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A NEW
ERA BEGINS WITH YAZ ... July 31, 1961 ... Top-notch pitching, with each hurler going three innings or less, today silenced the bats of the best hitters in the world. And so the National League’s renowned sluggers, on a walk, a hit batter and two infield singles, scored a sixth-inning run that gave them a 1-to-1 tie with the American League. The game, witnessed by a paid attendance of 31,851, was called at the end of nine innings because of persistent downpour of rain. The American League scored its run, simply, in the first inning. The second batter, Rocky Colavito, hit a changeup pitch by right-hander Bob Purkey into the left field net. And in the sixth, without hitting the ball out of the infield, the National League tied the score. Except for those two scoring moments, the game was featured by superb pitching … by the magic performance of the National League’s finishing pitcher, Stuart Miller of Northampton, and by the base-running, hitting and first-basing of Bill White of the St. Louis Cardinals. Jim Bunning opened the game for the American League with three perfect innings of pitching.
Camilo Pascual, except for one walk, pitched perfect baseball for the final three. But the crowd
went home talking of the National League finisher,
With the score tied, Miller opened the seventh. He started by striking out Aparicio and Temple, then making Brooks Robinson
ground out to short. In the eighth, he made Pascual foul out, Cash and Colavito ground out. And after Al Kaline opened the ninth with a single to center.
With one out, Kaline stole second. Then Miller, in order, struck out
Mickey Mantle, Elston Howard and pinch-hitter Roy Sievers. And
so it was Miller and rain that ended the American League’s hopes.
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