Apr. 28, 1963 - The rampaging Redbirds broke out with a 15-hit barrage, including 6 extra-base knocks, to dump the Dodgers again today, 9-5, and sweep their 3-game series at Dodger Stadium. The biggest paid crowd at the Stadium this year, 36,245, saw Ken Boyer (pictured) belt a pair of home runs as part of a general battering of manager Walter Alston’s pitching staff. Curt Flood tripled, and Julian Javier, Dick Groat, and Charley James each doubled for the St. Louis powerhouse. At long last, Moose Skowron broke out of his slump by hitting his first home run as a Dodger. Moose also had two singles, but he struck out his last two trips, once with the bases loaded. This was St. Louis’s seventh straight victory at Dodger Stadium as Los Angeles played giveaway again. Pitcher Ken Rowe muffed a throw to first base in the second, opening the gates for a 5-run spree that lengthened the Cards’ lead to 7-1. Only one of the runs in the inning was earned. Some 18 hours earlier, errors had cost the Dodgers 3 cheap runs as St. Louis won a 3-0 game. Ernie Broglio was the winning pitcher today but fled in the seventh after allowing nine hits. His successors, Diomedes Olivo and Ron Taylor, had L.A. practically helpless. Johnny Podres was ineffective, lasting for only three outs while allowing three runs on five hits. “At the start of the season the pitching was great,” said Dodger skipper Alston after the game, “but we weren’t getting any runs. Then the hitters came to life, but the pitching went sour. We can’t seem to be able to put the two together. But I think we’ll bounce out of it as soon as the boys get all healed up — when Tommy Davis gets back in and Koufax can pitch again. And if Wills can get going.” Alston said the Cardinals were much improved. “They’re better than last year with Groat and George Altman. I don’t know how deep their pitching is, and I don’t think they’re going to hit the ball like it had eyes the way they did last night and today. But there wasn’t anything flukey about those home runs.”
Comments