June 27, 1959: Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax tosses first shutout in nearly four years

“Another dazzler,” raved Los Angeles Dodgers beat writer Frank Finch about Sandy Koufax’s six-hit shutout of the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 27, 1959, Koufax’s first whitewashing in almost four seasons.1 “He can beat any team and strike out anyone,” declared Dodgers pitching coach Joe Becker about his young emerging ace whose midseason transformation was as unlikely as it was spectacular.2

Skipper Walter Alston’s Dodgers (41-33) were playing their best ball since they departed Brooklyn for sunny Los Angeles two seasons earlier. They were in the midst of their most successful homestand since 1956 – the last time they captured the National League pennant. Their 6-5 victory over the Pirates on June 26, in the first game of a three-game set, was their fifth straight win, equaling their longest winning streak in three seasons.

With 10 victories in the first 13 games of a 16-game homestand, the Dodgers had catapulted from fifth place into a tie with the San Francisco Giants for second place, two games behind the Milwaukee Braves. “The club is beginning to believe in themselves,” said Alston, who had piloted “Dem Bums” to their only World Series title in franchise history in 1955. “They’re hitting better than last year and the pitching is better.”3 Alston’s squad was erasing the disappointing memories of its first season in the City of Angels, which had culminated in the franchise’s worst record and first losing season since 1944.

Taking the mound in the second game of the Pirates series was Koufax, the enigmatic 23-year-old flamethrowing southpaw. After hurling just 204 2/3 innings and posting a 9-10 record in his first three seasons, Koufax went 11-11 in 158 2/3 innings in 1958, but he was erratic and exhibited even less control of his seemingly limitless talent. His walk rate increased to a major-league-worst 6.0 per 9 innings, and he led the National and American Leagues with 17 wild pitches, while his strikeout rate decreased from 27.5 percent to 18.4 percent.

Koufax’s rough final six weeks of the 1958 season (6.20 ERA and 42 walks in 45 innings) extended into 1959. After failing to finish four innings in each of his four starts in April, he was shunted to the bullpen. On May 16 he possessed a dismal 12.00 ERA with 17 walks in 12 innings. “The way I started out this year,” admitted Koufax, “I’m surprised I didn’t end up in the minors.”4

Less than six weeks after that abyss, the Los Angeles Times hailed Koufax as the “most improved pitcher of the staff.”5 After an 11-strikeout performance in a loss to the Giants on May 26, Koufax won his next four decisions. His last outing, against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 22, may have been the best thus far in his career. In his second straight distance-going start, Koufax’s 16 punchouts set a new National or American League record for strikeouts in a night game, tied Nap Rucker’s Dodgers franchise record, and were one short of Dizzy Dean’s NL record.6

Skipper Danny Murtaugh called on Vern Law to lead the fourth-place Bucs (39-35). Unlike Koufax’s heat, the 29-year-old right-hander relied on breaking balls, movement, and pinpoint control for his success. Law was coming off his most productive big-league season, with career bests in wins (14) and innings (202 1/3), emerging as a dependable frontline starter; and twirling the best ball of his nine-year career. He entered the game with an 8-4 record and had tossed three consecutive complete-game victories with just three earned runs in his last 27 innings. The Pirates were without right fielder Roberto Clemente, who had injured his right elbow making a tumbling catch in Los Angeles in May and ultimately missed six weeks.7

On a picture-perfect Saturday evening with temperatures hovering around 70 degrees for the 8 P.M. start time, a Ladies Night crowd of 48,072 packed Memorial Coliseum.8 The paid attendance of 31,649 enabled the Dodgers to become the first big-league team to surpass the million mark in 1959.9 For added entertainment, Dodgers front-office officials and local sportswriters squared off in an exhibition game at 6:30.10

The Dodgers-Pirates game unfolded as a tense pitchers’ duel. The Pirates threatened to score in the top of the first, but Koufax benefited from what Finch described as “spectacular” defense.11 Center fielder Don Demeter’s highlight reel began in the first inning. After Dick Groat’s one-out single, the 24-year-old Demeter, in his first full major-league season, snared Smoky Burgess’s fly to deep center.12 The catch potentially saved a run, as Dick Stuart followed with a single before Harry Bright fanned to end the first.

Koufax held the Pirates hitless over the next three innings, allowing only Bright’s two-out walk in the fourth. He was again aided by Demeter, who “robbed” Don Hoak of a hit to deep center in the second inning.13

It was still scoreless in the bottom of the fourth, when Los Angeles’ Charlie Neal smashed a one-out double “against the screen” in center and moved to third on Wally Moon’s grounder to second.14 Duke Snider, who had entered on a tear with 10 hits in his last 7 contests, including 5 home runs and 13 RBIs, drove in Neal on a single to center.

Koufax held onto the lead, with more assistance from his defense. Demeter made another outstanding catch on Hoak in the fifth.15 The defensive highlight and possibly game-saving catch occurred in the sixth inning. Burgess and Stuart reached via consecutive one-out singles. They moved up on a wild pitch, and the potential tying and go-ahead runs were in scoring position.

But after Koufax fanned Bright, Mazeroski smashed a towering fly to deep right field, which seemed destined to curve around the foul pole for a three-run home run, according to Finch.16 Graybeard Duke Snider, in his 13th season with the club, raced to the corner and snagged the ball while “leaning against the wall” for the third out, reported the Long Beach Press-Telegraph.17

The Dodgers were up 1-0 as the bottom of the eighth began. Don Zimmer hit a one-out double. After Law struck out Koufax. Jim Gilliam, one of baseball’s hottest hitters, batting .435 with a .524 on-base percentage and 25 runs in his last 23 games, was intentionally walked to face Neal.

The four-year veteran Neal, who had tied Hodges for the team lead with 22 home runs in ’58, might have had a reason to feel insulted. Earlier that day, the AL and NL All-Star teams were announced.18 It was “nothing short of a miscarriage of justice,” declared Finch in the Los Angeles Times, that big-league players had voted the Cincinnati Reds’ Johnny Temple and the Bucs’ Bill Mazeroski as the starter and backup for the July 7 game.19

According to Dodgers beat writer George Lederer, Neal smashed one to almost the same place as Zimmer, into the left-center-field gap, to drive in both Zimmer and Gilliam, for the Dodgers’ second and third runs of the game.20

Koufax pitched around a leadoff walk to Bright in the ninth to close out the game. Though not as overpowering as he was in his last outing with 16 punchouts, Koufax fanned eight to bring his three-game total to 31. It was the most for a Dodger in a three-start stretch since Dazzy Vance struck out 33 in May 1925.21 Koufax made 116 pitches (79 strikes), walked two, and completed the game in just one hour and 50 minutes.22 It was his third career shutout and first since he blanked Pittsburgh as a rookie on September 3, 1955, at Ebbets Field.

Koufax’s gem moved the Dodgers to within one game of the NL-leading Braves, but he did not yet emerge as the superstar he would become. He battled arm pain that shelved him for the final 20 days of July, after which he labored through several ineffective starts.

Still, there were moments of brilliance. On August 24 Koufax commenced a stunning three-start stretch during which he struck out 41 batters to break Bob Feller’s AL-NL record of 38.23 In the second of those games, Koufax punched out 18 Giants to tie Feller’s AL-NL mark for strikeouts in a game.

While the Dodgers secured the pennant by winning the first two games of a best-of-three tiebreaker with the Braves, Koufax made just one start (a disastrous two-thirds-inning outing against the St. Louis Cardinals) and two brief relief appearances in the final 11 games, recording just five outs. 

Despite Koufax’s struggles, Alston had not lost faith in him. After two no-hit innings of mop-up relief in the Dodgers’ Game One loss to the Chicago White Sox in the World Series, Koufax returned to the mound in Game Five with a chance to secure the championship. He held the White Sox to five hits and fanned six in seven innings but was removed for a pinch-hitter and was charged with the 1-0 loss.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Jim Sweetman and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Sandy Koufax, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, SABR.org, and the following:

Biederman, Lester J. “Koufax Blanks Bucs on Six Hits, 3-0,” Pittsburgh Press, June 28, 1959: IV, 1.

Finch, Frank. “McDevitt Will Attempt to Retain Mastery Over Pirates Today,” Los Angeles Times, June 28, 1959: III, 2.

“What Sandy Did, What He Sought,” Long Beach (California) Press-Telegraph, June 23, 1959: C1.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN195906270.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1959/B06270LAN1959.htm

Notes

1 Frank Finch, “Dodgers Win 6th Straight, 3-0,” Los Angeles Times, June 28, 1959: III, 1.

2 “As Lederer Saw It,” Long Beach (California) Press-Telegraph, June 28, 1959: S-3.

3 Charlie Park, “Sizzling L.A. Calls on Koufax,” Los Angeles Mirror-News, June 27, 1959: I, 9.

4 “Koufax Simply Glad He Beat Phils,” Hollywood Citizen-News, June 23, 1959: 10.

5 Finch, “Dodgers Win 6th Straight, 3-0.”

6 Koufax’s 16 strikeouts broke the AL-NL record for most in a night game, eclipsing the mark of 14 set by Johnny Vander Meer (1943) and subsequently tied by Bob Feller (1946), Bob Turley (1953 and 1954), and Sam Jones (1958). Rucker registered 16 strikeouts on July 24, 1909, in a 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Brooklyn’s Washington Park in the second game of a twin bill. Dean fanned 17 in an 8-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs in the first game of a doubleheader on July 30, 1933, at Sportsman’s Park; Feller held the AL-NL record with 18 in a 4-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers in the first game of a doubleheader on October 2, 1938, at Cleveland Stadium. See “Koufax Simply Glad He Beat Phils.”

7 Frank Finch, “Dodgers Host Giants Tonight,” Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1959: IV, 3.

8 Temperature and weather from “Weather,” Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1959: I, 1. Ladies Night attendance is from George Lederer, “Dodgers Win Sixth in Row, 3-0,” Long Beach Press-Telegraph, June 28, 1959: S1, S3.

9 The Los Angeles Times noted the Dodgers season attendance total because it took the club 41 games on 39 dates to reach the one-million mark in 1959 whereas they accomplished the feat in just 35 games in 1958.

10 George Lederer, “Not Luck, Just Confidence – Alston,” Long Beach Press-Telegraph, June 27, 1959: 6.

11 Finch, “Dodgers Win 6th Straight, 3-0.”

12 “Dodgers Win 6th Straight, 3-0.”

13 “Dodgers Win 6th Straight, 3-0.”

14 “Dodgers Win 6th Straight, 3-0.”

15 “Dodgers Win 6th Straight, 3-0.”

16 “Dodgers Win 6th Straight, 3-0.”

17 Lederer, “Dodgers Win Sixth in Row, 3-0.”

18 Associated Press, “Aaron Tops All-Star Vote,” Los Angeles Times, June 28, 1959: III, 1.

19 Frank Finch, “McDevitt Will Attempt to Retain Mastery Over Pirates Today,” Los Angeles Times, June 28, 1959: III, 2. Neal wasn’t completely overlooked. He was later named to the NL squad for the second All-Star Game, played on August 3; importantly, he was the 1959 Gold Glove recipient, an award voted for by active players. For some perspective: Mazeroski was the NL Gold Glove second baseman eight times in a 10-year stretch (1958-1967), interrupted by Neal in 1959 and Ken Hubbs of the Chicago Cubs in 1962.

20 Lederer, “Dodgers Win Sixth in Row, 3-0.”

21 Vance fanned 10, 10, and 11 in three straight starts on May 21, 26, and 31, 1925.

22 Pitch count via BaseballReference.com.

23 Feller fanned 10, 10, and 18 in his last three starts of the 1938 season.