Stretch Run

All summer long, the world champion Dodgers lurched, stumbled and staggered. All summer long, the Milwaukee Braves played steady, unspectacular ball. Early last week, still one game behind the Braves, Manager Walter Alston put all his chips on a pitcher who almost hadn't been there: blue-jawed, saturnine Salvatore Anthony Maglie. Cast off by the Giants, picked up by the Cleveland Indians and cast off again, ancient (39) Sal Maglie had been bought by Brooklyn only as possible second-line insurance. On that chilly evening last week, Maglie kept his hairline curve under perfect control, had the Philadelphia hitters swinging loose from their shoes. At the end, he had pitched the first no-hitter of his career. The Brooklyns suddenly began to act like men who were planning to win.

Next day, they stumbled momentarily as Robin Roberts beat Don Newcombe 7-3. For a day, the Braves thought the pennant was in the bag. But the Braves seemed like men under a curse. Their three last games were with St. Louis. They fumbled away the first game 5-4. Next day, with the score tied at 1-1, Third Baseman Eddie Mathews let a bounding ball squirt away from him in the twelfth inning, and with it the game, 2-1.

The Dodgers made no more major mistakes. In a doubleheader with the Pirates, Maglie won the first game 6-2. The Dodgers won the second 3-1, then tucked away the pennant by beating the Pirates next day, "86, behind Big Newk. They did it with authority. Snider and Amoros homered twice, Robinson once. After that, it scarcely mattered that the forlorn Braves took their last game from St. Louis, 4-2.

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