6-6-64: Chance, Bouton in goose-egg stalemate

Los Angeles' Dean Chance, en route to a Cy Young Award-winning season in 1964, shut out New York on three hits over 14 innings on June 6 in a game won by the Yankees over the Angels, 2-0, in 15 innings.

After Game 3 of the 1964 World Series, Mickey Mantle displays the game-winning home run ball he hit off Barney Schultz in the bottom of the ninth. Jim Bouton, right, threw a complete game for the 2-1 win for the New York Yankees over the St. Louis Cardinals. Earlier that year, on June 6,  Bouton shut out Los Angeles over 13 innings in a game won by New York over the Angels 2-0. 

By Phil Ellenbecker 
  Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn hooked up in an epic pitching duel in San Francisco on July 2, 1963, in what was called "The Greatest Game Ever Pitched" in a book by Jim Kaplan. Marichal the upstart prevailed over Spahn the veteran, 1-0, in 16 innings on a Willie Mays home run.
  Almost one year later and six hours down the road, upstarts Dean Chance and Jim Bouton engaged in a similar marathon matchup of pitching wills, won by the Yankees 2-0 in 15 innings on June 6, 1964, in Los Angeles.
  Nobody's written any books about it, but Chance's mastery that day gets venerable baseball analyst Bill James' vote as the greatest pitching performance of the past 60 years according to his Game Scores points system. "A very remarkable game that absolutely nobody seems to remember," James wrote.
  Unlike the July 2, 1963, game at Candlestick Park when Marichal and Spahn stuck it out to the bittersweet end, Chance and Bouton, both right-handers, were both gone by the time this one was decided at Dodgers Stadium. (The new home the Dodgers moved into in 1962 was the Angels' borrowed home, after Wrigley Field, and before the Angels moved into "The Big A," Anaheim Stadium, in 1966.)
  After Chance yielded to Willie Smith at the start of the 15th, the Yankees broke the deadlock. With one out, Roger Maris scratched out a single to shortstop and was replaced on the bases by Joe Pepitone when Bill Stafford, who'd relieved Bouton starting the 14th, retired Maris at second on Peppy's grounder back to the mound. John Blanchard followed with a single to center field, putting runners at first and second.
  That brought on Dan Osinski for Smith, and Elston Howard, the 1963 American League MVP, delivered a two-run double to center. Clete Boyer was intentionally walked, and Stafford struck out,himself back out to the mound with a chance to finally end it. That he did by coaxing a pair of pop-ups to Tony Kubek at shortstop, by Lou Clinton and Ed Kirkpatrick, around a strikeout by Bob Rodgers.
  Chance, who five days earlier had turned age 23 and was in his third full season, pitched a three-hitter with 12 strikeouts and two walks in his 14 innings.
  Bouton, 25 and in his third season, wasn't nearly as tidy, allowing 10 hits and five walks while striking out five in his 13-inning stint.
  But true to his "Bulldog" nickname, Bouton worked around the base-path activity as the Angels left 12 men on bases against him.
  Meanwhile Chance, who would win the Cy Young Award that year at a time when only one was awarded for both leagues, was a mow 'em down machine with nine 1-2-3 innings. He had strings of 12 and 14 straight batters retired. He had a no-hitter through six innings and one-hitter through nine.

Elston Howard, shown with Yankees catcher predecessor Yogi Berra, belted a two-run double in the 15th inning on June 6, 1964, to give New York a 2-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Berra, the Yankees manager that year, was ejected from the game for arguing a safe call at third base.

  Chance, a roommate and galavanting pal of fellow pitcher and noted playboy Bo Belinsky, struck out two batters apiece in the first two innings and then spotted a single K apiece in seven other frames, including five straight innings at one point. No. 3 hitter Tom Tresh whiffed three times. Howard and Clete Boyer struck out twice.
  Bobby Richardson, the American League's leader in at-bats per strikeout in 1964 and three times the league's toughest to strike out, fanned looking as the second batter up in the game, an indication of how "on" Chance was this day. Richardson struck out 36 times on the year.
  Breaking down Chance beyond the strikeouts, he got the Yankees to beat the ball into the turf with 16 ground-ball outs, seven on flies and four by line drives, pops or sacrifice bunts. Bobby Knoop was kept the busiest with seven assists from his second-base spot.
  Twice the Yankees advanced runners to third base.
  Boyer reached on an error by Knopp (a three-time Gold Glover) leading off the third. He reached second on Bouton's sacrifice bunt back to Chance, and went to third on Kubek's grounder to Chance. Richardson lined out to first to end the inning.
  After Chance had retired 12 in a row, Tresh walked leading off the seventh, moved to second on Maris' single to left and was at third after Pepitone grounded into a second-short-first double play. Chance struck out Blanchard to end that threat.
  Counting those final two batters of the seventh, Chance retired 14 straight for 15 outs including the double play in the seventh. After yielding a leadoff single to Kubek to start the 12th, he got nine of the final 10 batters he faced before giving way to Smith in the 15th. Pinch hitter Hector Lopez interrupted that last string with a one-out single in the 13th, and he was erased on a force-out.
  While Chance was relatively sailing, Bouton was somewhat struggling before he gave way to Mickey Mantle at bat in the 14th. Three times the Angels put runners on third base.
  Their biggest threat came in the ninth when the Angels loaded the bases in somewhat cumbersome, small-ball fashion. Bob Rodgers got an infield single to first starting the inning but was out at second on Kirkpatrick's fielder's choice sacrifice bunt attempt. Kirkpatrick then stole second, his second of two steals on the year. After Tom Satriano struck out, Joe Koppe reached on another infield single, this one to short, with Kirkpatrick advancing to third. Yankees manager Yogi Berra was ejected for arguing the safe call on Kubek's throw to Boyer at third attempting to retire Kirkpatrick.
  Knoop was walked intentionally to put the force out at any base, but Bouton disposed of the turbulence by striking out Chance, one of three times he whiffed on the day and 53 on the season in 89 at-bats for the .066 lifetime hitter -- the lowest for players with at least 500 plate appearances during their career.
  But Chance almost helped give himself the lead the inning before when he sacrificed Knopp to third after a leadoff double. After Albie Pearson popped out, Bill Moran walked, but Clinton hit into a fielder's choice, leaving Knopp 90 feet away from making it 1-0.
  Back-to-back singles by Kirkpatrick and Satriano put runners at first and third with one out in the second. But Kirkpatrick was picked off by Howard on an attempted squeeze play with "Spanky" and Koppe, and Koppe then popped out foul to third.
  Although he didn't get the win, by handcuffing the Yankees, Chance was working on some hoodoo over the Bronx Bombers that continued through the season and his career.  He pitched 50 innings against the Yankees in 1964, allowing only 14 hits and one run, a homer by Mantle. In five starts he threw four complete games and three shutouts, going 4-0 with a 0.18 ERA.
  “Every time I see his name on a lineup card, I feel like throwing up," Mantle said of Chance.
   Sportswriter Phil Pepe wrote that year, “It’s Chance, not CBS, who owns the New York Yankees. Lock, stock and barrel.”
   And in owning the Yankees he became the new "Yankee Killer." Detroit Tigers pitcher Frank Lary had gained that moniker for repeatedly beating the perennial powerhouse in the 1950s and '60s. In his career  Lary was 28-13 with a 3.32 ERA against New York, while Chance finished 18-11 with a 2.34 ERA.
  With the no-decision Chance, who'd been slowed early on in the season by a blister on his pitching hand, was left at 4-2 but was establishing his dominance. In his previous start, four days earlier against Boston, Chance had pitched a two-hit shutout, striking out 15 batters. Two starts before that he had pitched a three-hit shutout against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium.

  He went on to post a 20-9 record with a 1.65 ERA and 207 strikeouts. He led the AL in wins and ERA and was third in strikeouts. His ERA was the lowest mark since Spud Chandler's 1.64 in 1943. He also led the league in shutouts (11), innings pitched (278), complete games (15), WAR and least homers per nine innings pitched. He was fifth in MVP voting.
  In winning the Cy Young award, he collected 17 votes to easily outdistance the National League's Larry Jackson (2 votes, 24-11, 3.14) and Sandy Koufax (1 vote, 19-5. 1.74). He was the only pitcher to win the Cy Young besides Koufax between 1963 and '66.
  He was the starting pitcher in the All-Star Game, throwing three scoreless innings, allowing two hits and leaving with a 1-0 lead in a 7-4 AL loss.
  Bouton, 3-5 with a four-game losing streak entering June 6, was 18-13 with 3.02 ERA and 125 strikeouts for the season. He went on to go 2-0 with a 1.56 ERA in the Yankees' World Series win over the St. Louis Cardinals. He had a 2-1 record with a 1.48 ERA over three starts in the 1963 and '64 Series.
  Despite those fine '64 numbers he was off his 1963 ledger of 21-7, 2.53 and was never the same again because of arm miseries, winning less than half as many games for the remainder of his 10-year career. He had a final record of 62-23 with a 3.57 ERA.

  He made a comeback, not so much on the mound as a knuckleballer but in the literary world with the tell-all diary of his 1969 season, "Ball Four." The controversial best-seller was in 1995 honored by the New York Public Library as one of the greatest books published in the 20th century. He authored more books post-1969 and became an actor, activist, sportscaster and one of the creators of Big League Chew. He died July 20, 2019, at age 80.
  Like Bouton, Chance fell off in subsequent seasons after 1964, although not nearly as precipitously. He averaged 16 wins over the next four seasons, including 20 in 1967 when he was named the AL Comeback Player of the Year. He pitched at least 200 innings a year for seven straight seasons beginning in 1962. He had a final mark of 128-115 with a 2.92 ERA over 11 seasons.
  After retirement, among other things he worked for a carnival, managed boxer Ernie Shavers, was president of the International Bowling Association and became known as a world-class gin player. He also maintained a lifelong friendship with Belinsky and wouldn't work a card-signing show unless Belinsky was also invited. 
  So in and out of baseball Chance and Bouton could be considered sympatico souls, pursuing a variety of interests beyond the pitching mound. And on that night of June 6, 1964, they were similarly unyielding kings of the hill.
Sources:
Play-by-play: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1964/B06060LAA1964.htm and https://www.billjamesonline.com/the_greatest_of_games/ 
Biographical information on Chance and Bouton: https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/ball-four, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/51d19253 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bouton
Additional background came from various sources on the Retrosheet and Society for American Baseball Research's Biography Project websites, as well as baseballreference.com.