July 6, 1955: A wild beginning: Sandy Koufax loses in his first start for Dodgers

A two-outcome (walk or strikeout) pitcher in his first major-league start in the twilight game of a doubleheader, Brooklyn’s Sandy Koufax pitched four shutout innings against Pittsburgh before walking in a run in the fifth and leaving the game. The Pirates gained a split by roughing up reliever Ed Roebuck to beat the Dodgers 4-1 before a crowd of 20,674 that witnessed a humble first in a historic hurling career.

Facing Vern Law, who had neither won 10 games in a season nor had an ERA lower than 4.50 in his first three big-league seasons but would have a breakout campaign in 1955, Brooklyn threatened in the top of the first. With one out, Pee Wee Reese singled. After Law fanned Duke Snider, Gil Hodges singled with two outs to put runners on the corners. Law escaped the jam by fanning future World Series hero Sandy Amoros.

With the doubleheader concluding “the last phase of [Brooklyn’s] toughest schedule span–seven games in four days”1 along with “the defections of [Johnny] Podres and [Billy] Loes and the doubt about [Russ] Meyer, young Koufax had entered … the starting picture.”2

In a confrontation between two rookies who would star in the National League for years, Koufax first faced Roberto Clemente, who batted leadoff 55 times in 1955 but only 95 more times from 1956 to 1972. Koufax walked Clemente, which said more about the former than the latter given that Clemente drew just 18 walks in 501 plate appearances in 1955.

Koufax struck out Dick Cole swinging, and on the third strike, backup backstop Rube Walker picked off Clemente trying to steal second. The play proved critical as Koufax walked each of the next two before escaping the frame on a liner to right.

Brooklyn got its run in the top of the second. Don Zimmer doubled and scored on Jim Gilliam’s single to center that turned into an out when Gilliam tried to advance on the throw home that first baseman Dale Long cut off and threw to Cole at second.

As in the bottom of first, the baserunner out loomed large as Walker followed with the third straight Dodger hit of the inning. But Koufax struck out bunting, and Don Hoak grounded out, leaving Brooklyn up just 1-0.

Koufax pitched around walks to Dick Groat and Law in the second with strikeouts of Hardy Peterson and Clemente.

The Dodgers went out in order in the third. Koufax pitched to contact in the bottom half. After a lineout, Román Mejías singled for the first Pittsburgh hit, but Frank Thomas grounded into a second-to-first double play.

Amoros tripled to lead off the top of the fourth. Impressively, Law escaped unscored on with a grounder to third by Zimmer, a swinging strikeout of Gilliam, an intentional walk to Walker, and another K of the weak-hitting Koufax.

Koufax protected the lead in the fourth, working around a one-out walk of Gene Freese.

Brooklyn went quietly in the fifth, and Pittsburgh knocked out Koufax by making him throw too many pitches. After Koufax fanned Law, Clemente and Cole knocked consecutive singles to put runners on first and second. Mejías forced Cole, putting runners on the corners with two outs. Koufax could not, however, get the final out, walking Long and Thomas, forcing in a run that tied the game and ended the pitcher’s first career start.

John Drebinger of the New York Times wrote, “Koufax did some stout hurling to overcome a grievous lack of control.”3

Second-year manager Walter Alston chose the rookie Roebuck to replace the rookie Koufax. In The Sporting News, Bob Broeg noted, “Roebuck … came up to the Dodgers from Montreal as a highly-regarded solid man of the mound and hasn’t disappointed, muscling in ahead of Jim Hughes and Clem Labine as captain of the Brooklyn bull pen.”4 Still, the choice in hindsight appears curious as Roebuck had thrown 4⅓ innings on July 3, gotten two outs on July 5, and pitched two innings of relief in the first game of the doubleheader. While the Dodgers had a decimated pitching staff, Roebuck had already worked seven relief innings in a four-day span before this appearance. In the short term, Roebuck repaid Alston’s faith by striking out Freese, also a rookie, with the bases loaded to keep the game deadlocked at 1-1.

Amoros walked with one out in the top of the sixth. Amoros swiped 10 bases in 1955, but catcher Peterson threw out the Dodger attempting to steal second. The rookie Peterson threw out nearly half of the runners attempting to steal against him in 1955 and exactly half of all runners in his 65 career games behind the plate. The next 12 hitters all went out in order until Snider singled with two outs in the eighth, but Law got a groundout from Hodges to end the inning.

Pittsburgh surged ahead in the home half as Roebuck may have understandably tired. With one out, Long singled; Tom Saffell ran for him. In the first 28 appearances of his career before July 3, Roebuck had yielded two triples. Beginning that day through this doubleheader over four appearances, Roebuck gave up three triples. Over the course of their careers, Roebuck held Freese to one hit in 13 plate appearances, but that hit won a game.

Freese, “who took a third strike from Roebuck in the fifth, hit a line drive to right which bounced off the wall and past … Gilliam for a triple and a run. The Dodger infield came in, but … Groat bounced a single over … Hoak’s head into left, scoring Freese.”5 One out later, Law doubled in Groat to give himself a 4-1 edge. Alston left Roebuck in to absorb blow after blow.

Law bent did not break on his way to a complete game. With one out in the ninth, he gave up singles to Zimmer and Gilliam that put the tying run at the plate. Law then got Walker to hit into a 4-6-3 twin killing to end the game.

The player of the game, Law, by capturing the nightcap, “saved the night at Forbes Field for the largest crowd since opening day [and] became a man of distinction. … Law stands … alone in the National League as the only pitcher to go the distance twice and beat the Dodgers. And he did it within the space of six days.”6 Law threw 132 pitches and gave up nine hits and two walks while tying his season high in strikeouts with 10. (He would fan 12 in 18 innings on July 19.) He improved to 5-3 for a team with a 29-53 record after its win over the 56-24 Dodgers. In 1955, Law won MVP votes for the first of four times in his career.

Koufax had walked eight while striking out four. This inauspicious first start notwithstanding, Koufax would transform his career in Los Angeles on his way to Cooperstown. More than a decade later, he recounted, “After I pitched the no-hitter in 1964, a woman wrote to ask if I could possibly be the same Koufax … whom she had seen years ago … She had felt so sorry for me … that she had almost cried. … [O]nly once did I ever walk more than I walked in half a game on my first start. That was in 1960, when I walked nine men in a thirteen-inning game.”7

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Photo credit: Sandy Koufax, Trading Card Database.

NOTES

1 John Drebinger, “Roberts Scores 5-to-4 Triumph When Brooks’ Rally Falls Short,” New York Times, July 6, 1955: 31.

2 Roscoe McGowen, “Strikeout Artist Spooner Strikes Stride for Brooks,” The Sporting News, July 6, 1955: 5. Meyer was on the 30-day disabled list after suffering a fractured shoulder in a collision with the Milwaukee Braves’ Bill Bruton. “Campy and Walker Shelved; Meyer Put on Disabled List,” The Sporting News, July 6, 1955: 5.

3 John Drebinger, “Brooks Win 10-5, Then Lose 4-1 Test,” New York Times, July 7, 1955: 30.

4 Bob Broeg, “Cards in Front Again with Top Rookies,” The Sporting News, July 13, 1955: 2.

5 Jack Hernon, “Bucs Whip Dodgers, 4-1, After 10-5 Setback,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 7, 1955: 18.

6 Lester J. Biederman, “Dodgers Find Law Hasn’t Changed,” Pittsburgh Press, July 7, 1955: Section 2, 20.

7 Sandy Koufax with Ed Linn, Koufax (New York: The Viking Press, 1966), 99.