July 26, 1969, Pittsburgh: Pirates 4, Padres 3 (box score)
This was almost a brilliant comeback win for the Padres. Almost.
The Pirates drew first blood. In the first inning, they parlayed a double, balk, and groundout into a 1-0 lead against rookie (and former Pittsburgh farmhand) Dave Roberts. They extended it to 2-0 in the third and tacked on another run in the seventh.
San Diego, meanwhile, ran into a brick wall named Luke Walker for 8 2/3 innings. Then, down to their final out, the Padres got a single from Ollie Brown and a double from Nate Colbert to bring up Al Ferrara, who brought the visitors back to life with a three-run homer that, after a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth, forced extra innings.
The Padres managed to put a runner in scoring position in their half of the 10th, but couldn’t convert. In the home half, with Billy McCool now on the mound for San Diego, Willie Stargell walked and Roberto Clemente singled him to third (apparently Stargell ran a little better back then). After intentionally walking Jose Pagan, McCool yielded to Frank Reberger.
Bases loaded, nobody out? No problem. Reberger promptly induced Manny Sanguillen to rap into a 5-2-3 double play. With runners now at second and third, and two out, the Padres again went with the intentional walk to load the bases for light-hitting (.250/.274/.275 entering the contest) second baseman Jose Martinez. Unfortunately for the Padres, Reberger unintentionally walked Martinez to force in the winning run. The free pass was just Martinez’ fifth in 130 career plate appearances.
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