June 1, 1969, Montreal: Padres 5, Expos 2 (box score)

In the inaugural meeting between first-year expansion teams, the Padres had gotten the early upper hand, winning two in a row at Jarry Park. In the finale, the Expos sent rookie right-hander Jerry Robertson to the mound against Johnny Podres.

Nate Colbert got the party started with a leadoff home run to left in the second. The Expos responded in kind in the bottom half of the frame, with third baseman Coco Laboy doing the honors.

With the score still tied, Chris Cannizzaro led off the Padres’ fifth with a triple. After Podres grounded to first, Tommy Dean hit a sac fly to center that scored Cannizzaro and put the visitors back on top.

The next inning, San Diego extended its lead. As in the second inning, Colbert led off the frame with a homer to left. The Padres added two more in the eighth to make it 5-1.

Tommie Sisk worked the final two innings for his fourth save. The Expos did score one run off Sisk in the eighth, courtesy of a Donn Clendenon home run, but it didn’t affect the outcome.

Trivia: Sisk earned the save in this game despite entering the game with a four-run lead. The save statistic, a creation of sportswriter Jerome Holtzman, was adopted by MLB in 1969 and since has evolved.

Elsewhere in the world: John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded “Give Peace a Chance” (a truly awful song); American actress Teri Polo (Sports Night) was born in Dover, Delaware.

Tagged as: Baseball, expos, jerome_holtzman, jerry_robertson, johnny_podres, mlb, montreal_expos, nate_colbert, padres, san_diego_padres