(Updated April 3, 2018)
Curt Flood slugged two home runs against Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax. The first was part of a rare feat. The second was the last home run hit against Koufax.
On Aug. 17, 1958, Flood and Gene Freese led off a game for the Cardinals against the Dodgers at the Los Angeles Coliseum with back-to-back home runs against Koufax.
Cardinals manager Fred Hutchinson stacked five right-handed batters among the top six in his order against the left-hander. The Coliseum, the Dodgers’ home in their first season after moving from Brooklyn, enticed right-handed batters to pull pitches to a left field fence 251 feet from home plate. A 42-foot screen was erected atop the fence, but batters weren’t deterred.
Flood, in his first season with St. Louis, opened the game by hitting a home run over the left-field screen. Freese, an infielder acquired by the Cardinals from the Pirates in a June trade, followed with a home run to the same spot.
The Cardinals scored four in the first against Koufax and he was lifted with one out in the second. Koufax faced 10 batters, yielded four hits and two walks and took the loss in a game won by the Cardinals, 12-7. Boxscore
“After going five straight games without coming close to a homer, Curt Flood and Gene Freese helped the Cards find the combination again at Los Angeles’ chummy left field fence in the Coliseum,” The Sporting News reported.
Eight years later, on Sept. 29, 1966, at St. Louis, in what would be his last appearance against the Cardinals, Koufax and Flood faced one another for the final time.
Koufax entered the game with 294 strikeouts, needing six more to become the first big-league pitcher to achieve 300 in a season three times. In the fourth inning, Koufax fanned Flood for strikeout No. 300 and got a standing ovation from the St. Louis crowd.
Seeking his 26th win of the season, Koufax and the Dodgers were ahead, 2-0, before Flood led off the seventh with a home run.
It would be the last home run hit against Koufax, who would retire after the season. (Koufax yielded 204 home runs in 12 big-league seasons, plus two in the 1963 World Series.)
In the ninth, Koufax struck out the first two batters, Lou Brock and Jerry Buchek, before Flood doubled to center.
“I got a little tired near the end and made a mistake with Flood,” Koufax said to United Press International. “Imagine, after eight or nine years in the league, I still don’t know how to pitch to Flood.”
Flood hit .296 [32-for-108] in his career against Koufax.
What happened next sparked much debate. Dodgers manager Walter Alston went to the mound and, according to United Press International and the Los Angeles Times, ordered Koufax to intentionally walk Orlando Cepeda, putting the potential go-ahead run on base.
“I didn’t argue,” Koufax said, “but I doubt that we would have done it if we were playing at home.”
Said Alston to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “I kind of stuck my neck out a little.”
Cepeda had five career home runs against Koufax. Alston preferred to take his chances with Mike Shannon, one of the top home run and RBI producers on the 1966 Cardinals.
Said Alston: “I went to the mound to Koufax after Curt Flood doubled and said, ‘Sandy, I think I’d rather have you pitch to the other guy (Shannon).’ Sandy agreed.”
Shannon flied out to center fielder Willie Davis, ending the game, a 2-1 Dodgers victory. Boxscore
“How about Alston putting that winning run on base?” said Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst. “I guess you can get away with it when you have Sandy Koufax on the mound.”
Morris McLemore, sports editor of the Miami News, wrote, “In a situation like that, baseball is the most exciting game ever devised, for the final decision was made of drama, great skill and chance-taking in almost equal proportion.”
Koufax finished with a four-hitter and 13 strikeouts.
“I thought I had a better curve ball than I have had at any other time this season,” Koufax said.
There is a problem here. The narrative mentions Alston’s trip to the mound in the ninth. But the inning by inning account and the box score indicated Alston was ejected earlier in the game.
Thank you for pointing out a discrepancy. The error was in the box score, not the narrative. I have deleted the box score and updated the narrative with confirmation from the Los Angeles Times and St. Louis Post-Dispatch archives that Alston wasn’t ejected and indeed went to the mound in the ninth and instructed Sandy Koufax to intentionally walk Orlando Cepeda.