The Dodgers were one win away from a World Championship, their 5-4 victory over the White Sox in front of another record Coliseum crowd giving them a commanding 3-1 lead.

How bad were things for Chicago? Here's how The Times' Frank Finch saw it: "No damsel in distress in the old saw mill ever found herself in such a desperate fix as has now engulfed Al Lopez's American League champions."

Gil Hodges broke a tie ballgame with a home run in the eighth. A front-page photo showed Hodges receiving a congratulatory kiss from his wife. "In fact the Dodgers' big first baseman was embarrassed as the wave of sports writers charged him," Al Wolf wrote in a sidebar. "He quickly tried to remove a bit of lipstick from his cheek.

" 'The wife, you know,' he said. 'She planted this kiss on me.' "

Sandy Koufax, described as the Dodgers' hot and cold left-hander, would try to close out the series. — Keith Thursby