Regroup! Retrench! Dig In!

"What do you want me to do -- cry?" snarled San Francisco Manager Herman Franks. Days before, Franks's Giants seemed to have the National League pennant all wrapped up. They had won 14 games in a row, 17 out of their last 18, and they beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-0 in the opener of a three-game series. Then -- trouble.

To give his top pitcher, Juan Marichal (season's record: 22-11), an extra day of rest, Franks started Bob Shaw in the second game against the Reds. The Reds won, 7-4. Next day Marichal was so relaxed that he threw three gopher balls in two innings, and the Reds won again, 7-1. That cut the Giants' lead to 3 1/2 games over Cincinnati, only two games over the incredible Los Angeles Dodgers, who won their sixth straight in typical Dodger fashion; trailing the Milwaukee Braves 6-1, they fought back to tie the score, won the game in the 11th inning when Shortstop Maury Wills beat out a bunt, stole his third base of the game (and 88th of the season), and scored on Lou Johnson's two-out single.

San Francisco's Franks refused to panic. "We've fallen back before," he said, "and we've always regrouped. This is the last time we're falling back. That's a promise. We will retrench and dig in and start to go again." Whereupon the Giants went out and lost their third game in a row, 8-2, to the Milwaukee Braves -- while the Dodgers were winning their seventh straight over St. Louis, 4-3. Next day, Willie Mays crashed his 50th homer, arid the Giants finally snapped out of their losing streak with a 7-5 victory over the Braves. It was a good thing they did. In Los Angeles, Dodger Pitcher Sandy Koufax shut out the Cardinals 2-0 and recorded his 356th strikeout of the season, breaking Bob Feller's 19-year-old major league record. At week's end the Giants' lead was one slim game.

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