Go All the Way in '59: July 28, No more looking back

By Phil Ellenbecker
  The date of July 28 is significant in the 1959 season of the Chicago White Sox because it represents the day the Pale Hose moved into first place in the American League, not to sink back below for the rest of the season.
  And even better, it came against their dreaded nemesis throughout the 1950s, the New York Yankees, as Chicago prevailed 4-3 on a Tuesday before 43,829 at Comiskey Park.
  Before that day the White Sox had been jockeying for the top position with Cleveland, trailing for the most part — in first for 15 days, tied five other days, but never up for more than four days.
  But with the win over the Yankees on July 28, the ChiSox had first place all to themselves en route to clinching their first AL pennant in 40 years.
  Billy Pierce bested Ralph Terry as both turned in complete games. Pierce moved over the .500 mark at 12-11, scattering 10 hits and striking out eight while walking none and allowing two earned runs.
  It was appropriate that Pierce, although not in one of his best years, was on the mound for such a symbolic, get-over-the-hump occasion. The 5-foot-9 southpaw had been such a mainstay for the White Sox throughout the '50s, twice a 20-game winner, only for him and his teammates to come up short year in and year out.
  Pierce had to withstand a ninth-inning, two-run rally by the Yankees to come away with the win. With Chicago leading 4-1 coming in, Hector Lopez singled leading off for the Yankees and went to second when Elston Howard reached on an error by Luis Aparicio (Gold Glover and AL fielding leader at shortstop that season), and Lopez scored on Fritz Brickell's single. After Pierce got Marv Throneberry to fly out, Howard made it 4-3 on a sacrifice fly by Don Larsen, the strong-hitting pitcher batting for Terry.
  But Pierce struck out Bobby Richardson, always one of the toughest players to fan, to end the game. 

Billy Pierce, a stronghold on the mound throughout the 1950s for the Chicago White Sox, scattered 10 hits and pitched a complete-game as they took first place for good in the American League with a 4-3 victory over the vaunted New York Yankees on July 28, 1959.

  Al Smith's two-run homer in the eighth, with Nellie Fox aboard after a single, proved to be the difference in the game. The homer was Smith's 10th in a 17-homer year.
 (Smith, the ChiSox's No. 3 hitter in their lineup, and cleanup hitter Sherm Lollar (22 homers) were the only Chicago players in double figures homers, as the White Sox were last in the major leagues with 97 in 1959.)
  Through seven innings the game had been a taut pitcher's duel. Fox and Smith also figured as the White Sox took a 1-0 lead in the first, as back-to-back singles by Aparicio and Fox and a walk to Smith preceded  Lollar's double-play grounder that scored Aparicio.
  The Yankees tied it in the fourth on a double by Mickey Mantle and single by Yogi Berra. However, further damage was prevented with the help of Lollar throwing out fellow catcher Berra trying to steal second. One out later Howard singled and Brickell doubled, but Pierce struck out Throneberry to get out of the inning, beginning a string in which Pierce retired 13 of 15 batters.
  Coming into the fourth, Pierce had retired 10 of 11.
  (Berra, who had 30 career stolen bases, was 1 for 4 trying to steal in 1959.)
  Chicago retook the lead in the fifth when Pierce singled for the second time in the game, advanced to second on a  wild pitch and scored on Fox's single.
  The following day the two teams were tied 4-4 after 5 1/2 innings when the game was called by rain. Early Wynn threw a six-hitter to beat the Yankees on Thursday, the second in a six-game win streak that pushed the White Sox lead to three games, their biggest cushion of the year so far.
  While the Sox maintained the lead, the Yankees staggered home in third with a final mark of 79-75, their lowest finish since 1948 and lowest win total since 1925. It was only second time in the 1950s the Yanks finished out of first.