May 10, 1969...GAME 27 (WAS 10, SEA 1)

Marty Pattin gave up 7 in the first (8 overall) as the Senators and Camillo Pascual dominated the Pilots. Brandon did come on board to pitch 6 1/3 scoreless ball, but Washington's bats and legs might have been more tired than Brandon's pitching was good. Aker finished it out and didn't give up a run, which tells you just how tired the Senators were. This was Seattle's 9th loss in 11 games and the team fell below .500 for the first time since opening day.

May 9, 1969...GAME 26 (WAS 4, SEA 2)

The combination of Marshall and Bouton could not out pace Joe Coleman. Marshall gave up 4 runs over 8 innings, while the Pilots could only scratch out 2 harmless runs. Bouton pitched a scoreless 9th and recorded to K's. Frank Howard, the Capital Punisher, wend deep for a solo shot. Why does anyone pitch to him ? Maglie says to give him low heat on the outside corner. Shoot if pitching were really that easy...

May 7, 1969...GAME 25 (BOS 7, SEA 3)

Boston scored early and often. In fact they scored at least 1 run in 7 of the 9 innings to take game 2 of this short 2 game set. Gary "Ding Dong" Bell went 7, but gave up 5. Barber, in relief gave up 2 in 2. Neither one quite effective. Bell was heard mumbling something about breaking out those real estate books and Barber was headed to the diathermy. Bouton being the good roomie he is offered to take Bell to dinner, but Gary said he wanted to go out drinking instead...and drinking alone.

May 6, 1969...GAME 24 (BOS 7, SEA 4)

Brabender had a 3-2 lead going into the 9th. He looked to be tiring, but no call went the bullpen. In the blink of an eye the Bosox scored 4 and had a 5 run lead. Yaz hit a big 2 run shot after Thomas had tripled home 2. The Pilots fought back to score 2 in the bottom of the 9th only to see Mincher strike out with runners on to end it. Nobody gives any grief to the "good ole boys".

May 4, 1969...GAMES 22/23 (OAK 11, SEA 4) & (SEA 3, OAK 1)

First game of a twi-light double header. This one was a blow out. 11-4 read the final and it probably could have been worse. Down 7-4 after 7, Aker came on and gave up 4 runs to put it firmly out of reach. Jack hasn't gotten anyone out all season. Two errors did not help our cause either. Tommy Harper went 3 for 3 with 2 Ribbies as he raised his avg to .307. Hegan got 1 hit and his avg dropped to .339.

The second game of the twin bill was a must for Seattle. Losing this one would have meant gettin swept in 4 games by the A's. Brandon started and gave the team 7 solid innings of 5 hit 1 run ball. In fact both teams scored 1 in the 1st and posted goose eggs all the way through. One Jim Bouton cam on and threw a scoreless 8th to notch the win as the Pilots scored 2 in the 9th and Segui cam on for the save. The 8th inning wasn't pretty as Bouton hit Blue Moon Odom, Oakland's pitcher, to start things off. With 2 outs Reggie walked and the Bulldog snuck a 84 mph fastball by Sal Bando to keep the game in check. Seattle scrapped to score 2 in the 9th after Harper led off with a walk and promptly stole 2nd. Odom paid too much attention to Harper and wound up walking Hegan. Comer laid down a beautiful bunt to make it 2nd and 3rd with only one out. Old reliable, Tommy Davis singled to center to score Harper and Mincher singled to right to score Hegan. The win ended a 3 game losing steak.

May 3, 1969...GAME 21 (OAK 7, SEA 0)

The final score reads 7-0 Oakland and all one can think about is, "damn, Seattle go blown out". That's the furthest from the truth. Going into the bottom of the 8th the score was 3-0. Marshall was certainly being crafty and getting by on guile. The floodgates opened in the 8th when Oakland scored 4 runs on 5 hits. The big blow was a double by Jim "Pags" Pagliaroni their backup catcher. If he keeps doing stuff like that Marvin Milkes will probably acquire him !

May 2, 1969...GAME 20 (OAK 3, SEA 2)

We know it rains in Seattle, but who would have guessed that it would rain in Oakland. There was a 16 minute rain delay in the 4th, but it did not have an affect in the outcome of the game. Steve "my arm is not sore" Barber went 5 and gave up only 1 run, which looked like it might hold up until the Pilots tied it in the top of the 9th. Rollie Fingers got Rich Rollins to fly to Reggie in right to lead off the inning. Ranew singled and Kennedy came on to run for him. McNertney, the bachelor, doubled to make it 2nd and 3rd with only 1 out, but Oyler was up. Now we all love Oyler, but his batting average isn't even on the interstate, so Steve Whitaker pinch hits and hits a sac fly to right to tie it. In the 10th Seattle scores again to take the lead as Wayne Comer hit a bullet to left. Unfortunately Segui couldn't get anyone out and Danny Cater doubled home two to give Oakland the loss.Even in a heartbreaking loss some good can be found. Bouton threw 3 scoresless innings in relief of Barber and the knuckleball was twisting.