July 8, 1963 - Sandy Koufax pitched his eighth shutout of the season in the opener and Doug Camilli hit a two-run homer in the second game yesterday as the Los Angeles Dodgers swept a doubleheader from the Cincinnati Reds, 4-0 and 3-1, before 53,856 in Los Angeles. Koufax, in hurling a three-hitter, gained his seventh consecutive victory and his 14th in 17 decisions. The 27-year-old left-hander has set a club record for the most shutouts in one year. Burleigh Grimes, in 1918, and Whitlow Wyatt, in 1941, each had seven. Koufax’s victory lowered his earned-run average to 1.73, the best among the regular starters in the major leagues. In the second game, the Dodgers scored all their runs in the fourth inning. A single by Ken McMullen sent in the first one and Camilli’s first homer of the year produced the two others. “It’s more satisfying to pitch shutouts than to set strikeout records,” Koufax said after the game. “I couldn’t care less any more about strikeouts. I’d rather get them all out on the first pitch. The big thing with me now is knowing I can get the pitch over that I want. I have an idea — and I can do it. I can set the hitters up. It’s mostly mental. Control is mental. Before, I had the idea. But I was worried I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t set things up, so I’d go for the strikeout instead of doing it the easy way. This is a lot better. This way I could pitch maybe every two days. I can remember back in the Coliseum days, I’d strike out maybe five guys in a row and then the sixth would hit a home run. What good did the strikeouts do?” How does he feel about Tuesday’s All-Star classic? “I’ll be ready if they want me.” It’s a safe bet they will.
Comments