April 28, 1969, San Diego: Dodgers 4, Padres 3 (box score)
Knuckleballer Joe Niekro made his first start in a Padres uniform. The Dodgers countered with southpaw Claude Osteen, who had shut out San Diego on three hits just 13 days earlier.
The Padres very quickly made sure they wouldn’t be blanked in this one, scoring an unearned in the first on a double play grounder off the bat of Tony Gonzalez. The Dodgers answered with an unearned run of their own in the top of the second.
The score remained tied until the bottom of the fourth. Then, with two outs, Ollie Brown singled to center. Nate Colbert followed with a homer to right-center. For Colbert, it was his fourth home run in five days.
Niekro, meanwhile, settled down and pitched a beauty. He allowed a walk in the third and a single in the fifth, and that was it until the eighth. In that inning, Niekro served up three straight two-out singles, the last of which made the score 3-2. Dick Kelley came in to put out the fire, getting Ted Sizemore to fly to right to end the inning.
Kelley didn’t do so well the following frame. Essentially he fell victim to the genius of Dodgers manager Walter Alston, who pulled all the right strings. With one out, pinch hitter Bill Russell singled to right. Another pinch hitter, Wes Parker, then tripled him home to tie the game. After a Willie Davis groundout, Ken Boyer came up to bat for Ron Fairly.
Even though Fairly was just 30 years old and still a dangerous hitter, he was coming off a down year. In particular, his line against lefties in ’68 was a dismal .171/.238/.189. For his part, Boyer had been a perennial All-Star for the St. Louis Cardinals in the late-’50s and early-’60s, winning the NL MVP Award in 1964. Now 38 years old, Boyer was at the very end of a fine career.
Boyer had batted once on the young season, striking out two days earlier against the Braves. This time he smashed a grounder to shortstop Tommy Dean and legged it out for a single, giving the Dodgers their first lead of the game, 4-3.
The Padres had one last chance. With Jim Brewer now pitching for Los Angeles, Brown led off the home half of the ninth with an infield single. But Colbert and Cito Gaston struck out, and Ed Spiezio grounded out to end the threat and the ballgame.
Trivia: Padres pitchers didn’t strike out a single batter until the ninth, when Kelley fanned shortstop Billy Grabarkewitz to lead off the inning.
Elsewhere in the world: Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France.