May 15, 1963: Sandy Koufax fans 12 Phillies and allows no walks in 12 innings

The Philadelphia Phillies were a year away from their infamous 1964 season when they arrived at Dodger Stadium in mid-May for a two-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gene Mauch’s team had a mediocre 15-16 National League record, four games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants. However, the Phillies had reason for optimism. They were riding a four-game winning streak, which included a Sunday doubleheader sweep of the Milwaukee Braves in Connie Mack Stadium.1

The Phillies defeated Don Drysdale, 5-1, in the series opener. It was their first win ever at Dodger Stadium. They had lost all nine games there in 1962. Starting pitcher Chris Short, 2-1 against the Dodgers in 1962, gave Phillies fans even more hope for a series sweep. “Short won 135 games in his major-league career,” notes Short’s SABR biography. He pitched 15 big-league seasons and was arguably the National League’s second-best left-hander in the 1960s after Sandy Koufax.”2 It wasn’t going to be easy. Short’s mound opponent was Koufax, who had gone 3-0 against the Phillies in 1962.

The Dodgers’ 17-16 record on May 15 did not portend the success they would achieve that season.3 The year would also prove momentous for the Dodgers’ future Hall of Fame lefty. Mauch, when once asked if Koufax was the best left-hander he had ever seen, responded, “The best righty, too.”4

A Dodger Stadium crowd of 20,512 settled into their seats on a Wednesday evening to watch the two talented pitchers. Koufax started the game with a 4-1 record. In his previous outing, four days earlier versus the Giants, he had thrown a no-hitter.5 Against the Phillies, he retired the first six batters he faced, including striking out the side in the second inning. The no-hit streak ended when Johnny Callison led off the third by beating out a slow roller to second base. Bob Oldis lined into a double-play and Short struck out to end the inning.

The Dodgers opened the scoring in their half of the third. Koufax struck out looking. Maury Wills walked. Pitching from the stretch, Short failed to come to a complete stop. A balk was called, and Wills went to second. Interestingly, the balk rule had officially changed the day before. United Press International reported, “The one-second-stop-requirement, which created the pitching balk furor in the major leagues this spring, was officially deleted from the rules of baseball Tuesday [May 14, 1963]. … Pitchers [are] required simply to pause after making their stretch with men on the bases, instead of stopping for ‘at least one second.’”6 The balk was costly. Ron Fairly lined a two-out double to left, scoring Wills.

Two innings later, the Phillies got even. Roy Sievers started the fifth with a line-drive single to center. Knowing runs would be scarce, Bobby Wine sacrificed Sievers to second. The strategy paid off. Callison’s ground single to right, his second hit of the game, drove in Sievers. Frank Howard’s throw home was not in time.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Dodgers went ahead again. Wills opened with a double, then stole third base. Jim Gilliam hit a line drive back to the mound that glanced off Short’s right foot. The ball rolled to third baseman Don Hoak, but he had no play on Gilliam at first. Wills held. The Dodgers had runners on the corners with no outs. Play was delayed while Short shook it off. He retired Fairly on an infield popup for the first out. Tommy Davis followed with a ground single to center field, scoring Wills and putting the Dodgers ahead, 2-1. With the count 2-and-0 on Bill Skowron, Short could not continue. He was replaced by Jack Baldschun. Baldschun struck out Skowron, then retired Howard on a groundout, ending the inning.

The Dodgers took the 2-1 lead into the ninth inning, but Koufax found himself in immediate trouble. Ex-teammate Don Demeter opened things by doubling off the left-field wall. He advanced to third on Jim Lemon’s groundout to second. Sievers beat out a grounder to third, but Demeter had to hold. With runners on first and third and one out, “[Demeter] scored as Wine laid a squeeze bunt down the first-base line and beat it out for a hit.”7 The Phillies tied the score and had a chance to go ahead, but Koufax settled down, retiring Callison and striking out Oldis.

The game went into extra innings. The Phillies had won their previous four extra-inning games.8 Koufax was still on the mound. Oldis opened the 12th with an infield single. He took second on John Roseboro’s wild pickoff throw to first base. Johnny Klippstein, another former Dodgers teammate of Koufax’s, came up to bunt. (Klippstein had taken over the mound duties, replacing Baldschun in the eighth inning.) Klippstein attempted to sacrifice Oldis to third but struck out. During that at-bat, Dodgers manager Walter Alston was tossed out of the game by home-plate umpire Al Forman for arguing a strike call. Oldis was stranded on second after Koufax retired Hoak and Cookie Rojas.

Klippstein, who had retired all 12 Dodgers he faced in his first four innings, retired the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the 12th inning, extending his no-hit performance to 14 batters. But with two outs, Gilliam singled to right. Then, with a 2-0 count on Fairly, “Klippstein threw a fastball that seemed to tail in at the last moment. Fairly jumped out of the way and the ball thumped off Oldis’ glove and back to the screen.”9 Gilliam went to second on the passed ball. Mauch had a decision to make. Should he intentionally walk the left-handed Fairly and pitch to Davis? Going into the game, Fairly was tied with the Phillies’ Wes Covington with a league-leading 27 RBIs.10 His double in the third inning had driven in the Dodgers’ first run. The Phillies pitched to Fairly. He promptly lined a single to right, scoring Gilliam from second and giving the Dodgers a 12-inning, 3-2 victory.

Koufax went the distance, throwing 165 pitches. He was tough when he had to be. The Phillies were 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position. Koufax allowed 11 hits but struck out 12 and did not walk anybody. Sportswriter Frank Finch wrote, “Fanning Phillies is Koufax’s forte; his career performance against them shows 210 K’s in 175 innings.”11 It was the fifth win of what turned out to be a magical season for Koufax. He finished the year 25-5 with a 1.88 ERA. He tossed 11 shutouts, pitched 20 complete games, and struck out 306 batters in 311 innings. His league-leading numbers earned him MVP honors and the first of three Cy Young Awards.

SOURCES

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN196305150.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1963/B05150LAN1963.htm

Photo credit: Sandy Koufax, SABR-Rucker Archive.

NOTES

1 That was on May 12. The Phillies won the first game, 4-3, in 11 innings and the second game, 6-5, in 12 innings.

2 Andy Sturgill, Chris Short SABR biography, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/chris-short/.

3 The Dodgers finished in first place with a record of 99-63-1. They swept the New York Yankees in four games in the World Series.

4 Jane Leavy, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy (New York: Harper Collins, 2002), 2.

5 It was the second no-hitter of Koufax’s career. He tossed his first on June 30, 1962, against the New York Mets. After the San Francisco game, he went on to pitch a no-hitter against the Phillies (June 4, 1964) and a perfect game vs. the Chicago Cubs (September 9, 1965).

6 United Press International, “No More Balk Talk, Stormy Rule Deleted,” Los Angeles Times, May 15, 1963: III, 5.

7 Allen Lewis, “Dodgers, Koufax Beat Phillies in 12th,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 16, 1963: 39, 41.

8 In addition to the May 12 sweep of the Braves, the Phillies defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3 in 10 innings (April 14, 1963) and they beat the Cardinals again, 4-3 (on April 21) in 10 innings.

9 Stan Hochman, “Veterans Klippstein, Oldis Seem Incompatible,” Philadelphia Daily News, May 16, 1963: 60, 62.

10 Fairly finished the 1963 season with 77 RBIs. Covington finished with 64.

11 Frank Finch, “Dodgers Edge Phillies, 3-2, in 12th,” Los Angeles Times, May 16, 1963: III, 2, 6. It was actually 175⅓ innings.