Oct. 5, 1962 - “That was the best game I ever pitched,” Jack Sanford (right with Willie McCovey), the San Francisco Giants’ ace right-hander, said today after shutting out the Yankees on three hits. “Everything seemed to be working — fastballs, sliders, curves.” The Yankees were accommodating, he pointed out. “They swung at a lot of bad curveballs,” he said. He included Mickey Mantle. Mantle, however, clouted an inside fastball for a double off the right-field fence in the ninth for the Yanks’ best hit. Manager Alvin Dark put on a “Ted Williams shift” for Roger Maris, moving three infielders to the right side. It worked. Chuck Hiller, the Giants’ second baseman, cut off two potential base hits. The Giants’ skipper put in Willie McCovey for Orlando Cepeda at first. McCovey smashed a 400-foot insurance home run off Ralph Terry in the seventh. Tom Haller, also a replacement, caught a fine game behind the plate. Another substitute, Matty Alou, drove in the Giants’ first run in the first. But above all, there was Sanford. “He really had it all the way,” Dark said admiringly.
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