 Jim Pagliaroni, 2-for-21 lifetime coming in against Sandy Koufax, went 2-for-5 including the game-winning double as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers and their legendary lefty 3-2 in the first game of a doubleheader Sept. 1, 1965.
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By Phil Ellenbecker
Going into Pittsburgh's twinight doubleheader with Los Angeles on Sept. 1, 1965, amid a tight National League pennant race, Jim Paglianori and Willie Stargel hadn't had much luck against Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax. l, Like many other hitters throughout the NL.
Pagliaroni had but two hits in 21 at-bats in his career facing the legendary lefty, while Stargell was staring at an 0-for-12 bagel.
"Trying to hit Sandy Koufax was like trying to drink coffee with a fork," Stargell once said.
But all of a sudden in one Wednesday night, one game, "Pags" found his stroke against Koufax, clubbing a pair of doubles in five at-bats, including one in the 11th inning that drove in "Pops" Stargell and gave the Pirates a 3-2 victory in the opening game of the twin bill at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field.
And making that game-winner possible was Stargell, who after extending his hitless streak versus Koufax to 0-for-14, rose up and belted an RBI triple in the sixth inning that tied the game.
Not content to win just one over a Dodgers ace, the Pirates then proceeded to win the nightcap 2-1 as Vern Law outdueled LA's stellar No. 2 man Don Drysdale.
Tommy Sisk and Joe Gibbon took turns holding the Dodgers in check in the opener, Gibbon getting the win with six innings of shutout relief.
The pair of LA losses, combined with Cincinnati's sweep of Milwaukee that night, left the Dodgers and Reds tied for the top spot in the National League, Cincinnati ahead by one percentage point (.561-.560), with San Francisco on their heels a half-game back, Milwaukee two behind and Pittsburgh trailing by 2 1/2. The Reds, Braves and Pirates couldn't keep up, but LA and Frisco, continuing their long, bitter rivalry, fought it out to the end.
Meanwhile on this Sept. 1 onset of the stretch drive, Pittsburgh went out with a bang in the first game after starting with a whimper in the 11th. Donn Clendenon and Bill Mazeroski each tapped back to Koufax, and it looked like the game would summarily move on to the 12th.
But Stargell drew Koufax's third walk of the night to keep the inning going. And here came Pagliaroni, who'd scored the Pirates' first run on Bob Bailey's single after a leadoff double in the fifth, now chasing home Stargell with a two-bagger to left, dropping Koufax's record to 21-7.
Koufax's control had begun to slip the inning before when he walked Gibbon and Bob Bailey back-to-back with one out. But he got Manny Mota to strike out looking and Roberto Clemente on a ball back to him. That capped a 1-for-5 game for the Pirates' all-time great, a bunt single in the fourth keeping him from an oh-for.
But other than that blip, Koufax was in command after Stargell had tied it up in the sixth, retiring 11 straight until his walks in the 10th.
Meanwhile Gibbon, who improved to 4-9, was matching Koufax goose egg for goose egg, facing only one batter over the minimum over the final six innings. He had help from Paglarioni catching fellow catcher John Roseboro trying to steal in the seventh, and a double play turned by the Pirates' crack combo of Gene Alley at shortstop and Bill Mazeroski at second in the eighth.
(Mazeroski, a Hall of Famer considered perhaps the greatest defensive second baseman of all time, had missed the first 40 games of this season with a broken foot. But together from the start in 1966, Alley and Maz helped the Pirates turn an NL record 215 double plays.)
Los Angeles got only one batter into scoring position during Gibbon's stint. Jim Lefebvre singled to lead off the 10th -- one of three hits Gibbon gave up -- and moved to second on a wild pitch. But Gibbon struck out Roseboro and Koufax, Roseboro looking, and got Maury Wills to ground out to brush off that threat.
With the Dodgers leading 2-1 and Koufax not likely to give up too much more, Pirates manager Harry Walker pulled the trigger and batted for starter Sisk in the fifth. Ozzie Virgil didn't come through as the pinch hitter, but later in the inning Pittsburgh broke through with Bailey's single that scored Pagliaroni.
The Pirates then tied it in the sixth when Stargell followed Mazeroski's single with a triple to left. It was Stargell's seventh of a career-high eight three-baggers that season, coming in triple-friendly Forbes where the left-field fence measured 365 feet.
The Pirates then tied it in the sixth when Stargell followed Mazeroski's single with a triple to left. It was Stargell's seventh of a career-high eight three-baggers that season, coming in triple-friendly Forbes where the left-field fence measured 365 feet.
Willie Davis, batting in the No. 3 spot for the light-hitting Dodgers, gave them the early lead with his eighth homer of 10 on the season with two out in the first.
Jim "Junior" Gilliam, after being hit by a pitch, came around to score on a throwing error by shortstop Wills in the third, on a grounder by Ron Fairly.
Roseboro joined Pagliaroni as the only players in the game with multiple hits, going 2-for-4.
Koufax finished with an eight-hitter in his 10 2/3 innings with three runs allowed, all earned, and 10 strikeouts to go with his three walks.
Gibbon struck out four while walking none and giving up three hits in his six innings. Sisk's line was four hits allowed, two runs, one earned, with one walk and three Ks in five innings.
Down goes Drysdale
Pagliaroni and Stargell took a seat and Bill Virdon and Clemente stepped up with the timely hitting in the nightcap. The Pirates took down "The Big D" with the tying run in the seventh and winning run in the ninth in the 2-1 decision as Drysdale fell to 18-12 on the year.
While Pagliaroni sat out the second game, Stargell was still in the lineup. But Walker sent up Manny Mota to pinch hit for him in the eighth, and Mota was at bat for the game-deciding run, although he didn't drive it in.
The decision by Walker to pinch hit for Stargell seems curious. Although Stargell hadn't quite emerged as the terror he was in the 1970s, he still hit 27 homers this season. And although Mota eventually became the major leagues' career leader in pinch hits and currently ranks No. 3, this was just his second full season. Plus lefty-swinging Stargell had the platoon advantage on righty Drysdale over righty-swinging Mota. And get this: Stargell had a lifetime batting average of .389 against Drysdale with five homers in 72 at-bats. Mota vs. Drysdale? 0-for-6.
Nonetheless, it worked out.
With one out and the score tied 1-1, Virdon and Clemente put Pittsburgh in position to go ahead with back-to-back singles, each completing a 3-for-4 game. Virdon advanced to third on Clemente's hit, and Dodgers manager Walter Alston called on relief ace Ron Perranoski.
Wills then committed his second throwing error of the night on a grounder by Mota, allowing Virdon to score. The Pirates were still threatening with Mota and Clemente at second and third, but Perranoski coaxed ground outs by Donn Clendenon and Bill Mazeroski to keep the score at 2-1.
Law didn't allow LA any hopes in the top of the ninth, retiring Fairly, Lou Johnson and Wes Parker on a grounder, strikeout and fly to Clemente in right.
That closed out a seven-hitter for Law with six strikeouts and two walks allowed as he improved to 16-9. He finished the season 17-9 with a 2.15 ERA, the last standout season in a 16-year career that ended with a 162-147 record and 3.77 ERA. He'd been the Cy Young award winner in 1960 (when only one was awarded between the two leagues) with a 20-9 record, 3.08 ERA and two World Series wins as the Pirates captured the Fall Classic.
Virdon, one of the main holdovers from that 1960 team along with Law, Clemente and Mazeroski, belted a solo homer to start the bottom of the sixth and end a scoreless deadlock between Law and Drysdale. A future Pirates manager, this was Virdon's last full season in a 12-year career.
Drysdale had scattered six hits up until Virdon's homer and worked around three singles in the second when Clendenon was caught in a rundown and tagged out trying to advance from first on a Mazeroski single.
His final line was 10 hits and two runs allowed, both earned, with no walks and three strikeouts in his 7 1/3 innings.
The rest of the race
The Dodgers went on to capture the National League pennant with a 97-65 record, two games over San Francisco. Koufax clinched it with a win over Milwaukee in the next-to-last game, giving him a final record of 26-8, going 5-1 after his loss to Pittsburgh on Sept. 1. Drysdale came in at 23-12 -- 5-0 after that loss to the Bucs.
So LA was temporarily down but not out after being swept by the Pirates, and they went on to win their second World Series in three years by beating the Minnesota Twins in seven games. Koufax won two games, including Game 7, a fitting climax to a season in which he won his second Cy Young in three years (still only one winner), pitched a perfect game for the last of his four no-hitters and broke the season record for strikeouts with 382.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh had an 11-2 closing run and came in third, seven games back, with a 90-72 record. It was their best finish and record since their magical year of 1960, and the season served as a bridge between some down years and their emergence as a premier team of the 1970s. Pittsburgh won six NL East titles and two World Series championships in that decade.
'The Great One' vs. the great ones
Although Clemente had rough going against Koufax this night, "The Great One" fared quite well against him in his career, hitting .297 in 111 at-bats with six homers.
Against Juan Marichal, the winningest pitcher of the 1960s, Clemente hit .288 with three homers in 125 at-bats.
Against the NL's other premier pitcher of the '60s, Bob Gibson, he mustered only a .208 average with four homers in 125 at-bats. Ironically, Clemente felled Gibson with a line drive that sidelined him for two months of the 1967 season. It didn't keep Gibson from coming back to win three games in that year's World Series.
'Pags,' 'Pops' and Sandy
In case you were wondering, Pagliaroni and Stargel didn't all of a sudden start solving Koufax after getting key hits against him in that first game Sept. 1.
"Pags" went 1-for-10 against Koufax in his final year of 1966, giving the Pirates catcher a final average of .139, 5-for-36, with those two doubles Sept. 1 the only extra-base hits.
"Pops" was 1-for-7 against Koufax in '66, making him 2-for-23 and .087 lifetime, with only a single besides that triple on Sept. 1, 1965.
Sources:
Game 1 box score and play-by-play: https://www.retrosheet.org/
Game 2 box score and play-by-play: https://www.retrosheet.org/
All-time leading pinch hitters: https://
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