Thursday – June 4

With the Phillies trying to sweep the series from the Dodgers, the largest home crowd of the year – 29,709 – showed up at Connie Mack Stadium to see two of the best left-handers in the league:

• Chris Short (3-2).
• Sandy Koufax (5-4).

Short – who’d won three of his last four starts – was sporting an incredible 0.64 ERA.

Gene Mauch loaded the lineup with right-handers to face Koufax – Johnny Callison being the lone left-hander.

Back to the Action – The lefties threw goose eggs over the first six innings:

• Short giving up three hits.
• Koufax holding the Phillies without a hit.

The Dodgers ended the scoring drought in the seventh:

• Jim Gilliam and Tommy Davis hit back-to-back singles.
• Frank Howard slugged a home run (#4) into the upper deck in left to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.

Trailing 3-0 going into the bottom of the seventh, the Phillies still didn’t have a hit – and Sandy Koufax kept it that way by retiring the Phillies in order in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings to complete the third no-hitter of his brilliant career.

Despite missing a perfect game, he faced the minimum 27 batters. The lone blemish was a two-out walk to Richie Allen in the bottom of the fourth. But with Danny Cater at the plate, Allen was thrown out trying to steal – hence Koufax retired the Phillies 27 up and 27 down.

Koufax (6-4) struck out 12 of the 27 batters he faced to earn the win and Chris Short (3-3) took the loss.

The loss ended the Phillies winning streak at five.

Around the League – With the Giants losing 4-2 to the Pirates, the Phillies maintained their 1½ game lead.

In addition to being the official Eagles Outsider for BlameMyFather.com – Barry Bowe is also the author of:

• Born to Be Wild
• 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant
• 12 Best Eagles QBs
• Birth of the Birds
• Soon-to-be-published sexy, police procedural Caribbean Queen
• Soon-to-be-published novel Stosh Wadzinski
• Soon-to-be-published novel Polish Widow