June 29, 1961: Willie Mays hits three homers, including the game-winner in the 10th

Willie Mays became just the fourth major leaguer to hit at least three home runs twice in one season. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

One week after a legendary four-homer performance,1 the Say Hey Kid stood on the steps of Connie Mack Stadium, looking out at a cool, foggy May 6 night. He patiently waited for the rain that poured down onto the field to stop, but after a lengthy delay, the showers would not cease, and the game was rescheduled.

And so at 6:07 P.M. on June 29, the Philadelphia Phillies and the San Francisco Giants lined up once again to take the field. Both teams desperately needed a win: The Giants were four games out of first place, and the cellar-dwelling Phillies sported a measly record of 22 wins and 42 losses.

The night before, the two teams had battled through 14 innings until San Francisco pulled ahead with three runs to make the score 7-4 in the top of the 15th. But in the bottom half, the Phillies tied the game. After 5 hours and 11 minutes and 10 pitchers used between both teams (a significant amount at the time), including Phillies ace Robin Roberts, the game was ruled a no-decision. With few pitchers to choose from, Philadelphia manager Gene Mauch picked Ken Lehman but put two additional pitchers in the starting lineup in an attempt to platoon to the Giants’ pitcher, who had not yet been announced. Once the lefty Billy O’Dell was slated to toe the rubber, Mauch replaced his two pitchers in the lineup with two right-handed batters.

The Giants came out swinging, forcing Mauch to pull Lehman after only two batters, both of whom reached base with a single and a walk. Mauch opted for long reliever Dallas Green, who successfully induced a double play from Orlando Cepeda to bring up Willie Mays with one baserunner on and two outs. Mays wasted no time putting the Giants on the board, driving a two-run shot to the center-field bleachers.

But the Phillies would not go down easy. After a leadoff single by center fielder Bobby Del Greco, O’Dell was pulled for Sam Jones. Mauch, again playing the platoon, substituted in two left-handed batters – Tony González and Clay Dalrymple – who added two more singles. Philly scored three runs and went ahead, 4-2.

In the top of the third, Mays decided to carry the Giants on his back by hitting another two-run shot to center field, tying the score, 4-4.

After being put down in order in the bottom of the third, the Phillies rallied in the fourth with a walk, a hit batsman, and two singles to go ahead again by two runs, 6-4.

The Giants fell quiet for two innings until the sixth, when Mays hit a single to left field but was caught stealing by catcher Dalrymple. Even so, consecutive singles by Willie McCovey, Ed Bailey, and Jim Davenport reduced the Phillies’ lead to one run at 6-5. In the next inning, the Giants caught a huge break when Philadelphia second baseman Tony Taylor made an error on a ball off the bat of Jim Marshall and Chuck Hiller doubled. With Hiller at second and Marshall at third, Harvey Kuenn hit a sacrifice fly and Cepeda doubled, leading to both an unearned and earned run, putting the Giants in the lead by one, 7-6.

After pitching two one-two-three innings and tasked with facing the top of the lineup in the bottom of the seventh, Jones was pulled by Alvin Dark in favor of veteran pitcher Billy Loes. And again, the Phillies battled back – a single, a sacrifice, a hit batsman, and a single by outfielder Don Demeter knotted the score, 7-7.

The next two innings, both teams’ bats went quiet … that is, until Mays stepped up to the plate in the 10th.

It was as if the score had been reset and a new game had started: Each team’s win probability was 50 percent. With the score at 7-7 – the same as the final score the night before – Willie Mays belted his third home run of the game, off Frank Sullivan, to catapult the Giants’ win probability to 84 percent and put them in the lead for good.2

When Mays completed his trip around the bases and touched home plate, he finished his night with four hits, three of which were home runs, and with five of the team’s eight RBIs.

Yet on this late afternoon game, another star for San Francisco continued to creep out of the shadows of Mays’ success: Juan Marichal, who would become the winningest pitcher in the major leagues during the 1960s. At only 23 years old, this game proved to be the first relief appearance in Marichal’s young career. Tasked with protecting the lead given by Mays, Marichal closed out the game and earned the win with two no-hit innings.

In the second game of the doubleheader, the Giants beat the Phillies 4-1. After driving in two runs and going 2-for-3, the ever-understated Mays said to reporters, “I just like to go out and play.”3 The sweep of the Phillies raised Mays’ batting average 13 points, to .331.

Across the country, newspapers lauded the performance: The Associated Press exclaimed that “Willie Mays is back to beltin’ the ball again.”4 The Radford (Virginia) News Journal headlined, “Fabulous Willie Mays Riding High in Hit Department Again.”5 The historic performance by Mays was not only a sign that he was one of the pastime’s best ever but also served as an indication that the San Francisco slugger’s prime was far from over – he went on to total more than 10 wins above replacement (WAR) in each of the next four seasons (1962-1965), finishing with his second MVP award in 1965.

In retrospect, the go-ahead home run for Mays came as no surprise, for the star center fielder was the king of extra-inning homers. According to Ray Gonzalez’s article in the 1976 Baseball Research Journal, Mays is the all-time leader in both extra-inning home runs (22, with the runner-up, Babe Ruth, second with 16) and in home runs in the 10th inning, with 11.6

With the sweep, the Giants moved into second place over the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, the team hit a slump in July and failed to recover in August and September, finishing in third place in the NL pennant race with a record of 85-69-1. The Phillies crumbled in July and August – they sported a .242 winning percentage in those two months – posting a dismal 47-107 record and a last-place finish in the National League.

With this three-homer game following a four-homer game on April 30, 1961, Willie Mays became the fourth major leaguer to belt three (or more) home runs twice in the same season, joining Johnny Mize, Ralph Kiner, and Ted Williams.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball Reference, Retrosheet, and Baseball Almanac for general game information and play-by-play data.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI196106291.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1961/06291961.htm

https://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=196106291PHI

NOTES

1  Nelson Greene, “April 30, 1961: The Say Hey Kid’s Four-Homer Game.” SABR Games Project, accessed online at https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/april-30-1961-the-say-hey-kids-four-homer-game/ on January 30, 2023.

2  For win probability, see “San Francisco Giants vs Philadelphia Phillies Box Score: June 29, 1961,” Baseball-Reference.com, https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI196106291.shtml.

3  “Willie Mays Shrugs Off Praise After Hitting, Fielding Display,” Hanover (Pennsylvania) Evening Sun, June 30, 1961: 10.

4  Associated Press, “Willie Mays Hits Three Homers as Giants Beat Phils Twice,” Terre Haute (Indiana) Tribune, June 30, 1961: 14.

5  United Press International, “Fabulous Willie Mays Riding High in Hit Department Again,” Radford (Virginia) News Journal, June 30, 1961: 2.

6  Ray Gonzalez, “Extra Inning Home Runs,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, 1976. https://sabr.org/journal/article/extra-inning-home-runs/.