The Phillies were going for a series sweep and the largest home crowd of the year ─ 29,709 ─ showed up at Connie Mack to see two of the best left-handers in the league:

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

The date was June 4, 1964.

Koufax only action against the Phillies was when he saved Joe Moeller’s 3-0 shutout over the Phillies on May 24th in Los Angeles. After a slow start on the season, he’d won three of his last four starting assignments.

Chris Short, who’d also won three of his last four starts, was sporting an incredible 0.64 ERA. On May 22nd in L.A., Short shutout the Dodgers 2-0.

Gene Mauch was loading the lineup with right-handers to face Koufax. Johnny Callison was the lone left-hander.

The pitchers didn’t disappoint.

Over six shutout innings, Christ Short gave up two hits while Koufax held the Phillies without a hit. So the game remained scoreless going into the seventh inning.

In the top of the seventh, Jim Gilliam and Tommy Davis hit back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second with nobody out.

Frank Howard then slugged his 14th home run of the year into the upper deck in left and it was 3-0 Dodgers. The three runs gave Howard 32 RBIs on the season.

The Phillies still didn’t have a hit going into the bottom of the seventh.

And Sandy Koufax retired 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. With Danny Cater at the plate, Richie Allen was thrown out trying to steal ─ hence Koufax faced the minimum of 27 batters.

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

In Pittsburgh, the Giants lost 4-2 to the Pirates, allowing the Phillies to maintain a 1½ game lead for first place.

Steve Blass (2-2) pitched a five-hit complete game for the Pirates. Bobby Bolin (1-2) took the loss.

(Excerpted from 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant by Barry Bowe.)