Giants Outlast Athletics Despite Sloppy Defense
The New York Giants took a another step closer to a world championship as they finished off a sweep in Oakland with a 3-2 victory. New York had a solid albeit brief outing by Don Liddle. Liddle went 5 innings did not and surrendering any earned runs. Then the Giants' bullpen took over allowing only 3 hits to send the Giants back to the Polo Grounds with a 2-0 series advantage..
Both of Oakland's runs were unearned as defense is becoming a huge question mark for New York. The Giants committed 3 errors is this game and also had 2 in the opener.
New York jumped out early with single runs in the first two innings. After a lead off single in the first by Bill Mueller, Monte Irvin provided a clutch two out double to score him. In the second, it was a two out single by Wes Westrum that pushed the lead to 2-0. His single scored Whitey Lockman who lead off the inning with a single. He was pushed over to second on a sacrifice bunt by Giants' DH Ray Katt before coming around to count on the Westrum single.
A Hank Thompson throwing error opened the door for the A's in the fifth. Gene Tenace walked to lead things off, but was retired as the Giants' attempted a double play on a Angel Mangual grounder. Mangual beat it out then stole second. He then advanced to third on a fly ball to right and scored on the Thompson error to make the score 2-1.
The Giants pushed back in the seventh in almost an identical manner as in the second inning. Lockman got aboard to lead things off, and again, Katt was able to place him in scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. Davey Williams then drilled a ball into the right field corner that scored Lockman, but his indecisiveness cost him on the bases as he was thrown out at second trying to stretch his hit to a double.
Oakland had a chance for a big inning in the eighth. They loaded the bases with one out but could only manage one run. Windy McCall was called on out of the Giants' bullpen, and after retiring Billy North on a fly out, he allowed back to back singles to Bert Campaneris and Sal Bando. Reggie Jackson then hit a grounder to Davey Williams which looked to be a sure double play chance, but his throw took Al Dark off the bag at second and the Giants were unable to register an out. With the bases now loaded, Joe Rudi hit a sacrifice fly to right to bring the A's within one. Al Corwin then came on to face the right handed Gene Tenace and struck him out on a called third strike leaving runners on second and third keeping the score at 3-2. Marv Grissom came on in the ninth for the Giants to preserve the win.
No comments:
Post a Comment