4/29/68 - Dodger Stadium
Torrez vs Sutton
Cardinals 1, Dodgers 0
Classic pitcher's duel between Don Sutton and Mike Torrez that was scoreless until the top of the 9th when Sutton began to tire and the Dodger manager (yours truly) put his faith in his pitcher to get just 1 more out. Over the course of baseball history managers have been burned with that type of thought process, and today was no different. After newly inserted third baseman Bob Bailey booted a ball to put runners on 1st and 2nd, banjo hitting Dal Maxvill hit a flare to right to score Mike Shannon for the only run of the game. LA blew a golden opportunity to score first in the 7th thanks to another questionable strategy by LA's manager. After Torrez booted a Versalles bunt attempt and compounded his folly by throwing the ball into center, LA had a runner on 2nd with no out. The Dodgers went to their bench and brought in pitcher Claude Osteen, and excellent bunter, to sacrifice the runner up 90 feet. Instead Osteen bunted it right in front of the plate. Tim McCarver pounced on it and threw to Maxvill, who was covering third on the rotation play. Bailey came in the following inning to replace Alcaraz and the rest is history.
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