September 27, 1962: Stan Musial’s 5 hits highlight his day as Cardinals defeat Giants

“It was just another one of his usual days. I got over being amazed at him 10 years ago.” – Ken Boyer, speaking of Stan Musial, September 27, 19621

“I’ll just have to try to stroke the ball to left field. O’Dell has good breaking stuff.” – Stan Musial, September 27, 19622

A late September afternoon game on an overcast day at Candlestick Park attracted only 6,812 fans as the San Francisco Giants, looking to somehow close the gap with the front-running Los Angeles Dodgers, hosted the Cardinals. The Giants started Billy O’Dell (19-13), the former Oriole who had paid big dividends since being acquired before the season. The Cardinals countered with Ray Washburn (11-9).

Stan Musial could have taken the day off against the lefty pitcher, but he was in the lineup. At age 41, he had played in 131 of his team’s games and was sporting a .325 batting average.

The Giants were showing more than a bit of nervousness. They had spent much of the first two months of the season in first place and led the league as recently as July 1, but the Dodgers had moved past them and were poised to win the pennant. As play began on September 27, the Giants were on the brink of elimination, two games back with four games to play. The magic number was three.

The game was deemed “a lousy but thrilling exhibition” by Harry Jupiter of the San Francisco Examiner.3

Giants manager Al Dark elected to go with a lineup that maximized offense and minimized defense. He had Willie McCovey in left field and Harvey Kuenn at third base.

The Cardinals did not overwhelm the Giants. They just kept pecking away, and the jabs began in the first inning. Singles by Curt Flood to left field and Musial to right field were sandwiched by a pair of outs, and Bill White came to the plate. Seeing Kuenn playing deeper than necessary at third, the lefty-hitting first baseman laid down a bunt that would do Phil Rizzuto proud for a single. Flood scored from third and Musial advanced to second. Charlie James then singled to left field, scoring Musial.

In the bottom of the second, the Giants wasted a leadoff double by McCovey. After Orlando Cepeda walked and Tom Haller flied out, José Pagán hit into a double play.

In the top of the third, after Willie Mays had robbed Flood of a hit with a sensational shoestring catch, Musial singled to left field, but he was left stranded. The Cardinals added another run in the fourth inning. Gene Oliver doubled and advanced to third when Kuenn misplayed Dal Maxvill’s grounder. Washburn singled home Oliver, but Julián Javier hit into his second inning-ending double play of the game. The score was 3-0.

Musial came up with one out in the fifth inning and stroked his third consecutive single. After O’Dell retired Ken Boyer for the second out of the inning, White advanced Musial to third with a single and James got his second RBI of the game, singling Musial home. Dark decided a pitching change was in order and brought in righty Don Larsen of World Series fame. Gene Oliver hit Larsen’s third pitch over the left-field fence to give the Cardinals a 7-0 lead.

Washburn was mowing down the Giants, scattering four hits through five innings. In the fifth, he had gotten Carl Boles (hitting for Larsen), Kuenn, and Chuck Hiller on successive groundouts. The sixth inning was a different story.

“I just didn’t know how many were out.” – Willie Mays, September 27, 19624

In the sixth inning, with the Giants trailing 7-0, Matty Alou singled and came home on a double by Mays, who had so far in the game been hitless. With McCovey and Cepeda due up, there was a chance for the Giants to close the gap further. McCovey grounded out to second, advancing Mays to third. Then, after Cepeda struck out (the second of his three strikeouts in the game), Mays, thinking there were three out, headed toward center field and was picked off as Boyer at third took the throw from Cardinals catcher Oliver and made the easy tag.5

In the top of the seventh, as the Giant fans were flabbergasted over Mays’ poor play, Musial came up for the fourth time, leading off the inning. Once again, he stroked a single to left field, but the Cardinals did not capitalize. Giants pitcher Jim Duffalo, in his second inning of work, stranded Musial and White.

Giant fans were mumbling, “What if Mays hadn’t blundered?” as the Giants reached Washburn for three quick runs in the seventh. Haller walked, Pagán singled, and Ed Bailey, batting for Duffalo, homered. The Giants trailed 7-4, but they could not close the gap further. Washburn was, at that point, out of gas. He interspaced two fly-ball outs with two walks and the Giants had the tying run at the plate. Cardinals manager Johnny Keane decided it was time for a pitching change and brought in veteran lefty Bobby Shantz. Dark countered with a pinch-hitter, calling on right-hand-hitting Felipe Alou to bat for McCovey. Alou forced Mays, who had walked, at second base, and the game moved to the eighth inning.

The concept of baseball being a contact game, bat on ball, essentially vanished at this point. Stu Miller came in to pitch for the Giants and retired the Cardinals on two strikeouts and a comebacker. Shantz struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth.

The crowd by this point had accepted that the Giants were about to fall short and be virtually eliminated from the pennant race. Their attention turned to the man in the on-deck circle as the ninth inning began. Stu Miller began his second inning of relief and promptly retired Flood. Up came Musial, the crowd fully aware that he was going for a 5-for-5 day. None of the sportswriters knew when he had last done it. Even Musial did not know. It was no wonder, as Musial had most recently gone 5-for-5 on September 22, 1948. Only once in his seven previous five-hit games had he hit five singles in a game (June 22, 1948). That was about to change.

Even against the slow-throwing Miller, Musial was determined to stroke the ball to left field (only one of his hits that day had been to right field), and when he singled for the fifth time, it was to left field. Manager Keane called for a pinch-runner, Bobby Gene Smith, and Musial left the field to a standing ovation with several fans reaching out to shake his hand.6 Musial headed not to the clubhouse but to the Cardinals bullpen down the right-field line at the end of the dugout.7

Miller proceeded to retire the Cardinals without a run scoring in the ninth, and the Giants were left with three outs in which to score three runs. After Cap Peterson, batting for Miller, struck out, Kuenn doubled to left field and Hiller had an infield hit, advancing Kuenn to third. Matty Alou flied to short center field. Mays came to the plate with runners on the corners and two men out. He represented the tying run. Shantz got him to swing at an off-speed curve for strike three and the game was over.

Washburn was credited with the win and O’Dell took the loss. Shantz earned his fourth save of the season.

The Giants were 2½ games out of first and a Koufax win that night would take the magic number to one. But the Dodgers defense failed Koufax, and the Giants went into the last three games down by two in the standings. At the end of 162 games, the teams were tied as Gene Oliver, who had doubled and homered against the Giants on Musial’s big day, homered against the Dodgers on the last day of the season. The Giants prevailed in the three-game playoff and advanced to the World Series.

Musial’s 5-for-5 garnered the headlines and raised his batting average to .333. It was the eighth and last time he had five hits in a game. He wound up third in the batting race, trailing only Tommy Davis and Frank Robinson.

It was pointed out by Sam Balter in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner that Musial, to this point, was the only player with both 3,000 hits and 400 homers.8 Over time, he would be joined by several others, including Willie Mays.

Mays, who contributed to his team’s loss by being picked off due to absent-mindedness and striking out due to misjudgment, had this to say about Musial’s performance:

“If you got to lose, lose on a day when Stan Musial is going five-for-five. I was glad to see him do it, that fifth time up. It makes me feel good to see such a great athlete keep giving the fans a thrill. I just hope I’m doing half as well a few years from now.”9

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the notes, the author used Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=musiast01&t=b&year=1962

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1962/B09270SFN1962.htm

Photo credit: Stan Musial, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Harry Jupiter, “Stan Says Long Ball Costly; No Chance for Batting Title,” San Francisco Examiner, September 28, 1962: 62.

2 Bob Broeg, “Musial’s 5-for-5 Day Cools Giant Hopes,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 28, 1962: 4C.

3 Harry Jupiter, “Musial Goes 5 for 5; Mays’ ‘Skull’ Hurts,” San Francisco Examiner, September 28, 1962: 61.

4 Scott Bailie (United Press International), “Musial Cards deliver Serious Loss to SF,” Barstow (California) Desert Dispatch, September 28, 1962: 4.

5 Milton Richman (United Press International), “Do They Really Want to Win? SF, LA Lose,” Oroville (California) Mercury-Register, September 28, 1962: 8.

6 Jack Hanley, “Musial Softens Giant Loss,” San Jose (California) News, September 28, 1962: 19.

7 Bob Stevens, “S.F. Rally Short as Cards Win,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 28, 1962: 43, 45.

8 Sam Balter, “One for the Book,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, September 28, 1962: C-4.

9 George Ross, “Who’s on Third,” Oakland Tribune, September 28, 1962: 36.