1969
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES1969
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Los
Angeles vs. Chicago 
Game 1, at Wrigley Field: Singer vs. Jenkins
Singer, Songwriter: LA Right-Hander Dazzles Cubs in NLCS
Opener
Sudakis drives in 4 in Dodgers Blowout
CHICAGO, Oct. 4 (AP) -- Dodgers right-hander Bill Singer allowed just one run while striking out nine over seven innings in the Los Angeles Dodgers' 9-1 blowout of the Chicago Cubs in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series at Wrigley Field.
Singer, the ace of the Los Angeles staff during the regular season, out dueled Chicago's number one starter, Fergie Jenkins. The Dodgers roughed Jenkins up for six runs in 5 1/3 innings of work.
The Dodgers set the tone for the game in the very first inning. Maury Wills led off the game with a walk and was forced at second on a failed sacrifice attempt by Ted Sizemore. When Willie Davis struck out it appeared that it would be a humdrum top of the first. But Wes Parker lined the first of his three hits, a single to right, which advanced Sizemore to third. Andy Kosco, who also had three hits, then laced a triple into the right-center field gap, scoring both Sizemore and Parker. Bill Sudakis' looping single to left made it 3-0 Los Angeles.
The Cubs tried to get right back into it in the bottom of the inning. Billy Williams' one-out single scored Don Kessinger, who had led off the frame with a single of his own, to cut the Dodgers' lead to 3-1. But Singer stiffened, and snuffed out any future threat.
In fact, both pitchers managed to find their games at about the same time. After the Sudakis single scored the third Los Angeles run in the first inning, Jenkins retired 14 consecutive batters. Singer allowed a scratch single to Randy Hundley leading off the second and held Chicago without another safety until the seventh.
Despite the lack of a hit, the Cubs blew a golden opportunity to at least narrow the gap in the fourth. Ron Santo drew a one-out walk and Singer than clipped Ernie Banks with a pitch. Hundley then hit a routine double play grounder to Wills at short, but the throw to second was wild, pulling Sizemore off the bag and filling the bases. But Singer rose to the occasion, fanning Jim Hickman--who drew the four-K golden sombrero for the game--and retiring Al Spangler on a fly to center.
With the score still 3-1 in the top of the sixth, Jenkins slipped a bit, and his defense assisted in the fall. With one out, Davis walked, snapping the string of 14 straight outs. On a 1-0 pitch, Davis stole second and Hundley's throw went into center field for an error, allowing Davis to move to third. The Cubs, unable to mount any kind of an attack and trailing by two runs, brought the infield in, but Parker whacked a single through the box, scoring Davis to make it 4-1. Kosco then blooped a single to left; Williams misplayed the ball and his error allowed both runners to advance a base. With men on second and third and still just one out, the Cubs elected to pitch to Sudakis and pull the infield in again. And, again, the strategy was foiled as the Dodgers third baseman lined a single to right, scoring both runners and giving Los Angeles a commanding 6-1 lead. Rich Nye replaced Jenkins and held the Dodgers down, but the damage had been done.
Singer allowed a couple of hits in a scoreless seventh and, having thrown more than 120 pitches, was lifted with the Dodgers on top 8-1 heading to the bottom of the eighth. Los Angeles had scored twice in the top of the inning, on an RBI ground out off the bat of pinch hitter Manny Mota and a run-scoring single from Wills. The Dodgers capped the scoring in the ninth on a Sudakis sacrifice fly, his fourth run batted in of the day.
Pete Mikkelsen struggled a bit, but tossed a pair of shutout innings to mop up for Los Angeles.
Game 2 of the series will feature lefty Claude Osteen for the Dodgers; the Cubs will counter with right-hander Bill Hands.
10/4/1969, NLCS Game One: LA 69-ChN69, Wrigley Field
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP
1969 Dodgers 3 0 0 0 0 3 0 2 1 9 10 1 7 1
1969 Cubs 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 2 10 0
Dodgers AB R H BI AVG Cubs AB R H BI AVG
Wills ss 3 0 1 1 .333 Kessinger ss 4 1 1 0 .250
Sizemore 2b 5 1 0 0 .000 Beckert 2b 5 0 0 0 .000
Davis,W cf 3 1 0 0 .000 Williams,BL lf 4 0 2 1 .500
Parker 1b 4 3 3 1 .750 Santo 3b 2 0 0 0 .000
Kosco lf 5 2 3 2 .600 Banks 1b 3 0 0 0 .000
Russell pr 0 0 0 0 .000 Hundley c 4 0 2 0 .500
Sudakis 3b 3 1 2 4 .667 Hickman rf 4 0 0 0 .000
Crawford rf 5 0 0 0 .000 Spangler cf 4 0 0 0 .000
Haller c 4 1 1 0 .250 Jenkins,F p 2 0 0 0 .000
Singer p 3 0 0 0 .000 Nye p 0 0 0 0 .000
Gabrielson ph 0 0 0 0 .000 Abernathy p 0 0 0 0 .000
Mota ph 1 0 0 1 .000 Smith,W ph 1 0 1 0 1.000
Mikkelsen p 0 0 0 0 .000 Regan p 0 0 0 0 .000
36 9 10 9 Aguirre p 0 0 0 0 .000
Popovich ph 1 0 1 0 1.000
34 1 7 1
Dodgers INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Singer W 1-0 7.0 5 1 1 1 9 122 74 1.29
Mikkelsen 2.0 2 0 0 2 3 39 23 0.00
9.0 7 1 1 3 12 161 97
Cubs INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Jenkins,F L 0-1 5.1 6 6 4 2 5 85 54 6.75
Nye 1.1 0 0 0 1 0 20 11 0.00
Abernathy 0.1 0 0 0 1 0 7 3 0.00
Regan 0.1 1 2 2 1 0 14 7 54.00
Aguirre 1.2 3 1 1 0 1 18 12 5.40
9.0 10 9 7 5 6 144 87
LA : Gabrielson batted for Singer in the 8th
Mota batted for Gabrielson in the 8th
Russell ran for Kosco in the 9th
Russell moved to rf in the 9th
Crawford moved to lf in the 9th
ChN: Smith,W batted for Abernathy in the 7th
Popovich batted for Aguirre in the 9th
E-Wills, Williams,BL, Hundley. 2B-Williams,BL. 3B-Kosco. SB-Wills(1),
Davis,W(1). K-Davis,W 2, Parker, Kosco, Singer 2, Kessinger, Beckert 2,
Santo, Banks, Hundley, Hickman 4, Jenkins,F 2. BB-Wills 2, Davis,W, Parker,
Sudakis, Kessinger, Santo 2. SF-Sudakis. HBP-Davis,W, Banks. HB-Singer, Nye.
GWRBI: Kosco
Temperature: 62, Sky: partly cloudy, Wind: out to right at 2 MPH.
Attendance: 36,477
Game Time: 2:42
Game 2, at Wrigley Field: Osteen vs. Hands
Regan's Flop Puts Cubs in Quandry
Dodgers Late Comeback Provides 2-0 NLCS Lead
CHICAGO, Oct. 5 (AP) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers blew a two-run lead in the seventh but came back to tie the game in the ninth and win it in the tenth off reliever Phil Regan to take a 2-0 NLCS lead over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The final score was 7-4. The series heads to Los Angeles with the Cubs in a huge hole.
In a game filled with drama, the Dodgers took the lead in the first off Chicago starter Bill Hands. Maury Wills led off the game with a double to left-center, was sacrificed to third by Ted Sizemore and scored on Willie Davis' sacrifice fly to center.
Andy Kosco's leadoff homer in the fourth put the Dodgers ahead 2-0.
Dodgers starter Claude Osteen held the Cubs at bay until the sixth when Ron Santo singled to start the inning and moved to third one out later on a Randy Hundley single to right. Jim Hickman then hit his first fair ball of the series--a sacrifice fly to left--to put the Cubs on the board and cut the lead to 2-1. Hickman had struck out in his first six plate appearances of the series.
The Dodgers got the run back in the top of the seventh. Willie Crawford tripled into the right field corner with one out and then, after an intentional walk to Tom Haller, Osteen helped himself by lifting a sacrifice fly to right.
Leading 3-1 heading to the bottom of the seventh, Osteen retired the first two batters without incident, but then walked Glenn Beckert. Billy Williams, who was coming off a disappointing regular season, seemed to make up for it with one swing, belting Osteen's first pitch of the sequence into the right-center field bleachers to tie the game, sending the Wrigley denizens into a state of near-delerium. On the very next pitch, Ron Santo put the crowd into a complete frenzy by crushing an Osteen fastball over everything onto Waveland Avenue to put the Cubs on top 4-3. Al McBean replaced Osteen and retired Hundley to end the inning, but the Dodgers, who had led all day long, now found themselves down a run.
Hank Aguirre came on to start the eighth and set down Davis and Wes Parker before yielding to Phil Regan who took care of Kosco on a routine grounder to first.
McBean then retired the Cubs in order in the bottom of the frame.
Bill Sudakis led off the top of the ninth with a single to center. Bill Russell came on to run for Sudakis and Willie Crawford followed with a single to right, moving Russell to third. With the tying run 90 feet from home and none out, the Cubs positioned their infield for a double play, conceding the tying run to avoid a possible lead-changing inning. Haller made the infield's positioning irrelevant by lofting a sac fly to center to score Russell and tie the game at four. Pinch hitter Len Gabrielson grounded to second for out number two and Wills flied to center to end the inning.
The Cubs had a brief shot to put themselves in position to win the game in the bottom of the ninth. New pitcher Jim Brewer fanned Don Kessinger to start the inning, but Sizemore booted Beckert's routine grounder for an error. Billy Williams, who's having an outstanding series thus far, then ripped a single to right. Beckert turned second and headed for third. Right fielder Crawford game up throwing and gunned Beckert out at third on a very close play. Santo then flied to medium-deep right to end the inning.
In the tenth, Sizemore led off with his third hit of the day, a single to left. Davis flied out, but Wes Parker took a Regan fastball the other way, driving it into the second row of the left-center field bleachers to put the Dodgers ahead, 6-4 and send the Wrigley crowd into a stunned silence. Kosco and Jim Lefebvre followed with consecutive singles and Rich Nye took over for Regan. Pinch hitter Manny Mota then flied to medium right field. Kosco tagged and came home. First baseman Ernie Banks cut off the throw to the plate, which wouldn't have been in time to retire Kosco, and fired to second where the sliding Lefebvre was tagged out trying to advance from first. The inning was finally over, but Los Angeles held a 7-4 lead.
The Cubs didn't go quietly in the bottom of the tenth. Banks was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game and the third time in the series to open the inning. Brewer retired Hundley and pinch hitter Jimmy Qualls, but Don Young kept the game alive with a single to center, moving Banks to second. But pinch hitter Willie Smith rolled into a 6-4 fielder's choice to end the game.
Chicago now faces the formidable task of winning twice at Dodger Stadium just to send the series back to Wrigley Field for a fifth and deciding game. In Game 3, tomorrow, the Cubs will go with Ken Holtzman against Don Sutton of the Dodgers.
10/5/1969, NLCS Game 2: LA 69-ChN69, Wrigley Field
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E LOB DP
1969 Dodgers 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 3 7 13 1 6 0
1969 Cubs 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 4 11 0 11 2
Dodgers AB R H BI AVG Cubs AB R H BI AVG
Wills ss 4 1 1 0 .286 Kessinger ss 5 0 1 0 .222
Sizemore 2b 4 1 3 0 .333 Beckert 2b 4 1 1 0 .111
Davis,W cf 4 0 1 1 .143 Williams,BL lf 5 1 2 2 .444
Parker 1b 5 1 2 2 .556 Santo 3b 5 2 3 1 .429
Kosco lf 5 2 2 1 .500 Banks 1b 3 0 1 0 .167
Sudakis 3b 4 0 1 0 .429 Hundley c 4 0 2 0 .500
Russell pr 0 1 0 0 .000 Hickman rf 2 0 0 1 .000
Lefebvre 3b 1 0 1 0 1.000 Spangler ph 1 0 0 0 .000
Crawford rf 3 1 2 0 .250 Qualls ph 1 0 0 0 .000
Mota ph 0 0 0 1 .000 Young cf 5 0 1 0 .200
Haller c 2 0 0 1 .167 Hands p 2 0 0 0 .000
Osteen p 2 0 0 1 .000 Popovich ph 1 0 0 0 .500
McBean p 0 0 0 0 .000 Aguirre p 0 0 0 0 .000
Gabrielson ph 1 0 0 0 .000 Regan p 1 0 0 0 .000
Brewer p 0 0 0 0 .000 Nye p 0 0 0 0 .000
35 7 13 7 Smith,W ph 1 0 0 0 .500
40 4 11 4
Dodgers INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Osteen 6.2 9 4 4 2 7 115 67 5.40
McBean 1.1 0 0 0 0 0 15 12 0.00
Brewer W 1-0 2.0 2 0 0 0 1 30 18 0.00
10.0 11 4 4 2 8 160 97
Cubs INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Hands 7.0 7 3 3 3 2 107 63 3.86
Aguirre H 1 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 7 7 3.86
Regan BS 1, L 0-1 1.2 6 4 4 0 0 26 19 27.00
Nye 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 7 4 0.00
10.0 13 7 7 3 2 147 93
LA : Russell ran for Sudakis in the 9th
Gabrielson batted for McBean in the 9th
Lefebvre inserted at 3b in the 9th
Mota batted for Crawford in the 10th
Kosco moved to rf in the 10th
Mota moved to lf in the 10th
ChN: Popovich batted for Hands in the 7th
Spangler batted for Hickman in the 8th
Spangler moved to rf in the 9th
Qualls batted for Spangler in the 10th
Smith,W batted for Nye in the 10th
E-Sizemore. 2B-Wills, Kessinger. 3B-Crawford. HR-Parker(1), Kosco(1),
Williams,BL(1), Santo(1). K-Sudakis, Crawford, Kessinger 2, Williams,BL,
Hickman 2, Young 2, Hands. BB-Wills, Crawford, Haller, Beckert, Hundley.
SH-Sizemore. SF-Davis,W, Haller, Osteen, Mota, Hickman. HBP-Banks 2.
HB-Osteen, Brewer.
GWRBI: Parker
Temperature: 60, Sky: clear, Wind: left to right at 20 MPH.
Attendance: 36,763
Game Time: 3:05
Game 3, at Dodger Stadium: Holtzman vs. Sutton
Sutton Keys Dodgers Rout
16 LA Hits Remove Any Doubt in Sweep
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 6 (AP) -- Don Sutton fired a complete game six-hitter and his Dodger teammates bashed out 16 hits off seven Cubs pitchers as Los Angeles completed its three-game sweep of Chicago in the best-of-five National League Championship Series with a 9-2 thrashing at Dodger Stadium.
The only significant blemishes on Sutton's record were solo home runs off the bats of Ernie Banks and Willie Smith and were scarcely noticeable amidst the debris that was the Cubs pitching staff.
As was the case in all three games of the series, Maury Wills led off the game with a hit and the Dodgers scored in the first inning. This time, Wills singled, moved to second on Manny Mota's bunt hit, advanced to third on a Willie Davis ground out and scored on Andy Kosco's single to left. Kosco's hit also pushed Mota to third and he scored on Wes Parker's sacrifice fly.
The Dodgers scored twice more in the third. Mota singled and Davis followed with a triple to deep right-center field, which made it 3-0. Kosco's sac fly to center increased the Los Angeles lead to 4-0 and after Parker and Bill Sudakis followed with back-to-back singles, Chicago starter Ken Holtzman's day was over after just 2 1/3 innings, during which he allowed eight hits. Ted Abernathy replaced Holtzman and kept the Cubs momentarily in the game by escaping further damage.
Ernie Banks' fifth inning solo home run into the left field pavilion cut the Dodgers' lead to 4-1 and gave the Cubs hope, but Los Angeles got the run back in the bottom of the sixth. Jeff Torborg reached leading off the inning when Ron Santo fumbled his grounder and one out later Wills singled him to second. Mota followed with an RBI single to right off Dick Selma to make it 5-1.
The Dodgers effectively put the game away in the seventh. While Sutton had been mowing the Cubs down, Parker led off the frame with his third hit of the day, en route to the NLCS MVP Award (8-13, .615 BA, 1 HR, 6 R, 4 RBI). One out later, Ted Sizemore walked and Tom Haller pinch hit for Torborg. Hank Aguirre was summoned to replace Selma and yielded a single to right, scoring Parker and advancing Sizemore to third. With the score now 6-1, Aguirre hit Sutton with a pitch to fill the bases and then Wills grounded into a 4-6 fielder's choice, scoring Sizemore and making it 7-1. Ken Johnson came on and retired Mota on a fly to right to end the inning, but the Cubs were now down six runs with just two innings left.
To make matters worse for Chicago, the Dodgers scored twice more in the bottom of the eighth off Rich Nye and Phil Regan. Sudakis singled in one run and the other scored on an infield chopper off the bat of Haller.
In the ninth, Sutton retired Ron Santo and Ernie Banks before yielding Smith's solo shot to right. He then righted himself and struck out Randy Hundley swinging to wrap up the first National League Championship Series.
Other stars for the Dodgers in addition to Wes Parker include Kosco (.500, 1 3B, 1 HR, 5 RBI), Sudakis (.455, 5 RBI), Wills (.333, 3 BB), Sizemore (.333), Sutton and Bill Singer, who won the opener.
Randy Hundley (.417) and Don Kessinger (.385) paced the Cubs. Billy Williams hit .308 with a couple of extra base hits, but Chicago was outscored 25-7 in the series. The Dodgers hit .358 while the Cubs were held to .226. The Cubs' staff ERA was 7.33 as compared to the Dodgers' 2.25.
10/6/1969, ChN69-LA 69, Dodger Stadium
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP
1969 Cubs 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 6 1 5 1
1969 Dodgers 2 0 2 0 0 1 2 2 x 9 16 0 12 1
Cubs AB R H BI AVG Dodgers AB R H BI AVG
Kessinger ss 4 0 3 0 .385 Wills ss 5 1 2 1 .333
Beckert 2b 2 0 0 0 .091 Mota lf 5 1 3 1 .500
Williams,BL rf 4 0 0 0 .308 Davis,W cf 5 3 2 1 .250
Santo 3b 4 0 0 0 .273 Kosco rf 4 0 2 2 .500
Banks 1b 4 1 1 1 .200 Russell pr 0 0 0 0 .000
Smith,W lf 4 1 1 1 .333 Parker 1b 4 2 3 1 .615
Hundley c 4 0 1 0 .417 Sudakis 3b 4 0 2 1 .455
Spangler cf 3 0 0 0 .000 Lefebvre pr 0 0 0 0 1.000
Holtzman p 1 0 0 0 .000 Sizemore 2b 3 1 1 0 .333
Abernathy p 0 0 0 0 .000 Torborg c 2 1 0 0 .000
Heath ph 1 0 0 0 .000 Haller ph 2 0 1 2 .250
Selma p 0 0 0 0 .000 Sutton p 4 0 0 0 .000
Aguirre p 0 0 0 0 .000 38 9 16 9
Johnson,K p 0 0 0 0 .000
Popovich ph 1 0 0 0 .333
Nye p 0 0 0 0 .000
Regan p 0 0 0 0 .000
32 2 6 2
Cubs INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Holtzman L 0-1 2.1 8 4 4 0 1 38 27 15.43
Abernathy 1.2 0 0 0 1 1 13 8 0.00
Selma 2.1 4 3 2 2 2 49 30 7.71
Aguirre 0.1 1 0 0 0 0 10 7 3.38
Johnson,K 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0.00
Nye 0.0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 4.50
Regan 1.0 2 1 1 1 1 14 9 21.00
8.0 16 9 8 4 5 127 83
Dodgers INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Sutton W 1-0 9.0 6 2 2 2 5 125 78 2.00
9.0 6 2 2 2 5 125 78
ChN: Heath batted for Abernathy in the 5th
Popovich batted for Johnson,K in the 8th
LA : Haller batted for Torborg in the 7th
Haller moved to c in the 8th
Russell ran for Kosco in the 8th
Lefebvre ran for Sudakis in the 8th
Russell moved to rf in the 9th
Lefebvre moved to 3b in the 9th
E-Santo. 3B-Davis,W. HR-Banks(1), Smith,W(1). K-Santo 2, Banks, Hundley,
Holtzman, Davis,W, Kosco, Sutton 3. BB-Beckert 2, Sudakis, Sizemore 2,
Torborg. SF-Kosco, Parker. HBP-Sutton. HB-Aguirre.
GWRBI: Kosco
Temperature: 72, Sky: clear, Wind: right to left at 5 MPH.
Attendance: 55,974
Game Time: 2:27