September 5, 1965: Jim Gilliam’s pinch-hit triple leads first-place Dodgers over Astros

“I would not rate myself a great ballplayer, but I think I do a lot of things well – things which beat the other team.”1 – Jim Gilliam

Just before the start of the 1964 season, The Sporting News featured a full-page story on Los Angeles Dodgers utilityman Jim “Junior” Gilliam. Under the headline “Gilliam: Unsung, Unhonored – and Unsurpassed,” managers and coaches, opponents, and teammates alike lauded Gilliam for what he brought to the game and how he played it.2 Dodgers manager Walter Alston observed, “He doesn’t make any mistakes. He gives you 100 percent, day in and day out. He never moans. He’s a good team man. If I had eight like him, I wouldn’t have to give a single sign.”3

Then in his 12th season with the Dodgers, first in Brooklyn, then in Los Angeles, the 35-year-old Gilliam was described several times in The Sporting News full-page as baseball’s forgotten man.4 Over 60 years later, the title of Stephen W. Dittmore’s insightful biography of Gilliam became simply Jim Gilliam: The Forgotten Dodger. 5 Not surprising. After all, when Gilliam was a rookie in 1953, he had one job as the Dodgers’ starting second baseman and leadoff hitter: Get on base “as advance man for the Snider-Robinson-Campanella-Hodges-Furillo wrecking crew.”6 He did his job well and won National League Rookie of the Year honors. His 100 walks as a NL rookie still stood as a modern era league rookie record through 2025.7

Gilliam finished 1964 with a career-low .228 batting average, hastening his new role in 1965 as a Dodger coach. But a funny thing happened to Gilliam on his way to the first-base coaching box.

In the offseason trade that sent Frank Howard to the Washington Senators, the Dodgers received Claude Osteen and 23-year-old infielder John Kennedy.8 The trade strengthened the Dodgers’ rotation in 1965, adding Osteen to the starting duo of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. Kennedy was the Opening Day third baseman, but through the first 40 games with Kennedy and Dick Tracewski at third, the duo were batting an anemic .209 on a weak-hitting Dodgers team (.248).9 The solution involved Gilliam’s return to the active roster in late May, and Alston seemed clear on his new role as player-coach. “I don’t intend to play Jim at third base very much, but there will be times when he will finish up the game there after pinch-hitting.”10

Alston’s notion changed quickly when Gilliam played 16 innings at third base in a Memorial Day doubleheader, three days after being activated. As Labor Day approached, the Dodgers were in a tight pennant race with the Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Braves, and San Francisco Giants, four teams separated by one game in the loss column at the close of play on September 4. Gilliam’s name had been penciled into the starting lineup everywhere – second base, left field, right field, and 55 times at third base.11 Only teammate Maury Wills (.291) topped Gilliam’s .283 batting average.

Alston intended to give Gilliam the day off this Sunday afternoon before Labor Day.12 After all, Gilliam had started in 10 straight games, including both ends of a mid-week doubleheader sweep by the Pirates in Pittsburgh.13 Funny how plans can change.

A standing room crowd (49,442) was the season’s second largest in the Astros’ new home. The Astrodome was ready for what the Houston Post characterized as a “dream game.” 14 Two future Hall of Fame pitchers were paired – the Astros’ Robin Roberts against Koufax (21-7, 2.20 ERA, 313 strikeouts) for the Dodgers. Roberts was released by the Baltimore Orioles in late July. The 38-year-old right-hander was rejuvenated after signing with the Astros, winning four games in his first five starts, including two four-hit shutouts, and posting a 1.52 ERA. Koufax was making his fifth start since securing his major-league-leading 21st win in a 1-0, 10-inning shutout of the Pirates at Dodger Stadium on August 14.15  

It was a pitching duel. When John Roseboro opened the Dodgers’ third with a bunt single, he was the first baserunner for either team. A double to right-center by 31-year-old rookie Don LeJohn – playing third in Gilliam’s place – scored Roseboro and Koufax had a 1-0 lead. Roberts retired the next 13 batters before Ron Fairly’s inconsequential double in the seventh.

Meanwhile, Koufax was working harder to keep the Astros off the scoreboard. With two on and two outs in the third, he struck out Joe Morgan to end the inning. Under the same circumstances in the fourth, he struck out Lee Maye.

The Astros finally broke through in the seventh against Koufax after 24 consecutive scoreless innings in the series. Ron Brand opened the seventh with a single to right and advanced to second on Maye’s sacrifice bunt. Bob Lillis singled to short center and Brand scored when Willie Davis juggled the ball. When Davis threw home, Lillis advanced to scoring position at second. In one way, Roberts helped his own cause when his single down the right-field line scored Lillis for a 2-1 Astros lead. In another way, he did not, thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double.

Roberts retired the Dodgers in order in the eighth inning, including Wally Moon, pinch-hitting for Koufax, whose quest for that 22nd win was over for the day. Koufax had not been at his sharpest, walking three and hitting one batter.16 But he had limited the Astros to four singles in seven innings. Howie Reed retired the Astros three-up-three-down in the eighth.

Wills opened the ninth with a single to left. When Wes Parker bunted, Roberts made a good stop, but an awkward throw to first hit Parker in the back and Wills advanced to third. Davis popped out to short, concluding a 0-for-4 day that ended his 17-game hitting streak.17 Fairly popped out to Morgan at second base for the second out. Worried that the speedy Wills might try and score from third, Morgan threw home wildly and Parker advanced to second.

Alston called on Gilliam to hit for Lou Johnson. Surely Alston was aware of the success that Gilliam, a .266 hitter, had when facing Roberts over the course of his career – a .311 batting average with 20 extra base hits, including seven triples.18

With first base open, Astros manager Lum Harris contemplated walking the clutch-hitting Gilliam for Roberts to face rookie Jim Lefebvre (.241 BA) with the bases loaded. He chose to pitch to Gilliam, remembering Lefebvre’s two hits, including a ninth-inning triple, in the Astros’ 3-0 loss to the Dodgers on Friday night.19

Roberts’ first pitch was a good one, an inside fastball, but Gilliam hit it off the right-field scoreboard above the outstretched glove of Rusty Staub for a standup triple, easily scoring Wills and Parker.20 When Lefebvre singled to center, Gilliam trotted home for a 4-2 Dodgers lead and Roberts’ afternoon was over, except for a standing ovation from a crowd appreciative of his pitching performances as an Astro. Reliever Jim Owens retired Roseboro on a line drive to center for the third out.

Reed’s uneventful ninth inning, retiring the side in order again, enabled him to secure his sixth win of the season. In four days’ time, Koufax finally won his 22nd game when he pitched a 1-0 perfect game against the Cubs, becoming the first pitcher in major league history to pitch four no-hitters.21

The Dodgers remained in a tight pennant race throughout September, principally against the Giants, but a 13-game winning streak and Koufax’s pennant-clincher one day before the season ended were well-timed and sent the Dodgers to the World Series to face the Minnesota Twins.22

As for Gilliam, his season’s contribution was a .280 batting average, second only to Wills (.286), in 111 of the 121 games the Dodgers played after Gilliam was activated. Gilliam started 99 times in the field, playing second, third, left and right, in addition to occasional pinch-hitting duties.

Drysdale once said about Gilliam, “Jim’s a pro. He knows the game inside and out and how to handle any situation that comes up.”23 On this day, it happened to be an inside fastball.

Author’s note

No recounting of Gilliam’s 1965 season is complete without a look at one play in the most dramatic of circumstances, Game Seven of the World Series. Gilliam started all seven games at third base. The fielding gem, called the game’s “turning point” by Twins manager Sam Mele, was captured on a video of World  Series highlights and a sequence of five still photographs in The New York Times.24

In the bottom of the fifth inning at Metropolitan Stadium and Koufax, leading 2-0, was in a jam with one out. Rich Rollins was on first, Frank Quilici was on second, and Zoilo Versalles was at bat. Versalles hit a hot grounder which Gilliam backhanded on the third-base line, spinning around, and instinctively raced to the bag to force Quilici for the second out. Joe Nossek grounded out and the threat was over.

The play by Gilliam saved one, perhaps two runs, and the possibility of a different outcome to the World Series. Koufax allowed only one more hit in the game and was named the World Series MVP. Gilliam, the forgotten Dodger, had now played in four winning World Series, more than any other Dodger in franchise history.25

Acknowledgments

This essay was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Keith Thursby. A special thank you to author Stephen W. Dittmore. His local SABR chapter talk rekindled childhood memories of Junior as a Brooklyn Dodger and his Gilliam biography provided a treasure of resources to inspire this essay.

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information (baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU196509050.shtml) and other data, as well as Retrosheet.org (retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1965/B09050HOU1965.htm). Jim Gilliam’s 1964 Topps card (#310) is provided from the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Bob Hunter, “Gilliam: Unsung, Unhonored, and Unsurpased; Dodger Mates Salute Jim as Ideal Player,” The Sporting News, April 4, 1964: 3.

2 Hunter.

3 Hunter.

4 Gilliam played for the Negro National League’s Baltimore Elite Giants from 1946-48 and was sold by the Elite Giants to the Dodgers before the 1951 season along with Joe Black for $11,000. In two seasons (1951-1952) with the AAA Montreal Royals, Gilliam batted .294 and walked 217 times.

5 Stephen W. Dittmore, Jim Gilliam: The Forgotten Dodger (Minneapolis: August Publications, 2025).

6 Jack Mann, “Gilliam Brings Three Gloves and Waits Around,” SPORT, January 1963, 34.

7 “Bases on Balls Records,” Baseball Almanac, baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_wk1.shtml. Accessed February 2026.

8 On December 4, 1964, the Dodgers traded Howard, Ken McMullen, Phil Ortega, Pete Richert, and a player to be named later (Dick Nen) to the Washington Senators for Osteen, Kennedy and $100,000.

9 In the 1965 season, Koufax (26-8, 2.04 ERA), Drysdale (23-12, 2.77 ERA), and Osteen (15-15, 2.79 ERA) combined for 123 starting assignments, accounting for 64 of the Dodgers’ 97 wins. The Dodgers batted .245 for the season, exceeded by seven other NL teams. Their 78 home runs were the fewest in the league and they finished in the lower half of the 10-team league in hits, runs batted in, and runs scored.

10 “Gilliam Back on Active List for Dodgers,” Los Angeles Times, May 29, 1965: II-1.

11 Through September 4, 1965, Gilliam had played in 87 games with 78 starting assignments at third base (55), second base (3), left field (19), and right field (1).

12 Bob Hunter, “Fans Have Doubts – But Dodgers? They Refuse to Get Jitters,” The Sporting News, September 25, 1965: 4.

13 John Fredland, “September 1, 1965: Pirates edge Dodgers, Koufax on Pagliaroni’s 11th-inning double,” SABR Baseball Games Project. Accessed February 2026.

14 Mickey Herskowitz, “Gilliam Shoots Down Robin With 9th-Inning Triple, 4-2,” Houston Post, September 6, 1965: 3-1.

15 Gregory H. Wolf, “August 14, 1965: Koufax spins shutout, Clemente commits costly error as Los Angeles riots,” SABR Baseball Games Project. Accessed February 2026.

16 Herskowitz.

17 Frank Finch, “Gilliam’s Triple Topples Astros, 4-2; Dodgers Still Lead by One,” Los Angeles Times, September 6, 1965: 3-1.

18 On April 23, 1953, rookie Gilliam went two-for-four with two singles facing Roberts for the first time. The Dodgers lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1, at Connie Mack Stadium.

19 Herskowitz.

20 Herskowitz.

21 Mike Huber, “September 9, 1965: ‘A million butterflies’ and one perfect game for Sandy Koufax,” SABR Baseball Games Project. Accessed February 2026.

22 Jake Bell, “October 2, 1965: On two days’ rest, Sandy Koufax sends Dodgers to World Series,” SABR Baseball Games Project. Accessed February 2026.

23 Hunter.

24 “1965 World Series Game Seven: Dodgers at Twins,” YouTube.com, youtube.com/watch?v=JA-xiAd0tM0 (accessed February 2026). “Mele Calls Gilliam’s Play in 5th Turning Point,” The New York Times, October 15, 1965: 55. Additional reference: Norm King, “October 14, 1965: Koufax has nothing to atone for in Game 7 masterpiece,” SABR Baseball Games Project. Accessed February 2026.

25 The Brooklyn Dodgers won the 1955 World Series, and the Los Angeles Dodgers won titles in 1959, 1963, and 1965. Koufax was on the Brooklyn roster in 1955 but did not play in the World Series.