Koufax Blanks Mets at Shea

June 12, 1965 - A New York sportswriter quoted Sandy Koufax as saying, “In spots, I’m just as fast as ever, but not as consistently.”After Sandy blanked the Mets today, 5-0, the Mets are convinced Koufax was misquoted.

In defeating Casey Stengel’s men for the 11th time without defeat and racking up the 29th shutout of his career and second of the season, the Dodger southpaw had it when he needed it. 

Like in the second inning, for example. After fanning Joe Christopher, he was tagged for successive singles by Bob Taylor and Danny Napoleon. Koufax then reared back, and the next two batters met their Waterloo as they were struck out on seven pitches — all fastballs.

A mog of 38,915 howling Mets fans saw their inept pets lose for the eighth straight time, but never once did the bedlam wane. Some have called Shea Stadium the world’s biggest open-air nuthouse.

The victory maintained L.A.’s 2½-game lead over the runner-up Milwaukee Braves. 

Koufax increased his major league-leading strikeout total to 127 in 110⅓ innings by whiffing eight Mets, and he spaced five singles. 

Koufax has throttled the New Yorkers with only 11 runs in 12 lifetime starts, which boils down to a minuscule 1.00 ERA for 99 innings of toil.

The Dodgers scored all their runs against Al Jackson, loser for the eighth straight time to L.A.

However, Al’s support was of little more assistance than a broken crutch, as four errors were charged to his playmates, and only three runs were earned.

Tug McGraw finished up with two scoreless innings. 

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