1965 Season
April- We go 17-10, 1 game behind the Giants despite having a team ERA almost two points lower. McCovey struggled mightily in April, hitting just .239 with 1 homer. The pitching was fabulous.
May- We rolled through May, ending the month at 38-16 with a 1 game lead on the Giants. McCovey picked it up. Only He and McCarver, both at .297 are hitting under .300. Our highest ERA among the starters is John with a 3.60 and Jenkins has a 1.50 ERA with 9 wins. We've managed to stay injury free as well. Fingers crossed.
June- We barreled through June, posting a 60-22 despite losing closer Len Church for a month with a broken eye. That probably hurts. The hitting on this team is insane. McCarver at .278 is the lowest average. The pitching is nearly as flawless. Nolan Ryan went 1st overall in the draft to the Braves. Johnny Bench went 2nd to the A's. The Cardinals took Carlton Fisk 4th and the Cubs took Thurman Munson 11th.
July- We're 75-32 with a 10 game lead on the Giants. The pen is not quite as sharp but none of our starters have an ERA over 3. Sweet lord. The lineup has cooled off a bit, we now have four guys under .300.
August- 96-39, a team 2.60 ERA. We sign McCarver to a 7 year deal at $26K. That is a major steal.
September- We cruised to a 115-47 record, winning the division by 21 games over the Pirates. The Orioles won the AL with an equally as impressive 116-46 record, besting the Yankees by 18 games. This is going to be an epic world series.
Phillies line the leaderboards. Julian Javier led the league in hits with 222 and runs with 126. McCovey with 118 and Yaz with 113 were 2nd and 3rd in runs. No Phillie placed in the top 10 in Homers and Hank Aarons 117 RBI were good for 2nd in baseball behind the Twins Graig Nettles.
Jenkins at 2.14, John at 2.18 and Culp at 2.48 were 1, 2, 3 in ERA. Johns 24 wins were 2nd in baseball to Baltimores Bob Gibson who had 26. Jenkins was 3rd with 22 and Loliches 20 were good for 5th. Jenkins with 215 and Lolich with 210 both placed in the top ten in K's.
We face an Orioles team in the world series who are led by sluggers Al Kaline & Clete Boyer with an aging Willie Mays. Their starting 2B is a .327 hitter by the name of Chuck Schilling, who we traded to them back in 1960 along with 4 other players for SP Jack Kralick, who you may remember sucked for us for a season, wanted a ton of money the following year, so we dumped. Not the best of trades. The Orioles are aced by Bob Gibson & Jaun Marichal. This ones gonna be good.