Dodgers Tied for First Place after Victory over Pittsburgh

Apr. 14, 1965 - Claude Osteen, the slender southpaw from Caney Springs, Tenn., made a dazzling debut as a Dodger tonight when he gave a two-hit, eight-strikeout performance that boosted Los Angeles into a first-place tie with the Cubs in the National League.

With Ron Fairly slamming a two-run homer and captain Maury Wills stealing three bases, the Dodgers halted Pittsburgh’s two-game win streak with a 3-1 triumph before 7,770 frigid fans at Forbes Field.

The game threatened to erupt into a mob rumble in the fifth as all troops from both dugouts swarmed onto the field after Buc shortstop Ducky Schofield challenged his Dodger counterpart, Wills.

Wills, who already had stolen two bases, was picked off first base by loser Joe Gibbon, and the rundown ended when Maury crashed hard into second baseman Gene Alley, who made the tag before being bowled backward a few feet.

The scrappy Schofield charged Wills, but the king-sized ump, Tom Gorman, got in between them before they could square off.

Almost immediately, they were engulfed by a milling throng of players, and order was restored. 

“It was the greatest game I ever pitched,” said Osteen between backslaps by his colleagues.

Osteen, called “Gomer Pyle” by his buddies because of his Dixie dialect and striking facial resemblance to the T.V. comic character, is going to delight Dodger devotees.

The former Senator, obtained by L.A. in the Frank Howard deal, came mighty close to hurling a no-hitter.

Until Bob Bailey belted his second homer of the season with two away in the last of the ninth, Osteen had allowed only one hit — and it came on a dropped fly ball.

With Willie Davis sidelined with a twisted knee, newcomer Dick Smith was stationed in center field.

Jim Pagliaroni laced into a pitch in the fifth and sent it to deep left-center. Smith made a stab at the ball, but it glanced off his glove for a double.

“I should’ve caught the ball,” said Smith.

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