Aug. 21, 1963 - Sandy Koufax, seeking his 20th victory, started for the Dodgers today against Curt Simmons of the Cardinals. The Dodgers won, 2-1, in the 16th inning and increased their National League lead to 7½ games over St. Louis. Los Angeles scored the winning run on John Roseboro’s two-out single in the bottom of the 16th. Koufax did not get the win, however; he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the 12th. Koufax yielded the tying run in the sixth on singles by Ken Boyer and George Altman, plus Julian Javier’s force-out. Before he was removed, Koufax had struck out 10 batters — the 49th time in his career and the ninth time this season he fanned 10 or more in a game. He is five shy of the major league mark of 54 10-strikeout games, shared by Rube Waddell and Bob Feller. Tim McCarver’s strikeout in the 12th was the 1,400th of Sandy’s career. Koufax had made 164 pitches when Dodger skipper Walter Alston removed him rather than risk injury to the superlative southpaw. The largest Dodger Stadium crowd of the year, 54,125, witnessed the longest game played in 1963 by the league leaders — and they got their money’s worth. Afterward, Cardinal manager Johnny Keane was still not willing to concede anything to Los Angeles. “It’s still a tight race, a tight league, and there’s a long way to go,” Keane said, perhaps mindful of the Dodgers’ late-season collapse of 1962. Last year, however, Los Angeles did not have the services of Koufax down the stretch. Alston’s only comment on the standings was: “It’s better to be 7½ game ahead than 6½ — but I wish it were 17½ instead.”
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