June 13, 1965: Vern Law’s pitching, Bill Virdon’s hitting lead resurgent Pirates over Giants

Vern Law pitched a three-hitter and Bill Virdon drove him in with the decisive run as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the San Francisco Giants, 2-1, on June 13, 1965, at Forbes Field. The Pirates’ victory concluded a 10-3 homestand, gave them 20 wins in their last 23 games, and set their season record at 29-27—less than a month after they had fallen 15 games under .500.

The Pirates entered the Sunday afternoon contest in fifth place in the National League, 6½ games behind the league-leading Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants were fourth, four games out.

On May 20, Pittsburgh was 9-24 and last in the 10-team NL, hindered by an illness to Hall of Fame-bound right fielder Roberto Clemente (offseason malaria), and injuries to second baseman Bill Mazeroski (spring training broken foot), and left fielder Willie Stargell (knee injury requiring offseason surgery, then re-aggravated in March and May).1

Entering Sunday’s game, Clemente was hitting .442 since May 22, and Mazeroski’s .304 clip over the same span had boosted his average 196 points. Stargell had rallied with a .366 average, seven home runs, and 23 RBIs in his past 19 games. A 4-0 blanking by three Giants pitchers on June 12 had stopped the Pirates’ seven-game winning streak, but Pittsburgh was still above .500 for the first time since the season’s second week.

The Giants had significant injury problems of their own. Slugging first baseman Orlando Cepeda went on the disabled list with an injured right knee on May 7 and was reported “out indefinitely” by numerous news outlets.2 Also missing from the San Francisco lineup due to a swollen right elbow was right fielder Jesús Alou, the major-league hits leader with 73.3

Because of the absences of Cepeda and Alou, first-year manager Herman Franks4 was forced to rearrange his lineup. His starting nine against the Pirates was together for the first time in 1965, including three who had arrived via trades in the last month: right fielder Len Gabrielson, catcher Dick Bertell, and shortstop Dick Schofield.

Schofield, who was traded from the Pirates on May 22 for José Pagán, had been well received by Giants’ management and players. Willie Mays gleefully said, “He gets on base and it seems there’s always somebody to drive him in. And he plays the devil out of shortstop.”5

For Pirates manager Harry Walker, the lineup was also juggled, but to a lesser extent than the Giants. After the Schofield trade, the Pirates pivoted to defensive wizard Gene Alley as their every-day shortstop. Despite his hot hitting, Stargell was out of the lineup against Giants starter Gaylord Perry, reportedly to rest his injured knee.6 In Stargell’s spot in left, veteran Jerry Lynch got the starting assignment. Although Lynch had only 12 at-bats lifetime versus Perry, he had four hits and six RBIs against the future Hall of Famer.

The game started well for Law when Schofield grounded to Bob Bailey at third. Law then retired Matty Alou and Mays, the Giants’ left and center fielders respectively, on swinging strikeouts. The strikeout of Mays—who had homered in both previous games in Pittsburgh to extend his major-league lead to 20—prompted the home crowd to let out its first roar of the game.7

After Bailey led off the bottom of the first with a fly out to Mays, Virdon walked. Clemente followed with a single, and Virdon took second. The threat, however, was quickly extinguished. Lynch, batting cleanup, bounced to Perry, who started an inning-ending double play.

The first batter to face Law in the second was first baseman Willie McCovey, whose 13 home runs were tied for second in the majors with several players, including Stargell. McCovey smashed one of Law’s pitches into the front of the second tier of seats in right field.8

Law responded by striking out third baseman Jim Ray Hart and retiring Gabrielson on a fly out to Clemente. Second baseman Hal Lanier put himself in scoring position with a two-out double to left, but Bertell hit a comebacker to end the inning. With 1½ innings played, the big scoreboard in left field read: Giants 1, Pirates 0.

Pitching with the lead, Perry only faced three batters in the second. Donn Clendenon, the tall and muscular first baseman, lifted a fly ball to Alou in left. Mazeroski singled to left but was erased when Alley grounded into a 1-4-3 double play. This was the Giants’ second twin killing in as many innings, with Perry at the front end of both.

The score remained 1-0 into the Pirates’ sixth inning. At this point, both pitchers had allowed only three hits.

Perry gave up a leadoff single to left by Bailey. Virdon followed with a line drive to deep right that, according to the San Francisco Examiner, baffled Gabrielson and fell for a double,9 with Bailey stopping at third base. Clemente10 was intentionally walked to load the bases with no outs for Lynch, who hit a sacrifice fly to Gabrielson in right. Gabrielson’s weak throw to the plate not only allowed Bailey to score the tying run but enabled Virdon and Clemente to advance.11

Perry issued an intentional walk to Clendenon to again load the bases. The San Francisco hurler ended the threat by getting both Mazeroski and Alley on called third strikes. At the end of six innings, the score was tied 1-1.

Law faced four batters in the seventh. The only Giant to reach was Gabrielson, who walked.

Perry started the home half of the seventh the same way he finished the sixth—with a called third strike. The victim this time was catcher Jim Pagliaroni.

Law then singled to center. One out later, Virdon hammered a Perry delivery to right-center field for a triple.12 Law scored from first and the Pirates had their first lead of the day.

Virdon, however, was stranded when Clemente grounded out to Lanier at second.

The Pirates went to their bench for the top half of the eighth. Pagán replaced Bailey at third and Manny Mota took over for Lynch in left. It didn’t take long for the defensive replacements to get into action.

Tom Haller13 hit for Bertell and popped out to Pagán. Jesús Alou,14 despite his elbow issue, hit for Perry and flied to Virdon. Schofield ended the half-inning by flying to Mota.

For the home eighth, Bob Bolin replaced Perry on the mound. He dispatched the Pirates in 1-2-3 fashion.

In the Giants ninth, due up were Matty Alou, Mays, and McCovey. Alou came into the contest batting just .233. In December he was traded to the Pirates and the following year (1966) he won the NL batting title with an average of .342.15

But Alou’s future teammate, Law, got the better of him for the fourth consecutive time. Alou popped to Alley, who temporarily lost the ball but recovered for the first out.16

Next up was Mays, into his 15th season in the majors and headed for his second career NL MVP Award. In head-to-head matchups, no player to date had hit more home runs against the 14-year veteran Law than Mays’ 13.17 Mays, however, lifted a fly ball to Virdon. The 20,091 fans breathed a collective sigh of relief.18 The fly-out also ended Mays’ modest five-game hitting streak.

An out away from a Pirates’ victory and three-hitter for Law, McCovey dug in.19 Not only did the Giants’ first baseman own one of the three hits off Law, but his tape-measure home run in the second inning had accounted for the visitors’ lone run. When Law retired McCovey with a fly ball to Mota to end the game, 2-1, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported “…joy was unconfirmed, except in the San Francisco dugout.”20

The win put Law’s record at 5-5 after going 0-5 to begin the season.21 Perry took the loss and fell to 6-5.22 Time of game was a crisp 1:59.

At day’s end the Pirates remained in fifth place, seven games behind the Dodgers, who swept the New York Mets in a doubleheader. The Giants were still fourth, 5½ games off the pace.

The contest was the first matchup between starting pitchers Perry and Law. Less than two weeks later, on June 22, they squared off again. And again, Law was the winner, with a four-hit shutout. Law finished 1965 with a 17-9 record and a 2.15 ERA, third in the NL behind the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax (2.04) and the Giants’ Juan Marichal (2.13). The Associated Press selected him NL Comeback Player of the Year.

Both the Pirates and Giants remained in the pennant race until September. Pittsburgh came in third, seven games behind the Dodgers. The second-place Giants stayed alive until the season’s next-to-last day, winding up two games behind Los Angeles.

Author’s Note

The author attended the game at Forbes Field. He photographed Willie Stargell during batting practice.

Acknowledgements

This article was fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo and copy-edited by Keith Thursby.

Photo credit: Willie Stargell baseball card, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball Reference and Retrosheet for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT196506130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1965/B06130PIT1965.htm

Notes

1 Jack Hernon, “Buc News Bad: Clemente Has Malaria,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 3, 1965: 17; Lester J. Biederman, “Maz Hurt; Pirate Worries Mount: Bill Fractures Foot; Clemente Also Looks Doubtful for Opener,” Pittsburgh Press, March 26, 1965: 31; Lester J. Biederman, “Stargell Out, Knee Twisted: Pirate Due Back in Just Few Days,” Pittsburgh Press, March 18, 1965: 50; Lester J. Biederman, “Stargell Hurt in Buc Loss: Knee Sprained; Braves Win, 5-4,” Pittsburgh Press, May 14, 1965: 40.

2 Harry Jupiter, “Cepeda Out 30 Days,” San Francisco Examiner, May 8, 1965: 45; “Orlando Cepeda Out ‘Indefinitely,’” Associated Press, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 8, 1965: 24. Cepeda’s last game before going on the DL was May 3 versus the St. Louis Cardinals. He did not play again until August 18 against the New York Mets.

3 Harry Jupiter, “Law 3-Hits S. F., 2-1,” San Francisco Examiner, June 14, 1965: 57.

4 Franks replaced Alvin Dark, who was fired at the end of the 1964 season.

5 Lester J. Biederman, “Giants Wild about Leadoff Man Ducky,” Pittsburgh Press, June 13, 1965: 71. Biederman noted that for five of the seven years Schofield was in Pittsburgh he played in the shadow of 1960 batting champ and MVP Dick Groat, who the Pirates had traded to the St. Louis Cardinals after the 1962 season. As a Giant, Schofield had hit safely in 16 of 19 games and reached base 32 times.

6 Jack Hernon, “Giants Bow in Tight Mound Duel,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 14, 1965: 28. The article reported that Stargell’s knee was swollen and needed to be drained before departing for St. Louis. Walker held Stargell out of the starting lineup for the next three games although he was able to pinch-hit in the last two of those games.

7 Alvin Rosensweet, “20,091 See Hard-To-Beat Bucs Win, 2-1,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 14, 1965: 1.

8 Hernon, “Giants Bow in Tight Mound Duel.”

9 Jupiter, “Law 3-Hits S.F., 2-1.”

10 Clemente won his third batting title in 1965 with a major league leading .329 average. He also won the major-league batting title in 1964 (.339).

11 Rosensweet, “20,091 See Hard-To-Beat Bucs Win, 2-1.” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the tying run caused the fans to scream and shout like the play was in the 1960 World Series. Also, see Hernon, “Giants Bow in Tight Mound Duel.”

12 The triple by Virdon was one of 81 he hit in his career. He led the NL in triples with 10 in 1962. For an analysis of triples hit by Pirates and the role of the spacious Forbes Field outfield, see the SABR article: Richard L. Burtt, “Triples, The Pirates, and Forbes Field,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Vol. 9 (1980), https://sabr.org/journal/article/triples-the-pirates-and-forbes-field/ (accessed June 4, 2026).

13 Haller, a left-handed batter and the Giants’ regular catcher, did not start versus the righty Law although he had success against the former Cy Young Award winner. When Law retired following the 1967 season, Haller’s batting average against him was .353. Haller’s career batting average was 96 points less at .257. Haller also did not start the previous day against another right-hander, Bob Friend. Haller was often rested against left-handed starting pitchers, but this was not the case in Pittsburgh. The benching of Haller may have been due to his 1-for-his-last-20 performance amid a sagging Giants’ offense. Maybe Franks thought Bertell could do better although coming into this game the recently acquired backstop was 0-for-5 lifetime versus Law.

14 Alou returned to the Giants starting lineup for the next game (two days later) and collected two hits.

15 Matty Alou hit .231 in 324 AB for the Giants in 1965. His trade to the Pirates on December 1, 1965, sent Joe Gibbon and Ozzie Virgil to the Giants. His first season with the Pirates was a turn-around for Alou. Not only did he win the NL batting title but his .342 average topped the major leagues. His older brother Felipe (Atlanta Braves) was second in the NL with a .327 average.

16 Rosensweet, “20,091 See Hard-To-Beat Bucs Win, 2-1.”

17 At this point in the season Eddie Mathews was second behind Mays with eight career home runs versus Law. When Law retired after the 1967 season, only Warren Spahn’s 18 were more than Law’s 14 home runs given up to Mays.

18 Rosensweet, “20,091 See Hard-To-Beat Bucs Win, 2-1.”

19 McCovey’s career ended after the 1980 season. His lifetime batting average was .270 for 22 years (including 12 years as a visiting opponent at Forbes Field). From 1959 (rookie year) to 1970 (last appearance) McCovey hit .286 at Forbes Field.

20 Hernon, “Giants Bow in Tight Mound Duel.”

21 Law’s winning streak reached eight games before losing to the St. Louis Cardinals on June 30. In Law’s first five losses of the year, the Pirates scored only four runs total for him.

22 Perry won just two more times in 1965. In August, he was moved to the bullpen, where he spent the remainder of the season except for an August 26 start in Pittsburgh. His eight wins and 195⅔ innings pitched were his lowest totals from 1964 through 1980, and his 4.19 ERA was his worst during that period.