Sandy Koufax Versus Other Hall of Fame Pitchers

As Willie Mays once said, “For (Sandy Koufax) to do all those things in five years, what guys take 20 years to do, that’s remarkable.” (SABR-Rucker Archive)

 

From time to time during his career, Sandy Koufax went head-to-head against other eventual Hall of Fame pitchers. Perhaps none was as significant as the last such regular-season confrontation.

Afterward, Koufax called it “the biggest ballgame of my life.”1

It was the final game of the 1966 regular season, and his Los Angeles Dodgers had to win to capture the last of their three National League titles in the decade. It was also the last regular-season game of Koufax’s career and his final victory, as only he and a very select few knew that he had decided to retire after that season because of his injured left elbow.

“It did cross my mind that it might be my last game if we lost,” Koufax said. “But it wasn’t about me, really.”2

It came on October 2 in the second game of a doubleheader against the Phillies in Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium.3 Los Angeles had lost the first game and the San Francisco Giants had defeated Pittsburgh to pull to within a game of the Dodgers. A Dodgers loss in the nightcap would leave them just a half-game ahead. If that happened, San Francisco would make up a rained-out game against Cincinnati, and a Giants victory then would tie them with Los Angeles and force a tiebreaker.

So it was up to Koufax, working on only two days’ rest, to get the Dodgers across the finish line.

His mound opponent was future Cooperstown inductee Jim Bunning, trying for his 20th victory of the season. The two had started against each other twice before, each getting a no-decision in a Phillies victory on August 18, 1965, and in a Dodgers win July 27, 1966–the latter a classic duel in which both went 11 innings before exiting. The only other time they pitched in the same game was May 24, 1964, when Bunning went seven innings in a loss and Koufax pitched the last three innings to earn a save.

At first Koufax wasn’t sure if he’d be needed on this day, but the Giants-Pirates outcome wasn’t decided until past the start time of the Dodgers-Phillies contest, so he pitched.

Bunning, who said, “I just didn’t have it that day,”4 was done after five innings, having allowed four runs, all earned, on five hits and two walks.

Koufax injured his back while pitching in the fifth inning. Trainers labored between innings to work out the kink, and, though it continued to bother him, he pitched through it. “You could see him wince,” Philadelphia shortstop Bobby Wine said, “but nothing more than that.”5

Los Angeles led 6-0 going into the Phillies’ half of the ninth. At that point, Koufax said, “I guess I sort of ran out of gas,”6 as the Phillies rallied to trail 6-3 with no one out. But according to Dodgers first baseman Wes Parker, “I swear I saw that inner fire in his eyes. He was not going to let this game get away from him.”7

Indeed, Koufax retired the next three hitters to end the game and clinch the NL title.

After the team returned to Los Angeles, Koufax told a reporter that the victory “was bigger than my pennant clincher last year, or winning the seventh game of the World Series against the [Minnesota] Twins [in 1965].”8

In a reflective moment 50 years later, he said, “I always wanted to finish a win, and I wanted to finish my career with a win. So, yes, I’m tremendously proud of that game. But the reason I said that then was because of the team. I just wanted to make sure all of us got World Series shares. That money wouldn’t seem like much now, but it was important to us then.”9

The Dodgers were swept by Baltimore in the World Series, each Dodger receiving a loser’s share of $8,189.36.

KOUFAX vs. BOB GIBSON

Koufax was 4-1 in five such matchups against Bob Gibson with three shutouts and a 0.92 earned-run average. There was also a game in May 1962 in which Koufax started and got a no-decision. Gibson earned a win with five innings of relief after Koufax left.

Koufax pitched complete games in each of his four victories vs. Gibson, the first on May 25, 1961, when he “announced himself in May with a 1-0 victory … in St. Louis, a taut three-hitter decided by Tommy Davis’s seventh-inning home run.”11

The others came on June 18, 1962, July 3, 1963, and April 26, 1966. Gibson was almost the equal, pitching complete games in two defeats and going eight innings in the third matchup. Two of the games ended 1-0, and the third was 4-2. Both pitchers were fated to pitch much of their careers for teams not known for offensive prowess.

In the 1962 matchup, “Koufax teamed up with Tommy Davis to beat [Gibson] again. Another 1-0 loss for Gibson, another game-winning home run for Davis. For the first time in his career, Koufax pitched a complete game and walked no one.”12

Gibson beat Koufax on September 24, 1961, going 6⅓ innings in an 8-7 victory while Koufax lasted just three innings.

Of note, the two were scheduled to battle each other on September 21, 1962, but fate intervened. During batting practice, Gibson fractured a bone above his right ankle. Koufax was making his first start in nearly two months because of an injured pitching hand–said to be a crushed artery in the palm. He was pulled with two out in the first inning, already trailing 4-0 after walking the bases loaded and giving up a grand slam to Charlie James.13

KOUFAX vs. JUAN MARICHAL

Koufax and Marichal started against each other four times, and there was another game in May 1965 in which Marichal got the win in relief but came into the game after Koufax had exited. The two most significant of the head-to-head matchups came on May 11, 1963, when Koufax pitched the second of his four no-hitters, and on August 22, 1965–the infamous game in which Marichal attacked Dodger catcher John Roseboro with a bat.14

In the 1963 no-hitter, Koufax struck out an uncharacteristically few four batters and walked two in front of a crowd of 49,807 at Dodger Stadium. He had a perfect game until he walked Giants’ catcher Ed Bailey on a full count with one out in the eighth inning. The Dodgers had actually led by just 1-0 before striking for three runs in the sixth inning off Marichal.

“The fellows on the bench didn’t say anything about [the] no-hitter,” Koufax said afterward, “but I knew it all the time and also knew I was close to a perfect game. That must be the ultimate thing for a pitcher.”15 Koufax, of course, achieved the “ultimate” with a perfect game two years later against the Chicago Cubs.

“It’s hard to describe, but the game (against the Giants) gave me more satisfaction [than his first no-hitter the season before against the expansion New York Mets] because I felt I’d overcome my wildness problem.”16 Against the Mets, he had walked five batters.

There were a few hard-hit balls – by Harvey Kuenn, Felipe Alou, Willie Mays, and Orlando Cepeda – but none dropped for hits.

Interestingly, Tommy Lasorda – later the Dodgers manager but then a scout – had been asked the day before to catch a bullpen session to test Koufax’s shoulder, which had been stiff and kept him out of action for a couple of weeks. Lasorda said later that he told Koufax, “With stuff like that, tomorrow you’ve got to throw a no-hitter.” Lasorda didn’t see his prediction come true, however, because of a dinner meeting that night. He learned that Koufax was close to making history only when he turned on his transistor radio while at the dinner table.17

The second key matchup also made history, but not in a joyful sense. The longtime heated rivals were in a tight pennant race and this was the finale of a tense four-game series at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. Marichal and Koufax had already traded high-and-tight pitches to opposing hitters when Roseboro deliberately threw a ball back to Koufax that Marichal claimed had clipped his ear. He and Roseboro confronted each other, and then Marichal clubbed Roseboro with his bat. Marichal was ejected, suspended for eight game days and fined a then-record $1,750.

When the game resumed, Koufax walked two batters and then gave up a three-run homer to Mays that gave the Giants a 4-2 lead. San Francisco eventually won, 4-3. Koufax, who began the game with a 21-4 mark, also lost his next two starts before rebounding to finish 26-8, win the second of his three Cy Young Awards, and clinch the World Series with a Game Seven victory over Kaat and the Minnesota Twins.18

After missing two starts because of his suspension, Marichal went 3-4 over his final nine appearances to finish at 22-13. His ERA was 1.78 before the altercation and 3.55 after it.19

The other two occasions in which Koufax and Marichal competed directly against each other came on June 3, 1961, and May 24, 1963. In the 1961 contest, both pitched complete games, and Koufax came out on top in a 4-3 Dodgers victory. Neither was at the top of his game, Koufax giving up seven hits and walking five, while Marichal gave up nine hits and struck out just four. In the 1963 game, Marichal was superior in a 7-1 Giants win. He gave up just four hits and a walk, while striking out 10. Koufax, meanwhile, lasted just one-third of an inning, allowing five runs on five hits and two walks.

KOUFAX vs. WARREN SPAHN

Koufax and Spahn, the winningest left-handed pitcher in major-league history, went against each other four times during the former’s glory years, with Koufax winning three times and Spahn once.

Spahn pitched a complete game in a 4-2 Milwaukee Braves win on September 2, 1961. Koufax went seven innings and gave up four runs, just two earned. In a rematch 13 days later, it was Koufax who pitched a complete game while Spahn lasted just one inning in an 11-2 Dodgers victory. On June 13, 1962, Los Angeles defeated Milwaukee 2-1 on a three-hitter by Koufax. Spahn went eight innings in that game.20

On June 20, 1965, when Spahn was briefly with the New York Mets, the two matched up with the Dodgers winning, 2-1. Koufax pitched a complete-game one-hitter–the only hit a solo home run by Jim Hickman in the fifth inning–while Spahn went seven strong innings, allowing just four hits and one walk.

KOUFAX vs. GAYLORD PERRY

Koufax and the Giants’ Gaylord Perry pitched against each other three times, but only one was a straight matchup. That came on May 9, 1965. The Giants won 6-3, with Koufax taking the loss and Perry getting a no-decision. Koufax went seven innings and Perry 7⅓, but interestingly it was Marichal who got the win with 1⅓ innings of relief after San Francisco scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth.

On July 26, 1964, Koufax pitched a complete game in a 5-2 loss, with the Giants scoring four times in the ninth inning. The big hits were a run-scoring double by Mays and a two-run home run by Jim Ray Hart, but all the runs were officially unearned because of an error by shortstop Maury Wills on Harvey Kuenn’s groundball. Perry pitched the last inning for San Francisco and got the save.

Koufax and Perry also pitched on June 25, 1964, but against each other for only one inning. Koufax started and went nine innings of an eventual 13-inning game that San Francisco won 2-1. Perry entered the game in the ninth inning, pitched the last five, and got credit for the victory.

KOUFAX vs. JIM KAAT

Koufax and Kaat faced each other in Games Two, Five, and Seven of the 1965 World Series, with Kaat winning the first and Koufax the last two. Koufax famously did not pitch the Series opener because it took place on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.

In the first matchup–played in a drizzling rain–the Twins won 5-1 behind Kaat’s seven-hit, one-run, one-walk effort. Koufax was removed after six innings despite having allowed just two runs–only one earned–on six hits and having struck out nine batters. The game was scoreless after five innings before Minnesota scored twice against Koufax in the sixth.

“The cold weather didn’t bother me,” Koufax said afterward. “I’ve pitched and had good stuff on colder days. I knew what I wanted to do out there but I just couldn’t do it. If I had had a little better control, or better stuff, I might have gotten away with it. … Kaat and Minnesota just did a better job.”21

Four days later, with the Series tied at two games apiece, the two matched up in Game Five at Dodger Stadium and the Dodgers won 7-0. This time, Koufax pitched a complete-game, four-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts while Kaat lasted just 2⅓ innings.22

That set up the finale, in which both pitchers started on just two days of rest. Koufax again went the distance, giving up just three hits and striking out 10 in a 2-0 Dodgers victory. Kaat was chased in the fourth inning after giving up both runs.

What made Koufax’s performance even more amazing was that his arm was hurting so much, he couldn’t control his curveball. So he threw nothing but fastballs from the third inning on.

“I didn’t have a curve ball at all,” Koufax said. “When I threw it I couldn’t get it over. And those first few innings I really didn’t know how long I was going to last. Then I seemed to get my second wind. In the last three, the fastball seemed to move better, and I got stronger.”23

KOUFAX vs. WHITEY FORD

The two Hall of Fame left-handers competed directly just twice–in Games One and Four of the Dodgers’ surprising World Series sweep of the Yankees in 1963.24

In the opener at Yankee Stadium, Koufax set a Series record of 15 strikeouts–later surpassed by Bob Gibson with 17 in the first game of the 1968 Series–and held the Yankees to just six hits in a 5-2 victory. Ford, who had led the American League with 24 victories that season, gave up five runs in the first three innings and lasted just five innings.

Game Seven at Dodger Stadium hung in the balance much longer before the Dodgers won 2-1.

Ford gave up just two hits but one was a fifth-inning solo home run by Frank Howard. Mickey Mantle tied the game in the seventh with a homer off Koufax, but the Dodgers got the deciding run in the bottom of the seventh when Willie Davis hit a sacrifice fly to score Jim Gilliam.

One thing not revealed at the time was that Koufax had an open sore between the last two toes of his left foot, the one he used to push off the mound. A corn had torn off two days before and had not healed. He got a shot of Novocain in the affected area, and that apparently did the trick as he gave up just six hits, walked no one, and struck out eight.25

KOUFAX vs. JIM PALMER

The final game of Koufax’s career came on just three days of rest after the pennant-clinching victory over Bunning and the Phillies, and it was against another eventual Hall of Fame inductee26–the not-quite-21-year-old Jim Palmer, who had won 15 games in his second season.

The result was the opposite of that in Philadelphia.

The Orioles broke a scoreless tie with three unearned runs in the fifth inning, thanks in large part to three errors by Los Angeles center fielder Willie Davis. Koufax was lifted after the sixth inning, having allowed six hits, walked two batters, and struck out two. Palmer, meanwhile, went on to throw a four-hit shutout.

A Sports Illustrated retrospective said that “Sandy, pitching his third big game in eight days, gave up only one earned run in six innings … but it was a weak performance for Koufax, who failed to impress the Baltimore hitters. He looked tired, he was forcing his pitches. …”27

In short, it was not a fitting end to one of the most dominant six-season stretches in major-league baseball history.

CARTER CROMWELL spent 11 years as a sportswriter for daily newspapers–covering athletics at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels–and followed that with a career in corporate public relations. Currently he works with an independent pro baseball team in the U.S., writes for baseball-related websites, and has contributed to multiple projects of SABR. His other passions include family, world travel, and rescue dogs.

• Game recaps: Click here to find SABR Games Project stories on Sandy Koufax’s most memorable games

 

SOURCES

In addition to the sources in the Notes, the author utilized baseball-reference.com for information contained in this article.

For more detailed information on how about how Koufax’s career statistics compare with those of Hall of Famers Gibson and Marichal, refer to Larry DeFillipo’s article in this volume titled “First Among Equals.”

 

NOTES

1 Steve Wulf, “Sandy Koufax’s Final Victory Might Have Been His Best,” ESPN.com, September 30, 2016: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17671148/los-angeles-dodgers-pitcher-sandy-koufax-relives-finest-game.

2 Wulf.

3 See the Games Project account of this game by Jake Bell, which is presented elsewhere in this publication.

4 Wulf.

5 Wulf.

6 Wulf.

7 Wulf.

8 Wulf.

9 Wulf.

10 Jane Leavy, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002), 120.

11 Leavy, 114. See Tim Odzer’s Games Project writeup of the game, presented elsewhere in this publication.

12 Leavy, 116. An account of the June 18, 1962, game by Thomas J. Brown Jr. is also presented in this publication.

13 “Bob Gibson vs. Sandy Koufax: Grand game for Charlie James,” retrosimba, August 31, 2012 (updated October 7, 2020): https://retrosimba.com/2012/08/31/gibson-vs-koufax-a-grand-game-for-charlie-james/.

14 Marc Z Aaron has written the May 11, 1963, game account, presented elsewhere in this publication.

15 Kevin Stone, “Koufax’s Nearly Perfect in No-Hitter vs. Giants,” National Baseball Hall of Fame website, no date provided: https://baseballhall.org/discover/inside-pitch/koufax-pitches-

second-career-no-hitter-vs-giants. Article accessed on May 12, 2023.

16 Kevin Stone.

17 Mark Langill, “OTD: Sandy’s Second No-No,” Dodger Insider, May 11, 2020: https://dodgers.mlblogs.com/otd-sandys-second-no-no-782a3c27d304.

18 The Games Project account of Koufax’s Game Seven victory has been written by Norm King and appears elsewhere in this publication.

19 Stone.

20 See Tim Otto’s account of the June 13 game.

21 Jon Weisman, “Remembering ’65: World Series Game 2,” Dodger Insider, October 7, 2015: https://dodgers.mlblogs.com/remembering-65-world-series-game-2-be26ca5211e4.

22 Norm King has written both Game Five and Game Seven, which are presented elsewhere in this publication.

23 Houston Mitchell, “Greatest Moments in Dodger History, No. 14: Sandy Koufax’s Shutout in Game 7 of 1965 World Series,” Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2021: https://www.latimes.com/sports/newsletter/2021-03-24/world-series-sandy-koufax-dodgers-dugout.

24 Andy McCue has written Games One and Four, and those accounts appear elsewhere in this publication.

25 Andy McCue, “October 6, 1963: Koufax Stifles Yankee Bats Again as Dodgers Sweep World Series,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/october-6-1963-koufax-stifles-yankee-bats-again/.

26 Mark Kanter’s account of Game Two of the 1966 World Series is presented elsewhere in this publication.

27 Jack Mann, “Those Happy Birds!” Sports Illustrated, October 17, 1966: https://vault.si.com/vault/1966/10/17/those-happy-birds.