Aug. 29, 1964 - Perhaps it was the presence of a large crowd that helped celebrate Elston Howard Night, or the knowledge that September is almost here, or just the law of averages. Whatever it was, it woke up the Yankees tonight and made them look like their famous image for the first time in a month.
Joe Pepitone hit three home runs, Jim Bouton pitched a four-hitter, Whitey Ford hurled seven scoreless innings, Roger Maris stroked six singles, Mickey Mantle hit a home run, and the team as a whole sprayed 20 hits around Yankee Stadium.
The result was a double victory over the Red Sox, an eighth-place team that has caused the Yankees inexplicable trouble all year. The scores were 10-2 and 6-1.
These victories, witnessed by a crowd of more than 40,000, left the Yanks four games behind league-leading Baltimore and 2½ games behind Chicago. The Yankees still have 34 games left to play.
The biggest aid to Yankee morale was the fact that they finally did some hitting. Pepitone started it with a grand slam in the first inning of the opener, and he hit a three-run homer in the eighth.
His final homer, No. 20 of the year, came in the fourth inning of the second came with nobody on and made the score 2-0.
Mantle hit his homer in the first game and drove in the first run of the second game with a sacrifice fly after a couple of walks. But when Mickey took a third strike in the third, it was the 1,330th strikeout of his career, matching the total compiled by Babe Ruth, a major league record. Ruth played in 2,503 games; this was Mantle’s 1,853rd.
Aid No. 2 was the second straight strong performance by Ford, who now has a 14-5 record. He scattered eight hits over seven innings and then retired because of the heat and because he made a lot of pitches. He reported no further trouble with his hip, however, as he struck out seven and walked none. Ralph Terry mopped up for him.
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