August 1, 1958: Robin Roberts wins 200th career game

Phillies pitcher Robin Roberts took the mound of Connie Mack Stadium on August 1, 1958, with 199 career victories under his belt. The weather that night was hot, as were the team and its star hurler. The Phillies had just swept the Cardinals in three straight as they began the series against the Chicago Cubs. Roberts had won three of his last four starts; the sole loss was a 1-0 gem against the Giants and one of the wins was a complete-game victory over the great Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers.

Just a year before, Roberts was not sure he’d reach the 200-victory milestone or even play much longer. Pitching for a last-place team with a sore back and arm trouble in 1957, the only thing he led the league in was losses with 22. His earned run average in ’57 was over 4.00 for the second straight year after a six-year stretch in which his ERA totaled 2.53 and he won 20 or more games each season. Hand-wringing headlines appeared like “Has Roberts Lost His Fastball?”1 He even took a pay cut for the 1958 season.2 But at age 31 the seven-time All-Star wasn’t done.

In the offseason Roberts worked with team trainer Frank “Doc” Wiechec to strengthen his arm and refine his pitching motion.3 The hard-throwing right-hander wasn’t duplicating the dominance that made him the finest pitcher in the league for the first half of the decade,4 but he was having a very good year by any measure. Without much run support, he had a winning record and an ERA of 2.98 through the end of July. Some velocity on the fastball was gone, but Roberts’ control remained excellent. At this late point in the season he had given up just 35 walks in 178 innings for a stellar walks-per-9-innings rate of 1.77.

As the sun lowered in Philadelphia, Roberts took his warm-up tosses. His arm felt good, bolstered by an extra day of rest.5 Both the fastball and curveball were working, popping smoothly off his right hand. The last time Roberts faced the Cubs he lasted only 2⅓ innings, giving up nine hits and four earned runs, including a homer by longtime nemesis Ernie Banks.6 Banks was in the midst of one of the greatest offensive seasons by a shortstop in major-league history and was known for hitting Roberts particularly well.7 Neutralizing the cleanup hitter known as “Mr. Cub” would be a key to securing the milestone victory.

Roberts was no doubt thankful not to have to face Banks with men on in the first inning as he set down the first three Cubs hitters in order. Tony Taylor grounded out, Al Dark struck out, and Lou Jackson grounded to first. The Phillies got a run in their half of the first when Solly Hemus walked, Harry Anderson doubled to right, and Willie “Puddin’ Head” Jones brought home Hemus with a sacrifice fly to center.

With a record of 46-50, the Phillies were out of the National League pennant race, but the game had some relevance to the standings. They were in sixth place and hoping to leapfrog the Cubs, who stood one rung ahead of them in the National League.8

In the top of the second inning, Banks was the leadoff hitter looking to get the offense started. Roberts struck him out. Cubs left fielder Walt Moryn followed with a double to left for a run-scoring opportunity. Roberts rebounded by getting slugger Dale Long on strikes. With two outs, rookie Sammy Taylor hit a grounder to third. Rather than trying to make the throw to nab the speedy catcher at first, Jones charged at the less than fleet-of-foot Moose Moryn. Moryn scrambled back toward second. Jones flipped the ball to Hemus, who applied the tag for the unusual putout. The side was retired.

Roberts cruised through the next two innings and didn’t give up another hit until the fifth, when he left a pitch “a little higher” than intended.9 Long took it deep for a solo home run, tying the score, 1-1. The Cubs’ lanky right-hander Dave Hillman was pitching a very good game as well. After the first inning he gave up only a double in the fourth to Dave Philley and a single in the fifth to All-Star center fielder Richie Ashburn, who was locked in a battle with Willie Mays for the National League lead in batting average.10 Ashburn was stranded, however, and the score remained 1-1 heading to the bottom of the sixth.

It was the Phillies’ troubled first baseman Ed Bouchee who got the big hit, driving in Harry Anderson with a two-out single in the sixth on the first pitch of the at-bat.11 Bouchee then scored on a triple to left by shortstop Chico Hernandez, giving the Phils a 3-1 lead. It was up to Roberts to make it stick.

To start the seventh, Roberts avoided danger by getting Banks to pop out to third, making the Cubs slugger 0-for-3. Moryn then struck out and Long grounded to second, ending another quiet inning. The Phillies didn’t score in the bottom of the frame, and the score remained in their favor at 3-1.

In the Cubs’ half of the eighth, Taylor flied to Ashburn for the first out. Bobby Thomson and pinch-hitter Chuck Tanner both grounded to Hemus at second for the second and third outs and another quick one-two-three inning for Roberts, who was only getting stronger as the game went on.

Cubs reliever Glen Hobbie walked two in the bottom of the eighth but pitched around the trouble and kept the Phils off the board. The inning was a costly one for the Cubs, however, as catcher Sammy Taylor was injured on a foul tip. The ring finger on his right hand had the nail torn back and he was taken to a hospital for X-rays.12

Roberts would have to face the top of the Cubs order in the ninth. With a two-run lead, cleanup hitter Banks loomed large. If anyone reached, he would be coming up with men on base and the chance to tie or go ahead. To start the inning, Cubs manager Bob Scheffing pulled the slumping Tony Taylor for pinch-hitter Jim Bolger. Bolger couldn’t figure Roberts out any better than his teammates on the starting nine. He flied out to Philley in right for the first out. Veteran third baseman and former All-Star Dark was the next hitter. After his first-inning strikeout he hit the ball well twice – a deep flyout in the fourth and a single in the sixth. He hit the ball hard again this time, but right at shortstop Hernandez. Two down. Just one batter remained.

Coming to the plate was 22-year-old rookie Lou Jackson, a big leaguer for all of a week. He was 0-for-3 in the game and it’s doubtful he saw pitching anything like the great Roberts while tearing it up for the Class C Magic Valley Cowboys in ’57.13 With the game on the line, he put a good at-bat together and hit the ball hard, but right at shortstop Hernandez. Chico fielded it without trouble and fired to first to get the out. That was it. Banks remained an onlooker in the on-deck circle with his bat on his shoulder as the scoreboard flashed the final score. Phillies win 3-1; Robin Roberts gets his 200th win.

“I had a fastball and a hook and it was enough,” Roberts said after the game. “I never felt faster.”14 His control was near perfect. He allowed three hits and no walks, going to a three-ball count only once. He recorded six strikeouts. He now had 200 wins in his career, joining Milwaukee’s Warren Spahn and the White Sox’ Early Wynn as the only active pitchers in the exclusive club. “One extra day’s rest helped me a lot,” he said.

He gave credit to his catcher as well. Carl Sawatski was the backstop for the night, filling in for regular Stan Lopata, who was away from the club due to the birth of his daughter.15 Roberts praised Sawatski, saying, “One thing that helped me was the way Carl Sawatski handled me. He’s done a great job.” Roberts liked to share the credit, but it was he who was the master all night, pitching “in a manner reminiscent of his greatest years.”16

During the postgame celebrations, flashbulbs popped as Roberts caroused in the clubhouse. Still damp with sweat from the evening’s exertion, Roberts posed with a wicker basket of bright baseballs on his lap, demonstrating the grip on his deadly four-seam fastball to photographer Bill Ingraham’s lens. Other images that ran in newspapers across the country showed Roberts grinning with his manager, Eddie Sawyer, laughing and enjoying a well-deserved beer with teammates, and posing under a large banner with broad black numbers simply declaring the number of the day: 200.

SOURCES

I made use of the play-by-play and box-score details accessed through the Baseball-Reference.com website. I consulted various player, team, and season pages at Baseball-Reference.com in addition to those specifically referenced in the Notes.

NOTES

1 Edgar Williams, “Has Roberts Lost His Fastball?” Baseball Digest, January-February 1957: 9-10.

2 “Phils Cut Roberts’ Salary,” New York Times, January 22. 1958: 31.

3 Allen Lewis, “Roberts 3-Hits Cubs, 3-1, for 200th Win,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 2, 1958: 14-16.

4 “Robin Roberts.” National Baseball Hall of Fame, baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/roberts-robin.

5 Allen Lewis, “Roberts 3-Hits Cubs, 3-1, for 200th Win,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 2, 1958: 14-16.

6 Roberts faced the Cubs on June 4.

7 Banks would go on to become the MVP that year, leading the league in home runs and slugging average. In 1957 his 100th career homer came against Roberts and he would hit more (15) off Roberts than off any other pitcher in his career.

8 The Phillies would go 23-35 the rest of the way and finish in last place.

9 Lewis.

10 Ashburn would go on to edge Mays in the last day of the season, finishing with a .350 average for the batting crown.

11 Bouchee, a Rookie of the Year candidate in 1957, had spent much of the 1958 campaign in a psychiatric ward after an offseason arrest for indecent exposure. See J. Price, “Bouchee Dies at 79,” Spokane Spokesman-Review, January, 25 2013. Retrieved from spokesman.com/stories/2013/jan/25/bouchee-dies-at-79/.

12 Taylor would miss two weeks of the season. Richard Dozer, “Cub Casualty: Phils, Roberts Best Cubs, 3-1 Veteran Wins 200th,” Chicago Tribune, August 2, 1958: A1.

13 “Lou Jackson Player Page,” Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved from: baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=jackso001lou.

14 Joe Reichler (Associated Press), “Robin Roberts Notches 200th Win,” Hagerstown (Maryland) Daily Mail, August 2, 1958: 14.

15 “Phillie Fodder,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 2, 1958: 16.

16 “Roberts Pitches 200th Victory, 3-1,” New York Times, August 2, 1958: 12.