Misiorowski-Burns matchup on anniversary of epic Spahn-Marichal duel
· Yahoo Sports
The July 2 tilt between Milwaukee Brewers flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski and electric Reds starter Chase Burns represented one of the great pitching matchups of the season for Milwaukee, though it has a long way to go to mirror the matchup exactly 63 years earlier.
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On July 2, 1963, the Milwaukee Braves played deep into the night at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, when future Hall of Famers Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal waged a battle that won't be matched in modern baseball.
The Giants won the game in the 16th inning, 1-0, when Willie Mays belted a home run to left field against Spahn, making a winner of Marichal, who had matched Spahn over 16 innings.
The final lines: Marichal allowed eight hits with four walks and 10 strikeouts in 16 innings. Spahn, at 42 years old, allowed nine hits, one intentional walk and two strikeouts in 15⅓. Spahn threw 201 pitches, and Marichal threw 227.
The game lasted a relatively economical 4 hours and 10 minutes, finishing at 2:25 a.m. CT back in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee Journal sports writer Bob Wolf led off his story with the line, "If ever a pitcher became a hero in defeat, it was Warren Spahn here Tuesday night."
Marichal, just 25 years old at the time, improved to 13-2 on the season en route to winning 20 games for the first time. The game finally ended when Spahn's screwball to Mays (0 for 5 at the time) didn't spin and left the yard.
Only once in the subsequent years has a pitcher thrown as many innings in one MLB game as Marichal did. The record for length in a shutout is 18 innings from Carl Hubbell, 30 years before the Spahn-Marichal matchup.
Only 15,921 Giants fans saw the game at chilly Candlestick Park. Wisconsin native and Giants third baseman Harvey Kuenn, who had extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a hit in the 14th, made the first out of the 16th on Spahn's 200th pitch.
Marichal flummoxed Hank Aaron, who went hitless in the loss. Eddie Mathews had lasted only two at-bats before leaving the game with lingering wrist soreness.
Mays also contributed to the win with his arm, throwing out a runner at the plate in the fourth inning. Spahn himself almost added an incredible grace note to his pitching with a near-miss home run in the seventh, settling for a double.
When Spahn issued an intentional walk to Mays in extra innings, it marked the first free pass of any kind in 31⅔ innings. When Mays homered, it was the first run off Spahn in 27⅓ frames.
Willie McCovey also may have homered earlier in the game against Spahn, a ball that was controversially ruled foul as it lofted over the foul pole.
It was a different era and, naturally, the two starters were back on three days rest to make their next start. Spahn did, however, encounter a sore elbow that cost him some time, but he finished the season with a league-leading 22 complete games and finished with a record of 23-7, the last of his 13 20-win seasons.
Milwaukee finished the season 84-78-1.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Misiorowski-Burns matchup on anniversary of epic Spahn-Marichal duel