July 13, 1968: Roberto Clemente records 5-hit game for the fourth time

Coming off a 1967 National League batting championship, his third in four years, Roberto Clemente struggled mightily at the plate for the first two months of the 1968 season.

He was hampered by a nasty shoulder injury he suffered in the offseason at his home in Puerto Rico. As he climbed on a steel railing on his patio it collapsed and sent him hurtling down a hill. Clemente tried to play through the injury but later admitted that he should have at least skipped spring training.1 The March 23 edition of The Sporting News mentioned that Clemente reported late because his mother-in-law had suffered a heart attack, and that he had a noninjury auto accident, without mentioning the home accident.2

Clemente hit but .226 in April and .220 in May, before rebounding by hitting .333 in June.3 A 2-for-28 slump, however, during the first week of July and heading into the All-Star break, dropped Clemente’s average from .265 to .245. The Pirates star had collected only one extra-base hit over his final 11 games before the break. Thus, for the first time in nine years, Clemente was not selected for the National League All-Star team, missing the midsummer classic, which was being held indoors for the first time, at the Astrodome in Houston. It was Clemente’s only All-Star absence over a 13-year period from 1960-1972.

The three-day rest served Clemente well; he collected four hits in the first three games of the initial post-break series, at home against the Philadelphia Phillies, and raised his average back above .250, to .252. The Pirates, however, were in a tailspin. Heading into this finale of the four-game set, Pittsburgh was suffering through a seven-game losing streak, its longest such tailspin in three years.4 The Pirates had dropped the final four games in Chicago against the Cubs before the break, then these first three games at home. The streak had dropped the Pirates to 40-44 and left them in seventh place in the 10-team National League and 14 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Pirates were led by new skipper Larry Shepard, who secured his first major-league managerial assignment after years soldiering for teams in the minors, Shepard had managed many of the current Pirates in the minors, mainly during his tenure as skipper of the Columbus Jets of the International League.

The day game on this summer Saturday, July 13, drew only 6,869 fans at Forbes Field. (The Pirates wound up ninth out of 10 NL clubs in attendance for the season.) The Pittsburgh Press reported that Clemente took the lineup cards to home plate.5 Woody Fryman took the hill for the Phillies, with Steve Blass getting the assignment for the Pirates. Clemente’s outfield mate, left fielder Willie Stargell, did not start the contest, reducing the power in the Pirates lineup.

The visitors plated single runs in each of the first two innings, thanks to Dick Allen‘s RBI triple and an unearned run following a rare error by Bill Mazeroski. Clemente grounded out in the first, then led off the bottom of the fourth with a single but was stranded. He singled again in the sixth, but was quickly erased on Manny Mota‘s double-play grounder, which scored Maury Wills with Pittsburgh’s first run. Clemente grounded out to shortstop to end the eighth inning. The Pirates tied the game in the bottom of the ninth inning on a two-out RBI single by pinch-hitter Gary Kolb, sending the game into extra innings.

Clemente’s two-out single in the bottom of the 10th wasn’t cashed in, as Mota struck out looking. Another two-out single by Clemente, with the bases empty in the bottom of the 12th, was also wasted when Mota lined out. In the top of the 14th, rookie Dock Ellis, in the majors less than a month (he had tossed 2⅔ scoreless relief innings the night before), took the mound for the Pirates. In the bottom of the 14th, Phillies starter Chris Short, who had pitched seven innings two days earlier and earned his eighth victory, took the ball for the visitors. Clemente’s two-out triple to right-center field in the bottom of the 14th, his eighth of the season (breaking a tie with Cardinals’ Lou Brock for the league lead), put the winning run just 90 feet away. It was the Pirates’ only extra-base hit in the game. However, after an intentional walk to Mota, Gene Alley struck out, so the game rolled into the 15th inning. After a scoreless 15th, the grounds crew dragged the infield for the third time.

In the top of the 16th inning, Philadelphia scored an unearned run on an RBI single by pinch-hitter Rick Joseph to take a 3-2 lead.6 The rally began with a single by Allen and a miscue by Gene Alley when Johnny Callison‘s grounder went through his legs. Callison took second on a wild throw from left fielder Kolb, the second error on the play. Allen advanced to third. After Ellis intentionally walked Tony Taylor, Luke Walker replaced Ellis. Joseph, batting for first baseman Johnny Briggs, then laced his go-ahead liner to right field that scored Allen.7

In the Pirates’ 16th, Wills rapped a two-out single to center and stole second base. A foul tip off Clemente’s bat injured the finger of Phillies catcher Mike Ryan, who was replaced by Clay Dalrymple. Clemente walked on a full count. Short then got Mota (completing his 0-for-7 day) to ground out to second base and end the 4-hour 44-minute contest, giving the Phillies the road sweep.

The victory was the Phillies’ fifth in five extra-inning games so far in the season. Short earned the win with three innings of relief, and Ellis took the loss. The Pirates thus lost their eighth game in a row, on their way to a 10-game losing streak. Manager Shepard called the 10-game schneid “the worst experience of my life.”8 The Pirates scored only five runs in the four-game series with the Phillies. Matty Alou and Wills together reached base in only three of 16 plate appearances in this game, and Wills was 2-for-19 in the series.

Clemente raised his batting average 11 points to .263 after his five-hit performance, aided by the three extra-inning hits. It was the fourth five-hit game of his career, after two in 1961 and a third in September of 1967. He had two more in 1970 and a seventh and final one in 1971.

Clemente soon missed a week with a bad shoulder, but as the 34-year-old lamented, “How could I ever retire? I have to support 13 people?”9

Pirates general manager Joe Brown, trying to take heat off rookie manager Shepard, said in early August, “I can’t blame Shepard because of injuries and because Roberto Clemente is batting .265 and because Jim Bunning hasn’t been able to come up to expectations.”10

Still, Clemente’s performance on July 13 provided one example of his long climb back and was aided by a torrid .370 in September, which gave him a respectable .291 average by the end of the season. He also won his eighth straight Gold Glove award.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted B​aseba​ll-Re​feren​ce.​com.

h​ttps:​//www​.base​ball-​refer​ence.​com/b​oxes/​PIT/P​IT196​80713​0.​shtml

NOTES

1 BaseballCrank website: h​ttp:/​/base​ballc​rank.​com/a​rchiv​es2/2​012/0​7/bas​eball​_1968​_y.​php. Accessed February 12, 2022.

2 Les Biederman, “Clemente to Go Slow – Until the Bell Rings,” The Sporting News, March 23, 1968: 11.

3 BaseballCrank.

4 Les Biederman, “Stranded Runners Again Ruin Bucs,” Pittsburgh Press, July 13, 1968: 6.

5 Les Biederman, Phils Outlast Pirates in 16 Innings, 3-2,” Pittsburgh Press, July 14, 1968: 69.

6 Allen Lewis, “Pinch Hitter Scores Allen to Beat Bucs,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 14, 1968: 51.

7 “Phils Sweep 4-Game Set from Bucs,” Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Sunday News, July 14, 1968: 35.

8 Les Biederman, “Why Do Managers Get Gray? Shepard Knows the Answer,” The Sporting News, August 3, 1968: 19.

9 Les Biederman, “Shoulder Sore; Clemente Says He May Retire,” The Sporting News, August 24, 1968: 18.

10 Les Biederman, “Brown Takes Full Blame for Bucs’ Poor Showing,” The Sporting News, August 10, 1968: 16.