St. Louis, Missouri 9/17/1963
As the great Stan Musial’s career is coming to a close with less than two weeks left, he faces off against another great in Sandy Koufax in a key pennant race game. Musial would win this battle with a seventh inning single but Koufax would win the day allowing only four hits and walking none in a 4-0 blanking of the Cardinals. The Dodger win would increase their lead in the standing to three games over St Louis, who were also aided by a Frank Howard two-run home run in the eighth inning. Koufax would improve his record to 24-5 with an 1.87 ERA.
Musial over the last seven games of his stellar career would hit .316 with three RBIs. For the season he would finish with a .255 average, 12 home runs and 58 runs batted in. His final hit, his 3,630th, would come on September 29th when he hit a single off Cincinnati Reds’ Jim Maloney in the sixth inning. St Louis manager Johnny Keane, sensing the high note here, would bring in a pinch runner allowing Musial to walk off the Busch Stadium for the final time to a standing ovation.
