July 21, 1963 - The Milwaukee Braves blasted 8 Los Angeles pitchers for 26 hits today and won a doubleheader from the Dodgers in Milwaukee, 7-2 and 13-7. The double loss trimmed the Dodger National League lead over St. Louis to six games. Tony Cloninger, the fourth Milwaukee pitcher, got credit for the second-game victory. He worked the last five innings and gave four hits, one run, and struck out seven. Bob Miller was the loser. Bob Sadowski, with relief help from Bob Shaw, gained his first major league victory in the opener before 28,534 — the largest crowd of the season at County Stadium. In the fourth inning of the second game, the Braves scored seven runs. Gene Oliver’s 11th homer scored two, Hank Aaron (pictured right with his brother Tommie) doubled in one, and the others scored on a sacrifice fly, an error, and two singles. Even so, the Dodgers flew home with a 10-4 record for the road trip, during which time they had built their lead from 3 games to 6. They remain heavy favorites to snatch the pennant from the San Francisco Giants in 1963. Jack McDonald, veteran sportswriter from San Francisco, said today: “There are a lot of reasons why the Giants have slipped. First of all, they are about 40 behind last year’s mark at this time in turning double plays. The defense has collapsed. Juan Marichal is the only pitcher who really has come through. Of course, it was too much to have expected pitchers like Billy Pierce, Jack Sanford, etc. to have duplicted their feats of a year ago. Then, there’s the obvious thing about our hitting collapsing, except McCovey.” Giant manager Alvin Dark was even more blunt: “Cepeda should hit .330 all the time, and Felipe Alou never should hit under .300. But they are, and we’re playing terrible ball — just terrible.”
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