Cardinals Clubhouse
Cardinals Post-Season Play - 1964
The 1964 National League pennant race wasn't settled until the last day. The Cardinals were tied with Cincinnati for first place with Philadelphia a game behind. The Phillies and Reds played in Philadelphia while the Cards finished a series with the lowly New York Mets, who had beaten them twice in a row. A Phils' victory and a Cards' loss would create a three-way tie for first–a result that had never happened in the major leagues. But St. Louis beat the Mets on the final day 15-5 while the Phils thumped the Reds 10-0. Congratulations, Cardinals!
The American League pennant race was also tight, with the Yankees of first-year mana­ger Yogi Berra not claiming the flag until the second-to-last day of the season when they pulled two games ahead of the Chicago White Sox with one game left to play. It was the Bronx Bombers' 14th AL pennant in the last 23 years.

L-R: Managers Yogi Berra and Johnny Keane, Ray Sadecki, Bob Gibson
Game One: Busch Stadium I
Attendance: 30,805 Time of Game: 2:42
Cardinals 9 Yankees 5
WP: Ray Sadecki; LP: Whitey Ford
  • Cards manager Johnny Keane had used his ace, 19-game winner Bob Gibson, in the Sunday pennant-clincher against the Mets. So he went with 20-game win­ner Ray Sadecki to open the Series.
  • The Yankees led 4-2 when the Cards exploded for four runs in the bottom of the 6th. 3B Ken Boyer singled and, after 1B Bill White struck out, RF Mike Shannon smashed a home run into the left-field bleachers to tie the game.
    But the scoring wasn't over. C Tim McCarver doubled, knocking out starter Whi­tey Ford and bringing in another southpaw, Al Downing.
    PH Charlie James popped out, but another pinch hitter, Carl Warwick, came through with a two-out single to score McCarver with the go-ahead run. CF Curt Flood tripled to put the Cards up 6-4.
  • Keane called on his closer, knuckle-baller Barney Schultz, who gave up a run in the top of the 8th before St. Louis put the game away with three in the bottom of the 8th on an RBI-single by Flood and a two-run double by LF Lou Brock.

L-R: Clete and Ken Boyer, Bill White, Mike Shannon, Tim McCarver
Game Two: Busch Stadium I
Attendance: 30,805 Time of Game: 2:29
Yankees 8 Cardinals 3
WP: Mel Stottlemyre; LP: Bob Gibson
  • The starters dominated in the first five innings with each team scoring just a sin­gle run.
  • The Yanks scored in the 6th on a walk to CF Mickey Mantle, a hit-by-pitch that put 1B Joe Pepitone on 1st, and an RBI single by LF Tom Tresh.
  • The visitors got to Gibson for two more runs in the 7th. SS Phil Linz singled and went all the way to third on a wild pitch. 2B Bobby Richardson singled him home, went to third on RF Roger Maris's single, and scored on Mantle's ground­out. 4-1 Yankees.
  • The Cards scored a run in the bottom of the 8th on PH Warwick's single, PH Bob Skinner's double, and Brock's ground out.
  • The Yankees put the game away with four in the 9th off Schultz and Gordie Richardson. The big hits were Linz's leadoff homer and Mantle's double.
  • Stottlemeyer gave up a triple to SS Dick Groat and McCarver's single before retiring the Redbirds in the 9th.

L-R: Mel Stottlemyre, Mickey Mantle, Joe Pepitone, Tom Tresh
Game Three: Yankee Stadium
Attendance: 67,101 Time of Game: 2:16
Yankees 2 Cardinals 1
WP: Jim Bouton; LP: Barney Schultz
  • This was the best pitching duel of the Series.
  • The Yankees scored a run in the 2nd off southpaw Curt Simmons on C Elston Howard's single, a walk to Pepitone, and 3B Clete Boyer's double.
  • The Cards tied the score in the 5th. McCarver led off with a single to right and went to second when Mantle, playing right field because of his gimpy knee, mis­played the ball, and it went through him. After a groundout, Simmons, a good-hitting pitcher, helped his own cause with an RBI single.
  • Jim Bouton worked out of a runners-on-first-and-second-with-one-out jam in the top of the 9th.
  • Keane brought in Schultz for the bottom of the 9th. The first batter he faced, Mantle, wanted to make up for his fielding error. Bouton, who was at the water cooler in the dugout when Mickey came to collect his bat, recalled: "He was standing there with the bat on his shoulders watching Barney Schultz. His warm-up pitches were coming in about thigh high and breaking down to the shin, to the ankles. Mickey said, 'I'm gonna hit one outta here.'"
  • Sure enough, Mantle clobbered Schultz's first pitch into the right-field stands.

L-R: Jim Bouton, Curt Simmons, Elston Howard, Barney Schultz
Game Four: Yankee Stadium
Attendance: 66,312
Time of Game: 2:18
Cardinals 4 Yankees 3
WP: Roger Craig; LP: Al Downing
  • The scoring was limited to two half innings.
  • The Yankees scored three in the first to kayo Sadecki after just five batters. Linz lined a double to deep right field and scored on Richardson's double. Ma­ris singled Bobby to third, and Mantle drove him home with a single to finish Sadec­ki. Roger Craig came in from the bullpen and surrendered a single to Howard to plate the third run.
  • Downing shut down the Redbirds until Ken Boyer hit a grand slam in the 6th.
  • Steering clear of Schultz, Keane brought in righthander Ron Taylor who pitch­ed four innings of hitless ball to even the Series.

L-R: Phil Linz, Bobby Richardson, Roger Craig
Game Five: Yankee Stadium
Attendance: 65,633
Time of Game: 2:37
Cardinals 5 Yankees 2
WP: Bob Gibson; LP: Pete Mikkelsen
  • Stottlemeyer and Gibson met again and, as in Game Two, both pitched well.
  • The Cards broke the scoreless tie in the top of the 5th. With one out, Gibson singled to left. Flood hit a double-play grounder to Richardson, who booted the ball. Brock singled to right to score Gibson and move Flood to third. White hit a grounder to Richardson and beat the double play throw to first as Flood scored the second run.
  • Gibson continued to put up goose eggs until the 9th when the Yankees tied the game. Mantle reached first on SS Dal Maxvill's error. Undaunted, Big Bob struck out Howard and got Pepitone to ground out. But with defeat just an out away, Tresh smacked a homer to deep right-center field to send the game into extra innings.
  • Yanks reliever Pete Mikkelsen returned to the mound in the top of the 10th and immediately got into trouble. White walked, and Ken Boyer's sacrifice bunt turn­ed into a single when he beat Mikkelsen's throw to first. With Groat at the plate, White stole third. Groat then bounced straight to Clete Boyer, who held the run­ner at third and got the forceout at second. McCarver then clouted a home run into the right-field stands to make it 5-2 Cardinals.
  • Gibson didn't give up the lead this time. Richardson got a two-out single before Bob got Maris to foul out to give the Cards a three-games-to-two lead heading back to St. Louis.

L-R: Ron Taylor, Dal Maxvill, Pete Mikkelsen
Game Six: Busch Stadium I
Attendance: 30,805
Time of Game: 2:37
Yankees 8 Cardinals 3
WP: Jim Bouton; LP: Curt Simmons

  • Facing elimination, the Yanks needed a good outing from Bouton and got it. He gave up a run in the 1st on singles by Flood and Brock followed by a double-play ground­er by White. Then he pitched six scoreless innings. That gave the Yankees leeway to take an 8-1 lead.
  • Jim's single knocked in the tying run in the 5th, scoring Tresh who had doubled.
  • The Yanks took the lead for keeps in the 6th on back-to-back homers by Maris and Mantle.
  • New York salted the game away with five in the 8th as they again feasted on Schultz and Richardson. Howard's single drove in the first run, and Pepitone capped the inning with a grand slam.
  • The Cards got the final run of the game in the 8th when Flood walked, went to third on Brock's double, and scored on White's groundout.

Read the separate article on the seventh game of the 1964 World Series, which started the Cardinals' starting pitcher on the road to Cooperstown.