Batters couldn’t produce a run against Bob Gibson, so he did it for them.
On July 1, 1968, Gibson’s streak of 47.2 scoreless innings ended when he threw a wild pitch, enabling Len Gabrielson to score from third base in the first inning at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Gibson had pitched shutouts in each of his five previous starts for the Cardinals. In the start after facing the Dodgers, Gibson shut out the Giants, giving him six shutouts in seven games.
If not for the wild pitch, Gibson may have achieved seven consecutive shutouts. He allowed one run over 63 innings in seven consecutive complete-game starts.
Marquee matchup
After consecutive shutouts versus the Astros, Braves, Reds, Cubs and Pirates, Gibson was matched against the Dodgers’ Don Drysdale. From May 14 to June 8, Drysdale pitched six shutouts in a row and put together a streak of 58.1 consecutive scoreless innings.
A crowd of 54,157 came out to Dodger Stadium to see whether Gibson could match Drysdale’s shutout streak. The paid attendance was 42,603 but the total crowd included straight-A students and Girl Scouts who were guests of the Dodgers. The start of the game was delayed 11 minutes to accommodate the late-arriving throng.
In the first inning, Gibson got Willie Davis to ground out to second and Paul Popovich to pop out to first. After Gabrielson singled, Tom Haller hit a groundball to second. Julian Javier ranged to his left, lowered the glove and appeared ready to make the stop, but the ball eluded him and went into right field for a single. Gabrielson advanced to third on the play.
“Bad hop,” Javier said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It looked as if it would hit me in the face, so I put my glove up.”
Ron Fairly was up next.
Tough to handle
With the count at 0-and-1, Gibson threw a pitch down and in to Fairly. “A wild fastball,” Gibson said.
“It was one of the hardest thrown balls I’ve ever seen,” Fairly told the Los Angeles Times. “It came screaming in low and he had a lot on it.”
Johnny Edwards was the Cardinals’ catcher. Manager Red Schoendienst started Edwards instead of the regular catcher, Tim McCarver, because Edwards “is a better thrower than McCarver and the Dodgers are a running club,” reported Dayton Daily News columnist Si Burick.
Edwards set up for a pitch on the outside corner but the ball sailed inside to the left-handed batter.
Gibson’s pitch “hit the dirt on the back of the plate,” Edwards said. “I tried to shift for it. I got my bare hand on it. It caromed off, hit the umpire’s shin guard and bounced in the opposite direction.”
As the ball bounded off the screen, Gabrielson advanced from third base, stomped on home plate with both feet, ran to the dugout “and leaped flat-footed as if he had just stolen home in the World Series,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
The run was the first allowed by Gibson since Ed Charles of the Mets hit a solo home run against him on June 2.
After Fairly grounded out, Edwards approached Gibson in the dugout and said, “I’m sorry. I tried.”
Gibson shrugged.
Redbirds rally
The Cardinals tied the score, 1-1, in the second when Bobby Tolan scored from third on Javier’s sacrifice fly and went ahead, 2-1, in the sixth when Curt Flood scored from third on Orlando Cepeda’s sacrifice fly.
In the seventh, the Cardinals stretched their lead to 5-1 with three runs against Drysdale. Javier scored from third on Gibson’s ground out to second. Lou Brock and Flood each followed with a RBI-single.
Drysdale was lifted after yielding five runs, 10 hits, all singles, and a walk in 6.1 innings.
Gibson worked out of jams in the eighth and ninth. With runners on first and third, one out, in the eighth, Gibson retired Gabrielson on a fly out to shallow left and got Haller to ground out.
In the ninth, with one out, ex-Cardinal Ken Boyer walked, Jim Lefebvre singled and Boyer went to third. Gibson got Wes Parker to pop out to third and struck out Bob Bailey, completing the 5-1 victory and improving his season record to 10-5. Boxscore
Blame game
When Gibson got to the clubhouse and saw the pack of reporters waiting to quiz him about the wild pitch, he shouted for his teammates to hear, “It was the catcher’s fault. He loused it up.”
Flood fired back with a needle at Gibson, “Forget it. If it wasn’t the wild pitch, you’d have found some other way to louse it up.”
Brock chimed in, “Did you throw a spitter?” and his teammates roared with laughter.
To ensure journalists knew he was joking about blaming Edwards, Gibson said, “It was my fault. I have no excuses.”
“I didn’t have control of my fastball,” Gibson told The Sporting News. “I normally don’t have much trouble with my fastball.”
Asked whether he was disappointed to miss out on a sixth consecutive shutout, Gibson said, “Nobody thinks about pitching a shutout. Sportswriters and fans are more concerned with records than the players are. The important thing is to win.”
Asked whether he’d felt pressure in trying to maintain the scoreless streak, Gibson responded, “Pressure? Call it aggravation. I had more pressure on me when I was growing up as a kid.”
In 304.2 innings pitched in 1968, Gibson threw four wild pitches.
Years later, in his 1994 book “Stranger to the Game,” Gibson said the pitch he threw to Fairly deflected off the tip of Edwards’ mitt. “Frankly, I thought it should have been (ruled) a passed ball since the pitch was not in the dirt and Edwards got his glove on it,” Gibson said.
“It wouldn’t have been good form to complain about the call, but I disagreed with it,” Gibson said.
RetroSimba 
My favorite part of this is the crap his teammates gave him.
Thanks. I’m glad you appreciate those kinds of details. Those are fun to find in the research.
You are welcome. Gibson was a very sharp needler in the clubhouse. That the rest of the crew flip it right back at him is indicative of trust and a close-knit team. The 1960’s Cardinals will always hold a special place in my heart.
you left out the part where the Gibson book “stranger to the game” says on p189 if the pitch had instead been ruled a passed ball the run would have been unearned and wouldn’t have counted against the streak. which of course is a glaring mistake. on p190 he says if the call in LA had gone the other way ( i.e. passed ball) my scoreless streak would have reached 65. incorrect. in another Gibson book “pitch by pitch” by the same author it says on p100 the official scorer ruled it a wild pitch which made the run earned and ended my streak. in 2017 Sridhar pappu wrote a book “the year of the pitcher” and on p200 says had the scorer ruled it a passed ball Gibson’s streak would have gone on instead it was ruled a wild pitch and the run was charged to him stopping his mark at 47 2/3. later on the same page he says some felt that had another scorer who wasn’t influenced by hometown loyalties, the correct call would have been made (passed ball) and he would have easily eclipsed Drysdale. an egregious mistake. pappu footnote in back of book says he used Gibson book “stranger to the game” as his source!!! it doesn’t matter if the run scored by passed ball, wild pitch, or because someone shot the third baseman!! IT SCORED. STREAK OVER. I contacted pappu on facebook and he is adamant that it is not a mistake. he says several “historians” agree with him. sorry if this sounds like nitpicking but I grew up a Drysdale fan. that’s 3 books now with the same mistake!
Thanks for your comments. Johnny Edwards’ quotes in this piece clearly refute what Bob Gibson said in his book years later. Edwards said the ball hit the dirt and he got a bare hand on it. Gibson’s version years later is the pitch wasn’t in the dirt and Edwards got a gloved hand on it. Edwards was in the best position to know what happened. I’m on your side on this: It was ruled a wild pitch, the evidence supports the call and neither Gibson nor Edwards disputed it at the time. Why Gibson and others felt a need years later to claim it was a passed ball is something only they can explain, but it won’t change the call.
I don’t even care if it was ruled a passed ball or a wild pitch. it doesn’t matter. it was a scoreless streak. all three books mistakenly treat it as if it were a unearned run streak which it was not.
the late gene carney says on p294 of his book “burying the black sox” that it is always good practice in doing research to be wary of “facts” that show up in just one source. they should automatically raise suspicions. even if they show up in 2 sources it is best to check and see if the later source is just quoting the earlier. carneys right because that’s what happened here. I believe that the author of the 2 books on Gibson was far too credulous. but he thought that since he was getting the story of the end of Gibson’s SCORELESS inning streak straight from the horse’s mouth it would be accurate. but it was not. the author of “the year of the pitcher”, Sridhar pappu was guilty of lazy research.
Yes, agree, it’s standard practice in good journalism to use multiple sources.
I remember watching the game on TV in StLouis. Is there no film or other video of it? Film record of that pitch might help decide whose memory is better – Gibson’s or Edwards’. As if that matters. Earned or unearned, it was still a run. The irony of course is that it was Gibson vs Drysdale.
After this game, both Drysdale and Gibson stood 10-5. Drysdale then went 4-7 to finish the season 14-12. Gibson went 12-4 to finish 22-9.
How did Gibson manage to lose 9 games that year? In his 9 losses, the Cards averaged 1.3 runs per game on fewer than 5 hits per game. Gibson surrendered 18 runs in 77 innings. That’s an excellent 2.10 era, but not good enough to win when your team scores less than 2 runs for you. That explains the 9 losses.
Thanks for your insights and perspective, John. Good stuff.
thank you john fembup for understanding what a consecutive SCORELESS inning streak is. author Sridhar pappu who wrote “the year of the pitcher” is adamant that Gibson’s streak would have gone on had it been ruled a passed ball! in the book he used Lonnie wheeler’s book on Gibson “stranger to the game” as his source. on facebook pappu wrote me saying that he discussed it with several historians who agree with him!!!!!!!!!