July 27, 1964 - Ralph Terry returned to the form which made him the star of the 1962 World Series by blanking the Los Angeles Angels, 3-0, tonight at Chavez Ravine to give the league-leading New York Yankees a victory in the opener of a three-game series.
The show drew the largest home crowd of the season for the Angels, 32,695 fans, who watched the veteran righthander score his third triumph against eight defeats.
New York moved a full game ahead of idle Baltimore with the win.
Elston Howard’s double off starter and loser Fred Newman knocked in two runs in the second inning, and Roger Maris slammed his 15th homer of the year in the third.
This was the ninth shutout of Bill Rigney’s team this year, three of them authored by New York hurlers.
L.A. put at least one runner aboard in all but the sixth inning, but none made it to third base where coach Salty Parker waited vainly for some friend to greet.
Terry had won only two games and lost eight this season, had pitched only one complete game before tonight, and had not started a game since June 10 in Boston.
Since then, he had been relegated to the bullpen, where he showed signs recently of reviving his old form with eight scoreless innings in a row protecting games for other pitchers.
Tonight, the 28-year-old righty alternated his fastball with a deceptive change-up which had Angel hitters swinging off balance. He struck out the Angels’ leading hitter, Jim Fregosi, in the eighth with a man on base. And he retired the side without damage in the ninth after Bob Rodger’s leadoff single.
The Yankee defense supported Terry energetically and at times dramatically.
Bobby Richardson made a running catch with his back to home plate in the second. Clete Boyer reached over the railing alongside the Angels’ dugout for a one-handed grab in the fifth. And Roger Maris leaned into the right-field stands to rob Rodgers of a homer in the sixth.
Manager Yogi Berri, the eminent optimist, refused to worry, outwardly at least, about the pennant race. “We’re in first place, aren’t we?” he said before tonight’s contest, “and there’s nothing wrong with that, is there? We should know a lot more in a couple of weeks, though.”
Berra was referring to two successive weekends when the Yankees play Baltimore, with the White Sox in between.

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