Having told you a John D'Acquisto story which was mostly wrong, it seems only fair to tell you one which was mostly right.

At Philo's suggestion, I asked him a question about giving up first inning runs.  He really had nothing to say on the subject beyond obvious things like not being properly warmed up, but in the course of his answer he mentioned a game in which he had matched up against Bob Gibson.  Gibson had given up five runs in the first, D'Acquisto had given up four, then they both got locked in and D'Acquisto and the Giants won the game, 5-4.  In fact, D'Acquisto said, he had a streak where he retired about nineteen batters in a row.

Well, just like with Sam McDowell, Gibson and D'Acquisto's careers only overlapped by three years, 1973-1975.  In D'Acquisto's only really good year as a starter, 1974, he matched up with Gibson twice.  And sure enough, one of them was a 5-4 game, June 19, 1974, when the Giants played St. Louis in St. Louis.

Also sure enough, D'Acquisto gave up four runs in the bottom of the first, the last three scoring on a three-run homer by Jose Cruz.  Gibson did not give up any runs in the first, but he did give up three in the top of the second on a three-run homer by Bobby Bonds, and another in the third when Garry Maddox scored on an RBI single by Ed Goodson.  It's easy enough to see how, nearly forty years later, those runs got transposed into the first inning.  And indeed, the two pitchers did get locked in after that.  No more runs were scored until the eighth, when Doug Rader singled, went to second on an infield out, and scored on a single by Tito Fuentes to give San Francisco the win.

D'Acquisto did, in fact, pitch extremely well after the first inning.  Not only that, he was right.   He actually did retire nineteen batters in a row.  Following a walk to Bake McBride to start the third, he did not allow a baserunner until Joe Torre got a one-out single in the ninth.  At that point, D'Acquisto was replaced by Steve Barber, who got the last two outs of the game to record his only save of the season.

By the way, the other D'Acquisto/Gibson matchup was a very good game, too.  D'Acquisto retired the first ten men he faced and did not give up a hit until Ted Simmons got an infield single in the fifth.  The Giants took a 1-0 lead in the eighth when future Twin Chris Speier, of all people, hit a home run off Gibson.  D'Acquisto carried a two-hit shutout into the ninth, but he opened the final frame with a walk to another future Twin, Jim Dwyer.  Lou Brock followed with a single, sending Dwyer to third, at which point D'Acquisto was replaced by Elias Sosa.  Sosa retired the first batter on a fly out.  Brock then stole second, leading to an intentional walk to Reggie Smith.  Joe Torre then delivered a two-run single to give St. Louis the victory, 2-1.

Anyway, it's nice to know that not all the stories old ballplayers tell are wrong.  This one may not have been exact, but given that it was nearly forty years ago, it was pretty darn close.  You pitched a couple of really good games against Bob Gibson, John.  Good for you.