The defending World Series champion Milwaukee Braves rallied to score four times in the eighth inning to beat the San Francisco Giants 6-3 before a crowd of 26,948 at County Stadium.

The Giants, in their first year on the West Coast after their move from New York (along with a Brooklyn based team called the Dodgers), had a bad 1957, but manager Bill Rigney had his team in first place early in the year. Rigney tabbed 19-year old Mike McCormick to start. Milwaukee manager Fred Haney chose 6'8" Gene Conley, who also played in the NBA, to start.

Henry Aaron drove in the first run of the game when he hit into a force play and Johnny Logan scored in the first inning. In the second, San Francisco rookie first baseman Orlando Cepeda tripled and scored on a double by Willie Kirkland. The Braves went back ahead in the bottom of the second on a home run by Del Crandall.

The Giants took the lead in the third. McCormick led off with a single and Davenport bunted him over. Whitey Lockman singled home McCormick to tie the game. Willie Mays grounded out and Lockman moved over to second. Cepeda singled to score Lockman.

Aaron singled to lead off the sixth, but was erased on a double play ball off the bat of Joe Adcock. Andy Pakfo followed with a single as did Wes Covington and Rigney pulled McCormick in favor of Al Worthington, who retired Crandall to end the inning.

In the eighth inning, Eddie Mathews led off with a ground out. Aaron then hit a grounder to shortstop Daryl Spencer, who booted it, and Aaron was safe at first. Adcock walked and then Pafko singled to score Aaron to tie the game at 3-3. Rigney brought in Marv Grissom. Covington singled to right to score Adcock and send Pafko to third. Crandall then hit a bouncer to the pitcher and Grissom threw out Pafko at the plate. Red Schoendienst singled to score Covington and it was 5-3 Milwaukee. A wild pitch by Grissom let Crandall score with the Braves sixth run.

Don McMahon, who relieved Conley in the eighth, worked out of jams the last two innings to pick up the win.

The Braves would win their second straight NL pennant with a 92-62 record, eight games ahead of the Pirates. The Giants finished in third, 12 games back at 80-74. The Braves would lose the World Series to the Yankees in seven games.

Warren Spahn, who went 22-11 with a 3.07 ERA, and Lew Burdette, who went 20-10 with a 2.91 ERA, led a strong Braves pitching staff that led the NL with a 3.21 ERA. However, despite the bats of Aaron and Mathews and the strong pitching, the Braves would not win an NL pennant again in Milwaukee.

Cepeda would win the Rookie of the Year award in 1958, batting .312 with 25 home runs. Mays batted .347 with 29 home runs in his first year in San Francisco. However, the rest of the offense was pretty spotty with guys like Bob Schmidt and Danny O'Connell getting a lot of at bats. And the pitching staff, aside from reliever Stu Miller, wasn't all that stellar. The Giants had another prospect at AAA Phoenix in 1958 by the name of Willie McCovey. He would prove to be quite helpful in the future.

Sources: New York Times, Retrosheet, Baseball-Reference.com