitting once for a run and two RBIs, and Morgan and Wynn each hit twice socring two runs apeice. Everyone in our starting lineup hit at least once in the all-around great effort.

June 5, 1965: Don Nottebart (0-5, 3.98 ERA, 40.2 IP, 23 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) is up to pitch, and he could use a night of hitting like last night to help get him a win for a change. He’s pitching against Ray Sadecki (2-3, 3.53 ERA, 43.1 IP, 39 K’s, 1.29 WHIP). And Dave Roberts did his part, hitting a 412-footer out of the park on the left field side to put us up 3-0 in the top of the first! Lou Brock got the Cardinals on the board with a homer of his own in the bottom of the second, a solo shot to left, and Mike Shannon hit one to right a moment later to make it a one run game. And Nottebart’s luck ran out in the bottom of the fourth, when with two outs Phil Gagliano hit an RBI single to tie the game at 3-3, and in the bottom of the fifth, again with two outs, Bill White hit a two-run homer out of right field to make it a 5-3 Cardinals lead. For a pitcher to have the kind of bad luck he’s had all season is really hard to watch, but it seems any way he can find a way to let a game slip out of his fingers he’ll find it. We brought Claude Raymond in to pitch in the bottom of the sixth, still trailing by a pair. In the top of the ninth with two outs, Joe Morgan pinch hit for Raymond, getting a hit into right to drive a run through and cut the lead to one run for the Cardinals. But Aspromonte, pinch hitting for Kasko, couldn’t get a run through and we lost this one 5-4.

Don Nottebart only allowed six hits in his five innings with a walk and three strikeouts, but five earned runs doomed him to another loss, falling to 0-6 with a 4.53 ERA. Claude Raymond gave us three innings with a strikeout, no hits, no runs, and his ERA improved to 3.25 but we weren’t able to get runs in to reverse the outcome. We put up six hits as well, led by Roberts’ three RBIs thanks to his home run. Nellie Fox, with two hits, was our only player to net more than one but he was left stranded both times.

I’m glad Raymond was able to go the distance, because we’ve got a doubleheader tomorrow and we’re going to have Ken Johnson fully rested but Turk Farrell will be on short rest, so I expect some tougher bullpen decisions in that game. We could really use Dave Giusti up from AAA, but management seems to want to keep him down there ... so far he’s 5-4 through 74 innings with a 3.04 ERA, 50 K’s and 1.4 wins above replacement.

June 6, 1965: Time for a two-fer today ... game one will feature Ken Johnson (6-3, 3.40 ERA, 87.1 IP, 46 K’s, 1.06 WHIP) going up against Larry Jaster (1-3, 3.64 ERA, 59.1 IP, 35 K’s, 1.08 WHIP). Gaines started the game with a quick triple off the wall in right, and Aspromonte drove him home with a shot up the middle, giving us a quick 1-0 lead. Dave Roberts hit a 400-footer out of left field in the top of the second, his third homer this year and second during this series, and Joe Gaines added a two-out, two-run shot out of right field to make it a 4-0 lead! St. Louis got on the board with a solo shot to right by Bill White in the bottom of the fourth, and in the bottom of the sixth White doubled to bat in another run to make it a 4-2 ballgame. In the top of the eighth we loaded the bases and left them all stranded, and in the top of the ninth we did the same with runners on second and third, putting Johnson out there in the bottom of the ninth to protect the two run lead and get us out of the first game. And though he put a runner on first with two outs, we were able to get the final out via a pop-out at right field and came out of this with a hard-fought 4-2 win.

Johnson pitched a complete game with seven hits, two walks, two strikeouts and two earned runs, improving his record to 7-3 with a 3.27 ERA. We hit seven times, led by Gaines with two hits, a walk, two runs and two RBIs, giving him 25 runs batted in this season. Bateman hit twice as well but was stranded each time.

Turk Farrell (4-4, 3.38 ERA, 72.0 IP, 45 K’s, 1.15 WHIP) started game two of the afternoon, facing Dick Hughes (5-2, 1.79 ERA, 85.1 IP, 52 K’s, 0.80 WHIP). Both pitchers are going on four days’ rest, though Farrell pitched longer in his last start than Hughes did. And the start was far from optimal -- bottom of the first, Farrell walked Mike Shannon, then Dick Groat reached via an error at short and Bill White walked, loading the bases without an out. He struck out Ken Buyer, but Bob Skinner hit a hard shot into right field to drive in a pair. From there it went downhilll fast. By the time we got out of the first inning we were in a 10-0 hole and I had Dierker warming up after Farrell threw 58 pitches and looked like he belonged back down in the minors. Dierker came in to pitch in the bottom of the second, and the Cardinals continued to pile on ... they added three runs in the third before we finally got on the board with a homer by Wynn in the top of the fourth to trail 13-1. We had a 32 minute rain delay in the middle of the fifth inning, and Don Larsen came on to pitch in the bottom of the sixth with two outs, to relieve a fully gassed Dierker. In the bottom of the seventh they added another run, but Larsen got us through the eighth and we surrendered quietly in the ninth, losing this one 14-1.

Farrell fell to 4-5 with a 3.58 ERA, allowing just five hits but walking four, striking out two and giving up ten runs ... only TWO of which were actually earned. Larry Dierker came out and threw 4.2 innings and 79 pitches, giving up four hits and three runs with two walks and three strikeouts, and Larsen then went the final 2.1 innings, with two hits, three walks, two strikeouts and an earned run. In his one inning of work, Farrell faced 14 batters. They only outhit us 11-4, but we walked them nine times as well. Wynn’s homer kept it from being a shutout, and Aspromonte, Roberts and Adlesh were our only other baserunners of the night.

We’re off tomorrow night to try and put today out of our minds. With three games against Pittsburgh (34-21) and three against Philadelphia (31-22) before we get to go back to Houston, it’s likely to be a painful week. We remain 23-32 and 11 games back in the National League, 3.5 games behind Chicago and two games up on the Cardinals while sitting all the way back in eighth place. We’re 1-2 in extra innings games and 7-9 in games with a one-run margin, with a -23 run differential.

jksander · 04-03-2024, 06:52 PM

June 8, 1965: Bob Bruce (5-4, 3.71 ERA, 77.2 IP, 41 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) got the first start in Pittsburgh, facing Wilbur Wood (5-2, 2.81 ERA, 73.2 IP, 45 K’s, 1.11 WHIP). Pittsburgh took control in the bottom of the second with an RBI single by Gene Alley, and they put the hammer to us quickly after that, Bruce finally getting us out of the inning trailing 4-0. They loaded the bases in the bottom of the third but we kept them from adding any runs, but in the bottom of the sixth they added two more with a two-run Clendenon homer, giving them a 6-0 advantage. Bruce tried to stay out for the seventh inning but gave up three hits in a row, including an RBI single by Bob Bailey, and we had no choice but to bring in Jim Owens with men on first and second and no outs, and he did his job, getting us into the top of the eighth trailing by seven runs. Pittsburgh’s defense was merciless, but with two outs we finally got on the board with an RBI triple by Jimmy Wynn before Staub grounded out to first to end the inning. Owens stayed in and it didn’t get any worse through the eighth, but we weren’t able to get anyone on base in the ninth and this one ended as a 7-1 defeat.

Bob Bruce’s record fell to 5-5 with a 4.20 ERA, allowing 13 hits, three walks, three strikeouts and seven earned runs through six innings. Owens was hitless through his two frames, improving his ERA to 2.70 through 26.2 innings. They outhit us 13-5, with Wynn’s RBI and Aspromonte’s run on the ground being our only offense.

June 9, 1965: Mike Cuellar (3-1, 2.95 ERA, 42.2 IP, 29 K’s, 1.31 WHIP) pitched tonight against Joe Gibbon (5-0, 3.02 ERA, 65.2 IP, 40 K’s, 1.19 WHIP). Pittsburgh scored in the bottom of the first off a sac-fly by Bob Bailey, and they blew it open in the bottom of the fourth, adding two more runs with an RBI triple by Manny Mota, and another off a sac-fly by Gene Alley, giving them a 4-0 lead heading into the top of the fifth. Sturgell hit a homer for them in the bottom of the fifth on two outs, adding a run, and we still trailed by five runs heading into the bottom of the eighth, with Claude Raymond coming in to pitch. The Pirates scored another run in that frame, and they shut us down efficiently in the ninth, beating us this time 6-0 in a game that didn’t even make it to the two and a half hour mark.

Cuellar is now 3-2 with a 3.26 ERA, allowing nine hits, two walks, three strikeouts and five runs (four earned) in his seven innings. Raymond gave up a pair of hits, a walk and an earned run in his frame, giving him a 3.45 ERA now through 28.2 innings over 15 appearances. They outhit us again 11-5, and this time only Bond made it on base twice (a hit and a walk) and we never got anyone past second base.

June 10, 1965: Larry Dierker (0-5, 5.62 ERA, 48.0 IP, 24 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) started today against Pittsburgh’s Don Cardwell (0-2, 3.62 ERA, 37.1 IP, 22 K’s, 1.26 WHIP). Joe Morgan got a hit in the top of the first to drive Gaines in from third to give us our first lead of this series, Morgan stole second and then advanced to third off a passed ball, but Staub couldn’t get a hit out of the infield and we went into the bottom of the first leading by the one run. And of course, with two outs in the bottom of the first, Pittsburgh was able to tie it up 1-1 with an RBI single by Willie Sturgell, though we got into the second inning without giving them a lead. Larry Dierker got himself a hit in the top of the third, and Gaines took it all the way out of the park for a two run homer to buy us back a 3-1 lead. And just like before, on two outs, Dierker gave up an RBI single that drove in two runs to tie it up again 3-3 ... it’s like living in a nightmare, our inability to hold on to leads! With two outs in the bottom of the third he allowed a single that drove Don Cardwell over to third, and then he plunked Manny Mota on the shoulder to load the bases, but he struck Roberto Clemente out for the final out to keep the game tied. We brought Don Larsen in to pitch in the bottom of the fifth, and Aspromonte led off with a single into left in the top of the sixth, but we stranded him to stay knotted up. Unfortunately Larsen gave up the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth with a double by Clendenon, and a passed ball allowed Don Cardwell to score from third. Clendenon scored on a single by Mota, and with just one out in the inning it started to look like another rout was on. Stargell hit a two run blast into right and we went into the top of the seventh trailing 8-3 and looking like an absolute disgrace.

We kept fighting though, loading the bases in the top of the frame, and Gaines batted in a run with a single into right to cut their lead to four. Aspromonte hit a sharp drive into left to drive in another with the bases still loaded, and Morgan hit into a fielder’s choice with the out being made at home to prevent the run but keeping the bases jammed. A Jimmy Wynn popout to first ended the inning with us still trailing by three. Claude Raymond came in to pitch in the bottom of the seventh, and he pitched around a double by Gene Alley to get us through the inning without anyone scoring. Rusty Staub led off with a double, and they walked Bond. Kasko swung on the first pitch and got a shot into left field, loading the bases for the second inning in a row! Johnny Weekly came in to pinch hit for Raymond, getting a hit into right field to drive in a run and cut their lead to two, but Gaines struck out swinging, bringing up Aspromonte with loaded bases and a pair of outs ... he got a great hit, blowing outward to right, going ... going ... CAUGHT AT THE WALL. Damn it! Jim Owens came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth with us trailing by two runs, and he got us the outs we needed with Morgan coming up to bat in the top of the ninth. Morgan grounded out to first, but Wynn came up and power bombed a hit over the scoreboard in left field, cutting the lead to one! Staub got a hit into right for a single, but Bond struck out swinging, but Kasko hit a slow roller up the middle, legging out a double and pushing Staub over to third! But with the count full on him, Bateman swung hard and popped out to the catcher and this one came to an end as another 8-7 loss, our rally falling just short.

Dierker only lasted four innings, allowing seven hits, walking one, striking out two and giving up three earned runs. But Larsen (2-2, 3.08 ERA) took the loss, with his four hits and two walks leading to FIVE earned runs, digging a deficit even our valiant comeback attempt couldn’t resolve. Raymond and Owens only allowed two hits between them, helping us stay in this one, but we wound up losing despite outhitting the Pirates 15-13. Gaines led the way with two hits and a walk for two runs and three RBIs, while Aspromonte, Staub and Kasko each hit twice as well. We hold a 23-35 record now and have fallen into ninth place, now a full game behind St. Louis and only four games up on the Mets heading into our three-game series against the second place Phillies and their 33-23 record. We’ve lost four in a row and eight of our ten games this month, and yet I still have heard not a word from our GM or owner. I suppose that means I’ll be the one hung out to dry if we can’t find a way to get back on track before the All Star break.

jksander · 04-05-2024, 03:04 PM

June 11, 1965: We’re a third of the way through the season already and could really use a few wins to bring the clubhouse morale up. Tonight Ken Johnson (7-3, 3.27 ERA, 96.1 IP, 48 K’s, 1.06 WHIP) faces off against Rick Wise (4-2, 3.30 ERA, 79.0 IP, 38 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) in our first of three against the 33-23 Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium. We loaded the bases in the top of the inning with just one out, but Rusty Staub hit into a double play to prevent us from taking an early lead. And Philly pounced on the opportunity to gut us, Dick Allen hitting a triple (with no outs) that batted in two runs to get them on the board in the bottom of the frame. He scored on a flyout by Wes Covington, and Johnson struck out the next two batters to get us out of the inning, but it’s rough to trail 3-0 after just one inning. Rusty Staub hit a ball deep into left that bounced over the wall for a ground rule double in the top of the fourth, giving us our first runner in scoring position of the game but with two outs, and we weren’t able to get him in to score. We got two on base in the top of the fifth and then Gaines hit into a double play to squelch that scoring attempt. Johnson did everything he could after the first frame to keep us in this one, but strong hits off our bats were negated by the brisk wind blowing in, and their outfield defense stifled us at every turn. We loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the eighth, and Gaines was able to score a run when Bond hit into an RBI fielder’s choice with an error made on the throw to second, but Kasko grounded out to first to end the inning with us still trailing by two. And in the bottom of the eighth they scored three runs with a homer by Johnny Briggs, kicking us while we were down and pretty much ending any chance of a comeback. They brought in their closer who struck out our side in the top of the ninth and we lost this one 6-1.

Ken Johnson allowed 10 hits with five walks and eight strikeouts in his complete game, with six earned runs to drop his record to 7-4 with a 3.54 ERA. They outhit us 10-5, with Gaines scoring our only run thanks to the error on the fielder’s choice.

Our GM has made a move, his first of the year, demoting backup catcher Dave Adlesh (.186/.286/.233, two doubles, two runs scored) to AAA in Oklahoma City while promoting 30-year-old catcher Russ Nixon ... Russ Nixon who was so bad the Boston Red Sox cut him after hitting .143 with a double and two RBIs, who we signed to a minor league contract just three days later. Russ Nixon who is only a slight improvement in fielding at the position. With so many other options worthy of a call-up, this is what we get? I’ve got to use the players I have, but the message is clear: we don’t care at all about winning. Message received loud and clear.

jksander · 04-05-2024, 07:32 PM

June 12, 1965: After talking to my coaches, we’ve decided that Nixon is a slight improvement defensively over Bateman at catcher, so he’ll start for the first time today, but Bateman will likely start every three or four games until we see how Nixon’s bat adjusts. Turk Farrell (4-5, 3.58 ERA, 73.0 IP, 47 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) started this afternoon against John Boozer (3-5, 3.21 ERA, 75.2 IP, 57 K’s, 1.07 WHIP). In the top of the first, Joe Gaines walked, reached second on a wild pitch, stole third and then, with two outs, came home thanks to another wild pitch, giving us a 1-0 lead! But Farrell got us going in the wrong direction, with three singles in a row without an out, the third of which scored the tying run while pushing Tony Gonzalez into scoring position. Johnny Briggs popped out to deep center but Gonzalez was able to get to third easily, and we struck out Dick Stuart but Johnny Callison stole second to put two in scoring positon. And our luck continued to sour, as Bill Sorrell hit his first homer of the year over the huge wall in right field and we were in a 4-1 hole just ... like ... that. They added a run in the bottom of the fourth to make it 5-1, but Gaines hit a solo homer in the top of the sixth to cut the lead back to three. We just couldn’t string hits together enough to rally. Staub got stranded on first in the top of the seventh, and Farrell got blitzed in the bottom of the inning as they added another run off three more hits.

Jim Owens came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, trailing by four runs and he got us out of it without any further escalation on their part. In the top of the ninth, Aspromonte led off with a hit into right for a single and they walked Morgan, giving us a run in scoring position. Wynn grounded out but drove both runs to the next base, but Rusty Staub struck out swinging ... but Walt Bond took reliever Jack Baldschun for three balls in a row and then swung hard, getting a hit into left field to score a run and drive Morgan to third! Kasko hit a hard one that rolled to the left corner, driving in a fourth and sending Bond around from first to third, our deficit at two runs! Dave Roberts came in to pinch hit for Russ Nixon, who batted to the catcher, who made an easy throw to first for the final out. We lost again, this time 6-4.

Farrell fell to 4-6 with a 3.94 ERA, allowing 10 hits and six earned runs, striking out four and walking one batter. Owens had a hit and a strikout to keep his ERA at 2.51, but we were outhit 11-7 and couldn’t keep the rally going in the ninth. Aspromonte hit twice and scored a run while Kasko hit twice and drove in one. Joe Gaines in the leadoff spot hit once and walked once, scoring twice and driving in a run.

Nellie Fox is demanding a trade. Good luck with that ... meanwhile, heading into the final game of the road trip we’re on a six-game skid.

June 13, 1965: Bill Bruce (5-5, 4.20 ERA, 83.2 IP, 44 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) pitched this afternoon against Ray Culp (2-0, 2.47 ERA, 43.2 IP, 28 K’s, 0.85 WHIP). Their pitcher got an RBI single in the bottom of the second on two outs to put Philly in the lead, and then leadoff man Adolfo Phillips hit a single that drove in a run from second by Tony Taylor to add to the struggle. Bruce struggled mightily to get that final out, but we finally got out of there trailing just 2-0. We, meanwhile, couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. Joe Morgan has gone ice cold, and Aspromote and Staub are our only batters hitting better than .250, they too being unable to get anything out of the infield as this game got into the later innings. Philly struck out the side in the top of the sixth, including Gaines and Aspromonte, and we brought Don Larsen in to pitch with one out and a man on first in the bottom of the inning, still trailing 2-0. In the bottom of the seventh Dick Allen hit a solo shot over the wall to make it 3-0 Phillies, and we brought Claude Raymond in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth. Taylor tripled and scored on a flyout by Bobby Wine to make it a four-run lead, and the top of our lineup came up to hit in the ninth. Gaines hit a solo shot over the wall in left field to get us on the board with his 10th homer of the season, but though Wynn and Staub each walked with two outs, we couldn’t overcome the deficit and lost this one 4-1, our seventh in a row.

Bob Bruce lost, falling to 5-6 with a 4.15 ERA, allowing eight hits and two runs in 5.1 innings with two walks and seven strikeouts. Larsen and Raymond combined for 2.2 innings with four hits, two earned runs, a walk and two strikeouts, and we were again outhit by a 12-4 margin, our bats continuing to be an enigma. Only Gaines seems to be immune, hitting twice with a homer, and he’s only hitting .200 so he’s hardly a bastion of dependability.

We go home tomorrow to what I expect will be record-low attendance in the Astrodome, where we play the Cubs (29-32) for four games in the next four days, and we need something ... ANYTHING ... to snap us out of this skid before it becomes permanent. At 23-38, we’re four games ahead of the Mets in ninth place but we’re 16 games behind the NL-leading Pirates and six games behind the seventh-place Cubs.

Salathor · 04-08-2024, 01:25 PM

This is a pretty fun replay. I've been considering doing a manager-career game, but the one I started was a "work my way up" thing where I was going to start with at the bottom of the minors (Lake Elsinore Storm) and try to work my way up. But the problem is that I don't like the manic trading of players every day!

Inspired by your thread, I might instead try to do a historic replay of the '84 or '98 Padres and see if I can get to the WS again (and win it!). I've done older years before but always in career mode, never with strict historical stats and as a manager-only.

jksander · 04-08-2024, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salathor

This is a pretty fun replay. I've been considering doing a manager-career game, but the one I started was a "work my way up" thing where I was going to start with at the bottom of the minors (Lake Elsinore Storm) and try to work my way up. But the problem is that I don't like the manic trading of players every day!

Inspired by your thread, I might instead try to do a historic replay of the '84 or '98 Padres and see if I can get to the WS again (and win it!). I've done older years before but always in career mode, never with strict historical stats and as a manager-only.

Sign me up to follow

jksander · 04-09-2024, 07:06 PM

June 14, 1965: Mike Cuellar (3-2, 3.26 ERA, 49.2 IP, 32 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) started tonight in our first of four games against the Cubs back in the Astrodome, facing Cubs starter Larry Jackson (4-7, 5.20 ERA, 79.2 IP, 40 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) in front of about 8,000 fans. Cuellar gave up his first hit in the top of the fourth, a double to Billy Williams, and he was able to score when Ron Santo hit a double into left to put the Cubs ahead. But in the bottom of the inning, on two outs, Joe Morgan (who has been in a hell of a slump lately) hit a solo homer that would have left the park were it not for the dome, tying things up 1-1. Rusty Staub picked up a double in the bottom of the fifth to lead things off, but we weren’t able to get him around to score. Larry Dierker came in with two outs and no one on in the top of the sixth, getting the out we needed to stay tied up, and with two outs in the bottom of the inning, Aspromonte hit a homer out past the center field wall to put us up 2-1! Morgan then singled, and Wynn drew a walk to put him in scoring position, but Staub batted out to center and we went into the top of the seventh leading by a run.

Jim Owens came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, and with two outs we blew it ... with Jimmy Stewart on second base, George Altman hit a line drive single to left, and Walt Bond blew the throw to home plate, drawing an error and allowing the tying run. Bond caught a hit from Billy Williams to end the inning, but he’d blown Dierker’s chance at a win. With the score still tied at 2-2, Woodeshick came in for the top of the ninth, walking Santo but getting Banks to hit into a double play. Aspromonte blew a catch that would have made for out number three, failing to catch an easy foul pop-up by Byron Browne, who came out of it moments later with a double into left when the inning should have been over. Harry Bright hit an RBI single to put them in the lead, and Woodeshick gave up another double, this time to Jimmy Stewart, driving in another run before we finally got out of the inning with a strikeout. Staub picked up a single with one out in the bottom of the ninth, and with two outs Kasko beat out a slow hit into the infield to put a run in scoring postion. But Johnny Weekly, pinch hitting for Bateman, couldn’t get a hit and we lost this one 4-2, another blown opportunity.

Cuellar gave us 5.2 innings of great work, allowing just three hits and an earned run with four strikeouts, and Dierker got us through 1.1 innings without a hit or baserunner, but Owens blew the save with a hit, a walk, a strikeout and an earned run, and Woodeshick fell to 0-4 ... he allowed three hits with a walk and a strikeout, two runs scoring (both unearned) as his ERA remained a solid 3.26. Our losing streak now stands at eight games, and the only thing keeping us out of last place is the fact that the Mets (20-42) are even more woeful than we are.

June 15, 1965: Don Nottebart (0-6, 4.53 ERA, 45.2 IP, 26 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) started tonight against Bill Faul (2-6, 4.45 ERA, 54.2 IP, 29 K’s, 1.28 WHIP). In the bottom of the first Gaines took the count full and then got a hit into left for a single, and then Faul walked Morgan and Wynn to load the bases with one out. Staub hit into a fielder’s choice, but they took the out they could get at second and allowed Gaines to score. Bond popped out to center for our final out, but we went into the second leading 1-0. Kasko walked to start the bottom of the second, and a moment later so did Russ Nixon, who walked Kasko into scoring position. Nottebart hit a sac-bunt to push them both over, and Gaines got a hit into right field, deep enough for even Nixon to score thanks to an E9 throwing error that pushed Gaines to second as our lead increased to 3-0!Faul hit Aspromonte in the shoulder with a wild pitch, and Morgan hit one into left to add another run. That’s when Jimmy Wynn hit one deep into the seats in right field, clearing the bases and giving us a seven run shutout lead. They went to the bullpen and got the final two outs but we’d made our presence felt in a big way! Wynn hit an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth to make it an 8-0 lead, and Nottebart stayed out and had the best game of his career. He stayed out in the ninth though he was tiring, wanting to finish what he started. We held tough and won this one 8-0!

Nottebart pitched a complete game four-hit shutout, walking just one batter while striking out four. He’d only thrown 90 pitches in a game three times this year, but tonight he stayed past the seventh for the first time ever, throwing 108 pitches. With the win, he is now 1-6 with a 3.79 ERA. We had nine hits as a team to go with Faul’s four walks ... our offense was led by Wynn who hit twice and walked once, scoring two runs and driving in four, while Gaines hit twice for two runs and two RBIs. Morgan was pleased to snap out of his slump, hitting twice and walking once, scoring two and driving in another to bring his average up to .243 (though he’s reaching base nearly 40 percent of the time thanks to drawing 54 walks already this year).

June 16, 1965: Ken Johnson (7-4, 3.54 ERA, 104.1 IP, 56 K’s, 1.12 WHIP) started tonight against Dick Ellsworth (4-3, 4.02 ERA, 87.1 IP, 52 K’s, 1.25 WHIP). Johnson got into some trouble in the first, putting runners on the corners but escaping unblemished. Johnson gave up a pair of doubles in the top of the third that got the Cubs on the board, and an RBI triple by Ellis Burton added a second run, Burton scoring off a sac-fly by Joey Amalfitano that made it a 3-0 lead seemingly out of nowhere. Staub scored a run for us with the bases loaded, Gaines reaching safely due to a throwing error to keep them that way. But Aspromonte struck out swinging to end the rally attempt, keeping the score 3-1 Cubs heading into the top of the fifth. Larry Dierker came in to pitch in the top of the seventh, still trailing 3-1, and after allowing a base hit by Harry Bright, he struck out the three batters at the top of their lineup, Beckett, Banks and Gabrielson consecutively to get us into the bottom of the frame. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Rusty Staub hit a slow roller into the right field corner with men on first and second, coming out of it with a double that drove in two runs ... but he got greedy and tried to make it into a triple, a 9-3-5 play that ended the inning tied at 3-3.

Dierker tried to stay out in the eighth, but with no outs and runners on first and second, we brought in Claude Raymond to try and get out of the jam. He walked the bases loaded, then struck out Doug Clemons, got Billy Williams out at home plate thanks to a grounder by Jimmy Stewart, and then got the final out as Harry Bright hit into a fielder’s choice ... out at second! Raymond got us our three outs in the top of the ninth, giving us a fresh chance to walk things off in the bottom of the inning. Ted Abernethy walked pinch-hitter Johnny Weekly to start the frame, but Gaines hit into a fielder’s choice and they got Weekly out at second. Aspromonte walked to put Gaines in scoring position, and Morgan hit a slow roller to Beckett at second, who made the throw to first for out number two while pushing Gaines and Aspromonte over. But Jimmy Wynn grounded out to first and we were headed for extra innings.

Bob Lillis committed an error at short on a bobbled catch, putting Woodeshick’s first batter, Ron Santo, on first. Byron Browne got one right by Lillis’ ear to push Santo to second, and I had to bring Eddie Kasko in as a defensive sub. Woodeshick got two outs, but catcher Harry Bright got a hit into left that scored the go-ahead run, and Beckett hit a two run single to make it a three-run Chicago lead. We got out of there with a pop-out to right, but went into the bottom of the 10th in a deep hole. With one out, Bond singled and Nixon hit one through the gap to drive him over to second. But Kasko hit into a double play and we lost another hard-fought game, this time by a 6-3 margin.

After saving nine games early in the season, Woodeshick has been unable to get us through close games, thanks again entirely to our piss-poor fielding ... tonight he allowed three hits and three runs, yes, but all three were unearned. He struck out one batter and his ERA improved to 3.10, bu he’s now 0-5 and we’re earning a reputation for being absolutely terrible in close games. Johnson allowed seven hits and three earned runs in his six innings, but Dierker and Raymond got through three innings with five hits, a walk, four strikeouts and no runs scored, keeping us in this one. They outhit us 15-12, our offense led by Staub who hit three times for a run and two RBIs. Russ Nixon hit three times and Walt Bond hit twice, but neither was able to score or drive in a run.

I’m hearing news that my GM may be at work on a trade with the Chicago White Sox, but I have no idea who he might be giving up, which leaves me incredibly nervous heading into the final game of the Chicago series.

June 17, 1965: Turk Farrell (4-6, 3.94 ERA, 80.0 IP, 51 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) started our final game of the series, facing Bob Buhl (4-4, 3.33 ERA, 70.1 IP, 43 K’s, 1.14 WHIP). Joe Morgan got us going with a solo homer in the bottom of the first, just his fourth of the season. Don Larsen came in to pitch in the top of the sixth with us still ahead by that 1-0 margin, and he got us through the sixth and seventh without incident. With Staub getting a leadoff single to start the inning, I brought Aspomonte in to pinch-hit for Dave Roberts and then take over at first base. He struck out swinging, but Walt Bond got a great shot into left field, coming out of it with an RBI double that increased our lead to two runs! With two outs, Russ Nixon pinch hit for Larsen but he struck out to end the inning. In the top of the eighth Jim Owens came in to pitch, getting us three quick outs and sending us into the bottom of the second with a chance to add some insurance. With no hits forthcoming and a two run lead heading into the top of the ninth, Hal Woodeshick came in to close out the game. Santo flew out to center for out number one, but Earl Robinson took first off a hit into right field. Woodeshick struck pinch-hitter Byron Browne out swinging for our second out, but Billy Williams got a hit into center, a double that put two runners in scoring position. Dick Bertell hit one to Woodeshick, but he was slow on the throw to first, so the runner reached safely and Robinson scored, Billy Williams advancing to third. And Jimmy Stewart hit one into right field, singling in the tying run. Goddamn it! We got out of the game with the game tied 2-2, but Woodeshick was absolutely livid. Unable to score in the bottom of the inning, we went into extras for the second night in a row.

Larry Dierker came in to pitch in the top of the 10th and promptly gave up a pair of hits, including an RBI single by Santo, to put the Cubs into the lead. Frustrated, he plunked Earl Robinson and with that, I had to pull him for Claude Raymond. But our night went from bad to worse, just like last night did in the same inning. Billy Hoeft hit a run-scoring double to make it a two-run Cubs lead, and we came into the bottom of the inning looking as bad as we’ve looked all year. Joe Gaines pinch hit for Weekly, taking a walk, and John Bateman followed with one of his own, bringing up Raymond who struck out trying to bunt them over. Chuck Harrison came in to pinch hit for Bob Lillis, and he took the count all the way full and then dropped a hit into center field, loading the bases! Kasko could smell blood as he came up to the plate, and Billy Hoeft was way off his game ... Kasko took the count full again and then swung for the fences, but they got Gaines out at home as Kasko took his base ... still loaded, now two outs! Morgan got a good look, but hit straight to short, and they made the fielder’s choice out at second to end this one as a 4-2 loss with three runners on base and ready to have given us a win. It’s honestly pretty demoralizing ... nothing seems to work, and if our GM were to decide to gut this team, I don’t know that I could blame him.

Woodeshick blew the save with four hits, a strikeout and two earned runs, his third blown save of the year, after Farrell pitched a three-hitter through five innings and then Larsen and Owens held the lead for him. Dierker took the loss, falling to 0-6 with a 5.76 ERA, allowing two hits and two earned runs, while Raymond got us the final two outs with just one hit. They outhit us 12-5 but walked us four times and we had our chances. We just didn’t capitalize on them. Nobody on our team got on base twice ... five players hit, four players walked. Morgan’s homer in the first damned near won it for us, with Staub adding a hit and a run while Bond hit and batted in one.

We have two games here in Houston against the Pirates (40-25) tomorrow and Saturday, followed by a three-game set against the Phillies (39-23), the Phillies currently leading Pittsburgh by half a game for the division lead with the Dodgers (37-26) trailing by two and a half. We then have an off day on the 23rd, before welcoming the bottom-dwelling Mets (21-43) for four games June 24-27. Still no official word regarding any trades. I suppose our GM and owner want to keep us walking on eggshells heading into the real heat of late June and early July. We’re currently 24-41 on the season, 16.5 games out of first and on pace for “maybe” sixty wins.

Salathor · 04-10-2024, 03:01 PM

A rough week!

Looks like the astros really pulled in a 65 win season in real life in 1965. Looks like you've got your work cut out for you.

jksander · 04-11-2024, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salathor

A rough week!

Looks like the astros really pulled in a 65 win season in real life in 1965. Looks like you've got your work cut out for you.

Yeah definitely knew that going in ... I think they won 66 games in '63 and '64 too, so doing what I can not to have us regress significantly. They never had a .500 season in real life until 1969, and didn't have a winning season until 1972.

jksander · 04-11-2024, 01:37 PM

June 18, 1965: Bob Bruce (5-6, 4.15 ERA, 89.0 IP, 51 K’s, 1.38 WHIP) got the start tonight against Wilbur Wood (6-2, 2.55 ERA, 91.2 IP, 53 K’s, 1.08 WHIP). Pittsburgh got on board with an RBI single by Bill Mazeroski in the top of the second, and with two outs Wilbur Wood batted in a second run with a single of his own. They added a triple and an RBI double to quickly score a third run in the top of the third, and we let them load the bses in the top of the fifth with only one out, though Aspromonte made a great catch at third and completed the double play to get us out of the jam without a run scoring. Don Larsen came in to pitch in the top of the sixth with the score still 3-0 Pirates, and he got three quick outs with just five pitches to keep us in the game. He did the same in the seventh, throwing eight pitches and staying hitless, but we were unable to make anything happen offensively. Larsen stayed out, a model of efficiency, and got us through the top of the ninth still trailing by three runs. Aspromonte got a one-out hit in the bottom of the ninth to reach first safely, but Eddie Kasko hit into a double play and ended this one as a 3-0 loss, Wilbur Wood completing his four hit shutout by throwing almost exclusively knuckleballs in the final frame.

Bob Bruce lasted five innings with seven hits, two walks and three earned runs, falling to 5-7 with a 4.21 ERA, but Don Larsen kept us in the game with four innings of one hit, one walk ball ... we just couldn’t hit our way out of a paper bag. Well, we minus Aspromonte ... he hit twice but was stranded each time, and beyond that we only had four baserunners the entire night. Not a great recipe for putting a win together.

June 19, 1965: Mike Cuellar (3-2, 3.09 ERA, 55.1 IP, 36 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) pitched this afternoon against Joe Gibbon (6-0, 2.79 ERA, 77.1 IP, 51 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) and right off the bat he started out by allowing Don Clendenon to take second in the top of the first on just the fourth pitch of the game, then committing an error on a catch himself, allowing Clendenon to move to third while Bob Bailey took his base. Roberto Clemente hit into a double play while a run scored, and we got out of the frame with only that run. But it’s always tough starting out in a hole. They added five more runs in the top of the second, pushing Cuellar past 60 pitches and spotting the Pirates a 6-0 lead. Cuellar settled down and got us through the fifth inning still trailing by six, but we had to go to Dierker in the sixth as he’d thrown 98 pitches and was at the limit of his endurance.

In the bottom of the sixth, Jimmy Wynn hit into a fielder’s choice, the Pirates tagging Aspromonte out at second while Gaines scored a run from third. Walt Bond hit an RBI double moments later, pushing Staub to third as Jimmy Wynn scored a run to cut the lead to four! They walked Joe Morgan to load the bases, still just one out, and Russ Nixon hit one into right field to score a third run while keeping them loaded! At this point the Pirates had seen enough and they went to the pen, calling out Roy Face (5-4, 5 SV, 4.60 ERA, 29.1 IP, 19 K’s, 1.74 WHIP). He promptly walked Bob Lillis, driving in another run, and then did the same thing with Dierker, walking in our fifth run of the inning! Joe Gaines struck out swinging, and then Aspromote got one right over the second baseman’s head, into right field, and we scored two more runs to take the lead! Jimmy Wynn popped out to left to end the inning, but we went into the top of the seventh up 7-6 after having trailed 6-0 just half an hour prior!

Dierker stayed out in the seventh, having thrown just six pitches in the sixth inning, but his luck continued to be absolutely zero. After getting an out, Clemente struck out but reached first because of a passed ball, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and then scored with a line drive double by Stargell. Claude Raymond came in with the runner on second and one out and got the two outs we needed, but Dierker missed out on the chance for a win as we went into the stretch knotted 7-7. Joe Morgan hit an RBI double with one out in the bottom of the inning to give us the lead back, and they intentionally walked Nixon. Lillis took the count full against Face, who had now thrown 42 pitches, but he popped out for our second out of the inning. Johnny Weekly pinch hit for Raymond, but he struck out swinging, keeping us from adding any more insurance, at which point we brought in Jim Owens to pitch in the eighth with the 8-7 lead. With men on first and second, two outs, the Pirates again tied it up with an RBI single by Bob Bailey, but Clemente hit a pop-out to Morgan at second to get us out of it (again) with a tie.

The Pirates again went to the pen in the bottom of the inning, bringing out Al McBean, who has gone 4-5 with eight saves and a 2.31 ERA through 46.2 innings, and he did his job tonight by keeping us hitless in the inning ... though Aspromonte would have had a homer with two outs were we playing outdoors rather than in this climate controlled dome. Woodeshick came in with one out in the top of the ninth, a man on second, striking out Manny Mota and getting Mazeroski to ground out to first, sending us into the bottom of the ninth still knotted up. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth they walked Morgan, and Nixon hit one right up the middle ... he stretched it into a double, giving us two runners in scoring position! But Bob Lillis grounded out to first and we were headed for extra innings. Woodeshick struck out Dick Schofield but then allowed hits by Andre Rodgers and Donn Clendenon to put runners in scoring position. Bob Bailey popped out to right and the runners held, and Clemente popped out to left, sending us again into the bottom of the frame tied up and just needing one goddamned run ... and we didn’t get it. Don Nottebart came in to pitch in the 11th inning, knowing he was in for the duration, and he got us three quick outs without a lot of fuss, but our bats remained impotent. The Pirates scored a run in the top of the 12th thanks to an RBI double by Bob Perry, sending us into the bottom of the frame trailing by a run and that was enough ... we went down quietly in the bottom of the inning and lost this one 9-8 in a four-hour marathon we didn’t need.

Nottebart took the loss, falling to 1-7 with a 3.81 ERA, allowing two hits and a run with a strikeout in his two innings. Cuellar started us out in a six run hole and deserved the loss himself, with seven hits, six runs (five earned) with three walks and two strikeouts in five innings. But Dierker, Raymond, Owens and Woodeshick all had chances to get us out of here with a win and just couldn’t find a way. Pittsburgh outhit us 15-12, with Aspromonte (two hits, two RBIs), Walt Bond (two hits, two runs, one RBI) and Joe Morgan (a hit, two walks, a run and an RBI) doing what they could to keep us in the game. We have a f---ing doubleheader tomorrow, our first two games out of four against the Phillies, before we get a day off and then four against the bottom-dwelling Mets, and this extra innings insanity couldn’t have come at a worse time.

jksander · 04-11-2024, 01:47 PM

OOC: I'm enjoying running the Astros, but it's becoming clear that the game just isn't built for being a manager without any powers, because the AI general managers don't actually do anything ... no trades, no roster moves ... and it's becoming frustrating to play. I decided to toggle the button for "enable online mode" and then removed it, so I could access commissioner mode and make myself the General Manager. At this point in play we are 24-43 and only a game and a half up on the Mets for last place, so I think I've dug myself enough of a hole not to suddenly be able to go in and MacGuyver my way out of it. And to be honest, it's going to be a lot more fun to see if I can get the team to be even remotely competitive before they did in real life in the 70s, or if I get fired first ... because I am going to leave the ability on for me to be fired if the owner chooses to.

jksander · 04-11-2024, 02:57 PM

June 20, 1965: Huge news! Our General Manager, Jason Gaynor, abruptly stepped down for undisclosed reasons, and our owner Gabby Topper has asked me to take over as manager and GM for the remainder of the season. It’s unclear whether I’ll still have a job at the end of the season, but at the very least I can now start making some moves to try and keep us remotely competitive. We’ve demoted Chuck Harrison and Mike White while waiving / DFA’ing Bob Lillis, which will make room for starting pitcher Dave Giusti, closer Joe Hoerner and center fielder Jim Beauchamp at the major league level. Beauchamp in particular should add some much-needed power, as the 25-year old has hit .312 /.397/.748 with six doubles, four triples and 27 homers. Hoerner will come in as a setup man, and Guisti (who has gone 6-5 with a 2.86 ERA, 62 K’s and a 1.09 WHIP through 88 innings of minor league ball) will be our fifth starter, moving Nottebart back into the bullpen.

I don’t expect to jump into many trade talks while I get myself adjusted to my additional roles as a GM and manager ... but at least now I feel I can help make sure we have the depth to handle the heart of the season and avoid collapsing into last place down the stretch.

Ken Johnson (7-4, 3.59 ERA, 110.1 IP, 58 K’s, 1.13 WHIP) started the first of our two games this afternoon, facing Philly’s red-hot Jim Bunning (6-5, 2.19 ERA, 111.0 IP, 75 K’s, 0.93 WHIP). The first game was an offensive snooze-fest early on, scoreless into the sixth inning, but Johnson got himself into a jam in the top of the inning, one out, runners on the corners. Johnny Callison stole second, but we struck Dick Stuart out swinging and Adolfo Phillips went down looking, getting us out of the inning. But we couldn’t find ways to get runners on base consistently and the game was scoreless into the eighth inning -- Claude Raymond came in with two outs, no one on, getting a quick infield pop-fly out to get us into the bottom of the inning, but again we couldn’t get anyone on base. With one out in the top of the ninth, Adolfo Phillips hit a solo homer to put Philly on the board 1-0, and an error on a throw from short to first let Wes Covington take second, our third error of the afternoon. Raymond got us into the bottom of the inning with two strikeouts, but the one run was all they needed -- Philly held tough and shut us out 1-0 in the first game of the afternoon to keep our losing streak alive and well.

Ken Johnson lasted 7.2 innings, allowing just five hits with a walk and six strikeouts, while Raymond went 1.1 innings with one hit, two strikeouts and the one earned run, falling to 0-5 with a 3.31 ERA through 35.1 innings in 21 appearances out of the pen. They outhit us 6-4, Nellie Fox hitting twice to lead the team but never getting past second base. Beauchamp struck out twice without a hit in his MLB debut, but we have high hopes for the kid -- these Phillies are in the pennant fight right now, and Bunning was damned near unhittable today.

Dave Giusti got the start in game two, his major league debut, facing Chris Short (7-1, 2.34 ERA, 98.0 IP, 77 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) in a tough matchup. But he handled himself ably, getting through the first three innings with three strikeouts and three hits, and we just needed our bats to find a way to come to life. Guisti himself came up with a hit into left in the bottom of the third, one out, but Gaines and Aspromonte left him stranded thanks to a strikeout and a flyout, keeping us scoreless heading into the fourth. Guisti was solid as hell all day, but with our bats unable to find a way to drive hits into the outfield, eventually something had to give. Philly got on the board in the top of the sixth, a two-out double by Johnny Callison putting them ahead by a run -- the way we’re hitting, that might be all they need! A triple and a pop-out to left drove in another run in the top of the seventh, but Giusti pitched like he’d been on that mound in the Astrodome all year, completely unfazed. In the bottom of the inning Wynn led off with a double and they walked Dave Roberts, bringing up Beauchamp in a great position ... two on, no outs. He popped out to right, however, and Kasko hit into a double play to pour cold water on our rally. Knowing our bullpen was worn out, Guisti asked to stay out there and he made quick work of the Phillies in the eighth and the ninth, bringing us up in the bottom of the inning trailing by two with the heart of our order up for one last shot. Aspromonte struck out swinging, Wynn struck out looking and Roberts popped out to right, ending this one as a 2-0 shutout loss.

Dave Giusti went the entire game, allowing just seven hits with five strikeouts, no walks and two earned runs ... he threw 105 pitches and looked great doing it, but gets to start his career out 0-1 with a 2.00 ERA. They outhit us 7-4 and we only had five players even get on base, and we haven’t scored a run in 24 innings. It’s like our entire team has decided to slump offensively at the same time.

jksander · 04-11-2024, 04:48 PM

June 21, 1965: Turk Farrell (4-6, 3.71 ERA, 85.0 IP, 55 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) got the start this evening in front of just 7,100 Astros fans, facing off against Grant “Buck” Jackson (3-1, 3.99 ERA, 38.1 IP, 32 K’s, 1.25 WHIP). Joe Morgan hit a triple with two outs in the bottom of the first, but Wynn popped out to prevent us from snapping our scoreless innings streak. Bobby Wine got Philly’s first hit of the game in the top of the third, stretching it into a triple, scoring on a flyout by Jackson to put them up 1-0. They added two more runs in the fourth, and Dick Allen hit a two-run homer in the fifth to make it a 5-0 lead as we looked completely hopeless. Dick Stuart homered for them in the sixth, and Cookie Rojas hit a two-RBI double to make it 8-0 Phillies heading into the bottom of the inning. Beauchamp pinch hit for Kasko in the bottom of the sixth, hitting a double to finally get his first major league hit. Joe Morgan grounded out to first, but a run finally scored, our first run in 30 innings of work, sending us into the top of the seventh trailing 8-1. Don Larsen came in for the final two innings and he kept the game from getting any uglier, but the damage was done as we lost this one 8-1, our seventh loss in a row.

Farrell fell to 4-7 with a 3.91 ERA, allowing nine hits and eight runs (five earned) in seven innings, striking out six and walking a pair. Larsen allowed just one hit with a walk and two strikeouts in his two innings, but the damage was done. They outhit us 10-8, Gaines leading the way with two hits and a run, while Morgan hit once and drove in the run.

June 22, 1965: I’ve made my first trade as a GM, and we’ve immediately improved ourselves at the catcher position, which I knew was a key position we needed to find a stronger starter. The California Angels have sent us 26-year-old catcher Buck Rogers, 22-year-old outfielder Cotton Nash and $20,000, in exchange for 31-year-old left fielder Dave Roberts and 24-year-old first baseman Chuck Harrison. We’re sending John Bateman back down to AAA in Oklahoma City, while Nash will come up to the major league level to play off the bench as a power hitting option and potential outfield sub in left or right. I’m currently looking for a decent backup for the infield as well, to cover third base or shortstop, but if we have to bring up someone from the minors to fill the role that may wind up being our best option prior to the offseason.

Bob Bruce (5-7, 4.21 ERA, 94.0 IP, 51 K’s, 1.40 WHIP) got the start in today’s final game against the Phillies, facing off against Rick Wise (5-2, 2.85 ERA, 94.2 IP, 43 K’s, 1.29 WHIP). And we got off on the wrong foot again early, the Phillies taking a 2-0 lead with a triple by Adolfo Phillips in the top of the third, though at least we stranded him there on third. It’s clear we’re flat-out exhausted -- I don’t think any team in baseball is looking forward to the All Star break in July as much as we are right now. Bruce told me he was strong enough to stay out and get through the sixth, but Dick Allen hit a solo homer to make it 3-0, and with two outs and a man on first we brought in Joe Hoerner for his first bullpen appearance of the season -- he got Wes Covington to ground out to first to get us out of the inning, and then got us through the seventh as well. Aspromonte hit a solo homer to get us on the board in the bottom of the seventh, his sixth homer of the season, and we brought Jim Owens in to pitch in the top of the eighth with an out and men on first and second. He got the second out, but Covington got a hit into center to drive in another run, and we came up to hit in the bottom of the eighth trailing again by three runs. They added five more runs in the top of the ninth as we were abjectly humiliated in front of the few fans who dared to stick around, shutting us down in the final frame to beat us 9-1 and complete the sweep.

Bruce lasted 5.2 innings with just three hits and three runs (two earned), striking out three and walking three. Hoerner got us through 1.2 innings with two hits, a run, a walk and a strikeout, but it was Owens who took the brunt of it ... he allowed six hits in 1.2 innings of work, walking two against two strikeouts while allowing five earned runs. It got ugly fast, and we put up absolutely no defense against it. They outhit us 11-5, Aspromonte leading the way with two hits including his solo homer that was our only offense of the night.

Larry Dierker is going back down to AAA for the time being, as will Cotton Nash ... we simply need infield help more than we need an extra bullpen arm or outfielder. I’m calling up 20-year-old third baseman Doug Rader (.247/.281/.455, 12 doubles, 11 homers) and 27-year-old shortstop Jim Campbell (.238/.312/.494, 10 doubles, 16 homers) to give Aspromonte and Kasko some room to rest and rebuild their strength. We head into our four-game series against the Mets (23-47) with just half a game lead on them as we try to avoid sliding into dead last in the NL. We’ve lost eight in a row and 17 of our last 20 games ... an abject failure by almost any measure.

jksander · 04-11-2024, 07:20 PM

June 24, 1965: Mike Cuellar (3-2, 3.58 ERA, 60.1 IP, 38 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) got the start in game one against the Mets, facing Dick Donovan (1-0, 5.73 ERA, 11.0 IP, 5 K’s, 1.45 WHIP), and it was a pitching duel early, neither team finding much of an offensive foothold. In the bottom of the fifth, Jim Campbell led off with a walk, and Jim Beauchamp pinch-hit for Cuellar, but he hit one straight to the left fielder for an easy out, and Morgan and Gaines followed his lead, keeping the game scoreless heading into the sixth. Don Larsen came in to pitch, and he survived runners on the corners as we got out of the inning still scoreless. Claude Raymond came in with two outs and a man on second in the top of the seventh, getting us into the seventh inning stretch still knotted at zero, the two worst teams in the NL putting up absolutely no offense. Johnny Lewis singled to start the top of the eighth, reaching second on a wild pitch and taking third via a sac-bunt by Ron Hurt ... but we stranded him there at third, a Swoboda strikeout and an Ed Kranepool groundout to first getting us into the bottom of the inning. Aspromonte pinch hit for Raymond, and he took Donovan to a full count before making contact ... and batting one out to the center fielder for our first out. Damn it! Morgan and Gaines were quick outs at first and we went into the top of the ninth, score still 0-0, with Joe Hoerner coming in to pitch. He was up to the challenge, striking out their first two batters and then pitching around a Roy McMillan walk, to get us into the bottom of the frame with a chance to walk it off! With one out, Wynn made good contact and got a hit through the gap for a single. They walked Walt Bond, and with Kasko at the plate, Jimmy Wynn stole third, and ... with an E2 throwing error against the Mets ... he came around to score the winning run! We got a win! We got a win! Holy s--- we got a win, beating the Mets 1-0 to avoid going to extra innings.

Joe Hoerner got the win, improving to 1-0 with a 3.38 ERA in just his second bullpen appearance, walking one and striking out a pair without allowing a run to score! Cuellar got us going on a good note, giving us five innings with just one hit, three walks and three strikeouts, throwing 74 pitches, while Larsen and Raymond gave us three innings with four hits and a strikeout. We held tough and we pulled the win out despite being outhit 5-4. Wynn had a hit and stole his way to scoring the winning run, while Bond hit once and walked twice. We’ll take it how we can get it, now it’s time to see if we can spark a win streak ...

June 25, 1965: I made a trade with Kansas City to add some depth to our pitching rotation, getting 25-year-old starter John O’Donoghue from their AAA affiliate in exchange for 22-year-old AA catcher Jerry Grote. O’Donoghue has gone 9-2 with a 3.08 ERA and 63 strikeouts through 111 innings while playing for AAA Vancouver, and he’s a clubhouse leader. We’re waiving / DFA’ing Jim Owens for now to make room for him in the majors. It’s a small minor league transaction in the eyes of many, but I think it’s a move that’s going to help improve our clubhouse atmosphere after what has been an incredibly difficult season.

Dave Giusti (0-1, 2.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 5 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) made his second career start today, facing Larry Miller (2-7, 4.68 ERA, 84.2 IP, 64 K’s, 1.43 WHIP). The Mets got on the board with a run in the top of the first thanks to a single by Kranepool, and they added quickly to it with a two-run homer by Jim Hickman, digging us a 3-0 hole before we ever came up to bat. They added a fourth run in the top of the second, and our bats remained silent as has been the usual. But we finally got something going in the bottom of the third, Rusty Staub hitting an RBI single to get us on the board, and Gaines hit a sac-fly to center that drove home a second run, cutting the lead to two heading into the top of the fourth. Morgan led off with a walk in the bottom of the fifth, and with one out Staub got a hit into right field that pushed him into scoring position with a single but we weren’t able to get either of them in to score. Giusti got into trouble in the top of the seventh, loading the bases and walking in a pair of runs as we tried to get Raymond warmed up. An error at shortstop allowed another run to score, bringing Raymond in with the bases loaded, no outs, and the lead for the Mets now at 7-2. God ... DAMN. He got two quick popouts to hold the runners, and a pop-out to left ended the inning without any of those runs scoring, but we went into the stretch trailing by five and looking as hapless as ever. Raymond loaded the bases in the eighth, allowing another run, and Nottebart came in to mop it up in the top of the ninth, getting us the outs we needed. But there was no digging out to the hole tonight, as the Mets stumped us 8-2 to even the series.

Giusti lasted six innings but should have come out after that ... instead he melted down in the seventh and despite only allowing four hits, he walked three and seven runs scored (five of them earned) during his start. He now has a 4.20 ERA through 15 innings. Claude Raymond allowed three hits with a walk and a strikeout in his two innings, one earned run scored against him, and Nottebart notched a strikeout without a hit in his inning. Each team hit seven times, and they had five walks to our four. Staub picked up three hits and a walk, batting in a run to lead the team, while Bond and Rodgers hit twice each. Morgan walked twice and scored a run, and though he’s only averaging .238, he has walked 58 times now and has a .379 on base percentage and accounts for 2.3 WAR.

June 26, 1965: Ken Johnson (7-4, 3.36 ERA, 118.0 IP, 64 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) started tonight against Al Jackson (2-4, 5.48 ERA, 95.1 IP, 51 K’s, 1.48 WHIP). Joe Morgan led off with a triple in the bottom of the first, and Aspromonte grounded out at first to drive him around, giving us an early lead. Morgan doubled with one out in the bottom of the third, and Aspromonte got a hit into right field to drive him around for the second time tonight, giving us a 2-0 lead! Ken Johnson was on fire all night, and we added more insurance in the bottom of the sixth, Gaines hitting a single that drove in two more to increase our lead to four runs! Johnson had a perfect game going into the seventh inning, but Johnny Lewis got a hit into center to give the Mets their first baserunner, and Morgan committed an error a moment later to allow Ed Kranepool on base with one out, but we got into the stretch and left both runners stranded. In the bottom of the eighth, Morgan picked up his third hit of the night, another double, batting in two more runs as we extended our lead. Johnson stayed out in the ninth and got a little sloppy, allowing a pair of runs to score, but he got out of there alright in the end as we held tough and won 6-2.

Johnson had one of his best games of the year, a complete game four hitter with eight strikeouts, a single walk and two earned runs. He’s now 8-4 with a 3.26 ERA through his first 16 starts. We outhit the Mets 10-4, led by Morgan who hit three times (two doubles and a triple), walked once and scored two runs while driving in two more. Aspromonte hit twice with two RBIs, and Gaines snapped out of his recent funk, hitting twice for a run and two more batted in.

Detroit’s Tigers claimed reliever Jim Owens, so he’ll join their team as soon as he clears waivers.

June 27, 1965: We started John O’Donoghue tonight as a spot starter, making his Astros debut against Jack Fisher (3-4, 5.00 ERA, 81.0 IP, 32 K’s, 1.41 WHIP). And he was off to a great start -- two outs off four pitches -- when Ron Swoboda hit a towering two-run homer off him to put the Mets up 2-0 with just six pitches thrown. That’s the definition of bad luck. Joe Gaines got us on the board in the bottom of the fourth when, with the bases loaded, he took first base on balls, and Buck Rodgers tied it up with a single into center that kept the bases loaded without an out! Joe Morgan hit a sac-fly to center, driving in the go-ahead run and we went into the top of the fifth leading 3-2! The Mets tied it up with two outs in the top of the fifth with a sac-fly to right by Fisher, but in the bottom of the inning Gaines hit a shot deep into center, rolling to the wall and allowing us to score two runs with a two-out double! Beauchamp got on base with a single in the bottom of the seventh and then pulled off his first major league stolen base, advancing to third on a groundout by Bond. Kasko hit a great shot into left field that drove him home with a standing double for our sixth run of the afternoon! Hal Woodeshick came in to pitch in the top of the ninth, striking out Kranepool and Swoboda, Ron Hunt grounding out harmlessly to first as we held on to win 6-3, winning our first series in what seems like an eternity.

John O’Donoghue gave us eight innings with five hits, four strikeouts and three earned runs, giving him a 3.38 ERA and a 1-0 record after his first start of the year! Woodeshick came in and got the save, his 10th of the year, striking out two and improving his ERA to 3.38 as well through 24 innings of work this season. This was his first completed save in over a month, having lost three games and blown two saves in June. So it’s good to get him a solid outing. We outhit the Mets tonight 10-5, led by Beauchamp (two hits, a walk and two runs scored) and Kasko (two hits, two walks, a run and an RBI). Gaines hit once, walked once and scored a run, driving in three more as he continues to find his rhythm at the plate.

Tomorrow and Tuesday we’ll play two games against the Cubs (37-39) in Chicago, and then we’ll return home for one game against the Giants (41-31) and then three against the first-place Dodgers (45-28) through the fourth of July weekend. We then have a week of road games, three at Milwaukee (36-34) and four in three nights against the Mets (24-50) before getting a four day off-stretch for the All Star break. We are currently 27-48 and in ninth place, 5.5 games behind the eighth place Cardinals.

03-29-2024, 08:55 PM	#21
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	May 17, 1965: The talk around the clubhouse today was the recent smear op-ed by a local sportswriter about our poor start, but I told the players in the clubhouse this afternoon that all we can do is go out and play the games, we can’t control how people see us ... at least beyond the way we go out there on the field. “Don’t let them decide who we are,” Nellie Fox told everybody. “When you’ve been around this league as long as I have, you figure out it’s about digging in for the long season, and keeping a smile on your face even if you want to just disappear.” Turk Farrell (2-3, 3.63 ERA, 39.2 IP, 32 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) was fully focused on the task at hand, which meant facing down Sandy Koufax (6-0, 1.97 ERA, 59.1 IP, 70 K’s, 1.01 WHIP) for the second time in less than a week. Koufax, who will be a free agent after the coming season, has been having the best start of his career and if he can stay strong, he looks to draw a ton of interest from other teams if the Dodgers don’t lock him up long term. Our focus was on the 7:05 p.m. first pitch in front of the nearly 9,000 Astros fans who did make the trip out this evening. Last week against a hostile crowd in LA, Farrell went six innings with just eight hits and two earned runs (though our fielding didn’t help him, adding three unearned ones as well). We hoped this game could be a fresh start. Los Angeles got on the board in the top of the first, thanks to a Willie Davis RBI single, but we kept them from turning it into an early blowout, Wes Parker grounding out to get us into the bottom of the frame with two runners stranded in scoring position. Koufax walked Gaines and Staub in the bottom of the first on one out, and Wynn hit into a fielder’s choice that got Staub out at second, putting runners on the corners. Koufax walked Bond to load the bags, and Aspromonte had a hit up the middle that should have been a run scored, except Jim Lefebvre made a spectacular reach toward second and snagged it. No runs, three walks, no hits, three stranded. Willie Davis tripled for the Dodgers in the top of the fourth, coming in to score off a sac-fly by Jim Gilliam to make it a 2-0 Dodgers lead, and in the top of the fifth they started to opening things up, batting in a run with a single by Maury Wills, though Farrell never lost his composure on the mound. Joe Morgan doubled to start the bottom of the fifth, just our second hit of the game, but was left stranded as is typical against Koufax -- once you’re on base, it’s almost impossible to catch him napping and find ways to advance. We added two singles in the bottom of the sixth but again came up frustratingly empty. Farrell got us through the seventh inning, leaving Wills stranded on third after a two-out triple, and in the bottom of the inning pinch-hitter Johnny Weekly got us on board with a single and Morgan walked him into scoring position, Koufax’s fifth walk of the game. Gaines hit into a double play that moved Weekly to third, but Staub struck out, leaving another potential run stranded. Don Larsen came in to finish the game, getting three quick outs in the top of the eighth, but Koufax struck out the heart of our order -- Larsen did his job again smoothly in the ninth, but we were in a tough spot in the final frame. Morgan got a hit in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, but closer Jim Brewer came out to get Gaines to ground into a fielder’s choice, getting Morgan out at second to end this as another 3-0 defeat. Koufax got his seventh win in a row, and Brewer picked up a save, holding us to six hits while walking us six times -- 12 baserunners and we couldn’t score. That’s futility right there, folks. Turk Farrell fell to 2-4 on the year but only allowed seven hits, walking one and striking out four, allowing three earned runs and keeping his ERA pretty steady at 3.66. Joe Morgan hit twice and walked once and Wynn hit twice, but fans left disappointed ... but the Dodgers are a much deeper team than we are and we didn’t embarrass ourselves. Two more games in the next two days give us a chance at redemption. May 18, 1965: Ken Johnson (4-2, 3.75 ERA, 57.2 IP, 29 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) is up on four days’ rest, going up against Claude Osteen (2-2, 2.08 ERA, 26.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.31 WHIP), who is riding a hot streak. We loaded the bases in the bottom of the first and came up empty, adding to our depressing streak of men left on base without finding a way to score. Two more were stranded in the bottom of the second, and in the top of the third the Dodgers unleashed on us, scoring on a Lefebvre RBI double, adding a pair with an RBI single by Willie Davis, and getting out of the frame with a three-run lead that (the way we’ve been hitting) looked damned near insurmountable. Jimmy Wynn walked and stole second to start the bottom of the third, and Walt Bond got a hit into center to finally get us a run scored, and finally I started seeing some energy from these guys! Aspromonte drove Bond to third with a single, and Weekly hit into a fielder’s choice, the Dodgers getting Bond at second but allowing the run to score from third. Weekly took second on a wild pitch, but Kasko grounded out, bringing up backup catcher Dave Adlesh with two outs and a man in scoring position. They walked him to bring up Johnson, who made good contact but batted it straight to left field for out number three. Still, we were only down a run heading into the fourth which was a huge improvement on the start of this one! With two outs and men on first and second in the bottom of the sixth, Joe Games tied the game up with an RBI double and they walked Wynn to load the bases for Walt Bond, who grounded out to first, keeping us from taking the lead -- but our small crowd of fans was starting to come alive! Jim Owens came in to pitch in the top of the seventh, score tied 3-3, and he got three quick outs, two off soft contact and one via strikeout, to keep momentum on our side heading into the stretch as the Dodgers went to Brewer again from the bullpen. Owens stayed sharp into the ninth, striking out Lefebvre and Davis in the top of the frame and then getting Wes Parker to bat out to short, bringing us up in the bottom of the ninth with a chance to walk this one off ... but our bats remained cold and this one was headed for extras. We brought Claude Raymond out to pitch in the 10th inning, and of course his second pitch of the night resulted in a goddamned triple by Johnny Roseboro. But he got Maury Willis to ground out to first, struck out Bob Miller looking and then got Gilliam out with a grounder to second and a quick out at first ... still 3-3 heading into the bottom of the frame, but again we couldn’t find a way to get on base. Dierker came in with two outs and a man on third in the top of the 11th, striking out Willie Davis to keep it knotted up, and finally we got ourselves a hit -- Adlesh belted one into deep center, coming up with a much-needed double, but Dierker screwed up a bunt attempt, popping up to the catcher who made the throw to third instead of first, getting our first out there. With Dierker on first, Joe Morgan came up and thought he had a hit into the outfield, but Lefebvre made a great catch at second to snag it, and Gaines batted out to left for the third out. More innings! Dierker stayed out in the 12th and our luck ran out with one out in the frame, Maury Wills hitting a single that drove in Wes Parker to put the Dodgers up 4-3. Johnny Werhas hit an RBI double to add another run, and we had to bring out Woodeshick to put the fire out. It did not work out in our favor. By the time we came back up to bat in the final half of the inning, the Dodgers led by three runs and we were completely gassed. Walt Bond hit a solo homer in the bottom of the inning with one out, cutting their lead to two, but that was our last gasp as we lost this one 6-4 in 12 innings. Dierker can’t catch a break -- he fell to 0-5, allowing three hits and three runs in the 12th to negate his excellent strikeout moment in the 11th, his ERA falling to 7.18 along with his confidence. The Dodgers outhit us 13-8 in this game, but we’d kept it close for so long, fighting back from down 3-0 that we thought we could pull it off. Bond hit twice with two runs and two RBIs, and backup catcher Dave Adlesh hit twice with a walk. We play the Dodgers again tomorrow, but this team is in desperate need of a day off to rest -- we’ve played fourteen games in the last twelve days and after tomorrow’s off day we’ll play nineteen more in the next seventeen, and unless our GM calls up some reinforcements from AAA, I think we’re in trouble. May 19, 1965: Bob Bruce (3-3, 3.56 ERA, 52.2 IP, 28 K’s, 1.04 WHIP) started tonight against Bill Singer (1-5, 4.10 ERA, 41.2 IP, 38 K’s, 1.34 WHIP). We switched up the order, batting Kasko first and Morgan third, and right out of the gate we found success -- Aspromonte doubled and Morgan got him in to score with an RBI double, getting us on the board quickly. With Morgan on third and two outs, Rusty Staub hit a run-scoring single and we went into the top of the second leading LA 2-0. In the top of the third, Dodgers right fielder Ron Fairly hit a solo homer to get them on the board, and in the top of the fourth a two out, two RBI double by pitcher Bill Singer gave them the lead back, 3-2. Bruce surrendered another RBI double to add to the damage, finally getting us out of there with a two run deficit ... and he was growing tired, with our bullpen decimated from last night. John Bateman walked the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the fourth, but we stranded them all. Bruce got us through the fifth but was running out of gas. We got going in the bottom of the inning, with three hits in a row by Morgan, Wynn and Staub, and Staub’s double batted in two runs to tie it up! Walt Bond laid a line drive down the right field line and got him around to score with a double, giving us the lead again. And Bob Bruce kept it going, hitting a line drive into right with two outs, coming out with an RBI double of his own! Kasko batted in two more with a single and we batted around, Morgan batting out to the shortstop to send us into the top of the sixth suddenly leading 8-4! Bruce found a second wind after the longer rest durng the fifth, getting us through the sixth inning quietly and setting Dan Larsen up nicely to come in for the seventh and get us through the remainder. In the bottom of the eighth, Joe Morgan hit a two-run homer over the right field wall, his second four-bagger this year -- from there, Larsen just had to close it out, and though he let two runners into scoring position, we stranded them both and held tough to the 10-4 come-from-behind blowout win! Bob Bruce improved to 4-3 with a 2.91 ERA, allowing 10 hits, a walk and two strikeouts while giving up four earned runs. Don Larsen came in for a three-inning save, his second save of the year, allowing two hits and striking out one to keep his ERA a solid 1.93 overall. In a real slugfest, we came out on top 14-12, led by Morgan who hit three times for three runs and three RBIs, while Staub hit three times for a run and three RBIs, giving him a team-high 20 runs batted in so far this year. Finally, a rest day, and then another gruelling stretch of games to get us into June. Next up: four games in three days, with a doubleheader on the second day, against the San Francisco Giants (3rd in the NL, 21-14 record, 4.5 games back). We go into this stretch while in dead last place in the NL, holding a 12-24 record and trailing the Mets in 9th place by a full game. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-29-2024, 11:05 PM	#22
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	May 21, 1965: Mike Cuellar (0-1, 3.05 ERA, 20.2 IP, 16 K’s, 1.45 WHIP) started this evening’s game against San Francisco’s Bob Shaw (2-4, 5.12 ERA, 45.2 IP, 27 K’s, 1.40 WHIP). Cuellar quickly surrendered a run in the top of the first off a groundout to first with men in scoring position, and it got no better from there -- by the time we batted for the first time, we did it facing a three run deficit and Cuellar had thrown just 22 pitches to get us there. But Gaines started us off with a single and Aspromonte doubled him over to third, their pitcher walking Morgan to load the bases without an out. Jimmy Wynn hit a sac-fly to Willie Mays in deep center, driving in a run, but Staub hit into a double play to end the frame with us trailing by two. Cuellar settled in and struck out the side in the top of the second. In the bottom of the fifth, Joe Morgan hit an RBI triple to cut the lead to a run, and Jimmy Wynn hit one into left field to bring him home and tie it up! Jim Owens came in to pitch with two outs and a man on first in the top of the sixth, getting Tom Haller to hit one straight to Aspromonte for an easy throw out at second, getting us out of the inning still tied at three. In the bottom of the sixth with two outs, Joe Gains hit a powerful shot into left, legging out a two-run RBI triple to put us in the lead 5-3! Jim Owens stayed out for the seventh, having thrown just two pitches, but he gave up two hits in a row, including an RBI double, to quickly put our lead in jeopardy. With one out, Aspromonte made a throwing error to first, pushing Jim Davenport to third and putting Jim Ray Hart on second. But a pop-out to Morgan at second kept the runners in place, and Claude Raymond came in at that point, catching a high flying ball from Orlando Cepeda to get us out of the inning with our one-run lead safe. Joe Morgan tripled to start the bottom of the seventh, but we couldn’t get him around to score for any insurance. Still leading by a run in the top of the ninth, Claude Raymond stayed out there and got an out but walked Harvey Kuenn, and we brought in Woodeshick to try and finish the job. He got Jim Ray Hart to hit into a fielder’s choice, taking out the runner at second, and then struck out their final batter of the night, Jesus Alou, to hold on to the 5-4 victory! Cuellar had a solid night despite his rough first inning, lasting 5.2 innings with just five hits, a walk, six strikeouts and the three earned runs, giving him a 3.42 ERA. Owens came in and though he allowed two hits and a run, he got the win and improved to 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA with an inning of work. Raymond got our first hold of the season, with a hit a walk and a strikeout through 1.2 innings, and Woodeshick earned his seventh save of the season with a two out, one strikeout effort. We outhit the Giants 9-8, led by Morgan with two hits, two walks, a run and an RBI while leadoff-man Gaines hit once, walked once and scored once, driving in a pair. Tomorrow’s a doubleheader day, and those have not been great to us, but we’ve got to keep riding this momentum and trust our hitters to continue to find ways to manufacture runs. May 22, 1965: Turk Farrell (2-4, 3.66 ERA, 46.2 IP, 36 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) got the start in game one today against Ron Herbel (1-2, 2.93 ERA, 30.2 IP, 17 K’s, 1.01 WHIP). Farrell has been building his confidence, going up against Koufax twice already this year, and he came in this afternoon ready to go. It was a duel early, nobody’s offense able to get a foothold. Wynn and Staub picked up back to back hits in the bottom of the fifth with the score still knotted at zero, and Walt Bond took advantage by hitting a hard shot into the left field corner, easing into second with an RBI double to put us up 1-0! Farrell got into a bit of a jam in the sixth, two outs and men on second and third, but he got a groundout to first to get us out of it with the lead safe. Rusty Staub doubled to start the bottom of the seventh, and they walked Bond to bring up Kasko, who grounded out at first to put the two runners into scoring position. Turk Farrell came up and we made the decision to let him hit so we’d still have him to pitch in the eighth, and it paid off! He got a hit into left field, driving in both runs with a single, giving us a 3-0 lead! Woodeshick was ready to go, but I let Farrell stay out there and complete his game as we won our third game in a row, this time as a 3-0 shutout! Farrell improved to 3-4 with a 3.07 ERA, allowing seven hits with five strikeouts -- no walks, no runs, and he even picked up a two-RBI hit to ice the game in the eighth. We picked up seven hits ourselves, led by Staub who hit twice for a run, while Walt Bond added a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI. Morgan was frustrated, going hitless in four at-bats, but six others stepped up to have his back. Ken Johnson (4-2, 3.82 ERA, 63.2 IP, 36 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) pitched in the second game of the doubleheader, facing Giants lefty Dick Estelle (0-0, 0.96 ERA, 9.1 IP, 6 K’s, 0.96 WHIP), a 23-year-old hurler who has only played in four relief efforts so far this year so we go in knowing very little about his tendencies. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, Johnson beat out a weak infield hit to take first safely, driving in a run and keeping them loaded! Joe Gaines then hit one to the wall in center, sliding in safely to third with a triple that scored three more runs, Aspromonte then driving him home with a sac-fly to put us up by five runs out of nowhere! Rusty Staub got a hit into center to drive in a run with a single, and we went into the top of the third leading 6-0 thanks to three hits and six walks off Estelle. In the bottom of the third, Joe Gaines hit another RBI double, and Aspromonte doubled to drive him home for run number eight. Johnson stayed in through the seventh inning, with Don Larsen coming in for the last two innings to protect our eight-run lead, and he was locked in as we completed the 8-0 shutout! That’s two shutout wins in six hours, by a combined 11-0 margin! Ken Johnson improved to 5-2 with a 3.44 ERA, allowing five hits with a walk and three strikeouts through seven innings. Larsen remained red hot, allowing one hit with two walks and a strikeout in his two innings of work, improving his ERA to 1.78 through 25.1 innings over 13 appearances.We outhit them 9-6, with Estelle spotting us with six walks in his 2.2 innings of work. Gaines was a maniac from the leadoff spot, hitting twice with a walk, two runs and four RBIs, putting himself into a tie with Staub for the runs-batted-in lead for our team this year. Morgan walked twice and scored a run, though he did not pick up a single hit today in either game. Heading into our last game with the Giants in this homestand, we’re now 15-24 and riding a four-game win streak that has pushed us into ninth place in the NL, just half a game behind the Cubs (15-23) and within two of the Cardinals (16-21) and three of the Reds (17-20) who we’ll face next! May 23, 1965: Don Nottebart (0-4, 3.94 ERA, 29.2 IP, 18 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) pitched in our final game against the Giants, going up against Joe Marichal (6-1, 1.78 ERA, 65.2 IP, 46 K’s, 0.87 WHIP). With two outs in the bottom of the second, Kasko reached base on an error, and then took second off another error, coming around to score when John Bateman hit an RBI double just moments later! But they tied it up with two outs in the top of the fourth with a solo homer by McCovey (his 13th of the season!), their first run scored against us in 23 innings! Willie Mays scored the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh, off an RBI single by Jim Davenport, and Claude Raymond came in to pitch in the eighth as we tried to claw our way back in. Joe Owens came in to pitch in the ninth, with the score still 2-1 Giants, and he quickly gave up a solo homer to Willie Mays, his ninth of the year, to add to the deficit. Two outs later he gave up another, this time a two-run blast by the f---ing pitcher, to make it a four-run hole we had to dig out of. And we did not ... this one started solid and ended as an ugly 5-1 loss. Don Nottebart can’t seem to get a win no matter how well he pitches. He pitched seven innings with just five hits, two walks and three strikeouts, but he allowed a pair of earned runs and got no run support, falling to 0-5 with a 3.68 ERA. Raymond was solid in his inning with a hit and a strikeout, but we pinch-hit for him and had to bring in Owens who allowed two hits (both homers) with a walk and three earned runs. He has a 3.18 ERA through 17 innings, so it’s hard not to trust him in situations like this ... it’s just bad luck all around. They outhit us 8-6, Kasko scoring our only run while Bateman batted it in. Gaines picked up two hits, bringing his average back up to .197, and Morgan got a hit and a walk to keep his at .260 ... right now he has 34 hits this year and has walked 39 times, giving him an on base percentage of .429! Tomorrow we’ll play Cincinnati for the first time, the Reds coming in wth a 17-21 record. I’m still amazed I haven’t heard anything from our GM about bringing up guys from AAA ... so far here’s the list of guys who have had solid starts down there: CF Jim Beauchamp, age 25 ... hitting .349 with three doubles, two triples and 21 homers ... 4.2 WAR, get his ass up here! RF Sonny Jackson, age 20 ... hitting .329 with seven doubles, a homer and 21 stolen bases SP Dave Giusti, age 25 ... 4-3, 3.70 ERA, 58.1 IP, 41 K’s, 1.03 WHIP ... a four pitch starter with defense for days and control ... we need him! __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-31-2024, 08:26 PM	#23
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	May 24, 1965: Bob Bruce (4-3, 2.91 ERA, 58.2 IP, 30 K’s, 1.12 WHIP) got the start against Cincy this evening, facing Jim O’Toole (2-3, 3.68 ERA, 51.1 IP, 29 K’s, 1.44 WHIP). The Reds got on the board in the top of the third with an RBI double by Johnny Edwards, adding another off a single by Vada Pinson to dig us a quick two-run hole. The Reds added a run in the fourth off a groundout to first, and Bruce gave up a three-run homer to Deron Johnson in the top of the fifth that just took all the wind out of us. Claude Raymond came in to pitch in the top of the sixth, and we showed signs of life in the bottom of that inning, loading the bases with Staub driving in a run to keep them that way. With one out, John Bateman stunned EVERYONE by hitting a grand slam home run out to right, cutting the Reds’ lead to one in the blink of an eye! In the bottom of the eighth, still down a run, Walt Bond got us going with a single, and Bateman doubled him over to third ... and with one out, Nellie Fox hit one into right field to drive in two to put us in the lead! Hal Woodeshick came in for the top of the ninth, leading by one, and on just his second pitch of the inning he gave up a solo blast to pinch-hitter Don Pavletich, just his second of the season, and we were knotted up 7-7. Leadoff man Vada Pinson hit a damned triple moments later, and with two outs the Reds got the lead back with an RBI single by Tommy Helms. I suppose Woodeshick was bound to blow one for us eventually, but god ... DAMN! By the time we got the final out the Reds had a two-run lead and we were scrambling. Jimmy Wynn picked up a single with one out in the bottom of the ninth, and Staub hit a slow roller that stayed in the infield but allowed him to reach safely as well, giving us a runner in scoring position. Walt Bond batted out to right, deep enough for Wynn to advance to third, but Bateman popped out to second and ended this as a frustrating 9-7 loss. What a waste of a comeback! Bruce gave us five innings with eight hits, two walks, two strikeouts and six earned runs, while Raymond pitched for three innings with one hit, one walk, three strikeouts and enough chutzpah to keep us in this one when it looked like all was lost. Then Woodeshick came in and blew it, allowing four hits with a walk, a strikeout and three earned runs, blowing the save and taking the loss as his ERA plummeted to 4.50 through 12 innings. They outhit us 13-12 ... we were led by Bateman with three hits, two runs and four RBIs, while Staub hit three times with a run and an RBI. Bateman’s grand slam was amazing, but what we wouldn’t have given for a two-run double in the ninth to add to it. May 25, 1965: Mike Cuellar (0-1, 3.42 ERA, 26.1 IP, 22 K’s, 1.37 WHIP) is up to pitch tonight, facing Joe Nuxhall (1-5, 3.54 ERA, 48.1 IP, 47 K’s, 1.16 WHIP). In the bottom of the first, Aspromonte got to first with one out off being hit by a pitch, they walked Morgan, and with two outs Rusty Staub got a hit into the outfield which allowed us to score a quick two runs! By the time they got the final out we led 2-0 and their starter, Nuxhall, had thrown 33 pitches. We continued to wear Nuxhall out early -- in the second, he walked Cuellar, his third of the game, and then after taking the count full Gaines reached first safely on an infield hit. We didn’t add any runs, but Nuxhall was visibly frustrated, having thrown 60 pitches in just two frames as we maintained our lead. In the bottom of the third, Staub hit a homer over the center field wall to make it a 3-0 lead thanks to his second homer of the year, and Aspromonte hit an RBI double in the fourth to give us a four-run lead, hitting safely in his 11th game in a row! Moments later, Wynn hit his third homer of the year, and we went into the top of the fifth leading 5-0! Cuellar gave up his first hit of the game in the top of the fifth to Gordy Coleman for a single but then stranded him there with three quick outs, and when we came up in the bottom of the inning they’d gone to the bullpen. We brought Owens in to pitch in the top of the sixth, with Cuellar starting to wear out having started on short rest, still leading by five shutout runs. We added a run in the bottom of the seventh off an error in right field with the bases loaded, allowing Bateman to score another run while Aspromonte reached first safely, though Morgan struck out to keep us from doing more damage. Don Larsen came in to pitch in the top of the ninth, getting three quick outs to close out the 6-0 shutout win! Cuellar took the win, improving to 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA, allowing just one hit with one walk and a strikeout in his five innings, and Jim Owens held tough through three innings with two hits and three strikeouts to keep his ERA at 2.70. Larsen’s final inning was perfect through 16 pitches and improved his ERA to 1.71 through 26.1 innings and 14 appearances. We outhit them 11-3 tonight, led by Staub with two hits, a run and three RBIs. Wynn had his homer as well, and Gaines hit twice, walked twice and scored a run. In total six batters scored our six runs, making this a great all-around team win. Now let’s go out there and take the series win tomorrow! May 26, 1965: Larry Dierker (0-5, 7.18 ERA, 31.1 IP, 19 K’s, 1.60 WHIP) came out for a spot start this afternoon, going up against Joe Maloney (3-1, 3.10 ERA, 69.2 IP, 67 K’s, 1.16 WHIP). The Reds got on the board with an RBI single by Tommy Harper in the top of the third, and like every other time he’s pitched, our batters could make absolutely nothing happen, ramping the presure up on the 18-year-old. In the top of the fourth, both Morgan AND Kasko failed him by just letting weak grounders pass them by into the outfield, and the Reds added a second run off a flyout to right by Lee Cardenas. Morgan and Wynn walked to start the bottom of the fourth, and with two outs and the count 1-0 against Kasko they pulled off a double steal to both get into scoring position. But with the count full, Kasko swung and hit one straight to their shortstop, Cardenas, and it made for an easy out at first -- another scoreless inning. Aspromonte got a hit with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, pushing Dierker over into scoring position, and they walked Morgan to load the bases and bring up Jimmy Wynn, who quietly walked in a run as Maloney (with six walks to that point) started to look vulnerable. But Staub popped out to third and we went into the top of the sixth trailing 2-1. Nellie Fox came in to pinch hit for Dierker with two outs in the bottom of the sixth and he got a great hit into right field, driving in the tying run! We brought Don Larsen in to pitch in the top of the seventh, and he struggled to prevent contact, with Yada Pinson driving in a run to put the reds back on top with a double. But in the bottom of the inning, Jimmy Wynn hit an RBI double to tie it back up, and Walt Bond hit a single a few minutes later to drive in another and put us in the lead for the first time this afternoon! Larsen stayed out and got two quick outs, only to then put two into scoring position and forcing us to go to Woodeshick for the final out of the eighth ... and he pulled it off, getting Tommy Helms to ground one to Kasko, who made the throw to first for our final out. In the bottom of the frame, Aspromonte grounded into a double play to keep us from adding any insurance, so Woodeshick came out in the top of the ninth to try and close it out, still leading by a run. He performed perfectly, getting popouts from the two batters at the bottom of their lineup and then striking out Pinson for the final out as we won 4-3 and took the series win! Dierker didn’t get himself a win tonight, but he gave us six innings with just six hits and two earned runs, improving his ERA to 6.51. Larsen got the win, improving to 2-1 with a 1.98 ERA with four hits and an earned run in 1.2 innings, while Woodeshick saved his eighth game of the year with a strikeout and no hits, improving his ERA to 4.05 through 1.1 innings. They outhit us 10-6 and we still came out on top thanks to eight walks. Wynn led the team with a hit and two walks for a run and two RBIs, and Aspromonte went 1 for 5 and, though he didn’t score, he did add a game to his 12-game hitting streak. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-31-2024, 11:11 PM	#24
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	May 27, 1965: Heading into a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals (18-23) we’re now within a half a game of the Cubs in eighth place, trailing them by just half a game. Our record stands at 17-26, and a series win here could help push us up several spots in the NL standings. We’ve won six of our last ten games, and with six games left in this homestand we’re really looking to find ways to keep our win streak alive. Ken Johnson (5-2, 3.44 ERA, 70.2 IP, 39 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) got the start against St. Louis’ Larry Jaster (1-2, 3.04 ERA, 47.1 IP, 27 K’s, 0.97 WHIP). Johnson didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, but that was when the Cardinals pounced, getting on the board with an RBI double by Bill White on just their second hit of the game. In the bottom of the seventh, still trailing 1-0, Johnson led off with a walk but our next three batters all batted out to various outfielders and we remained unable to find ways to manufacture a scoring opportunity. In the bottom of the ninth Wynn got on board with just our fourth hit of the game, and Bond batted him over to third with a single on one out. Johnny Weekly came in to pinch hit for Dave Adlesh, and they walked him to load the bases. And it was at that moment we took control of our destiny -- Bob Lillis hit a double into the outfield, driving in two runs to jump us into the lead, sending us into the top of the ninth with Ken Johnson staying out to complete his game! He pitched around a hit to get the three outs we needed, and we held on to win this one 2-1! Johnson pitched a complete-game three hitter tonight, striking out four and allowing just one earned run as he improved to 6-2 with a 3.16 ERA! We outhit the Cardinals 6-3, led by 34-year-old backup shortstop Bob Lillis who hit three times and batted in both runs in only his third game of the season. Aspromonte walked once and hit once to keep his streak alive, though he did not score. Wynn and Bond each hit once and scored once, while Morgan had to settle for three walks and being stranded each time. May 28, 1965: Turk Farrell (3-4, 3.07 ERA, 55.2 IP, 41 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) started against Dick Hughes (5-1, 1.12 ERA, 72.0 IP, 45 K’s, 0.75 WHIP), and on the first pitch of the night we wound up allowing a baserunner thanks to a throwing error by Morgan trying to get the ball to first. That runner made it over to third after a sac-bunt and a stolen base, coming home to score an unearned run off a Bill White single. But we tied it up quickly in the bottom of the first thanks to a Joe Morgan RBI double, and Walt Bond hit a three run homer to blast us into the lead! That’s his third this year. The Cards got a run in the top of the second, thanks to an RBI double by Bob Uecker, but we stranded him at third to get out of the inning still leading by a pair. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth, Farrell laid down a perfect squeeze bunt, Staub using his explosive speed to beat out the play at home for a run,the bases staying loaded! Bob Lillis hit a sac-fly to center, driving in another, and we went into the top of the seventh leading 6-2! Wynn hit a solo homer into the left field seats to make it a five-run lead in the bottom of the seventh, his fourth homer this year. The Cards got a run back in the eighth but left a pair stranded as their rally fizzled, and in the bottom of the eighth Nellie Fox hit a solo homer as a pinch-hitter for Farrell, putting the lead back up to five runs! Jim Owens came out and shut them down in the top of the ninth and we won our fourth game in a row, this time by an 8-3 margin! Turk Farrell is now 4-4 with a 2.97 ERA, thanks to an eight inning effort with eight hits, two strikeouts and three runs scored, two earned. Owens then came in and made sure it stayed that way, notching a strikeout against just one hit in the final frame. We outhit the Cardinals 10-9, led by Bond with a hit, a walk, two runs and three RBIs. Bob Lillis continues to hit well also, picking up two hits with a run and an RBI, bringing his average up to .462 through his first 13 plate appearances. May 29, 1965: Bob Bruce (4-3, 3.53 ERA, 63.2 IP, 32 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) got the start against Bob Gibson (2-5, 4.39 ERA, 65.2 IP, 47 K’s, 1.25 WHIP), and the word is starting to get out about our recent performance improvements -- 12,500 fans showed up this afternoon, our strongest single-game attendance since opening day! The Cardinals took an early 1-0 lead, Tim McCarver hitting a solo homer in the top of the second, and Bruce was uncharacteristically off his game early, allowing six hits in the first three innings while Gibson only allowed a pair. But he settled down and this one turned into a duel, and in the bottom of the sixth, Nellie Fox hit a single up the gap, driving in the tying run with a double! Johnny Weekly pinch-hit for Bruce in the bottom of the seventh, hitting a clean single into left, and Gaines hit a two-run homer out of right field, putting us up 3-1! Don Larsen came out and laid an egg in the top of the eighth, giving up three hits in a row including an RBI double to McCarver, and Woodeshick came in to clean up his mess ... no outs, two in scoring position. He got two quick outs on soft infield contact and then struck out Carl Warwick swinging, getting us out of the inning with a one-run lead still intact -- what a masterful performance under pressure! He came back out in the top of the ninth and got us through it with only a single baserunner as we closed out our fifth win in a row, this time a 3-2 squeaker that completed the series sweep! Bob Bruce improved to 5-3 with a 3.31 ERA, thanks to a nine hit effort in seven innings, striking out five and allowing just one earned run. Larsen allowed a pair of hits, a walk and an earned run without securing even one out, but Woodeshick threw a two-inning save with one hit and a pair of strikeouts, his ninth save of the season, improving his ERA to 3.52 through 15.1 innings! The Cardinals outhit us 12-7 but Gibson walked us four times and Gaines got us where we needed to go with two hits, a walk, a run scored and two more batted in. Our win streak has us holding a 20-26 record and we’re in seventh place in the NL standings, half a game behind the Cubs in sixth. The Milwaukee Braves (23-18, 6 GB) are coming into Houston ranked fourth in the league, but we only trail them by five and a half games. More important, we’re really starting to gel as a team, and if we can keep playing like this we’re going to catch a lot of teams off their guard. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

04-01-2024, 06:40 PM	#25
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	May 30, 1965: Mike Cuellar (1-1, 2.87 ERA, 31.1 IP, 23 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) got the start this afternoon against Milwaukee’s Denny Lemaster (4-3, 4.13 ERA, 65.1 IP, 47 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) in front of 13,500 Astros fans. Cuellar struggled a bit in the first inning, loading the bases on one out and allowing a run to score off a sac-fly to center by Mack Jones, but he got us through with just that run scoring. They added another run in the top of the second thanks to a wild pitch, and a third run scored off an RBI double by Woody Woodward in the top of the fourth to dig us a pretty solid hole. Cuellar got the hook with one out and a man on first in the top of the fifth, with Jim Owens coming in to keep the game from getting out of reach. We loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth, a run scoring when Eddie Kasko took the count full and then walked one in. Joe Morgan hit a sac-fly to deep left, driving in a second run, and Lemaster walked Jimmy Wynn to load the bases again. Rusty Staub laid down a perfect hit into left field, coming out of it with a double that scored three runs and put us into the lead 5-3! Claude Raymond came in with one out and men on the corners in the top of the sixth, and a sac-fly by Eddie Mathews drove in a run to cut our lead to one. Raymond then struggled to get that final out, allowing the tying run to score on a single by Joe Torre, though we did escape the frame tied 5-5. They took the lead back with an RBI single in the top of the seventh, and we had to bring Larry Dierker in with a man on first and no outs in the top of the eighth -- he did his job, getting us through the eighth and ninth innings without any additional runs scoring, and with one out in the bottom of the ninth Joe Morgan hit himself a double to get into scoring position! Morgan reached third off a sac-fly to center by Wynn, but they struck out Staub with a knuckleball and our win streak came to an end in a 6-5 loss. Cuellar struggled in this one and it put us behind the eight ball early ... he only lasted 4.1 innings and allowed nine hits and three runs with just one walk and two strikeouts. Owens allowed three hits and two runs in his inning of work, but it was Raymond who blew the save chance and took the loss, falling to 0-4 with three hits, two walks and an earned run in 1.2 innings of work. Dierker got us through the last two with a hit and two strikeouts, improving his ERA to 6.18, but let’s be honest -- it’s hard to win games when you allow five earned runs and 16 hits. In the end we only got eight hits, though we walked six times to keep ourselvesin this one. Staub led the way with two hits and three earned runs, but he was no match for knuckleballer Phil Niekro in the final frame. May 31, 1965: Don Nottebart (0-5, 3.68 ERA, 36.2 IP, 21 K’s, 1.20 WHIP) gets to go tonight against Tony Cloninger (1-4, 5.03 ERA, 48.1 IP, 27 K’s, 1.61 WHIP). And he got rung up early, Joe Torre hitting an RBI double that drove in two runs with one out in the top of the first. Jimmy Wynn picked up an RBI double to get us on the board in the bottom of the inning, but the Braves got it back in the top of the fourth with a homer over the wall in right field by Denis Menke. And Nottebart wore himself out early, being replaced in the fifth inning by Larry Dierker, who got three quick outs in the fifth with just six pitches to keep us in the game. He held on through the sixth and seventh, but our bats did him no favors and we continued to trail by two runs heading into the eighth with Don Larsen coming in to pitch. In the bottom of the eighth, Morgan reached base on an infield hit and with one out Wynn batted him over to third with a double that gave us two in scoring position ... and that’s when Rusty Staub hit a three-run homer over the wall at right, shooting us into the lead 4-3! Larsen stayed out in the top of the ninth, and should have had a quick out against Rico Carty, except Morgan made a terrible throw to first that was off the mark, an untimely error. Mack Jones hit another to Morgan, who this time made the throw safely to first for an out, though Carty moved the potential tying run into scoring position. Of course their third batter, Lee Maye, hit one to deep center and drove in that run, tying us up. Woodeshick came in with the runner on second and just one out, getting us out of there with a strikeout and a flyout to left, and we’d get a chance to finish this in the bottom of the inning. Up to bat first in the inning, Woodeshick took the count full against the knuckleballer Niekro, but struck out trying to bunt for a hit. Niekro then struck out Gaines swinging, and Aspromonte popped out to first ... extra innings for this one! Woodeshick let two runners on in the top of the 10th but got out of the inning with a double play, but Niekro stayed unhittable and this one kept going. Rico Carte singled and was sent to second via a sac-bunt in the top of the 11th, but Woodeshick struck out Gene Stephens, walked Lou Kimchock and got Mike de la Hoz to pop out to left field to get us out of the inning still knotted at four runs apiece. They brought in Don Osinski to pitch in the bottom of the fame and he walked Bond to put the go-ahead run on base. Kasko popped out to left, but Nellie Fox, pinch-hitting for our catcher, Dave Adlesh, got a hit into center field and drove Bond over to third! Dave Roberts pinch hit for Woodeshick but he struck out swinging, setting up Gaines with two outs, men on the corners, and a chance to avoid more innings. But he popped to right and this one just wouldn’t end. John Bateman came in to catch and Jim Owens to pitch in the top of the 12th, and he set their batters down quickly to get our boys back up to bat, but again we couldn’t score! Owens got us through the 13th without incident, but Staub, Bond and Kasko all came up empty. With two outs in the top of the 14th, Owens gave up a pair of singles to Felipe Alou and Eddie Mathews, and we had to bring in Claude Raymond, our only remaining bullpen arm, who threw 39 pitches last night. He got Hank Aaron to hit a weak popout to Morgan at second, however, and this one stayed alive! But again our bats failed us, and this one was getting ridiculous ... Raymond had no choice to stay in unless we want to burn a starter. It had to break down eventually. Raymond gave up two doubles in a row to put the Braves into the lead, and another run scored on a wild pitch. We went into the bottom of the 15th trailing by two runs, and Aspromonte led off with a single. Morgan batted into a fielder’s choice and they picked off Aspromonte at second. Wynn struck out swinging for the second out, but then STAUB HIT A HOME RUN OUT OF RIGHT FIELD ... WE’RE TIED UP AGAIN, 6-6! Jesus H. Christ, we’re heading into the 16th, folks, and it’s past 11:30 p.m. here in Houston and Raymond’s back out there looking dazed. But he found an inner reserve and despite putting runners on the corners, got us through the top of the frame still tied, but we NEEDED to finish this. With Cuellar warming up in the bullpen -- I don’t want to risk an injury to Raymond -- Eddie Kasko came up and grounded out to first. John Bateman took his base on balls, and Raymond was able to bat him into scoring position with a well-placed sac-bunt. Gaines struck out swinging, however, and this interminable game just won’t end. We had no choice but to bring in Cuellar in the top of the 17th, ten minutes to midnight. Frank Bolling hit a double into the right field corner, and Bob Sadowski grounded out to first, moving him to third. Lou Kimchock flew out to left but drove in the go-ahead run, and de la Hoz popped out to the same spot to end the frame. With one out in the bottom of the 17th, Joe Morgan hit a nice one into right field for a single, Jimmy Wynn struck out swinging, and Staub then electrified the remaining fans in the place by hitting a two-run blast out of center field, a walk-off homer that gave us a 17th inning 8-7 victory! The game took 4 hours and 58 minutes to complete and we got the win, but unless our GM calls up reinforcements from AAA to get us through the next few days of worn-out bullpen arms, this long game victory may hurt us more than it helps us. This was a game won by true grit ... we were outhit 19-13 over the course of the 17 innings played, but outscored them 4-3 during the eight extra innings to power out the win. Nottebart struggled in his four innings, allowing five hits and three earned runs with a walk and two strikeouts, but Dierker handled himself well through three innings, allowing only two hits and improving his ERA to 5.74. Larson went 1.1 innings with a hit and an unearned run, and then Woodeshick and Owens combined for 5.1 innings with just six hits, a walk and five strikeouts between them. Claude Raymond then came out and threw 34 pitches a day after throwing 39, surviving 2.1 innings with four hits, a strikeout and two earned runs, but in the end it too Cuellar coming in for the final inning -- he improved to 2-1 with a 3.44 ERA with a hit and an earned run. As for our bats, Rusty Staub made himself into an Astros legend in one night, hitting three times for three runs and SEVEN runs batted in, ALL OF THEM HOMERS ... he went yard in the 8th inning off Cloninger, in the 15th off Bob Sadowski, and in the 17th off Hank Fischer. He now has a .281 average, five homers and 35 RBIs. Attached Images __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds) Last edited by jksander; 04-01-2024 at 07:04 PM.

04-02-2024, 06:51 PM	#26
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	June 1, 1965: Tonight’s our last home game until the middle of the month, but we’re going to have to fight for the win with a depleted bullpen -- only David Larsen is at all rested, but luckily for us we’ve got iron man ace Ken Johnson (6-2, 3.16 ERA, 79.2 IP, 43 K’s, 0.99 WHIP) up to pitch tonight, and he’s got six complete game starts so far this year. He’s going up against Dick Kelley (3-0, 3.23 ERA, 47.1 IP, 23 K’s, 0.99 WHIP) in a game where I expect batters are going to have their work cut out for them. Milwaukee scored first, Felipe Alou hitting a solo homer in the top of the third, and they added another in the top of the fourth off a Lou Klimchock RBI double, giving them a 2-0 lead in the middle of the fourth. Walt Bond got a hit up the gap for us to drive in a run with a single in the bottom of the fourth, but Carty hit an RBI double for the Braves in the top of the fifth to get the run back, and they added another with two outs off a Gene Oliver single. We got two into scoring position in the bottom of the fifth but came up empty, and Johnson was not on his usual game, seeming to give up hits left and right. They added a run in the top of the eighth and that seemed to seal it. Larsen came in with two outs and men on second and third, getting the final out but by then we trailed by four and looked utterly lost on offense. They shut us down from there, though at least Larsen kept things from blowing up further, beating us 5-1. Ken Johnson fell to 6-3 with a 3.40 ERA, allowing 13 hits in 7.2 innings, with one walk, five strikeouts and five earned runs. Larsen got us through the rest with two strikeouts and no hits, but we were outhit 13-3, there was no getting around that. Bond had a hit and an RBI, and Gaines had a hit and a run scored. Beyond that it was all quiet on our offensive front as we slipped to 21-28. We now have a road trip to deal with ... two games against Cincinnati (22-25) and four in three days over the weekend against St. Louis (18-29) before we finally get a day off. We’ll then face Pittsburgh (31-18) for three and Philly (27-20) for three before returning home to play four against the Cubs (24-25), two against Pittsburgh and four in three days against the Phillies. We’re going to have to find ways to win games with the team we have, because it’s becoming increasingly clear that our owner and GM have no interest in either calling up or trading for players to give our worn down players any chanc e to catch their breath. June 2, 1965: Tank Farrell (4-4, 2.97 ERA, 63.2 IP, 43 K’s, 1.16 ERA) is ready to pitch tonight in our first appearance at Crosley Field this season. He’ll be going up against Joey Jay (2-4, 5.40 ERA, 46.0 IP, 34 K’s, 1.46 WHIP). Cincinnati got on the board quickly in the bottom of the second, A Johnny Edwards double batting in Pete Rose for a run, followed almost immediately by an RBI single by Joey Jay, who scored Edwards to put them up 2-0. Pete Rose hit his third homer of the season in the bottom of the fourth, a solo blast that made it a three run lead. But in the top of the fifth we evened things up with a two-out, three-run homer by Bob Aspromonte (his third of the year!) out of left field that tied the score 3-3. And just a few minutes later Jimmy Wynn hit one out of the park to right, scoring two more runs to make it a 5-3 lead heading into the middle of the frame. Farrell settled in well from there and kept us firmly in control, and we added a run in the top of the ninth off an RBI single by Aspromonte to make it a three-run lead. With our bullpen still exhausted from having to pitch so heavily over the last three nights, we left Farrell in to complete his game, but he gave up a double to Deron Johnson and a two-run homer to Gordy Coleman, cutting our lead to a run as Woodeshick hurried to warm up. Aspromonte made a great catch at third base for our first out, but Cardenas got a hard hit into left to put the potential tying run on second. Woodeshick came in to pitch, one out, man on second, and he gave up a hit into right to drive in the tying run ... what a disasterous turn! And in the end they were able to walk it off with a Tommy Harper single and we blew this one, losing 7-6. Woodeshick only got one of the two outs we needed, allowing two hits and an earned run so he took his second blown save of the year and his record fell to 0-3 with a 3.44 ERA. But he never should have had to come in at all ... Farrell had only allowed seven hits prior to the ninth inning, and he finished with nine hits, two strikeouts and six earned runs. If our GM isn’t going to call up pitching reinforcements when our bullpen gets blown up, we are going to need our top starters to be able to handle complete games when the situation calls for one, and up three runs in the top of the ninth this shouldn’t have required the bullpen. We outhit the Reds 12-11 in the game, led by Aspromonte who hit twice for a run and four RBIs, while Morgan, Wynn, Staub and Farrell each hit twice as well. But we couldn’t hold on ... what a disappointing way to lose. June 3, 1965: Bob Bruce (5-3, 3.31 ERA, 70.2 IP, 37 K’s, 1.20 WHIP) got the start tonight against Jim O’Toole (3-3, 4.12 ERA, 67.2 IP, 43 K’s, 1.45 WHIP). Cincy again scored in the bottom of the second, again thanks to Edwards, who hit an RBI single. Jim O’Toole doubled in another run, and we went into the third trailing 2-0 for the second night in a row. Our bats went ice cold through this one, and they finally broke Bruce again in the bottom of the seventh, three hits in a row off him culminating in a two-run triple by Frank Robinson that turned this into a four-run game. Robinson scored on a two-out fly ball into left via Coleman for a double, and then Pete Rose singled for another run, sending us into the top of the eighth trailing by six. Larry Dierker came in for the bottom of the eighth, getting three quick outs and we went down quietly in the final frame, losing this one in a 6-0 shutout. Bob Bruce fell to 5-4 with a 3.71 ERA, allowing 11 hits and six earned runs with a walk and four strikeouts. Dierker got through his inning unblemished and improved his ERA to 5.61. They outhit us 11-4 ... no one hit twice and we only had five baserunners all night. We’ve now lost three in a row since the 17-inning victory over Milwaukee, and we’ve still got a four-game set over the next three days in St. Louis before we even get a day off. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

04-02-2024, 11:39 PM	#27
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	June 4, 1965: Mike Cuellar (2-1, 3.44 ERA, 36.2 IP, 25 K’s, 1.34 WHIP) is up to start tonight in St. Louis, going up against Ray Washburn (2-3, 4.42 ERA, 53.0 IP, 22 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) at Sportsmans Park. He threw 11 pitches four nights ago in the 17th inning, and 77 pitches five days ago, but is now fully rested. Tonight we got going quickly, with Gaines doubling and then Aspromonte hit one out of the park to right, putting two on the board barely a minute into the game ... and in the bottom of the second, with two outs, Bateman hit himself a single and then Cuellar put one out of the park to right, another two-run blast that made it a 4-0 ballgame! Really loving that short porch in right, Cardinals! Bottom of the third, Staub added a two-run triple to really start to blow this one open, and Kasko drove him in with a double to make it a seven-run game midway through the third inning. Things quieted from there, but we’d made our presence felt and you could tell the fans were growing restless. Cuellar allowed runners on the corner in the bottom of the sixth but got a groundout and a double play to end the frame with us still up 7-0. Walt Bond added a run with an RBI single in the top of the seventh, and John Bateman batted in another with a double. Don Larsen came in with a man on first, no outs, in the bottom of the seventh, and though a second runner reached base on an error at short, he shut them down efficiently with three quick outs to keep the nine run lead unblemished. But in the bottom of the eighth he wasn’t as lucky -- two runners reached base quickly, and Lou Brock scored from third on a wild pitch to spoil the shutout before Larsen again locked in and got the next three outs via contact. He stayed out in the ninth and put them away easily as we held tough to a 9-1 road win! Mike Cuellar improved to 3-1 with a 2.95 ERA, allowing seven hits, striking out four and surrendering no runs in this six inning effort. Larsen then came out and threw 34 pitches in a three-inning save, his third of the year, allowing only three hits with a strikeout and an unearned run, keeping his ERA at 1.87 through 33.2 innings in 19 appearances. We outhit the Cardinals 12-10, led by Aspromonte and Cuellar who each hit once, walked once and batted in two with their homers. Staub was also solid, hitting once for a run and two RBIs, and Morgan and Wynn each hit twice socring two runs apeice. Everyone in our starting lineup hit at least once in the all-around great effort. June 5, 1965: Don Nottebart (0-5, 3.98 ERA, 40.2 IP, 23 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) is up to pitch, and he could use a night of hitting like last night to help get him a win for a change. He’s pitching against Ray Sadecki (2-3, 3.53 ERA, 43.1 IP, 39 K’s, 1.29 WHIP). And Dave Roberts did his part, hitting a 412-footer out of the park on the left field side to put us up 3-0 in the top of the first! Lou Brock got the Cardinals on the board with a homer of his own in the bottom of the second, a solo shot to left, and Mike Shannon hit one to right a moment later to make it a one run game. And Nottebart’s luck ran out in the bottom of the fourth, when with two outs Phil Gagliano hit an RBI single to tie the game at 3-3, and in the bottom of the fifth, again with two outs, Bill White hit a two-run homer out of right field to make it a 5-3 Cardinals lead. For a pitcher to have the kind of bad luck he’s had all season is really hard to watch, but it seems any way he can find a way to let a game slip out of his fingers he’ll find it. We brought Claude Raymond in to pitch in the bottom of the sixth, still trailing by a pair. In the top of the ninth with two outs, Joe Morgan pinch hit for Raymond, getting a hit into right to drive a run through and cut the lead to one run for the Cardinals. But Aspromonte, pinch hitting for Kasko, couldn’t get a run through and we lost this one 5-4. Don Nottebart only allowed six hits in his five innings with a walk and three strikeouts, but five earned runs doomed him to another loss, falling to 0-6 with a 4.53 ERA. Claude Raymond gave us three innings with a strikeout, no hits, no runs, and his ERA improved to 3.25 but we weren’t able to get runs in to reverse the outcome. We put up six hits as well, led by Roberts’ three RBIs thanks to his home run. Nellie Fox, with two hits, was our only player to net more than one but he was left stranded both times. I’m glad Raymond was able to go the distance, because we’ve got a doubleheader tomorrow and we’re going to have Ken Johnson fully rested but Turk Farrell will be on short rest, so I expect some tougher bullpen decisions in that game. We could really use Dave Giusti up from AAA, but management seems to want to keep him down there ... so far he’s 5-4 through 74 innings with a 3.04 ERA, 50 K’s and 1.4 wins above replacement. June 6, 1965: Time for a two-fer today ... game one will feature Ken Johnson (6-3, 3.40 ERA, 87.1 IP, 46 K’s, 1.06 WHIP) going up against Larry Jaster (1-3, 3.64 ERA, 59.1 IP, 35 K’s, 1.08 WHIP). Gaines started the game with a quick triple off the wall in right, and Aspromonte drove him home with a shot up the middle, giving us a quick 1-0 lead. Dave Roberts hit a 400-footer out of left field in the top of the second, his third homer this year and second during this series, and Joe Gaines added a two-out, two-run shot out of right field to make it a 4-0 lead! St. Louis got on the board with a solo shot to right by Bill White in the bottom of the fourth, and in the bottom of the sixth White doubled to bat in another run to make it a 4-2 ballgame. In the top of the eighth we loaded the bases and left them all stranded, and in the top of the ninth we did the same with runners on second and third, putting Johnson out there in the bottom of the ninth to protect the two run lead and get us out of the first game. And though he put a runner on first with two outs, we were able to get the final out via a pop-out at right field and came out of this with a hard-fought 4-2 win. Johnson pitched a complete game with seven hits, two walks, two strikeouts and two earned runs, improving his record to 7-3 with a 3.27 ERA. We hit seven times, led by Gaines with two hits, a walk, two runs and two RBIs, giving him 25 runs batted in this season. Bateman hit twice as well but was stranded each time. Turk Farrell (4-4, 3.38 ERA, 72.0 IP, 45 K’s, 1.15 WHIP) started game two of the afternoon, facing Dick Hughes (5-2, 1.79 ERA, 85.1 IP, 52 K’s, 0.80 WHIP). Both pitchers are going on four days’ rest, though Farrell pitched longer in his last start than Hughes did. And the start was far from optimal -- bottom of the first, Farrell walked Mike Shannon, then Dick Groat reached via an error at short and Bill White walked, loading the bases without an out. He struck out Ken Buyer, but Bob Skinner hit a hard shot into right field to drive in a pair. From there it went downhilll fast. By the time we got out of the first inning we were in a 10-0 hole and I had Dierker warming up after Farrell threw 58 pitches and looked like he belonged back down in the minors. Dierker came in to pitch in the bottom of the second, and the Cardinals continued to pile on ... they added three runs in the third before we finally got on the board with a homer by Wynn in the top of the fourth to trail 13-1. We had a 32 minute rain delay in the middle of the fifth inning, and Don Larsen came on to pitch in the bottom of the sixth with two outs, to relieve a fully gassed Dierker. In the bottom of the seventh they added another run, but Larsen got us through the eighth and we surrendered quietly in the ninth, losing this one 14-1. Farrell fell to 4-5 with a 3.58 ERA, allowing just five hits but walking four, striking out two and giving up ten runs ... only TWO of which were actually earned. Larry Dierker came out and threw 4.2 innings and 79 pitches, giving up four hits and three runs with two walks and three strikeouts, and Larsen then went the final 2.1 innings, with two hits, three walks, two strikeouts and an earned run. In his one inning of work, Farrell faced 14 batters. They only outhit us 11-4, but we walked them nine times as well. Wynn’s homer kept it from being a shutout, and Aspromonte, Roberts and Adlesh were our only other baserunners of the night. We’re off tomorrow night to try and put today out of our minds. With three games against Pittsburgh (34-21) and three against Philadelphia (31-22) before we get to go back to Houston, it’s likely to be a painful week. We remain 23-32 and 11 games back in the National League, 3.5 games behind Chicago and two games up on the Cardinals while sitting all the way back in eighth place. We’re 1-2 in extra innings games and 7-9 in games with a one-run margin, with a -23 run differential. Attached Images __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

04-03-2024, 06:52 PM	#28
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	June 8, 1965: Bob Bruce (5-4, 3.71 ERA, 77.2 IP, 41 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) got the first start in Pittsburgh, facing Wilbur Wood (5-2, 2.81 ERA, 73.2 IP, 45 K’s, 1.11 WHIP). Pittsburgh took control in the bottom of the second with an RBI single by Gene Alley, and they put the hammer to us quickly after that, Bruce finally getting us out of the inning trailing 4-0. They loaded the bases in the bottom of the third but we kept them from adding any runs, but in the bottom of the sixth they added two more with a two-run Clendenon homer, giving them a 6-0 advantage. Bruce tried to stay out for the seventh inning but gave up three hits in a row, including an RBI single by Bob Bailey, and we had no choice but to bring in Jim Owens with men on first and second and no outs, and he did his job, getting us into the top of the eighth trailing by seven runs. Pittsburgh’s defense was merciless, but with two outs we finally got on the board with an RBI triple by Jimmy Wynn before Staub grounded out to first to end the inning. Owens stayed in and it didn’t get any worse through the eighth, but we weren’t able to get anyone on base in the ninth and this one ended as a 7-1 defeat. Bob Bruce’s record fell to 5-5 with a 4.20 ERA, allowing 13 hits, three walks, three strikeouts and seven earned runs through six innings. Owens was hitless through his two frames, improving his ERA to 2.70 through 26.2 innings. They outhit us 13-5, with Wynn’s RBI and Aspromonte’s run on the ground being our only offense. June 9, 1965: Mike Cuellar (3-1, 2.95 ERA, 42.2 IP, 29 K’s, 1.31 WHIP) pitched tonight against Joe Gibbon (5-0, 3.02 ERA, 65.2 IP, 40 K’s, 1.19 WHIP). Pittsburgh scored in the bottom of the first off a sac-fly by Bob Bailey, and they blew it open in the bottom of the fourth, adding two more runs with an RBI triple by Manny Mota, and another off a sac-fly by Gene Alley, giving them a 4-0 lead heading into the top of the fifth. Sturgell hit a homer for them in the bottom of the fifth on two outs, adding a run, and we still trailed by five runs heading into the bottom of the eighth, with Claude Raymond coming in to pitch. The Pirates scored another run in that frame, and they shut us down efficiently in the ninth, beating us this time 6-0 in a game that didn’t even make it to the two and a half hour mark. Cuellar is now 3-2 with a 3.26 ERA, allowing nine hits, two walks, three strikeouts and five runs (four earned) in his seven innings. Raymond gave up a pair of hits, a walk and an earned run in his frame, giving him a 3.45 ERA now through 28.2 innings over 15 appearances. They outhit us again 11-5, and this time only Bond made it on base twice (a hit and a walk) and we never got anyone past second base. June 10, 1965: Larry Dierker (0-5, 5.62 ERA, 48.0 IP, 24 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) started today against Pittsburgh’s Don Cardwell (0-2, 3.62 ERA, 37.1 IP, 22 K’s, 1.26 WHIP). Joe Morgan got a hit in the top of the first to drive Gaines in from third to give us our first lead of this series, Morgan stole second and then advanced to third off a passed ball, but Staub couldn’t get a hit out of the infield and we went into the bottom of the first leading by the one run. And of course, with two outs in the bottom of the first, Pittsburgh was able to tie it up 1-1 with an RBI single by Willie Sturgell, though we got into the second inning without giving them a lead. Larry Dierker got himself a hit in the top of the third, and Gaines took it all the way out of the park for a two run homer to buy us back a 3-1 lead. And just like before, on two outs, Dierker gave up an RBI single that drove in two runs to tie it up again 3-3 ... it’s like living in a nightmare, our inability to hold on to leads! With two outs in the bottom of the third he allowed a single that drove Don Cardwell over to third, and then he plunked Manny Mota on the shoulder to load the bases, but he struck Roberto Clemente out for the final out to keep the game tied. We brought Don Larsen in to pitch in the bottom of the fifth, and Aspromonte led off with a single into left in the top of the sixth, but we stranded him to stay knotted up. Unfortunately Larsen gave up the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth with a double by Clendenon, and a passed ball allowed Don Cardwell to score from third. Clendenon scored on a single by Mota, and with just one out in the inning it started to look like another rout was on. Stargell hit a two run blast into right and we went into the top of the seventh trailing 8-3 and looking like an absolute disgrace. We kept fighting though, loading the bases in the top of the frame, and Gaines batted in a run with a single into right to cut their lead to four. Aspromonte hit a sharp drive into left to drive in another with the bases still loaded, and Morgan hit into a fielder’s choice with the out being made at home to prevent the run but keeping the bases jammed. A Jimmy Wynn popout to first ended the inning with us still trailing by three. Claude Raymond came in to pitch in the bottom of the seventh, and he pitched around a double by Gene Alley to get us through the inning without anyone scoring. Rusty Staub led off with a double, and they walked Bond. Kasko swung on the first pitch and got a shot into left field, loading the bases for the second inning in a row! Johnny Weekly came in to pinch hit for Raymond, getting a hit into right field to drive in a run and cut their lead to two, but Gaines struck out swinging, bringing up Aspromonte with loaded bases and a pair of outs ... he got a great hit, blowing outward to right, going ... going ... CAUGHT AT THE WALL. Damn it! Jim Owens came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth with us trailing by two runs, and he got us the outs we needed with Morgan coming up to bat in the top of the ninth. Morgan grounded out to first, but Wynn came up and power bombed a hit over the scoreboard in left field, cutting the lead to one! Staub got a hit into right for a single, but Bond struck out swinging, but Kasko hit a slow roller up the middle, legging out a double and pushing Staub over to third! But with the count full on him, Bateman swung hard and popped out to the catcher and this one came to an end as another 8-7 loss, our rally falling just short. Dierker only lasted four innings, allowing seven hits, walking one, striking out two and giving up three earned runs. But Larsen (2-2, 3.08 ERA) took the loss, with his four hits and two walks leading to FIVE earned runs, digging a deficit even our valiant comeback attempt couldn’t resolve. Raymond and Owens only allowed two hits between them, helping us stay in this one, but we wound up losing despite outhitting the Pirates 15-13. Gaines led the way with two hits and a walk for two runs and three RBIs, while Aspromonte, Staub and Kasko each hit twice as well. We hold a 23-35 record now and have fallen into ninth place, now a full game behind St. Louis and only four games up on the Mets heading into our three-game series against the second place Phillies and their 33-23 record. We’ve lost four in a row and eight of our ten games this month, and yet I still have heard not a word from our GM or owner. I suppose that means I’ll be the one hung out to dry if we can’t find a way to get back on track before the All Star break. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

04-05-2024, 03:04 PM	#29
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	June 11, 1965: We’re a third of the way through the season already and could really use a few wins to bring the clubhouse morale up. Tonight Ken Johnson (7-3, 3.27 ERA, 96.1 IP, 48 K’s, 1.06 WHIP) faces off against Rick Wise (4-2, 3.30 ERA, 79.0 IP, 38 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) in our first of three against the 33-23 Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium. We loaded the bases in the top of the inning with just one out, but Rusty Staub hit into a double play to prevent us from taking an early lead. And Philly pounced on the opportunity to gut us, Dick Allen hitting a triple (with no outs) that batted in two runs to get them on the board in the bottom of the frame. He scored on a flyout by Wes Covington, and Johnson struck out the next two batters to get us out of the inning, but it’s rough to trail 3-0 after just one inning. Rusty Staub hit a ball deep into left that bounced over the wall for a ground rule double in the top of the fourth, giving us our first runner in scoring position of the game but with two outs, and we weren’t able to get him in to score. We got two on base in the top of the fifth and then Gaines hit into a double play to squelch that scoring attempt. Johnson did everything he could after the first frame to keep us in this one, but strong hits off our bats were negated by the brisk wind blowing in, and their outfield defense stifled us at every turn. We loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the eighth, and Gaines was able to score a run when Bond hit into an RBI fielder’s choice with an error made on the throw to second, but Kasko grounded out to first to end the inning with us still trailing by two. And in the bottom of the eighth they scored three runs with a homer by Johnny Briggs, kicking us while we were down and pretty much ending any chance of a comeback. They brought in their closer who struck out our side in the top of the ninth and we lost this one 6-1. Ken Johnson allowed 10 hits with five walks and eight strikeouts in his complete game, with six earned runs to drop his record to 7-4 with a 3.54 ERA. They outhit us 10-5, with Gaines scoring our only run thanks to the error on the fielder’s choice. Our GM has made a move, his first of the year, demoting backup catcher Dave Adlesh (.186/.286/.233, two doubles, two runs scored) to AAA in Oklahoma City while promoting 30-year-old catcher Russ Nixon ... Russ Nixon who was so bad the Boston Red Sox cut him after hitting .143 with a double and two RBIs, who we signed to a minor league contract just three days later. Russ Nixon who is only a slight improvement in fielding at the position. With so many other options worthy of a call-up, this is what we get? I’ve got to use the players I have, but the message is clear: we don’t care at all about winning. Message received loud and clear. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds) Last edited by jksander; 04-05-2024 at 03:08 PM.

04-05-2024, 07:32 PM	#30
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	June 12, 1965: After talking to my coaches, we’ve decided that Nixon is a slight improvement defensively over Bateman at catcher, so he’ll start for the first time today, but Bateman will likely start every three or four games until we see how Nixon’s bat adjusts. Turk Farrell (4-5, 3.58 ERA, 73.0 IP, 47 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) started this afternoon against John Boozer (3-5, 3.21 ERA, 75.2 IP, 57 K’s, 1.07 WHIP). In the top of the first, Joe Gaines walked, reached second on a wild pitch, stole third and then, with two outs, came home thanks to another wild pitch, giving us a 1-0 lead! But Farrell got us going in the wrong direction, with three singles in a row without an out, the third of which scored the tying run while pushing Tony Gonzalez into scoring position. Johnny Briggs popped out to deep center but Gonzalez was able to get to third easily, and we struck out Dick Stuart but Johnny Callison stole second to put two in scoring positon. And our luck continued to sour, as Bill Sorrell hit his first homer of the year over the huge wall in right field and we were in a 4-1 hole just ... like ... that. They added a run in the bottom of the fourth to make it 5-1, but Gaines hit a solo homer in the top of the sixth to cut the lead back to three. We just couldn’t string hits together enough to rally. Staub got stranded on first in the top of the seventh, and Farrell got blitzed in the bottom of the inning as they added another run off three more hits. Jim Owens came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, trailing by four runs and he got us out of it without any further escalation on their part. In the top of the ninth, Aspromonte led off with a hit into right for a single and they walked Morgan, giving us a run in scoring position. Wynn grounded out but drove both runs to the next base, but Rusty Staub struck out swinging ... but Walt Bond took reliever Jack Baldschun for three balls in a row and then swung hard, getting a hit into left field to score a run and drive Morgan to third! Kasko hit a hard one that rolled to the left corner, driving in a fourth and sending Bond around from first to third, our deficit at two runs! Dave Roberts came in to pinch hit for Russ Nixon, who batted to the catcher, who made an easy throw to first for the final out. We lost again, this time 6-4. Farrell fell to 4-6 with a 3.94 ERA, allowing 10 hits and six earned runs, striking out four and walking one batter. Owens had a hit and a strikout to keep his ERA at 2.51, but we were outhit 11-7 and couldn’t keep the rally going in the ninth. Aspromonte hit twice and scored a run while Kasko hit twice and drove in one. Joe Gaines in the leadoff spot hit once and walked once, scoring twice and driving in a run. Nellie Fox is demanding a trade. Good luck with that ... meanwhile, heading into the final game of the road trip we’re on a six-game skid. June 13, 1965: Bill Bruce (5-5, 4.20 ERA, 83.2 IP, 44 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) pitched this afternoon against Ray Culp (2-0, 2.47 ERA, 43.2 IP, 28 K’s, 0.85 WHIP). Their pitcher got an RBI single in the bottom of the second on two outs to put Philly in the lead, and then leadoff man Adolfo Phillips hit a single that drove in a run from second by Tony Taylor to add to the struggle. Bruce struggled mightily to get that final out, but we finally got out of there trailing just 2-0. We, meanwhile, couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. Joe Morgan has gone ice cold, and Aspromote and Staub are our only batters hitting better than .250, they too being unable to get anything out of the infield as this game got into the later innings. Philly struck out the side in the top of the sixth, including Gaines and Aspromonte, and we brought Don Larsen in to pitch with one out and a man on first in the bottom of the inning, still trailing 2-0. In the bottom of the seventh Dick Allen hit a solo shot over the wall to make it 3-0 Phillies, and we brought Claude Raymond in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth. Taylor tripled and scored on a flyout by Bobby Wine to make it a four-run lead, and the top of our lineup came up to hit in the ninth. Gaines hit a solo shot over the wall in left field to get us on the board with his 10th homer of the season, but though Wynn and Staub each walked with two outs, we couldn’t overcome the deficit and lost this one 4-1, our seventh in a row. Bob Bruce lost, falling to 5-6 with a 4.15 ERA, allowing eight hits and two runs in 5.1 innings with two walks and seven strikeouts. Larsen and Raymond combined for 2.2 innings with four hits, two earned runs, a walk and two strikeouts, and we were again outhit by a 12-4 margin, our bats continuing to be an enigma. Only Gaines seems to be immune, hitting twice with a homer, and he’s only hitting .200 so he’s hardly a bastion of dependability. We go home tomorrow to what I expect will be record-low attendance in the Astrodome, where we play the Cubs (29-32) for four games in the next four days, and we need something ... ANYTHING ... to snap us out of this skid before it becomes permanent. At 23-38, we’re four games ahead of the Mets in ninth place but we’re 16 games behind the NL-leading Pirates and six games behind the seventh-place Cubs. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

04-08-2024, 01:25 PM	#31
Salathor Minors (Single A) Join Date: Mar 2024 Posts: 57	This is a pretty fun replay. I've been considering doing a manager-career game, but the one I started was a "work my way up" thing where I was going to start with at the bottom of the minors (Lake Elsinore Storm) and try to work my way up. But the problem is that I don't like the manic trading of players every day! Inspired by your thread, I might instead try to do a historic replay of the '84 or '98 Padres and see if I can get to the WS again (and win it!). I've done older years before but always in career mode, never with strict historical stats and as a manager-only.

04-09-2024, 07:06 PM	#33
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	June 14, 1965: Mike Cuellar (3-2, 3.26 ERA, 49.2 IP, 32 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) started tonight in our first of four games against the Cubs back in the Astrodome, facing Cubs starter Larry Jackson (4-7, 5.20 ERA, 79.2 IP, 40 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) in front of about 8,000 fans. Cuellar gave up his first hit in the top of the fourth, a double to Billy Williams, and he was able to score when Ron Santo hit a double into left to put the Cubs ahead. But in the bottom of the inning, on two outs, Joe Morgan (who has been in a hell of a slump lately) hit a solo homer that would have left the park were it not for the dome, tying things up 1-1. Rusty Staub picked up a double in the bottom of the fifth to lead things off, but we weren’t able to get him around to score. Larry Dierker came in with two outs and no one on in the top of the sixth, getting the out we needed to stay tied up, and with two outs in the bottom of the inning, Aspromonte hit a homer out past the center field wall to put us up 2-1! Morgan then singled, and Wynn drew a walk to put him in scoring position, but Staub batted out to center and we went into the top of the seventh leading by a run. Jim Owens came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, and with two outs we blew it ... with Jimmy Stewart on second base, George Altman hit a line drive single to left, and Walt Bond blew the throw to home plate, drawing an error and allowing the tying run. Bond caught a hit from Billy Williams to end the inning, but he’d blown Dierker’s chance at a win. With the score still tied at 2-2, Woodeshick came in for the top of the ninth, walking Santo but getting Banks to hit into a double play. Aspromonte blew a catch that would have made for out number three, failing to catch an easy foul pop-up by Byron Browne, who came out of it moments later with a double into left when the inning should have been over. Harry Bright hit an RBI single to put them in the lead, and Woodeshick gave up another double, this time to Jimmy Stewart, driving in another run before we finally got out of the inning with a strikeout. Staub picked up a single with one out in the bottom of the ninth, and with two outs Kasko beat out a slow hit into the infield to put a run in scoring postion. But Johnny Weekly, pinch hitting for Bateman, couldn’t get a hit and we lost this one 4-2, another blown opportunity. Cuellar gave us 5.2 innings of great work, allowing just three hits and an earned run with four strikeouts, and Dierker got us through 1.1 innings without a hit or baserunner, but Owens blew the save with a hit, a walk, a strikeout and an earned run, and Woodeshick fell to 0-4 ... he allowed three hits with a walk and a strikeout, two runs scoring (both unearned) as his ERA remained a solid 3.26. Our losing streak now stands at eight games, and the only thing keeping us out of last place is the fact that the Mets (20-42) are even more woeful than we are. June 15, 1965: Don Nottebart (0-6, 4.53 ERA, 45.2 IP, 26 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) started tonight against Bill Faul (2-6, 4.45 ERA, 54.2 IP, 29 K’s, 1.28 WHIP). In the bottom of the first Gaines took the count full and then got a hit into left for a single, and then Faul walked Morgan and Wynn to load the bases with one out. Staub hit into a fielder’s choice, but they took the out they could get at second and allowed Gaines to score. Bond popped out to center for our final out, but we went into the second leading 1-0. Kasko walked to start the bottom of the second, and a moment later so did Russ Nixon, who walked Kasko into scoring position. Nottebart hit a sac-bunt to push them both over, and Gaines got a hit into right field, deep enough for even Nixon to score thanks to an E9 throwing error that pushed Gaines to second as our lead increased to 3-0!Faul hit Aspromonte in the shoulder with a wild pitch, and Morgan hit one into left to add another run. That’s when Jimmy Wynn hit one deep into the seats in right field, clearing the bases and giving us a seven run shutout lead. They went to the bullpen and got the final two outs but we’d made our presence felt in a big way! Wynn hit an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth to make it an 8-0 lead, and Nottebart stayed out and had the best game of his career. He stayed out in the ninth though he was tiring, wanting to finish what he started. We held tough and won this one 8-0! Nottebart pitched a complete game four-hit shutout, walking just one batter while striking out four. He’d only thrown 90 pitches in a game three times this year, but tonight he stayed past the seventh for the first time ever, throwing 108 pitches. With the win, he is now 1-6 with a 3.79 ERA. We had nine hits as a team to go with Faul’s four walks ... our offense was led by Wynn who hit twice and walked once, scoring two runs and driving in four, while Gaines hit twice for two runs and two RBIs. Morgan was pleased to snap out of his slump, hitting twice and walking once, scoring two and driving in another to bring his average up to .243 (though he’s reaching base nearly 40 percent of the time thanks to drawing 54 walks already this year). June 16, 1965: Ken Johnson (7-4, 3.54 ERA, 104.1 IP, 56 K’s, 1.12 WHIP) started tonight against Dick Ellsworth (4-3, 4.02 ERA, 87.1 IP, 52 K’s, 1.25 WHIP). Johnson got into some trouble in the first, putting runners on the corners but escaping unblemished. Johnson gave up a pair of doubles in the top of the third that got the Cubs on the board, and an RBI triple by Ellis Burton added a second run, Burton scoring off a sac-fly by Joey Amalfitano that made it a 3-0 lead seemingly out of nowhere. Staub scored a run for us with the bases loaded, Gaines reaching safely due to a throwing error to keep them that way. But Aspromonte struck out swinging to end the rally attempt, keeping the score 3-1 Cubs heading into the top of the fifth. Larry Dierker came in to pitch in the top of the seventh, still trailing 3-1, and after allowing a base hit by Harry Bright, he struck out the three batters at the top of their lineup, Beckett, Banks and Gabrielson consecutively to get us into the bottom of the frame. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Rusty Staub hit a slow roller into the right field corner with men on first and second, coming out of it with a double that drove in two runs ... but he got greedy and tried to make it into a triple, a 9-3-5 play that ended the inning tied at 3-3. Dierker tried to stay out in the eighth, but with no outs and runners on first and second, we brought in Claude Raymond to try and get out of the jam. He walked the bases loaded, then struck out Doug Clemons, got Billy Williams out at home plate thanks to a grounder by Jimmy Stewart, and then got the final out as Harry Bright hit into a fielder’s choice ... out at second! Raymond got us our three outs in the top of the ninth, giving us a fresh chance to walk things off in the bottom of the inning. Ted Abernethy walked pinch-hitter Johnny Weekly to start the frame, but Gaines hit into a fielder’s choice and they got Weekly out at second. Aspromonte walked to put Gaines in scoring position, and Morgan hit a slow roller to Beckett at second, who made the throw to first for out number two while pushing Gaines and Aspromonte over. But Jimmy Wynn grounded out to first and we were headed for extra innings. Bob Lillis committed an error at short on a bobbled catch, putting Woodeshick’s first batter, Ron Santo, on first. Byron Browne got one right by Lillis’ ear to push Santo to second, and I had to bring Eddie Kasko in as a defensive sub. Woodeshick got two outs, but catcher Harry Bright got a hit into left that scored the go-ahead run, and Beckett hit a two run single to make it a three-run Chicago lead. We got out of there with a pop-out to right, but went into the bottom of the 10th in a deep hole. With one out, Bond singled and Nixon hit one through the gap to drive him over to second. But Kasko hit into a double play and we lost another hard-fought game, this time by a 6-3 margin. After saving nine games early in the season, Woodeshick has been unable to get us through close games, thanks again entirely to our piss-poor fielding ... tonight he allowed three hits and three runs, yes, but all three were unearned. He struck out one batter and his ERA improved to 3.10, bu he’s now 0-5 and we’re earning a reputation for being absolutely terrible in close games. Johnson allowed seven hits and three earned runs in his six innings, but Dierker and Raymond got through three innings with five hits, a walk, four strikeouts and no runs scored, keeping us in this one. They outhit us 15-12, our offense led by Staub who hit three times for a run and two RBIs. Russ Nixon hit three times and Walt Bond hit twice, but neither was able to score or drive in a run. I’m hearing news that my GM may be at work on a trade with the Chicago White Sox, but I have no idea who he might be giving up, which leaves me incredibly nervous heading into the final game of the Chicago series. June 17, 1965: Turk Farrell (4-6, 3.94 ERA, 80.0 IP, 51 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) started our final game of the series, facing Bob Buhl (4-4, 3.33 ERA, 70.1 IP, 43 K’s, 1.14 WHIP). Joe Morgan got us going with a solo homer in the bottom of the first, just his fourth of the season. Don Larsen came in to pitch in the top of the sixth with us still ahead by that 1-0 margin, and he got us through the sixth and seventh without incident. With Staub getting a leadoff single to start the inning, I brought Aspomonte in to pinch-hit for Dave Roberts and then take over at first base. He struck out swinging, but Walt Bond got a great shot into left field, coming out of it with an RBI double that increased our lead to two runs! With two outs, Russ Nixon pinch hit for Larsen but he struck out to end the inning. In the top of the eighth Jim Owens came in to pitch, getting us three quick outs and sending us into the bottom of the second with a chance to add some insurance. With no hits forthcoming and a two run lead heading into the top of the ninth, Hal Woodeshick came in to close out the game. Santo flew out to center for out number one, but Earl Robinson took first off a hit into right field. Woodeshick struck pinch-hitter Byron Browne out swinging for our second out, but Billy Williams got a hit into center, a double that put two runners in scoring position. Dick Bertell hit one to Woodeshick, but he was slow on the throw to first, so the runner reached safely and Robinson scored, Billy Williams advancing to third. And Jimmy Stewart hit one into right field, singling in the tying run. Goddamn it! We got out of the game with the game tied 2-2, but Woodeshick was absolutely livid. Unable to score in the bottom of the inning, we went into extras for the second night in a row. Larry Dierker came in to pitch in the top of the 10th and promptly gave up a pair of hits, including an RBI single by Santo, to put the Cubs into the lead. Frustrated, he plunked Earl Robinson and with that, I had to pull him for Claude Raymond. But our night went from bad to worse, just like last night did in the same inning. Billy Hoeft hit a run-scoring double to make it a two-run Cubs lead, and we came into the bottom of the inning looking as bad as we’ve looked all year. Joe Gaines pinch hit for Weekly, taking a walk, and John Bateman followed with one of his own, bringing up Raymond who struck out trying to bunt them over. Chuck Harrison came in to pinch hit for Bob Lillis, and he took the count all the way full and then dropped a hit into center field, loading the bases! Kasko could smell blood as he came up to the plate, and Billy Hoeft was way off his game ... Kasko took the count full again and then swung for the fences, but they got Gaines out at home as Kasko took his base ... still loaded, now two outs! Morgan got a good look, but hit straight to short, and they made the fielder’s choice out at second to end this one as a 4-2 loss with three runners on base and ready to have given us a win. It’s honestly pretty demoralizing ... nothing seems to work, and if our GM were to decide to gut this team, I don’t know that I could blame him. Woodeshick blew the save with four hits, a strikeout and two earned runs, his third blown save of the year, after Farrell pitched a three-hitter through five innings and then Larsen and Owens held the lead for him. Dierker took the loss, falling to 0-6 with a 5.76 ERA, allowing two hits and two earned runs, while Raymond got us the final two outs with just one hit. They outhit us 12-5 but walked us four times and we had our chances. We just didn’t capitalize on them. Nobody on our team got on base twice ... five players hit, four players walked. Morgan’s homer in the first damned near won it for us, with Staub adding a hit and a run while Bond hit and batted in one. We have two games here in Houston against the Pirates (40-25) tomorrow and Saturday, followed by a three-game set against the Phillies (39-23), the Phillies currently leading Pittsburgh by half a game for the division lead with the Dodgers (37-26) trailing by two and a half. We then have an off day on the 23rd, before welcoming the bottom-dwelling Mets (21-43) for four games June 24-27. Still no official word regarding any trades. I suppose our GM and owner want to keep us walking on eggshells heading into the real heat of late June and early July. We’re currently 24-41 on the season, 16.5 games out of first and on pace for “maybe” sixty wins. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

04-10-2024, 03:01 PM	#34
Salathor Minors (Single A) Join Date: Mar 2024 Posts: 57	A rough week! Looks like the astros really pulled in a 65 win season in real life in 1965. Looks like you've got your work cut out for you.

04-11-2024, 01:37 PM	#36
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	June 18, 1965: Bob Bruce (5-6, 4.15 ERA, 89.0 IP, 51 K’s, 1.38 WHIP) got the start tonight against Wilbur Wood (6-2, 2.55 ERA, 91.2 IP, 53 K’s, 1.08 WHIP). Pittsburgh got on board with an RBI single by Bill Mazeroski in the top of the second, and with two outs Wilbur Wood batted in a second run with a single of his own. They added a triple and an RBI double to quickly score a third run in the top of the third, and we let them load the bses in the top of the fifth with only one out, though Aspromonte made a great catch at third and completed the double play to get us out of the jam without a run scoring. Don Larsen came in to pitch in the top of the sixth with the score still 3-0 Pirates, and he got three quick outs with just five pitches to keep us in the game. He did the same in the seventh, throwing eight pitches and staying hitless, but we were unable to make anything happen offensively. Larsen stayed out, a model of efficiency, and got us through the top of the ninth still trailing by three runs. Aspromonte got a one-out hit in the bottom of the ninth to reach first safely, but Eddie Kasko hit into a double play and ended this one as a 3-0 loss, Wilbur Wood completing his four hit shutout by throwing almost exclusively knuckleballs in the final frame. Bob Bruce lasted five innings with seven hits, two walks and three earned runs, falling to 5-7 with a 4.21 ERA, but Don Larsen kept us in the game with four innings of one hit, one walk ball ... we just couldn’t hit our way out of a paper bag. Well, we minus Aspromonte ... he hit twice but was stranded each time, and beyond that we only had four baserunners the entire night. Not a great recipe for putting a win together. June 19, 1965: Mike Cuellar (3-2, 3.09 ERA, 55.1 IP, 36 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) pitched this afternoon against Joe Gibbon (6-0, 2.79 ERA, 77.1 IP, 51 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) and right off the bat he started out by allowing Don Clendenon to take second in the top of the first on just the fourth pitch of the game, then committing an error on a catch himself, allowing Clendenon to move to third while Bob Bailey took his base. Roberto Clemente hit into a double play while a run scored, and we got out of the frame with only that run. But it’s always tough starting out in a hole. They added five more runs in the top of the second, pushing Cuellar past 60 pitches and spotting the Pirates a 6-0 lead. Cuellar settled down and got us through the fifth inning still trailing by six, but we had to go to Dierker in the sixth as he’d thrown 98 pitches and was at the limit of his endurance. In the bottom of the sixth, Jimmy Wynn hit into a fielder’s choice, the Pirates tagging Aspromonte out at second while Gaines scored a run from third. Walt Bond hit an RBI double moments later, pushing Staub to third as Jimmy Wynn scored a run to cut the lead to four! They walked Joe Morgan to load the bases, still just one out, and Russ Nixon hit one into right field to score a third run while keeping them loaded! At this point the Pirates had seen enough and they went to the pen, calling out Roy Face (5-4, 5 SV, 4.60 ERA, 29.1 IP, 19 K’s, 1.74 WHIP). He promptly walked Bob Lillis, driving in another run, and then did the same thing with Dierker, walking in our fifth run of the inning! Joe Gaines struck out swinging, and then Aspromote got one right over the second baseman’s head, into right field, and we scored two more runs to take the lead! Jimmy Wynn popped out to left to end the inning, but we went into the top of the seventh up 7-6 after having trailed 6-0 just half an hour prior! Dierker stayed out in the seventh, having thrown just six pitches in the sixth inning, but his luck continued to be absolutely zero. After getting an out, Clemente struck out but reached first because of a passed ball, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and then scored with a line drive double by Stargell. Claude Raymond came in with the runner on second and one out and got the two outs we needed, but Dierker missed out on the chance for a win as we went into the stretch knotted 7-7. Joe Morgan hit an RBI double with one out in the bottom of the inning to give us the lead back, and they intentionally walked Nixon. Lillis took the count full against Face, who had now thrown 42 pitches, but he popped out for our second out of the inning. Johnny Weekly pinch hit for Raymond, but he struck out swinging, keeping us from adding any more insurance, at which point we brought in Jim Owens to pitch in the eighth with the 8-7 lead. With men on first and second, two outs, the Pirates again tied it up with an RBI single by Bob Bailey, but Clemente hit a pop-out to Morgan at second to get us out of it (again) with a tie. The Pirates again went to the pen in the bottom of the inning, bringing out Al McBean, who has gone 4-5 with eight saves and a 2.31 ERA through 46.2 innings, and he did his job tonight by keeping us hitless in the inning ... though Aspromonte would have had a homer with two outs were we playing outdoors rather than in this climate controlled dome. Woodeshick came in with one out in the top of the ninth, a man on second, striking out Manny Mota and getting Mazeroski to ground out to first, sending us into the bottom of the ninth still knotted up. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth they walked Morgan, and Nixon hit one right up the middle ... he stretched it into a double, giving us two runners in scoring position! But Bob Lillis grounded out to first and we were headed for extra innings. Woodeshick struck out Dick Schofield but then allowed hits by Andre Rodgers and Donn Clendenon to put runners in scoring position. Bob Bailey popped out to right and the runners held, and Clemente popped out to left, sending us again into the bottom of the frame tied up and just needing one goddamned run ... and we didn’t get it. Don Nottebart came in to pitch in the 11th inning, knowing he was in for the duration, and he got us three quick outs without a lot of fuss, but our bats remained impotent. The Pirates scored a run in the top of the 12th thanks to an RBI double by Bob Perry, sending us into the bottom of the frame trailing by a run and that was enough ... we went down quietly in the bottom of the inning and lost this one 9-8 in a four-hour marathon we didn’t need. Nottebart took the loss, falling to 1-7 with a 3.81 ERA, allowing two hits and a run with a strikeout in his two innings. Cuellar started us out in a six run hole and deserved the loss himself, with seven hits, six runs (five earned) with three walks and two strikeouts in five innings. But Dierker, Raymond, Owens and Woodeshick all had chances to get us out of here with a win and just couldn’t find a way. Pittsburgh outhit us 15-12, with Aspromonte (two hits, two RBIs), Walt Bond (two hits, two runs, one RBI) and Joe Morgan (a hit, two walks, a run and an RBI) doing what they could to keep us in the game. We have a f---ing doubleheader tomorrow, our first two games out of four against the Phillies, before we get a day off and then four against the bottom-dwelling Mets, and this extra innings insanity couldn’t have come at a worse time. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

04-11-2024, 01:47 PM	#37
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	OOC: I'm enjoying running the Astros, but it's becoming clear that the game just isn't built for being a manager without any powers, because the AI general managers don't actually do anything ... no trades, no roster moves ... and it's becoming frustrating to play. I decided to toggle the button for "enable online mode" and then removed it, so I could access commissioner mode and make myself the General Manager. At this point in play we are 24-43 and only a game and a half up on the Mets for last place, so I think I've dug myself enough of a hole not to suddenly be able to go in and MacGuyver my way out of it. And to be honest, it's going to be a lot more fun to see if I can get the team to be even remotely competitive before they did in real life in the 70s, or if I get fired first ... because I am going to leave the ability on for me to be fired if the owner chooses to. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

04-11-2024, 02:57 PM	#38
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	June 20, 1965: Huge news! Our General Manager, Jason Gaynor, abruptly stepped down for undisclosed reasons, and our owner Gabby Topper has asked me to take over as manager and GM for the remainder of the season. It’s unclear whether I’ll still have a job at the end of the season, but at the very least I can now start making some moves to try and keep us remotely competitive. We’ve demoted Chuck Harrison and Mike White while waiving / DFA’ing Bob Lillis, which will make room for starting pitcher Dave Giusti, closer Joe Hoerner and center fielder Jim Beauchamp at the major league level. Beauchamp in particular should add some much-needed power, as the 25-year old has hit .312 /.397/.748 with six doubles, four triples and 27 homers. Hoerner will come in as a setup man, and Guisti (who has gone 6-5 with a 2.86 ERA, 62 K’s and a 1.09 WHIP through 88 innings of minor league ball) will be our fifth starter, moving Nottebart back into the bullpen. I don’t expect to jump into many trade talks while I get myself adjusted to my additional roles as a GM and manager ... but at least now I feel I can help make sure we have the depth to handle the heart of the season and avoid collapsing into last place down the stretch. Ken Johnson (7-4, 3.59 ERA, 110.1 IP, 58 K’s, 1.13 WHIP) started the first of our two games this afternoon, facing Philly’s red-hot Jim Bunning (6-5, 2.19 ERA, 111.0 IP, 75 K’s, 0.93 WHIP). The first game was an offensive snooze-fest early on, scoreless into the sixth inning, but Johnson got himself into a jam in the top of the inning, one out, runners on the corners. Johnny Callison stole second, but we struck Dick Stuart out swinging and Adolfo Phillips went down looking, getting us out of the inning. But we couldn’t find ways to get runners on base consistently and the game was scoreless into the eighth inning -- Claude Raymond came in with two outs, no one on, getting a quick infield pop-fly out to get us into the bottom of the inning, but again we couldn’t get anyone on base. With one out in the top of the ninth, Adolfo Phillips hit a solo homer to put Philly on the board 1-0, and an error on a throw from short to first let Wes Covington take second, our third error of the afternoon. Raymond got us into the bottom of the inning with two strikeouts, but the one run was all they needed -- Philly held tough and shut us out 1-0 in the first game of the afternoon to keep our losing streak alive and well. Ken Johnson lasted 7.2 innings, allowing just five hits with a walk and six strikeouts, while Raymond went 1.1 innings with one hit, two strikeouts and the one earned run, falling to 0-5 with a 3.31 ERA through 35.1 innings in 21 appearances out of the pen. They outhit us 6-4, Nellie Fox hitting twice to lead the team but never getting past second base. Beauchamp struck out twice without a hit in his MLB debut, but we have high hopes for the kid -- these Phillies are in the pennant fight right now, and Bunning was damned near unhittable today. Dave Giusti got the start in game two, his major league debut, facing Chris Short (7-1, 2.34 ERA, 98.0 IP, 77 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) in a tough matchup. But he handled himself ably, getting through the first three innings with three strikeouts and three hits, and we just needed our bats to find a way to come to life. Guisti himself came up with a hit into left in the bottom of the third, one out, but Gaines and Aspromonte left him stranded thanks to a strikeout and a flyout, keeping us scoreless heading into the fourth. Guisti was solid as hell all day, but with our bats unable to find a way to drive hits into the outfield, eventually something had to give. Philly got on the board in the top of the sixth, a two-out double by Johnny Callison putting them ahead by a run -- the way we’re hitting, that might be all they need! A triple and a pop-out to left drove in another run in the top of the seventh, but Giusti pitched like he’d been on that mound in the Astrodome all year, completely unfazed. In the bottom of the inning Wynn led off with a double and they walked Dave Roberts, bringing up Beauchamp in a great position ... two on, no outs. He popped out to right, however, and Kasko hit into a double play to pour cold water on our rally. Knowing our bullpen was worn out, Guisti asked to stay out there and he made quick work of the Phillies in the eighth and the ninth, bringing us up in the bottom of the inning trailing by two with the heart of our order up for one last shot. Aspromonte struck out swinging, Wynn struck out looking and Roberts popped out to right, ending this one as a 2-0 shutout loss. Dave Giusti went the entire game, allowing just seven hits with five strikeouts, no walks and two earned runs ... he threw 105 pitches and looked great doing it, but gets to start his career out 0-1 with a 2.00 ERA. They outhit us 7-4 and we only had five players even get on base, and we haven’t scored a run in 24 innings. It’s like our entire team has decided to slump offensively at the same time. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

04-11-2024, 04:48 PM	#39
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	June 21, 1965: Turk Farrell (4-6, 3.71 ERA, 85.0 IP, 55 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) got the start this evening in front of just 7,100 Astros fans, facing off against Grant “Buck” Jackson (3-1, 3.99 ERA, 38.1 IP, 32 K’s, 1.25 WHIP). Joe Morgan hit a triple with two outs in the bottom of the first, but Wynn popped out to prevent us from snapping our scoreless innings streak. Bobby Wine got Philly’s first hit of the game in the top of the third, stretching it into a triple, scoring on a flyout by Jackson to put them up 1-0. They added two more runs in the fourth, and Dick Allen hit a two-run homer in the fifth to make it a 5-0 lead as we looked completely hopeless. Dick Stuart homered for them in the sixth, and Cookie Rojas hit a two-RBI double to make it 8-0 Phillies heading into the bottom of the inning. Beauchamp pinch hit for Kasko in the bottom of the sixth, hitting a double to finally get his first major league hit. Joe Morgan grounded out to first, but a run finally scored, our first run in 30 innings of work, sending us into the top of the seventh trailing 8-1. Don Larsen came in for the final two innings and he kept the game from getting any uglier, but the damage was done as we lost this one 8-1, our seventh loss in a row. Farrell fell to 4-7 with a 3.91 ERA, allowing nine hits and eight runs (five earned) in seven innings, striking out six and walking a pair. Larsen allowed just one hit with a walk and two strikeouts in his two innings, but the damage was done. They outhit us 10-8, Gaines leading the way with two hits and a run, while Morgan hit once and drove in the run. June 22, 1965: I’ve made my first trade as a GM, and we’ve immediately improved ourselves at the catcher position, which I knew was a key position we needed to find a stronger starter. The California Angels have sent us 26-year-old catcher Buck Rogers, 22-year-old outfielder Cotton Nash and $20,000, in exchange for 31-year-old left fielder Dave Roberts and 24-year-old first baseman Chuck Harrison. We’re sending John Bateman back down to AAA in Oklahoma City, while Nash will come up to the major league level to play off the bench as a power hitting option and potential outfield sub in left or right. I’m currently looking for a decent backup for the infield as well, to cover third base or shortstop, but if we have to bring up someone from the minors to fill the role that may wind up being our best option prior to the offseason. Bob Bruce (5-7, 4.21 ERA, 94.0 IP, 51 K’s, 1.40 WHIP) got the start in today’s final game against the Phillies, facing off against Rick Wise (5-2, 2.85 ERA, 94.2 IP, 43 K’s, 1.29 WHIP). And we got off on the wrong foot again early, the Phillies taking a 2-0 lead with a triple by Adolfo Phillips in the top of the third, though at least we stranded him there on third. It’s clear we’re flat-out exhausted -- I don’t think any team in baseball is looking forward to the All Star break in July as much as we are right now. Bruce told me he was strong enough to stay out and get through the sixth, but Dick Allen hit a solo homer to make it 3-0, and with two outs and a man on first we brought in Joe Hoerner for his first bullpen appearance of the season -- he got Wes Covington to ground out to first to get us out of the inning, and then got us through the seventh as well. Aspromonte hit a solo homer to get us on the board in the bottom of the seventh, his sixth homer of the season, and we brought Jim Owens in to pitch in the top of the eighth with an out and men on first and second. He got the second out, but Covington got a hit into center to drive in another run, and we came up to hit in the bottom of the eighth trailing again by three runs. They added five more runs in the top of the ninth as we were abjectly humiliated in front of the few fans who dared to stick around, shutting us down in the final frame to beat us 9-1 and complete the sweep. Bruce lasted 5.2 innings with just three hits and three runs (two earned), striking out three and walking three. Hoerner got us through 1.2 innings with two hits, a run, a walk and a strikeout, but it was Owens who took the brunt of it ... he allowed six hits in 1.2 innings of work, walking two against two strikeouts while allowing five earned runs. It got ugly fast, and we put up absolutely no defense against it. They outhit us 11-5, Aspromonte leading the way with two hits including his solo homer that was our only offense of the night. Larry Dierker is going back down to AAA for the time being, as will Cotton Nash ... we simply need infield help more than we need an extra bullpen arm or outfielder. I’m calling up 20-year-old third baseman Doug Rader (.247/.281/.455, 12 doubles, 11 homers) and 27-year-old shortstop Jim Campbell (.238/.312/.494, 10 doubles, 16 homers) to give Aspromonte and Kasko some room to rest and rebuild their strength. We head into our four-game series against the Mets (23-47) with just half a game lead on them as we try to avoid sliding into dead last in the NL. We’ve lost eight in a row and 17 of our last 20 games ... an abject failure by almost any measure. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

04-11-2024, 07:20 PM	#40
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	June 24, 1965: Mike Cuellar (3-2, 3.58 ERA, 60.1 IP, 38 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) got the start in game one against the Mets, facing Dick Donovan (1-0, 5.73 ERA, 11.0 IP, 5 K’s, 1.45 WHIP), and it was a pitching duel early, neither team finding much of an offensive foothold. In the bottom of the fifth, Jim Campbell led off with a walk, and Jim Beauchamp pinch-hit for Cuellar, but he hit one straight to the left fielder for an easy out, and Morgan and Gaines followed his lead, keeping the game scoreless heading into the sixth. Don Larsen came in to pitch, and he survived runners on the corners as we got out of the inning still scoreless. Claude Raymond came in with two outs and a man on second in the top of the seventh, getting us into the seventh inning stretch still knotted at zero, the two worst teams in the NL putting up absolutely no offense. Johnny Lewis singled to start the top of the eighth, reaching second on a wild pitch and taking third via a sac-bunt by Ron Hurt ... but we stranded him there at third, a Swoboda strikeout and an Ed Kranepool groundout to first getting us into the bottom of the inning. Aspromonte pinch hit for Raymond, and he took Donovan to a full count before making contact ... and batting one out to the center fielder for our first out. Damn it! Morgan and Gaines were quick outs at first and we went into the top of the ninth, score still 0-0, with Joe Hoerner coming in to pitch. He was up to the challenge, striking out their first two batters and then pitching around a Roy McMillan walk, to get us into the bottom of the frame with a chance to walk it off! With one out, Wynn made good contact and got a hit through the gap for a single. They walked Walt Bond, and with Kasko at the plate, Jimmy Wynn stole third, and ... with an E2 throwing error against the Mets ... he came around to score the winning run! We got a win! We got a win! Holy s--- we got a win, beating the Mets 1-0 to avoid going to extra innings. Joe Hoerner got the win, improving to 1-0 with a 3.38 ERA in just his second bullpen appearance, walking one and striking out a pair without allowing a run to score! Cuellar got us going on a good note, giving us five innings with just one hit, three walks and three strikeouts, throwing 74 pitches, while Larsen and Raymond gave us three innings with four hits and a strikeout. We held tough and we pulled the win out despite being outhit 5-4. Wynn had a hit and stole his way to scoring the winning run, while Bond hit once and walked twice. We’ll take it how we can get it, now it’s time to see if we can spark a win streak ... June 25, 1965: I made a trade with Kansas City to add some depth to our pitching rotation, getting 25-year-old starter John O’Donoghue from their AAA affiliate in exchange for 22-year-old AA catcher Jerry Grote. O’Donoghue has gone 9-2 with a 3.08 ERA and 63 strikeouts through 111 innings while playing for AAA Vancouver, and he’s a clubhouse leader. We’re waiving / DFA’ing Jim Owens for now to make room for him in the majors. It’s a small minor league transaction in the eyes of many, but I think it’s a move that’s going to help improve our clubhouse atmosphere after what has been an incredibly difficult season. Dave Giusti (0-1, 2.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 5 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) made his second career start today, facing Larry Miller (2-7, 4.68 ERA, 84.2 IP, 64 K’s, 1.43 WHIP). The Mets got on the board with a run in the top of the first thanks to a single by Kranepool, and they added quickly to it with a two-run homer by Jim Hickman, digging us a 3-0 hole before we ever came up to bat. They added a fourth run in the top of the second, and our bats remained silent as has been the usual. But we finally got something going in the bottom of the third, Rusty Staub hitting an RBI single to get us on the board, and Gaines hit a sac-fly to center that drove home a second run, cutting the lead to two heading into the top of the fourth. Morgan led off with a walk in the bottom of the fifth, and with one out Staub got a hit into right field that pushed him into scoring position with a single but we weren’t able to get either of them in to score. Giusti got into trouble in the top of the seventh, loading the bases and walking in a pair of runs as we tried to get Raymond warmed up. An error at shortstop allowed another run to score, bringing Raymond in with the bases loaded, no outs, and the lead for the Mets now at 7-2. God ... DAMN. He got two quick popouts to hold the runners, and a pop-out to left ended the inning without any of those runs scoring, but we went into the stretch trailing by five and looking as hapless as ever. Raymond loaded the bases in the eighth, allowing another run, and Nottebart came in to mop it up in the top of the ninth, getting us the outs we needed. But there was no digging out to the hole tonight, as the Mets stumped us 8-2 to even the series. Giusti lasted six innings but should have come out after that ... instead he melted down in the seventh and despite only allowing four hits, he walked three and seven runs scored (five of them earned) during his start. He now has a 4.20 ERA through 15 innings. Claude Raymond allowed three hits with a walk and a strikeout in his two innings, one earned run scored against him, and Nottebart notched a strikeout without a hit in his inning. Each team hit seven times, and they had five walks to our four. Staub picked up three hits and a walk, batting in a run to lead the team, while Bond and Rodgers hit twice each. Morgan walked twice and scored a run, and though he’s only averaging .238, he has walked 58 times now and has a .379 on base percentage and accounts for 2.3 WAR. June 26, 1965: Ken Johnson (7-4, 3.36 ERA, 118.0 IP, 64 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) started tonight against Al Jackson (2-4, 5.48 ERA, 95.1 IP, 51 K’s, 1.48 WHIP). Joe Morgan led off with a triple in the bottom of the first, and Aspromonte grounded out at first to drive him around, giving us an early lead. Morgan doubled with one out in the bottom of the third, and Aspromonte got a hit into right field to drive him around for the second time tonight, giving us a 2-0 lead! Ken Johnson was on fire all night, and we added more insurance in the bottom of the sixth, Gaines hitting a single that drove in two more to increase our lead to four runs! Johnson had a perfect game going into the seventh inning, but Johnny Lewis got a hit into center to give the Mets their first baserunner, and Morgan committed an error a moment later to allow Ed Kranepool on base with one out, but we got into the stretch and left both runners stranded. In the bottom of the eighth, Morgan picked up his third hit of the night, another double, batting in two more runs as we extended our lead. Johnson stayed out in the ninth and got a little sloppy, allowing a pair of runs to score, but he got out of there alright in the end as we held tough and won 6-2. Johnson had one of his best games of the year, a complete game four hitter with eight strikeouts, a single walk and two earned runs. He’s now 8-4 with a 3.26 ERA through his first 16 starts. We outhit the Mets 10-4, led by Morgan who hit three times (two doubles and a triple), walked once and scored two runs while driving in two more. Aspromonte hit twice with two RBIs, and Gaines snapped out of his recent funk, hitting twice for a run and two more batted in. Detroit’s Tigers claimed reliever Jim Owens, so he’ll join their team as soon as he clears waivers. June 27, 1965: We started John O’Donoghue tonight as a spot starter, making his Astros debut against Jack Fisher (3-4, 5.00 ERA, 81.0 IP, 32 K’s, 1.41 WHIP). And he was off to a great start -- two outs off four pitches -- when Ron Swoboda hit a towering two-run homer off him to put the Mets up 2-0 with just six pitches thrown. That’s the definition of bad luck. Joe Gaines got us on the board in the bottom of the fourth when, with the bases loaded, he took first base on balls, and Buck Rodgers tied it up with a single into center that kept the bases loaded without an out! Joe Morgan hit a sac-fly to center, driving in the go-ahead run and we went into the top of the fifth leading 3-2! The Mets tied it up with two outs in the top of the fifth with a sac-fly to right by Fisher, but in the bottom of the inning Gaines hit a shot deep into center, rolling to the wall and allowing us to score two runs with a two-out double! Beauchamp got on base with a single in the bottom of the seventh and then pulled off his first major league stolen base, advancing to third on a groundout by Bond. Kasko hit a great shot into left field that drove him home with a standing double for our sixth run of the afternoon! Hal Woodeshick came in to pitch in the top of the ninth, striking out Kranepool and Swoboda, Ron Hunt grounding out harmlessly to first as we held on to win 6-3, winning our first series in what seems like an eternity. John O’Donoghue gave us eight innings with five hits, four strikeouts and three earned runs, giving him a 3.38 ERA and a 1-0 record after his first start of the year! Woodeshick came in and got the save, his 10th of the year, striking out two and improving his ERA to 3.38 as well through 24 innings of work this season. This was his first completed save in over a month, having lost three games and blown two saves in June. So it’s good to get him a solid outing. We outhit the Mets tonight 10-5, led by Beauchamp (two hits, a walk and two runs scored) and Kasko (two hits, two walks, a run and an RBI). Gaines hit once, walked once and scored a run, driving in three more as he continues to find his rhythm at the plate. Tomorrow and Tuesday we’ll play two games against the Cubs (37-39) in Chicago, and then we’ll return home for one game against the Giants (41-31) and then three against the first-place Dodgers (45-28) through the fourth of July weekend. We then have a week of road games, three at Milwaukee (36-34) and four in three nights against the Mets (24-50) before getting a four day off-stretch for the All Star break. We are currently 27-48 and in ninth place, 5.5 games behind the eighth place Cardinals. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)