June 7, 1961: Sandy Koufax scores twice and tosses fifth straight complete-game victory

“No one is better in the National League,” declared Los Angeles Dodgers beat writer Wells Twombley about Sandy Koufax, coming off a then career-best fifth straight complete-game victory, a 7-3 win over the defending World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates on June 7, 1961.1

Two months into the 1961 season, the 25-year-old Koufax might have been the best pitcher in all of baseball. He was tied with Whitey Ford of the New York Yankees and Frank Lary of the Detroit Tigers for the major-league lead with eight wins and pacing the majors with 79 strikeouts. Koufax “spun another sparkler” against the Pirates, raved Los Angeles sportswriter Charlie Park, to catapult the Dodgers into first place in the NL.2

Amid a 13-game homestand, as skipper Walter Alston’s Dodgers faced the Pirates in the third game of a four-game set, they were in second place (30-21), a half-game behind the Cincinnati Reds. After winning the World Series in 1959, in just their second season in the City of Angels, the Dodgers slumped in 1960. They came in fourth in the NL, 13 games behind Pittsburgh.

One reason – if not the primary cause – for the ’61 Dodgers’ emergence as a pennant contender was Koufax. Twombley declared poetically that Koufax underwent an “incredible pitching metamorphosis” and had “sprouted to manhood between baseball seasons.”3

A bonus baby who had joined the Brooklyn Dodgers at age 19 in 1954 without ever having played in the minors, Koufax had struggled to control his heater and realize his potential, posting an underwhelming 36-40 record with a 4.10 ERA in his first six seasons (1955-1960). He flashed moments of brilliance in 1960 despite his 8-13 record, leading the majors in strikeouts per nine innings (10.1) and finishing second in the NL in punchouts (197) and fewest hits per nine innings (6.84). He also led the NL in walks per nine innings (5.1) and finished with a 3.91 ERA, higher than the major-league average.

Alston, too, noticed Koufax’s “metamorphosis,” which he suggested was part of the young hurler’s maturation. “Sandy has better control over his emotions. Last year when he’d make a bad pitch …  he’d stomp around making faces and cursing,” said Alston. “Now he just forgets about it and bears down on the next guy.”4

That emotional levity had prepared Koufax (7-2, 3.07 ERA) to navigate close, low-scoring ballgames, including his last four victories, each by one run, during which just 16 runs were scored.

While “the Dodgers looked more like the world champions,” opined Pittsburgh sportswriter Les Biederman, “the Pirates continued to look more like a team that simply can’t seem to find itself.”5 Manager Danny Murtaugh’s Pirates (24-21) had lost eight of their last 12 games and were 3½ games off the lead and in fourth place. “We’re pressing, we’re trying too hard,” stated team leader and 1960 NL MVP Dick Groat. “We just can’t seem to relax.”6 While the Bucs eventually led the majors in hitting in 1961 (.273) as they had in 1960 (.276), their biggest problems, according to Biederman, were inconsistent pitching and injuries, including to Vern Law, the 1960 Cy Young Award winner.

After injury-prone George Witt was sidelined with torn ligaments in his left leg, the Pirates called up 25-year-old Earl Francis on June 1 to shore up the staff.7 The 6-foot-2 right-hander, who had pitched 18 innings of relief for Pittsburgh in 1960, had been on a tear with Triple-A Columbus, posting a 1.76 ERA in 41 innings, and was making his first big-league start.

On a pleasant, 70-degree Wednesday evening, the cavernous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum welcomed a modest crowd of 19,967.8 Before the first pitch, the Dodgers honored head coach Rod Dedeaux’s University of Southern California baseball team for their NCAA District 8 championship.9

After struggling in his home ballpark in 1960 (1-7, 5.27), Koufax had won four of six decisions in the 1932 Olympic venue thus far in 1961. The third batter of the game, notorious bad-ball hitter Roberto Clemente, sent what Koufax called a “low change-up”10 over the 40-foot-high fence in the Coliseum’s short left field for his eighth homer of the season and the game’s first run.11

The Dodgers took the lead in an explosive second inning. With Daryl Spencer on first via a walk, John Roseboro spanked what LA sportswriter Frank Finch described as “one of the longest homers ever hit at the Coliseum,” an estimated 430 feet, to deep center field.12 The five-year veteran, en route to his second and third All-Star selections (there were two All-Star Games in ’61), was on a hitting spree. In his last four games he was 5-for-11, with two doubles, a triple, and a home run. Roseboro attributed his batting success to scout Kenny Myers: “[He] told me to stand farther back from the plate.”13 That subtle change has “made him a much better hitter,” opined Alston.14

After Koufax drew a walk and Maury Wills singled, both came home on Willie Davis’s line-drive double to give the Dodgers a 4-1 lead.

Francis lasted four innings, threw 79 pitches, and yielded 10 baserunners (five hits and five walks). When Murtaugh turned the game over to the bullpen in the fifth, Pirates relievers could not halt the Dodgers. Fred Green loaded the bases on walks to Spencer and Koufax and Norm Larker’s single. All three baserunners scored when former Dodger Clem Labine took the mound. Wills hit what Biederman described as a “slow roller” to Bill Mazeroski, but the ball went through the legs of the Gold Glove second baseman for a two-run error.15 Biederman attributed Mazeroski’s uncharacteristic flub on the team’s pitchers and seven walks through five innings, opining that “wildness on the part of pitchers can upset a team in the field.”16

After surrendering Clemente’s first-inning home run, Koufax settled down. From the second inning through the eighth, he yielded six baserunners, never more than one per inning.

Koufax also benefited from “sensational fielding,” opined Park.17 In the first of the Dodgers’ three pivotal fielding gems, second baseman Jim Gilliam snared Gino Cimoli’s “low liner” and doubled up Don Hoak, who had led off the second with a single.18 With one out in the seventh, Wally Moon made a long run to snare Hal Smith’s liner to left.

In what might have been the most athletic play of the game, Willie Davis sprinted to deep left-center to corral Groat’s long fly ball in the eighth inning. After sliding into the wall, Davis heaved the ball to the infield, prohibiting Bill Virdon, on first base with a single, from advancing.19 “I didn’t think he had a chance to get near the ball,” admitted Alston.20

Staked to a 7-1 lead, Koufax experienced a hiccup in the ninth. Cleanup hitter Dick Stuart led off with a double down the third-base line.21 The next batter, Hoak, who entered the game with the NL’s third-highest batting average (.336), clouted a home run, his fifth of the season, to deep left field and over the screen to make the game 7-3. Reflecting Alston’s opinion about his emotional maturity, Koufax regained his composure and fanned two of the next three batters to complete the victory in 2 hours and 32 minutes.

The Dodgers’ victory, along with the Reds’ loss to the Milwaukee Braves in Cincinnati, moved Los Angeles into first place by a half-game. With his fifth straight complete-game victory in just 18 days, Koufax “dominated the conversation” after the game, wrote Twombley.”22 Koufax’s 139-pitch seven-hitter, with seven punchouts and two walks, improved his record to 8-2, equaling his win total from the previous season. Deflecting any praise, he said, “It was a lot easier with a six-run lead. I had a good curve and better control. I kept the ball away from them.”23

With a lifetime batting average of .097 in 776 at-bats in 12 seasons (1955-1966), Koufax was a notoriously poor hitter. On this night, however, he contributed to the Dodgers’ offensive attack, drawing two walks in a game for just the third time in his career. For context, he had just 43 walks in his career and only six two-walk games. Even more noteworthy is that Koufax scored two runs in a game for what turned out to be the only time in his big-league career. He tallied just 26 runs in his career.

Koufax extended his streak to six straight route-going victories with a 10-K five-hitter against the Phillies on June 11. While the Dodgers maintained sole possession of first place as late as August 15, they slumped over the last quarter of the season, going 20-25, to finish in second place, four games behind the Reds, who captured their first pennant since 1941. Koufax (18-13, 3.52) finally achieved what sportswriters had predicted and proved to be one of the best pitchers in baseball. He set a new post-1900 NL record for most strikeouts (269), breaking Christy Mathewson’s record (267) from 1903. Importantly, he finally harnessed his wildness, leading the majors with 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings and the NL in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.80), in addition to allowing the fewest hits per nine innings (7.5). According to the twenty-first-century metric WAR, he was the third most valuable pitcher in baseball, behind the Pirates’ Don Cardwell and the Twins’ Jack Kralick.24

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mike Huber 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 consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN196106070.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1961/B06070LAN1961.htm

Notes

1 Wells A. Twombley, “Question: Is Sandy K. Best in NL?” North Hollywood Valley Times, June 8, 1961: 15.

2 Charlie Park, “Dodgers, Roseboro Fly High,” Los Angeles Mirror, June 8, 1961: IV, 1.

3 Twombley.

4 Twombley.

5 Lester J. Biederman, “Champs Look Lost in 7-3 Dodger Win,” Pittsburgh Press, June 8, 1961: 42.

6 Lester J. Biederman, “Pirates Need Law to Regain 1960 Form, Danny Says,” Pittsburgh Press, June 8, 1961: 42.

7 “Pirates Replace Witt with Francis,” Pittsburgh Press, June 1, 1961: 50.

8 “Weather Report,” Los Angeles Times, June 8, 1961: III, 12.

9 Frank Finch, “Koufax Hurls Dodgers into Lead,” Los Angeles Times, June 8, 1961: IV 1. The legendary coach Dedeaux and USC had just captured their 11th consecutive conference title (1951-1961).

10 Park.

11 Biederman describes the home run. Don Zminda provides additional information about the configuration of the Coliseum for baseball and its short 250-foot foul line in left field. “A Home Like No Other: The Dodgers in L.A. Memorial Coliseum,” The National Pastime (2011), https://sabr.org/journal/article/a-home-like-no-other-the-dodgers-in-l-a-memorial-coliseum/.

12 Finch, “Koufax Hurls Dodgers into Lead.”

13 Park, “Dodgers, Roseboro Fly High.”

14 Park.

15 Biederman, “Champs Look Lost in 7-3 Dodger Win.”

16 Biederman, “Champs Look Lost in 7-3 Dodger Win.”

17 Park.

18 Lester J. Biederman, “Pirates Need Law to Regain 1960 Form, Danny Says,” Pittsburgh Press, June 8, 1961: 42.

19 Park described the play.

20 Park.

21 Biederman, “Champs Look Lost in 7-3 Dodger Win.”

22 Twombley, “Question: Is Sandy K. Best in NL?”

23 Park

24 WAR, a delightful statistic that is sure to evoke heated conversations about players, can be best defined by Fangraphs’ definition: “Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is an attempt by the sabermetric baseball community to summarize a player’s total contributions to their team in one statistic.” See Piper Slovinski, “What is WAR,” Fangraphs, Feb 15, 2010. https://library.fangraphs.com/misc/war/ (Accessed August 18, 2025).