In Game 1, Yankees' twenty five game winner Whitey Ford faced the Reds' nineteen game winner Jim O'Toole in a battle of lefties at Yankee Stadium. The game was scoreless until Elston Howard led off the fourth inning with a home run to right field for a 1-0 Yankees' lead. Ford was masterful, allowing only a single by Eddie Kasko in the first and a single by Wally Post in fifth. Then Bill Skowron hit a solo home run in the sixth and that was it. Ford limited the Reds to the two singles, third baseman Clete Boyer made two outs standing defensive plays, and the Yankees took the Series lead. Mickey Mantle did not play due to a hip infection, appeared in only two games, and batted only six times in the entire Series.
The next day, Ralph Terry faced Cincinnati ace Joey Jay in Game 2. Once again, Mantle was absent from the line up. With the game tied 2-2 and two outs in the fifth, Elio Chacon and Eddie Kasko hit consecutive singles to center field to give the Reds runners at first and third, bringing the dangerous Vada Pinson at the plate. Terry, keeping the ball low, threw Pinson a slider that was low and away and that eluded the usually reliable Elston Howard, who was charged with a passed ball, giving the Reds the lead. Jay, who had yielded a Yogi Berra home run following a walk to Roger Maris in the fourth inning, gave up nothing else as the Reds won 6-2 to send the Series to Cincinnati tied at one game each.
It was a warm autumn Saturday. In the days before television-controlled baseball, the World Series usually opened on a Wednesday and since Friday had been a travel day, Game 3 was Saturday. Bill Stafford would face Bob Purkey, a knuckle ball-junk ball pitcher who gave power-hitting teams like the Yankees fits. Purkey had learned how to pitch and won sixteen games in 1961 but for the first time in the Series, the Yankees had their regular line up with Mantle playing centerfield. Once again the game turned out to be a pitcher's duel, reinforcing the fact that good pitchers usually stop good hitters.
