August 16, 1960: Juan Marichal gets best of Bob Gibson in first matchup of future Hall of Famers

It’s unlikely that any of the 16,936 fans attending a mid-August night game in 1960 between the visiting San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals would have guessed they were witnessing the two winningest pitchers of the new decade, facing each other for the first time in their careers.1

Juan Marichal, San Francisco’s 22-year-old rookie right-hander, had pitched well during spring training in 1960. Assigned to the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma so he could get regular work, he was called up after the All-Star break.2 In his major-league debut on July 19, he pitched a one-hit shutout against the Philadelphia Phillies, striking out 12 batters.

Because of a sore left hip, Marichal’s August 16 start against the Cardinals was his first appearance since August 6, a no-decision against the Pittsburgh Pirates.3 He carried a 3-0 record (2.21 ERA) heading into this Tuesday night matchup with the Cardinals’ 24-year-old right-hander, Bob Gibson.

Gibson was in his second year with St. Louis. He made the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster in 1959, but after three April relief appearances was sent down to their Omaha Triple-A affiliate. Recalled in July, he shut out the Cincinnati Reds in his first major-league start and finished with a 3-5 record (3.33 ERA).

In 1960 Gibson split the first part of the season between St. Louis and their Rochester Triple-A affiliate before returning to the Cardinals for good on June 17.4 In his most recent start, on August 12, he had pitched a complete game against the Pirates. The win evened Gibson’s record at 3-3 (4.97 ERA).

The third-place finisher in a tight race with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Braves in 1959, San Francisco was the preseason favorite to win the 1960 National League pennant in a poll of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.5 They were two games behind first-place Pittsburgh when they hosted the Pirates for a three-game series in mid-June. After losing all three games, San Francisco replaced manager Bill Rigney with Tom Sheehan, the club’s chief scout, making his big-league managing debut at age 66.6

By the time of their three-game series in St. Louis in August, the Giants were in fifth. After beating the Cardinals, 5-3, in the series opener on August 15, San Francisco (53-55) was 13½ games behind Pittsburgh.

St. Louis, which had had only one winning season since 1953, was projected to be a second-division club in the baseball writers’ preseason poll; still, the Cardinals were exceeding expectations.7 Beginning with a four-game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies at the end of July, they won 14 of 16 games, including victories over the Pirates in Pittsburgh on August 11 and 12. In second place and only three games behind the Pirates, St. Louis lost the final three games of the five-game series in Pittsburgh. Monday night’s loss to the Giants dropped the Cardinals’ record to 63-50, still good for second place, but trailing Pittsburgh by six games.

Gibson opened the first inning by walking the first three Giants. With the bases loaded and no outs, he settled down to strike out Willie Kirkland. Orlando Cepeda’s sharp grounder to short looked like an inning-ending double-play ball, but Daryl Spencer’s throw to second was high for an error, letting in a run.8

After Gibson fanned Felipe Alou for his second bases-loaded strikeout of the inning, Hobie Landrith lined a two-strike pitch to the gap in left-center for a double, clearing the bases.9 Landrith advanced to third on a wild pitch, but André Rodgers grounded out. The ledger for the Giants in the top of the first was four runs (three unearned) on one hit, three walks, and an error.

St. Louis got a run back in the bottom of the first. With one out and none on, Spencer, traded from the Giants to the Cardinals in December 1959, hit Marichal’s high, inside changeup into the left-field bleachers for a home run.10

The Giants threatened to expand their lead when Don Blasingame, who had gone to San Francisco in the Spencer deal, singled with two outs in the top of the second inning, stole second, and took third on catcher Hal Smith’s errant throw. Gibson walked Willie Mays, but Kirkland grounded into a force out for the third out.

Gibson was less fortunate in his next two-out jam. He retired the first two batters in the top of the third before Landrith singled on a slow roller that third baseman Ken Boyer charged near the mound.11 Rodgers singled to center, putting runners at first and second. Marichal drove in the first run of his big-league career with a single to right, increasing the Giants’ advantage to 5-1.

Rodgers went to third on the hit. He was stranded there when Marichal was caught stealing on what appeared to be a missed sign for a double-steal attempt.12

With a runner at first and one out in the top of the fourth, Spencer mishandled a grounder by Mays, his second error of the game. Gibson, pitching with multiple runners on base for the fourth straight inning, struck out Kirkland and retired Cepeda on a fly ball to right.

Marichal had allowed only a walk in the second inning and retired the side in order in the third, but ran into trouble in the fourth. After a leadoff walk to Bill White – who had debuted with the Giants in 1956, then emerged as an All-Star after a March 1959 trade to St. Louis – Boyer’s drive to right-center bounced over Mays’ head.13 The triple scored White. Boyer scored one out later on a sacrifice fly, reducing the Giants’ lead to 5-3.

Landrith doubled with one out in the top half of the fifth, but Gibson retired the next two batters to leave him stranded on second. Marichal set the Cardinals down in order in the bottom of the inning.

A similar pattern played out in the sixth. After Blasingame’s one-out infield single, Gibson retired Mays and Kirkland on consecutive fly balls to center. Marichal kept the Cardinals off the basepaths in their half of the inning.

The Giants added two insurance runs in the seventh. Cepeda led off with a double down the right-field line but was thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple.

Alou then singled, and Landrith lined his third double of the game, off the right-field screen.14 With runners at second and third, Gibson intentionally walked Rodgers and was relieved by Ed Bauta.

The Cuban rookie’s first pitch to Marichal was wild, scoring Alou. Bauta got the second out of the inning when Marichal’s two-strike bunt attempt went foul. Bauta hit Joey Amalfitano, again loading the bases. Landrith scored when Spencer booted Blasingame’s grounder, the shortstop’s third error of the game.15 Bauta struck out Mays, but the Giants again were ahead by four runs, 7-3.

Stan Musial reached first base on Cepeda’s error leading off the bottom of the seventh. He took second on Marichal’s one-out wild pitch, but a groundout and an infield fly left him stranded there.

The Cardinals managed two-out singles in each of the eighth and ninth innings, but Marichal retired the next batter each time, ending the game by striking out pinch-hitter George Crowe for the 7-3 victory.

Marichal’s four-hitter was his fourth complete-game win. “Juan has a good idea of where and how to pitch,” said Landrith. “He doesn’t depend on any one pitch on any one batter. His success has been a result of a combination of many things.”16

“Hobie has helped me a lot, especially on gripping the ball so batters can’t see if it’s going to be a fast ball or a curve,” said Marichal of his catcher, whose 4-for-5 performance, including three doubles, paced San Francisco’s 11-hit attack.17

“I just couldn’t get anything over at first,” Gibson said about walking the first three hitters he faced at the start of the game.18 He gave up seven runs in 6⅓ innings, but only three were earned as the Cardinals committed four errors.

Marichal posted a 6-2 record (2.66 ERA) in 11 starts during his rookie season. San Francisco finished the year in fifth place with a 79-75 record, 16 games behind the pennant-winning Pirates. After the season ended, Alvin Dark was named San Francisco’s manager for 1961.

Gibson finished 1960 at 3-6 (5.61 ERA), with 12 starts in 27 appearances. St. Louis (86-68) ended the year in third place, 9 games behind Pittsburgh. The Cardinals, after a poor start to the 1961 season, replaced their manager of 2½ years, Solly Hemus, with Johnny Keane.

In 1961 both Gibson (13-12, 3.24 ERA) and Marichal (13-10, 3.89 ERA) were regular members of their teams’ starting rotations for the whole season. Each was named an All-Star for the first time in 1962. By 1963, Gibson (18-9, 3.39 ERA) and Marichal (25-8, 2.41 ERA) were considered the aces of their respective club’s pitching staffs. They faced each other seven times during their careers, with Gibson posting a 4-2 career record in the head-to-head matchups. Gibson was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1981. Marichal followed in 1983.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Alan Stowell and edited by Len Levin.

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. for box scores/play-by-play information, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other data:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN196008160.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1960/B08160SLN1960.htm

Notes

1 Marichal’s 191 wins were the most during the decade. Gibson was second with 164. Don Drysdale (158), Jim Bunning (150), Jim Kaat (142), Larry Jackson (141), Sandy Koufax (137), Jim Maloney (134), Milt Pappas (131), and Camilo Pascual (127) rounded out the top 10 per Baseball Fever. https://www.baseball-fever.com/forum/general-baseball/trivia/32010-most-pitching-wins-by-decade, accessed March 10, 2023.

2 Walter Judge, “S.F. Starts Rookie Pitcher,” San Francisco Examiner, July 19, 1960: 43.

3 Walter Judge, “Unbeaten Juan Wins No. 4,” San Francisco Examiner, August 17, 1960: 53.

4 “3 Major Deals Beat Deadline,” San Francisco Examiner, June 17, 1960: 54.

5 Joe Coppage, “Writers See Chisox, Giants on Top Rung,” The Sporting News, April 13, 1960: 8. In 1959 the Giants had a two-game lead with eight games to go, but finished four behind the Dodgers and Braves.

6 Curley Grieve, “Top Scout Sheehan Replaces Rigney on ‘Interim Basis,’” San Francisco Examiner, June 19, 1960: 1.

7 Joe Coppage, “Writers See Chisox, Giants on Top Rung.”

8 Neal Russo, “Cardinals Shackled by Giant Rookie Marichal,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 17, 1960: 27.

9 Walter Judge, “Unbeaten Juan Wins No. 4.”

10 Judge, “Unbeaten Juan Wins No. 4.” Spencer’s home run was only the second given up by Marichal; Bob Skinner of Pittsburgh hit the first, on August 6. Marichal gave up 320 homers in 16 seasons.

11 Neal Russo, “Cardinals Shackled by Giant Rookie Marichal.”

12 Walter Judge, “Giants: 7-3 Win Lowers Cards to 3rd,” San Francisco Examiner, August 17, 1960: 56.

13 Judge, “Giants: 7-3 Win Lowers Cards to 3rd.”

14 Judge, “Giants: 7-3 Win Lowers Cards to 3rd.”

15 Spencer was second in the NL in errors by a shortstop in 1960 with 31; he had led the league in that category in 1957 and ’58 while playing shortstop for the Giants. The Giants switched him to second base in 1959. His 24 errors that year were the second most for a NL second baseman.

16 Neal Russo, “Cardinals Shackled by Giant Rookie Marichal.”

17 Neal Russo, “Cardinals Shackled by Giant Rookie Marichal.” Landrith, after going 4-for-4 against Gibson, missed his chance for a five-hit game when he struck out against Cardinals reliever Bob Grim in the top of the ninth inning. It was the fourth of five career four-hit games for Landrith, and one of six career games in which he had three RBIs.

18 Neal Russo, “Cardinals Shackled by Giant Rookie Marichal.” It was the first time in his major-league career that Gibson walked three batters in a row. In 1960 and ’61, Gibson averaged five walks per nine innings, leading the NL with 119 walks in 1961, his first full year as a starter. In 1962, his first year as an All-Star, he cut his walks to 3.7 per nine innings. In 1968, when Gibson won his first Cy Young Award, his walk ratio was 1.8 per nine innings.