May 16, 1957: Koufax strikes out 13, combines with Cubs pitchers to tie NL strikeout record

On May 16, 1957, “a day after Sandy Koufax lost his bonus-baby status, meaning he could be farmed out by the Dodgers,”1 he and two Chicago Cubs pitchers, Moe Drabowsky and Turk Lown, combined to tie the record for the most strikeouts in a National League game: 23. The record lasted until the Philadelphia Phillies played the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 22, 1959, when, in a nine-inning game, three pitchers struck out 24 batters, with Koufax again on the mound.2

On the 1957 date in Chicago, Koufax, 21, was pitching in his eighth game of the season but just his second start. In none of the seven previous appearances did he pitch more than four innings. It was Koufax’s 17th career start and his third against the Cubs.

The Cubs had yet to win a home game in ’57, this afternoon game against the Dodgers being their eighth try.

With a 7-17 record, the Cubs were already 9½ games behind the league-leading Cincinnati Redlegs and Milwaukee Braves, who shared the league lead after just 24 games, and just a half-game ahead of the cellar-dwelling Pittsburgh Pirates. In contrast, the Dodgers at 14-10 were in second place. Surprisingly, the Dodgers and Cubs had both scored 106 runs, but Brooklyn’s pitching had allowed only 92 runs, while 133 opposing runners had crossed the plate against Cubs hurlers. Chicago Tribune reporter Edward Prell wrote that the “biggest disappointment to Manager Bob Scheffing has been failure of the pitching staff.”3

It wasn’t the pitchers, however, who failed Scheffing on May 16; it was most of the team’s batters and Ernie Banks, in particular, his average dropping to .220 after the Cubs’ loss.4

Koufax’s arm heated up Wrigley Field in the 44-degree chill, though “it felt much colder,” wrote New York Times sportswriter Roscoe McGowen.5

Before 3,105 spectators, the game began with Jim “Junior” Gilliam facing Moe Drabowsky, who was the same age as Koufax but in his second major-league season, one less than Koufax.6 Gilliam grounded out. After Pee Wee Reese grounded out, Duke Snider struck out.

Bobby Morgan led off the Cubs’ half of the first and flied out to center. Koufax then struck out both Bobby Del Greco and Ernie Banks.

After Carl Furillo opened the top of the second with a walk, Drabowsky struck out Gil Hodges, Sandy Amorós, and Don Zimmer, the first two looking. (In 1957 Drabowsky fanned the sixth-most batters in the majors and more than any Dodgers pitcher.)7

The Cubs second began with the game’s first hit, Lee Walls getting a double on a blooper to right. Walls, a .271 hitter, had a .458 slugging percentage against Koufax in their 68 career matchups. Koufax matched Drabowsky, striking out two of the next three batters, Jim Bolger on four pitches and Dale Long on three. Between them, Jack Littrell fouled out.

Drabowsky set down the Dodgers one-two-three in the third, Rube Walker and Koufax both whiffing.

In the bottom half, Koufax walked Cal Neeman and then retired the side, striking out Del Greco for the third out.

In the top of the fourth, the Dodgers broke the scoreless tie. It was the first half-inning in which no batter struck out. Reese started the action with a walk. After Snider flied out, Reese stole second, and Furillo drove him home with a double. Hodges’ single placed runners on the corners. Amorós hit into a force out to second baseman Morgan that removed Hodges from the bases and allowed Furillo to score. Zimmer’s grounder to short forced Amorós at second, ending the inning with the Dodgers ahead by two.

In the Cubs’ fourth, Koufax struck out Banks for the second time, the Cubs’ shortstop again swinging at strike three. Walls walked on a full count, but the Cubs stranded him on first when both Bolger and Littrell flied out.

The fifth inning started with a lineout to short and a strikeout. Drabowsky walked Gilliam, who stole second. Reese grounded out.

The Cubs’ turn at the plate in the fifth produced a run without a hit. Koufax struck out Long and walked Neeman. Drabowsky watched the third strike end his time in the batter’s box. After Morgan walked, Jim Fanning pinch-hit for Del Greco and reached first when Reese muffed his bouncer to short.

Dick Young wrote, “Reese scooped the ball, then lost the handle. The ball seemed caught up in a vacuum above his glove, Reese made another stab at it–and another miss. Finally, he clutched it and threw to first–just too late.”8

The error seemed to disconcert Koufax. His first two pitches to Banks landed outside the strike zone. Manager Walter Alston visited the mound but didn’t call for a new pitcher. Koufax threw two more balls, walking Banks on four pitches and forcing Neeman home. The run was unearned but still cut the Brooklyn lead in half. A fly ball to center by Walls ended the frame.

On a 1-and-2 count in the sixth, Snider doubled the Dodgers lead, lining his fifth homer of the season into the right-field bleachers and “into a strong wind.”9 The next three batters failed to get on base.

In the bottom of the sixth, despite Bolger’s single and Long’s base on balls, Koufax prevented the Cubs from closing the gap, getting two swinging strikeouts and a force-play grounder.

Turk Lown replaced Drabowsky on the mound in the seventh and threw just nine pitches to end the inning one-two-three.

After the seventh-inning stretch, Koufax shut down the top of the Cubs lineup. After Morgan flied out to right, Koufax struck out Walt Moryn and Ernie Banks, the latter for the third time. Only one right-handed batter was struck out more during a career by Koufax than Banks’s 31 times: Wally Post, who fanned 32 times.

Though Snider and Furillo both singled in the eighth with two outs, Brooklyn couldn’t increase its lead, Hodges’ groundout to third ending the threat.

The Cubs scored their other unearned run in the bottom of the eighth on Walls’ “high fly to left-center” when “Amorós cut in front of Snider, who could have caught the ball” but dropped it for a two-base error.10

Walls took third on Bolger’s single and scored on Littrell’s fly ball. Down just a run, Long ended the Cubs’ threat by grounding into a double play.

In the Dodgers’ ninth, Lown prevented the ball from leaving the infield, getting Brooklyn’s 6-7-8 batters to ground out.

In the game’s last half-inning, after Koufax recorded his 13th strikeout by fanning Cal Neeman, he walked Casey Wise on four pitches. The Cubs mounted another threat when, as the Times’s McGowen wrote, “Bobby Morgan slashed a ball a little to Koufax’s right. Sandy tried to field the ball, which was headed toward Reese, who could have handled it perhaps for a double play. Koufax slowed the ball, then chased it and couldn’t pick it up. It went for a hit.”11

Morgan’s infield single put runners on first and second. Moryn, though, fouled out to third and Banks lifted a fly ball to left-center that shortstop Reese caught, giving Koufax his second win of the season. It was the third complete game of his career and his first since September 3, 1955.

Koufax struck out 13, the second time in his career that he had double-digit strikeouts in a game. On August 27, 1955, he fanned 14.

The Cubs batters weren’t the only ones to struggle against Koufax. “Hitting against Sandy Koufax,” said Pirates slugger and future Hall of Famer Willie Stargell, “is like drinking coffee with a fork.”12

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to thank Mike Emeigh for providing the information about this game and record-setting games on August 27, 1955, and May 22, 1901.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, and Retrosheet.org for player, team, and season data.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN195705160.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1957/B05160CHN1957.htm

Photo credit: Sandy Koufax, Trading Card Database.

NOTES

1 Dick Young, “Koufax ‘Manhandles’ Cubs, 3-2, Fans 13; Duke HRs,” New York Daily News, May 17, 1957: C24. Drabowsky, also a bonus baby, was still affected by the bonus-baby regulations.

2 Koufax also pitched in a game on August 27, 1955, in which the 23-strikeout record, set on May 22, 1901, by the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Beaneaters, was matched for the first time.

3 Edward Prell, “Cubs Play Dodgers Today,” Chicago Tribune, May 16, 1957: D1.

4 Edward Prell, “Dodgers Beat Cubs; 23 Fan, Tie Record!” Chicago Tribune, May 17, 1957: 51.

5 Roscoe McGowen, “Brooks Down Chicago, 3 to 2, As Koufax Fans Thirteen Men,” New York Times, May 17, 1957: 41.

6 In a baseball rarity, both teams’ starters were Jewish. In the book, The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball’s Chosen Players, Koufax is ranked as baseball’s greatest left-handed starter; however, Drabowsky is not included among its right-handed starters although he won 88 games with a 3.71 ERA. Howard Megdal, The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball’s Chosen Players (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), 195-216.

7 In both 1955 and 1956, Koufax ranked ninth among Dodgers pitchers in strikeouts. In 1957 he jumped to second place–only Don Drysdale struck out more batters.

8 Dick Young, “Koufax Whiffs 13, Edges Cubs, 3-2; Duke Homers,” New York Daily News, May 17, 1957: 59.

9 McGowen.

10 McGowen.

11 McGowen.

12 Thomas Lawrence, “Koufax Calls It Quits,” National Baseball Hall of Fame, accessed February 14, 2023, https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/inside-pitch/koufax-calls-it-quits.