PETERS, WHITE SOX LOSE NO-HITTER IN 9TH BUT ESCAPE WITH WIN
Bases Loaded DP Grounder Sinks Nats

CHICAGO, Sept. 20 (AP) - Gary Peters took a no-hitter into the ninth inning but had to sweat out the end of the game--on the bench--as the White Sox hung on for a 3-2 victory over the Washington Senators at Comiskey Park.  The win, coupled with a doubleheader split for the league-leading Baltimore Orioles, moves the White Sox to within five games of first place with two weeks remaining in the regular season.

Despite holding the Senators hitless for eight innings, Peters actually trailed 1-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning.  Washington scored an unearned run in the top of the fourth.  Ed Brinkman reached on an error by third baseman Pete Ward leading off the inning and advanced to second on a ground ball out.  Chuck Hinton flied to left and the White Sox elected to intentionally walk Don Lock, the Senators' most dangerous hitter.  But Peters then missed with a 3-2 pitch to light-hitting Roy Sievers to fill the bases and, on the very first pitch to Fred Valentine, catcher J.C. Martin botched it.  The passed ball allowed Brinkman to score the game's first run.

The White Sox rallied to take the lead in the fifth.  With one out, Mike Hershberger grounded a single to center field off Senators starter Bernie Narum and Ron Hansen followed by looping a single to right, with Hershberger advancing to second.  Narum then did himself in.  First, he uncorked a wild pitch, allowing the runners to advance to second and third and, before another pitch was thrown, Narum was cited for a balk, scoring Hershberger with the tying run and moving Hansen to third.  Martin then flipped a single into shallow left and Hansen trotted home to give Chicago a 2-1 lead.

In the bottom of the sixth, Don Buford led off with a single but was erased by a double play grounder off the bat of Floyd Robinson.  Ward, however, belted his 34th home run of the season, a line drive into the lower seats in right field, to up the advantage to 3-1. 

Peters, meanwhile, was mowing down the Senators, and fanned five consecutive batters at one point--the final two Washington hitters of the seventh inning and all three in the eighth--giving him 10 strikeouts for the game.

Reliever Jim Hannan set the White Sox down in order in the bottom of the eighth and Peters returned to the mound, his no-hitter intact, with a two-run lead.  The bottom of the ninth did not begin auspiciously; Peters walked Brinkman on four pitches to open the frame.  Dick Phillips pinch hit for Chuck Cottier and promptly ended the no-hit bid by lining a single to center field, with Brinkman stopping at second.  Not only was the no-hitter a thing of the past, the Senators now had the tying runs on base with no outs.  Hinton flied to deep center field for the first out, with Brinkman advancing to third.  The long fly, which drove center fielder Jim Landis to the edge of the warning track, was enough for White Sox manager Al Lopez who summoned Hoyt Wilhelm from the bullpen to relieve Peters.  Wilhelm got ahead of Lock 0-2 but then offered up a hanging knuckler that was lined into left field for Washington's second hit, scoring Brinkman, to cut the Chicago lead to 3-2, and advancing Phillips to second.  When Earl Cunningham drew a four-pitch walk, the bases were loaded and the tying and lead runs were in scoring position, still with only one out recorded.  Fred Valentine came to the plate and Wilhelm induced a ground ball to short which Hansen, Al Weis and Tom McCraw turned into a game-ending double play.

The White Sox have tomorrow off before opening up a two-game series with the Angels in Los Angeles on the 22nd.

9/20/1964, Was64-ChA64, Comiskey Park
 
                       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9     R  H  E   LOB DP
1964 Senators          0  0  0  1  0  0  0  0  1     2  2  0     4  1
1964 White Sox         0  0  0  0  2  1  0  0  x     3  9  1     5  1
 
Senators             AB  R  H BI   AVG    White Sox            AB  R  H BI   AVG
Brinkman          ss  3  2  0  0  .230    Landis            cf  4  0  1  0  .202
Cottier           2b  3  0  0  0  .171    Buford            2b  4  0  1  0  .265
 Phillips,D       ph  1  0  1  0  .230     Weis             2b  0  0  0  0  .248
Hinton            lf  4  0  0  0  .215    Robinson,Fl       lf  3  0  0  0  .277
Lock              cf  3  0  1  1  .264    Ward,P            3b  4  1  1  1  .262
Sievers           1b  1  0  0  0  .186    McCraw            1b  4  0  1  0  .277
 Zimmer           ph  1  0  0  0  .256    Hershberger       rf  3  1  2  0  .196
 Cunningham       1b  0  0  0  0  .216    Hansen            ss  3  1  1  0  .257
Valentine         rf  4  0  0  0  .267    Martin            c   3  0  2  1  .239
Kennedy           3b  3  0  0  0  .204    Peters            p   3  0  0  0  .180
Brumley           c   3  0  0  0  .195     Wilhelm          p   0  0  0  0  .154
Narum             p   2  0  0  0  .035                         31  3  9  2
 Ridzik           p   0  0  0  0  .222
 King             ph  1  0  0  0  .206
 Hannan           p   0  0  0  0  .067
                     29  2  2  1
 
Senators                         INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA
Narum            L 6-19          5.2  6  3  3  1  2  82  57  4.57
Ridzik                           1.1  3  0  0  0  1  30  19  3.91
Hannan                           1.0  0  0  0  0  1  11   7  3.51
                                 8.0  9  3  3  1  4 123  83
 
White Sox                        INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA
Peters           W 16-12         8.1  1  2  1  3 10 119  75  2.93
Wilhelm          S 19            0.2  1  0  0  1  0  12   7  1.92
                                 9.0  2  2  1  4 10 131  82
 
Was: Zimmer batted for Sievers in the 7th
     Cunningham inserted at 1b in the 7th
     King batted for Ridzik in the 8th
     Phillips,D batted for Cottier in the 9th
ChA: Weis inserted at 2b in the 8th
 
E-Ward,P. HR-Ward,P(34). RBI-Lock(67), Ward,P(107), Martin(24). SB-Landis(5).
CS-Robinson,Fl. K-Lock 2, Valentine, Kennedy 2, Brumley 2, Narum 2, Zimmer,
Buford, McCraw 2, Hershberger. BB-Brinkman, Lock, Sievers, Cunningham,
Robinson,Fl. PB-Martin. WP-Narum. BALK-Narum.
GWRBI: Martin
Temperature: 72, Sky: partly cloudy, Wind: left to right at 8 MPH.
Attendance: 26,331
Game Time: 2:17