May 31, 1969, Montreal: Padres 6, Expos 2 (box score)
Joe Niekro and the Padres were in command of this game from first pitch. San Diego jumped out to a quick lead when Ollie Brown knocked a solo homer to left off southpaw Larry Jaster in the first.
In the fourth inning, Nate Colbert led off with a single. Al Ferrara followed with his fourth home run of the season and the Padres extended their lead to 3-0. Two innings later, the visitors used the exact same formula to make it 5-0.
San Diego added a sixth run in the seventh. In the bottom half of the frame, Montreal finally scored against Niekro when the exquisitely named Coco Laboy slammed a two-run homer to cap the scoring.
Niekro went the distance, allowing just five hits en route to his second win of the season. Proving that MLB could succeed in Montreal if given a chance, more than 20,000 fans came out to watch the two expansion teams do battle. The Padres won their final two games of May to bring what would be their finest month of the season (11-16) to a close.
Trivia: Rookie second baseman Jerry John Sipin had gotten off to a fine .333/.375/.667 start in his first seven games with the big club. The rest of his career consisted of 61 games and a .206/.232/.266 line.
I wonder if any Montreal Expos fans remember this series.
This is cool, Geoff. I get to live some old games.
I wonder how many of these games are archived on video ?
These old games are so much fun to research. JP, that is a great question. My guess is if any are archived, they’re difficult to find. I’d love to watch some of them…