Good pitching beats good hitting. The 1969 O's have both and then some. With a starting rotation that features 3 ace's (Palmer, Cuellar and McNally) the O's are a tough team to beat. Cleveland's staff is nothing to sneeze about either, but they unfortunately did not have their rotation setup due to having played the '61 Yankees in the ALDS, where Early Wynn and Bob Lemon both took to the hill.
The opener saw a classic matchup of HOF'ers with Jim Palmer matching up against Rapid Robert (Bob) Feller. Both pitchers were on their game. Palmer's was A+. Feller ran out of gas in the 7th and yielded 3 big insurance runs as the O's won 5-0. Palmer fanned 10 Indian batters and yielded only 3 hits enroute to the complet game shutout. Baltimore struck first in the opening stanza after Don Bufford walked and Paul Blair singled him home a few batters later. The
O's scored again in the 3rd after Mark Belanger led off with a walk and Brooksie brought him home with a sac fly. As the late great Bob Murphy would say, "oh those bases on balls...they'll get you everytime". Feller was pitching fine, but this O's lineup is strong from top to bottom and they are very selective hitters. The 8th inning saw Feller laboring, but Cleveland's manager kept him in since his opposing number was scheduled to lead off. With nothing left in the tank Feller yielded a lead off double to Palmer who scored along with Mark Belanger on a Frank Robby triple. For good measure Boog Powell hit a sac fly to knock Frank in and increase the lead to 5-0 where it would stay.
Game 2 saw a classic pitcher's duel between lefty Mike Cuellar and his unlikely opponent Al Houtterman. Both went the distance, but Houtterman wound up on the short side of the ledger as Cuellar tosses a 3 hitter. The O's would score all of their runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings respectively, but with the way Cuellar was dealing he didn't need more. With 2 outs in the bottom of the second catcher Ellie Hendricks drilled one to deep left center to break the ice and put the O's up 1-0. In the 3rd catlyst Don Bufford lead off with a double. Frank Robby singled him over to 3rd and big John Wesley "Boog" Powell hit a sac fly to bring him in and put the Tribe on the brink of elimination.
Game 3 saw the series shift to the "mistake by the lake". The Tribe had reason to feel confident as ace Early Wynn would be on the hill. The O's were trotting out their 3rd ace in a row, lefty Dave McNally. Cleveland struck first as they loaded the bases and Al Smith hit a sac fly to bring in Hank Majeski. This was Cleveland's first run of the series, and sadly for the hometown faithful their last. Unable to capitalize on a 1 out bases loaded scenario the Tribe had to hope that Wynn could keep the O's in check and be near perfect, and for 6 innings he was. The top of the 7th saw Baltimore find a chink in Wynn's armor and tag him for 2 runs, which is all they would need to
put away the Tribe's anemic offense. Big guns Frank Robinson and Boog Powell lead off with singles. Paul Blair bunted them up a base and the stage was set for Brooks Robinson to deliver. With everyone sitting on the edge of their seats Wynn got Robinson to ground to short. The ball was hit neither hard, nor soft enough for the runner to advance, so with 2 out the O's looked to be in trouble. Sensing the moment of destiny was at hand Wynn threw a ball that got too much of the plate and back up catcher Andy Etchebarren delivered a big 2 run triple that took all the air out of Municipal Stadium.
With the score 2-1 the O's lifed McNally for a pinch hitter and put the ball in their bullpen's hands. Dick Hall blanked the Tribe in the 8th and faced 1 batter in the 9th to give way to lefty Pete Richert who got the one lefty he faced. That put the ball in the hands of closer Ed Watt who made things interesting by walking Al Rosen and giving up a 2 out single to Al Smith. Cleveland went to the bench and brought in Vic Wertz to pinch hit for Dave Philley. Wertz hit a bullet to gold glover Mark Belanger deep in the hole at short, who calmly flipped it over to Davey Johnson who was covering second to record the final out of the series.The O's put together a fabulous 3 game sweep and now sit back and wait to see which Dodger team they will face in the World Series.
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