Suddenly Last Summer

"Strange things," says Los Angeles Dodger Shortstop Maury Wills, "happen in September." Wills should know. As a 13-year veteran, he has helped the Dodgers hex the San Francisco Giants time after time in the late-summer stretch. This year, though, promised to be different. Off to their fastest start in a decade, the Giants led the National League's Western Division by as many as eleven games through the first five months of the season. Now in September, some strange things, like a Dodger streak and a Giant slump, make it look like the California version of Suddenly Last Summer all over again.

Lost Momentum. The big showdown occurred last week when the Dodgers met the Giants for the last time this season in a two-game series at Candlestick Park. In the first game, the slap-hitting Dodgers uncharacteristically clouted three home runs to outlast the Giants 5-4. In the process a disputed call and a near free-for-all over an exchange of beanballs resulted in two players from each team being thrown out of the game. Next night, the Giants rebounded long enough to take a 5-3 lead into the ninth inning. Then some more strange things, a broken-bat single, a blooper over second and a bunt, loaded the bases for the Dodgers. Then Leftfielder Manny Mota connected for a bases-clearing double and a 6-5 victory for Los Angeles.

After watching the Giants' once commanding lead cut to one slim game, Manager Charlie Fox seemed all but spooked. "How in God's name could they be so lucky?" he exclaimed. "They win with broken-bat hits, handle hits, bunts just barely out of reach, hits off the end of the bat, balls that hit the rim of the Astroturf carpet and hop funny. But luck has got to come back to us now. It's impossible for things to continue going the way they have for them." Not necessarily. The Dodgers of late have been making their own breaks, with Wills, Mota, Centerfielder Willie Davis and Third Baseman Rich Allen delivering key hits in game after game. The Giants, on the other hand, with Pitchers Gaylord Perry and Juan Marichal off their early-season form and the team batting a woeful .163 during their current losing streak, seem to have lost their momentum.

Humiliating Prospect. At week's end, after the Giants suffered their llth defeat in their last twelve games, Fox could only moan: "Will someone please tell me how to shake an entire team out of a batting slump?" If no one does and those strange September things keep happening, the Giants face the humiliating prospect of finishing second for the sixth time in the past seven seasons.

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