July 2, 1963 - “It was a curveball, belt high, that broke over the plate,” said 22-year-old left-hander Al Downing (pictured), the man who threw it. “A slider that came in over the plate,” said Elston Howard, the man who was set to catch it but never got the chance. This was in the Yankee clubhouse tonight after Downing had shut out the White Sox, 3-0, in the opener of a four-game set between the league-leading Bombers and the challenging White Sox. The talk was all about the pitch that Camilo Carreon banged up the middle and into center field with two Sox outs already on the board in the seventh. It was the one and only hit the White Sox batters got off Downing as he hurled his second shutout and third major league victory since being called up from Richmond June 6. Carreon, the Sox catcher, picked out the first pitch delivered to him in his third at-bat to break up Downing’s no-hitter. The ball hit the grass about a dozen feet in front of the mound and bounced past Downing and out, beyond the reach of shortstop Tony Kubek and second baseman Phil Linz, who were both converging on it. “I was still following through when the ball jumped past me,” sighed Downing. “Went by my right shoulder. A foot or so made the difference. I thought I had made a real good pitch, but that fellow is a good hitter. He killed me in Chicago last week.” Al pitched himself into a little trouble tonight in the eighth, walking Jim Landis and Nellie Fox with two out. At this point, manager Ralph Houk made his only trip to the mound. “I wasn’t about to take him out,” said Houk afterward, “and I told him so. I said, ‘I’m just giving you a little blow.’” The next batter, Pete Ward, popped up as he tried to pull away from a pitch. “I was missing a litle bit with my fastball, and that’s why I walked so many,” Downing said of his issuing six bases on balls. “Who cares about that now,” said a nearby teammate. “Boy, you’re going to get a lot of ink tomorrow. Yes sir, a lot of ink.” Al Lopez’s White Sox, who had taken three of four from the Yanks last week and who still remain the only club in the league with a season edge over the Bombers, could be cracking under the strain. Although this was only their second defeat by the Yanks against five victories, the Sox now trail by three-and-a-half games.
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