April 19, 1969, San Francisco: Giants 5, Padres 3 (box score)
Any hope the Padres had of building momentum based on the previous night’s victory evaporated quickly. In a rematch of the April 13 contest in San Diego, right-handers Dick Selma and Gaylord Perry went to battle at Candlestick Park. Perry had won the first matchup, due in part to an astounding 18-to-4 ground ball to fly ball ratio.
This time, the Padres struck early. With two out in the first inning, Tony Gonzalez and Ollie Brown drew walks. Bill Davis followed with a single to center, giving the Padres an early lead. Perry then caught Cito Gaston looking to end the inning.
In the bottom of the first, Selma ran into trouble right away. The leadoff batter, third baseman Cesar Gutierrez, stroked a double to right. With one out, a Bobby Bonds single to left tied the game. Bonds proceeded to steal second base, putting himself in scoring position for Willie McCovey.
Bonds needn’t have bothered. McCovey launched a home run to right that pushed the Giants ahead, 3-1. The Padres had scored a total of 16 runs over their first 10 games, so Perry and the Giants must have been liking their chances right about now.
The club from San Diego, though, didn’t go down without a fight. The Padres scored a single run in the fourth on a Chris Cannizzaro ground out and another in the sixth on a homer to right off the bat of Brown. The Padres had tied the game.
Bonds led off the bottom half of the frame with another single to left. This time he scored from first base on another McCovey blast to right. Why sprint when you can trot?
The Padres put just two more runners on base the rest of the way. Brown knocked a two-out triple to right-center in the eighth but was stranded, and Ed Spiezio walked with two down in the ninth. But Nate Colbert, pinch hitting for reliever Dick Kelley, struck out looking to end the game. Remarkably, Perry’s ground ball to fly ball ratio in this contest (16:2) was even better than it had been in his previous start against the Padres.
Trivia: McCovey finished with a career .263/.500/.947 line in 28 plate appearances against Selma.
Elsewhere in the world: A group of African-American students occupied Willard Straight Hall at Cornell University; Jesse G. James was born.
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