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| Jackie Robinson saved the season for the Brooklyn Dodgers on Sept. 30, 1951, with a diving catch with the bases loaded in the 12th inning, and the game-winning homer in the 14th to sink the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-8. |
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| Bud Podbielan picked up the victory with 1 1/3 innings of shutout relief, just his second win in four decisions on the year for the lifetime 25-42 pitcher. |
By Phil Ellenbecker
Say what you want about how the Brooklyn Dodgers may have choked in 1951, blowing a 13-game lead on the New York Giants at the close of play Aug. 11 and a 4-1, ninth-inning lead on the Giants in the third game of their National League tiebreaker playoff.
But there was nothing choky about their performance on Sept. 30, the final day of the regular season. With their season on the line and the Giants checking on their progress on a train back from Boston to see whether there would be a playoff, the Dodgers pulled out a 14-inning, 9-8 victory, with Jackie Robinson at the forefront, in what has to rank as one of the Dodgers' best clutch performances ever.
And considering the seesaw nature of the contest, and the way it extended into the night, this has to rank as one of the all-time regular-season concluding games, with heroic deeds on both sides.
Most heroic of all was Robinson, four years removed from his historic color-line breaking season and two years removed from an MVP season. If ever there was a performance that proved Jackie's value as a baseball player, period, this was it.
Robinson decided the game with his two-out solo homer in the top of the 14th inning. He made that possible with a spectacular diving catch up the middle from his second-base position on a line drive by Eddie Waitkus, with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th.
The overtime session was also notable for the yeoman pitching work in relief of aces Don Newcombe for the Dodgers and Robin Roberts of the Phillies. Newcombe, who'd pitched a seven-hit shutout the day before, allowed no runs, one hit and walked none over 5 2/3 innings. He retired six of the first seven batters he faced in extra innings before the Phillies loaded the bases in the 12th.
Roberts, who'd allowed two earned runs over eight innings in taking a loss the day before, allowed only the earned run on Robinson's homer in 6 2/3 innings. Before Robinson's belt, Roberts had retired 13 of the past 14 batters he'd faced, including 10 in a row.
But neither of those stalwarts figured in the final decision. Instead it was Bud Podbielan, who got the win when he relieved Newcombe after consecutive walks with two out in the bottom of the 13th. Podbielan coaxed Eddie Pelagrini to fly out to center field to set up Robinson's decisive blow into the left-field stands in the 14th on a 1-1 count, his 18th homer of the year.
But the Phillies had one last chance in the bottom of the 14th. Podbielan, who got his second win on the year in four decisions, took care of it. After Richie Ashburn (4-for-6 on the day) led off with a single and advanced on Willie "Puddinhead" Jones' sacrifice, Podbielan retired Del Ennis on a pop-up to first and Waitkus on a fly out to center.
This has to rank as the career highlight for Podbielan, who went 25-42 with a 4.49 ERA in nine years in a major league career that was otherwise distinguished by the franchise-record 13 walks he dealt for Cincinnati on May 18, 1953, in a 10-inning game against, ironically, the Dodgers.
While Roberts sailed through the Dodgers' lineup, Newcombe needed some help from his defense for the game to keep going.
In the 11th, after a two-out walk to Granny Hamner, "Andy Seminick then laced a shot to left-center that appeared to be ticketed for two bases," wrote C. Paul Rogers III in an article for the Society for American Baseball Research Games Project. "Running with two outs, Hamner would have scored easily to end the game, but Andy Pafko in left made a running, game-saving catch to keep the Dodgers alive."
Then in the 12th, the Phillies loaded the bases on a walk to Roberts, a sacrifice bunt by Pellegrini on which both runners were safe when Roberts beat the throw to second, and an intentional walk to Jones. Robinson then came through by diving to spear Waitkus' smash to the right side of second base, "reaching across his body with his glove hand inches above the ground," Rogers wrote. "He landed hard with the ball in his glove and immediately rolled over and weakly tossed the ball toward second base, as if he were attempting to get a force out there, before collapsing on the infield."
Before the game settled into a scoreless duel in OT, there had been plenty of offensive fireworks on both sides. The Phillies were mostly in control of a rematch of the Oct. 1, 1950, regular-season finale won by Philadelphia 4-1 in 10 innings in Brooklyn, which clinched the Phillies' first pennant since 1915.
Before the game settled into a scoreless duel in OT, there had been plenty of offensive fireworks on both sides. The Phillies were mostly in control of a rematch of the Oct. 1, 1950, regular-season finale won by Philadelphia 4-1 in 10 innings in Brooklyn, which clinched the Phillies' first pennant since 1915.
This time, before 31,755 at Connie Mack Stadium, it took a three-run eighth inning for Brooklyn to survive and make possible the marathon finish.
Gil Hodges got the Dodgers started in the eighth by beating out a grounder to shortstop for a single out of his No. 7 slot in the lineup. Billy Cox sent Hodges to third with a bloop single just inside the right-field line. Rube Walker, batting for Carl Erkine, the fourth of seven Brooklyn pitchers on the day, drew the Dodgers within 8-7 by doubling deep to left on an 0-2 count, bringing in Hodges and Cox. After Roberts relieved Karl Drews and became the third and final Phillies pitcher of the day, Carl Furillo delivered a single to left that drove in pinch runner Don Thompson and tied the score.
It appeared early that the Phillies might be easing the train-riding Giants into a pennant by taking a 6-1 lead through three innings. Tommy Brown's leadoff homer and Ashburn's two-run infield single bracketed a four-run second that chased Dodgers starting pitcher Preacher Roe. Phillies starting pitcher Bubba Church's two-run single (Church batted .256 during the season) off Ralph Branca gave them a 6-1 lead in the third.
Chipping away, Brooklyn drew within 6-5 with a three-run fifth punctuated by Robinson's RBI triple.
Philly responded with two runs in the fifth including a bad-hop RBI triple by Hamner, one of four three-baggers the two teams combined for in the first five innings.
In the bottom of the sixth, the scoreboard posted that the Giants had defeated the Braves 3-2, letting the Dodgers know it was do or die.
Besides Ashburn, others with multi-hit games included Pee Wee Reese, 3-for-6, and Robinson, 2-for-6, for the Dodgers and Hamner, 2-for-5 for the Phillies.
Other odds and ends from the game:
-- Roy Campanella's fourth-inning triple was his only three-bagger of the year.
-- Dick Sisler, the hero of the Phillies' pennant-clinching win over the Dodgers the year before with his three-run homer in the 10th, didn't appear in this game, although he had played in the Phillies' past few games in left field. Ennis was in left this day.
-- Roberts finished the year with a 21-15 record and a 3.30 ERA after taking the loss for the second straight day. This was the second of six straight 20-win seasons for the hard-throwing right-hander with outstanding control who was the premier pitcher in the NL in the 1950s.
-- Newcombe finished the year 20-8 with a 3.28 ERA, the first of three 20-win seasons he had in four years. (He missed 1952 and 1953 because of military service).
-- Although Roe, who finished that year with a 22-3 record, and Church, who had 15 wins on the year, were the starting pitchers, this game ultimately duplicated the season-ender of the year before with a reverse result. In the 1950 game, Roberts had outdueled Newcombe, with both pitchers going the 10-inning distance and Roberts making his third start in five days. Roberts finished the year 20-11, Newcombe 19-11.
-- There was some doubt as to whether Robinson actually caught Waitkus' liner up the middle in the 12th.
"The Phillies to a man thought he trapped the ball," Rogers wrote. "Russ Meyer was so vocal from the Phillies bench that he was almost ejected. Roberts believed that Robinson’s wild toss of the ball from a prone position toward second showed that Jackie thought he had trapped the ball and was desperately trying for a force at second.
"That offseason Roberts saw Robinson at a winter banquet. He said, 'Jackie, you didn’t catch that ball that Waitkus hit.'
"Roberts recalled that Robinson grinned at him and said, 'What did the umpire say?' ”
"That offseason Roberts saw Robinson at a winter banquet. He said, 'Jackie, you didn’t catch that ball that Waitkus hit.'
"Roberts recalled that Robinson grinned at him and said, 'What did the umpire say?' ”
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