Sandy Koufax’s Early Career Embarrassing Moments Against the Phillies…
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Los Angeles lefthander Sandy Koufax, although his career was an abbreviated one, was one of the all-time great hurlers and strikeout artists.
Although his first 6 years were mediorcre due to control problems, Baseball Library recounts how “Koufax packed a Hall of Fame career into the final six of his dozen major-league seasons. He was always a hard thrower, but control problems hobbled him during his early years.”
Baseball history and these two box scores of July 18 and July 19, 1958 relate that Koufax started against the awful 1958 Phillies on 2 successive days.
On June 18, Koufax didn’t make it through the 1st inning. He pitched 2/3ds of the inning striking out 2, but he walked in a run on 4 walks before being pulled.
After being down early to the Phillies by a 5-1 score, the Dodgers came back with 6 runs in the bottom of the 5th inning to take a 7-5 lead. They beat the Phillies by an 8-6 score.
Dodger Manager Walter Alston sent Koufax back out to the mound the very next day. This time, he faced Phils pitching great Robin Roberts in the twi-light of his great career. Koufax pitched 7 1/3 innings in this one getting tagged with the loss giving up 4 of the Phillies 6 runs while walking 6 and striking out 3.
Koufax finished the 1958 season with an 11-11 mark. But who would have guessed that he would go on to amass an phenomenal 129-47 mark over the last 6 years of his career. Koufax led the Dodgers to pennants in 1963, 1965, and 1966, and won the NL Cy Young Award each of the pennant-winning years. In 1965, Koufax went 26-8 with an ERA of 2.04 amassing 382 strikeouts while walking 71. In 1966, he went 27-9 with a microscopic ERA of 1.73 whie striking out 317 and walking 77.
Baseball Library notes that Koufax suffered physical problems which plagued him over his last 5 seasons;
Koufax achieved success despite physical problems. A mysterious circulatory ailment in his pitching arm cost him half a season in 1962. Another arm injury in 1964 shortly led to an arthritic pitching elbow. After a 27-9 record in 1966, he retired at age thirty-one rather than risk crippling his arm. Five years later he became the youngest man to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and only the sixth to achieve the honor in his first year of eligibility.
But Koufax, eroute to his breakout 18-13 season in 1961, had another embarrassing moment against those hapless 47-107 (including the 23 game losing streak) 1961 Phillies.
Once again, Baseball Library recounts how the lowly Phillies on September 12th took out a season of exasperation on Koufax;
The Phillies drive Koufax from the mound in a 9-run 2nd inning and go on to defeat the Dodgers‚ 19-10. The loss drops LA 4 1/2 games behind the Reds. The big gun for the Phils is ex-Dodgers Don Demeter‚ who hits a 2-run homer in the 1st‚ singles in a run in the 2nd‚ adds a 3-run HR in the 7th and a solo in the 9th. He scores 5 runs. Two other Phils homer while 4 Dodgers go deep.
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