September 26, 1964: Number six is lost in the ninth

Warren Spahn saved almost as many games (4) as he won (6) in 1964, which was a mark on how far he fell that year. Not that it should have been a huge surprise — he turned 43 nine days after Opening Day in 1964, when he started and lost to the Giants. Willie Mays homered twice off Spahn on April 14 — Mays hit 18 of his 660 off Spahn — but in 1964 everyone else hit like Mays off Spahn, too. With the exception of 1960 when Spahn had a 3.50 ERA, his ERA had been 3.26 or lower in every season since 1948. Spahn’s ERA that year was 3.71, but the Braves, then the Boston Braves, won the pennant. Nineteen-sixty-four was the year he stopped getting hitters out. He was 6-11 and his ERA was 5.01 when he started the opener of a doubleheader on July 26 at Shea Stadium against the Mets. Jim Hickman homered in a three-run first, opposing pitcher Al Jackson homered in the second, and when Joe Christopher’s single, with the help of an error by first baseman Gene Oliver, scored Rod Kanehl, the Mets led 5-2 and manager Bobby Bragan relieved Spahn, whose ERA was now 5.21. The Braves came back to win, 11-7, (the Braves had MLB’s best offense and the Mets had the National League’s worst pitching, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise). And when the Braves rallied with a four-run eighth to take an 11-10 lead in the nightcap, Bragan gave Spahn another chance. The Hall of Famer pitched two shutout innings, the Braves scored four more in the ninth and Spahn had his first save of 1964. His second came two months to the day later at Connie Mack Stadium. Spahn’s season hadn’t improved. He had pitched in 11 games since the July 26 doubleheader, starting three times (once successfully) and relieving eight more. His ERA had risen to 5.43. Having already used seven pitchers on this day in 1964, Bragan called on Spahn to protect a 6-4 lead the Braves had gained with a three-run ninth. Spahn retired the shocked Phillies in order — Danny Cater and Johnny Callison flew out and Dick Allen popped out — for his second save. He earned two more in the final week of the season against the Pirates — entering with leads of 11-3 and 6-0 (if you think the save qualifications are lenient now, you should have been around to kvetch in 1964). After the season Spahn was sold to the Mets, which led to his Hall of Fame line about his old (1942 Boston Braves) and new (1965 Mets) manager Casey Stengel: “I’m probably the only guy who worked for Stengel before and after he was a genius.” Spahn didn’t make Stengel any smarter in 1965. He was 4-12 with a 4.36 ERA before the Mets released him in July. The Giants signed him, and he pitched decently for them in the midst of a pennant race (3-4 with a 3.39 ERA in 16 appearances, 11 starts). But San Francisco lost the pennant by two games to the Dodgers and released Spahn after the season. Twenty-three years after he made his major league debut, now age 44, Spahn finally retired.

Braves 6, Phillies 4

Losing streak: Six games. This is the one where it should have ended.

How they stand: Phillies, 90-66, a half game over Cincinnati, 89-66; one-and-a-half games over St. Louis, 88-67; three games over San Francisco, 86-68.

What went right: The Phillies scored three runs in the first inning; since the losing streak began they hadn’t scored in the first. They led 4-0 after two and held it against the best offensive team in MLB into the fifth. Art Mahaffey pitched well for a second straight start — he pitched out of a bases-loaded one-out jam in the sixth and into the eighth inning. He left with a 4-2 lead. Rookie Alex Johnson homered in the first inning, his third of the year, his second of the week. Johnson looked like a future batting champion, just not for the Phillies. They knocked out Braves starter Denny LeMaster in the second inning; LeMaster got four outs and gave up six hits. Bobby Shantz pitched out of trouble in the eighth inning and preserved a 4-3 lead for the Phillies on his 39th birthday. And the appeal play worked, saving a run. After Danny Cater caught a Mike de la Hoz liner in the ninth, the Phillies appealed and Rico Carty was ruled to have left third too soon, apparently thinking the ball was trapped. Unfortunately, by then the Braves led, 6-4.

What went wrong: The Phillies never scored again after the second inning. Seven Braves pitchers shut them out after Johnny Callison’s sacrifice fly off Bob Sadowski scored the fourth run. And of the 10 games of the losing streak, this one might have been most affected by what manager Gene Mauch did or didn’t do. Forget about Jim Bunning and Chris Short on two days rest. Game 6 of the losing streak is probably the one Mauch wished he could have a mulligan on. In the eighth inning, the Phillies led 4-2 but Joe Torre and Rico Carty led off with singles and Mauch relieved Mahaffey and brought in Jack Baldschun, his closer. Denis Menke bunted into a forceout and de la Hoz’s infield single loaded the bases. Baldschun was pitching for the fourth straight day — he pitched seven days in a row before getting one off — and Mauch pulled him with the bases loaded, one out, and lefty Ed Bailey up. On came Shantz, and after a passed ball to make it 4-3, he fanned Bailey, walked righty Felipe Alou intentionally and popped up lefty Lee Maye. The Phillies led, 4-3, after the top of the eighth. Score one for Mauch. But in the bottom of the eighth, Tony Gonzalez singled. Mauch had Tony Taylor bunt, and Taylor popped it up. The Braves brought in lefty Wade Blasingame, who started and won the first game of the series two days previously. He walked Wes Covington and Ruben Amaro flew out. With two on and two outs and clinging to a 4-3 lead, Mauch led Shantz bat, though Ed Roebuck, his second-best reliever, hadn’t pitched. (Shantz was a career .195 hitter, including a 7-for-16, .438 season for the Pirates in 1961, so Mauch wasn’t all wrong.) Shantz flew out, and the Phillies took a 4-3 lead to the ninth against the best offensive team in baseball. Mauch could have batted Cater, a rookie who hit .333 against lefties that year (Cater would later gain fame for being traded by the Red Sox to the Yankees for lefty reliever Sparky Lyle, a deal that did as much to cost the 1977 Red Sox the division title as the 10-game losing streak did the ‘64 Phillies.) But Mauch made the fateful decision to let Shantz bat, perhaps because Roebuck had thrown the home run to the Reds’ Vada Pinson that had lost Game 3 of the losing streak, Maybe that tested the faith of Mauch, who was mostly agnostic when it came to pitchers. Like starter Ray Culp, little used during the steak, perhaps Roebuck was out of favor, Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews singled against Shantz to start the ninth, and when Frank Bolling grounded to Amaro, Taylor dropped the throw for what would have been a force out. Game 6 of the losing streak wasn’t Tony’s best. Instead of first and third and one out, the Braves had the bases loaded with none out. With the righty Roebuck (2.21 ERA, 12 saves) still warming, the righty Carty, who slugged .615 against lefties as a rookie, unloaded them with a triple that, according to former Phillies public relations director Larry Shenk in an article for philliesinsider.mlbblogs.com, hit the right-field foul line.  “Another inch and it’s a foul ball and the Phillies win,” wrote Shenk. He’s assuming facts not in evidence re a Phillies victory, but when Carty’s ball landed fair, there wasn’t going to be one. The Braves led, 6-4. Only then did Mauch relieve Shantz with Roebuck. Score one against Mauch, and a sixth in a row against the ‘64 Phillies.

Did you know? Bobby Shantz was the 1952 AL MVP for the Philadelphia Athletics, a fourth-place, 79-win team for whom he won 24 games and had a 2.48 ERA. He was just 5-feet, six-inches tall, but pitched for 16 seasons, winning 119 games. The Phillies acquired him from the Cubs in mid-August 1964 for cash, and Shantz pitched well, throwing 32 innings, allowing 23 hits and six walks and fanning 18 with a 2.25 ERA. The loss to the Braves would have been his first save had he been able to complete it. Shantz turned 95 on September 26, 2020, and is the 12th-oldest living former major leaguer, according to baseball-almanac.com. After giving up Carty’s go-ahead triple, Mauch used him just once in the season’s final six games.