August 10, 1955: Don Larsen pitches his way out of Casey Stengel’s doghouse in 13-inning win over Red Sox

On the pleasant, overcast summer afternoon of August 10, 1955,1 at Yankee Stadium, Don Larsen of the New York Yankees and Frank Sullivan of the Boston Red Sox engaged in an extraordinary duel of physical endurance and pitching excellence. Each hurler went the distance in a game that was finally won by the Yankees, 3-2, in the 13th inning. Larsen’s performance, a five-hit, five-walk outing with seven strikeouts, was a clear sign that the 26-year-old right-hander, who had been demoted to the minors for his early-season struggles, was back in the big leagues to stay. 

Acquired from the Baltimore Orioles in a 17-player deal in November 1954, Larsen had been sent down to Triple-A Denver in May 1955 after several dismal outings to begin his third big-league season. On May 7, Larsen started against the Red Sox and faced only nine batters, allowing four runs. He followed that performance on May 10, this time against the Cleveland Indians, yielding four runs and failing to get an out in the fourth inning. 

Manager Casey Stengel had seen enough. Stengel believed that Larsen’s ineffectiveness was due to his poor physical condition and sent him to the minors to regain his form.2 Larsen responded very well in Denver, pitching in 13 games, completing 6, and generating a shiny 9-1 record.

After almost three months, Larsen was recalled to the big club for a July 31 start against the noncontending Kansas City A’s (41-58) at Yankee Stadium. He pitched a complete game, yielding four hits and four walks while striking out four, in a 5-2 Yankee win.  His next outing was August 5 against the Detroit Tigers, a much stronger opponent (54-44).  Again, Larsen answered the call with a complete-game 3-0 shutout, scattering eight hits and striking out four for another critical Yankee win.

Stengel praised Larsen’s performance in the Kansas City and Detroit games.  “Larsen now has what he lacked when I sent him to Denver and that is physical condition,” Stengel said.  “I had not been able to use him in the spring because of his sore arm and later when it looked as if he had recovered, he was not sufficiently effective for me to risk pitching him very often.  So, he could not get into good shape.  But now Larsen is back, a member in good standing of my pitching staff, I sure hope he helps me because I need help.”3

Entering play on August 10, the Chicago White Sox, Yankees, Red Sox, and Indians remained within 1½ games of each other in one of the American League’s tightest pennant races in years, and the previous night’s Yankee loss to Boston before 61,671 fans at the Stadium added even more tension to the race.4    

After shutdown innings by Larsen and Sullivan in the first, the Red Sox scored in the top of the second when Larsen yielded a single to Jackie Jensen, followed by a walk to Norm Zauchin.  He then plunked Sammy White to load the bases with no outs. Grady Hatton’s single to right brought home Jensen and Zauchin for a 2-0 lead. Larsen regrouped and limited the damage, getting three consecutive groundball outs to end the Boston rally. 

The Yankees failed to score in the bottom of the second but a gift by the Red Sox defense in the third let New York back in the game.  The inning began with a walk to Andy Carey. Larsen hit a grounder to Billy Goodman at second base that looked to be a double play ball but was bobbled, allowing both runners to reach safely.5 Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto then sacrificed the runners to second and third.

The next batter, Gil McDougald, surprised the Red Sox defense with another bunt. Zauchin took the out at first, but Carey scored from third as Larsen advanced to third.6

Mickey Mantle, who began the day leading the AL with 26 homers and a .600 slugging percentage, walked to fill the bases. Larsen easily scored on a solid single to right by Yogi Berra, tying the game, 2-2. 

From the third inning on Sullivan and Larsen took over the game, each not allowing a runner past second base for the next nine innings.

In the top of the 13th, the Red Sox moved a runner into scoring position for the first time since the seventh. Sullivan led off with a walk and took second on Goodman’s sacrifice. But Larsen retired Billy Klaus on a fly to left, intentionally walked .328-hitting Ted Williams, and retired Jensen on a popup to Carey at third for the final out.

In the bottom of the 13th inning, Berra’s routine leadoff ground ball was booted by the Boston shortstop, Klaus. Joe Collins’s bunt moved Berra to second. An intentional walk to Irv Noren set up the force play for the Red Sox. A soft Hank Bauer popup to Sullivan brought the second out of the inning.

The eighth-place hitter, third baseman Carey, came to the plate and drove a ball to left over Williams’ outstretched glove to score Berra from second base and win the game, bringing great joy to the many Yankee fans among the announced crowd of 34,284.7  

Indeed, Larsen answered Stengel’s call and did “help” Casey out.  Sportswriter Dan Daniel, writing in The Sporting News, framed the performance in this way: “(Larsen) turned in perhaps his most brilliant performance of the season on August 10 when he defeated the Red Sox 3-2 in 13 innings, allowing only 5 hits.  It was Larsen’s third win without a loss after being recalled from Denver.”8 

Sullivan finished the 1955 season with a record of 18-13.  It was to be his winningest season in the majors. Boston came in fourth in the American League. Larsen won seven of eight decisions and posted a 2.82 ERA after his July recall, good for a final record of 9-2.

The Yanks became American League champions in 1955 but lost to the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series, four games to three. Larsen was the losing pitcher in Game Four, allowing the Dodgers to tie the series at two games apiece.

 It was the beginning of Larsen’s five-season run as a valuable swingman on the Yankees’ staff. His August 10, 1955, outing against the Red Sox foreshadowed his perfect game in the 1956 World Series, the only perfect game as of 2025 in World Series history. The photo of Yogi Berra jumping into Don Larsen’s arms, after the called third strike on the Dodgers’ pinch-hitter, Dale Mitchell, captures one of baseball’s iconic moments.

Author’s Note

The summer of 1955 was filled with baseball. In that year my love of scoring baseball games blossomed, with Mutual Broadcasting System’s Game of the Day on radio and CBS’ Game of the Week on TV furnishing a plethora of data to record in my new scorebook. In addition, nightly San Antonio Missions Texas League games were broadcast. There are thirty-six baseball games (major and minor league) scored within this one book, spanning July 26, to August 31, 1955. The Yankees-Red Sox game of August 10, 1955, was among them.  The book was used by my father to keep some of his stamp collection safe after I had left home for college. He sold his collection, years later, and I found this book and three others in a cardboard box in a bedroom closet, shortly after his death. One of my life pleasures is to occasionally peruse those books and bring the minutia of a long-forgotten game to life, like recalling George “Sparky” Anderson getting two singles, a double, and a walk while driving in three runs for the Fort Worth Cats in an August 3, 1955, game against the Missions. I scored that game listening to its radio broadcast, alone in my bedroom.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Kurt Blumenau.

Photo credit: Don Larsen, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA195508100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1955/B08100NYA1955.htmL

Notes

1 “August 1955 Weather in Manhattan,” Weather Spark, https://weatherspark.com/h/m/24600/1955/8/Historical-Weather-in-August-1955-in-Manhattan-New-York-United-States#google_vignette, accessed July 9, 2025.

2 Dan Daniel, “Yankees Off to an Early Start on Rebuilding,” The Sporting News, August 10, 1955: 9.

3 Daniel, “Yankees Off to an Early Start on Rebuilding.”

4 Joe Trimble, “Yankees Lose, 4-1; Topple to 3d Place,” New York Daily News, August 10, 1955: 58, https://www.newspapers.com/image/454079356/?match=1&clipping_id=new, accessed December 12, 2025.

5 Joe Trimble, “Yanks Nip Bosox, 3-2 in 13 on Carey’s Hit,” New York Daily News, August 11, 1955: 56.

6 Roger Birtwell, “Larsen’s ‘Two Sliders’ Baffle Sox Batsmen,” Boston Globe, August 11, 1955: 12.

7 Trimble, “Yanks Nip Bosox, 3-2 in 13 on Carey’s Hit.”

8 Dan Daniel, “Ol’ Casey’s Shouts for Help Heard All the Way to Denver,” The Sporting News, August 17, 1955: 9.