Week 16 Summary (07/24/1967

Week Sixteen of the 1967 BBW Replay is in the books, and it was another exciting week of 1967 baseball. The week ended with six doubleheaders played on Sunday, sixteen games in all, and half the teams have reached or passed the 100-games-played mark. The other half are all at 98 or 99 games played, so it won't take long to get everyone to that mark.

In the AL, Boston just had its ten-game winning streak ended, which corresponded neatly with the last few days of second-place Baltimore and third-place Detroit struggling along without Frank Robinson and Al Kaline. Both Robinson and Kaline have recently returned to active duty, but Boston ended the week with a 7.0 games lead over Baltimore and an 8.5 games lead over Detroit. Luckily for Detroit, they have a 9.5 games lead over the fourth-place Chicago club, so they don’t have to worry about being caught from behind, but August games begin this coming Tuesday, so if either of these teams has intentions of capturing the AL pennant, they will need to start making their move sooner rather than later. A sudden Boston losing streak wouldn’t hurt either, but the Red Sox have so far proven themselves to be quite resilient.

In the NL, first-place Atlanta and second-place St. Louis spent the past two weekends going face-to-face, with the Cardinals winning 4-of-7, meaning they essentially split the two-weekend series. St. Louis did capture first place for a day on Saturday but couldn’t hold it as Atlanta won on Sunday and retook the top spot. But while these two teams were splitting their games, San Francisco had won 8-of-10 and had moved past struggling Philadelphia into third place, only 2.0 games behind St. Louis. The Giants' pitching is equivalent to the Braves and Cardinals, and even though San Francisco is tenth in team batting average, they lead the NL in homeruns. Willie Mays is still struggling, Willie McCovey has trouble staying in the starting lineup, but they both still put a scare into opposing pitchers. Jim Ray Hart now has 31 homeruns (he hit 29 in 1967) and has done everything he could to keep the Giants relative while Mays and McCovey work through their issues.

The highlight of the week was the season's sixth no-hitter! Gaylord Perry allowed no hits and no walks, but two Giants' errors spoiled the opportunity for a perfect game. Jim Bunning only allowed one hit in his seven innings of work, but that Bobby Ethridge single scored Jim Ray Hart with the game's only run.