I have been working on a very long term project whereas I do a brief recap of Twins games on my “In This Day in Twins History Pages.” So my plan is to give you a brief recap of the Twins first season as it plays out on a weekly basis. For more info on a particular game you can also click on the date and go to the appropriate “In This Day in Twins History Page” as there you will often get to see some player pictures and supporting documentation. We will see how long I can keep up with it, no promises. So let’s see what we have for week 7.
Prior to play on May 25 the Twins are 18-19 and on a five game losing skid. They now find themselves in fifth place, 8.5 games behind the first place Detroit Tigers.
May 25 – Twins starter Pedro Ramos gives up five straight hits including two home runs and a total of five runs without retiring a single batter but manages to retire the next three batters and ends up going 9 innings but ends up with a ND. Ramos gave up 5 hits in the first inning but held the Tigers to just two hits over the next 8 frames. Meanwhile; the Twins offense keeps pecking away and finally ties the game at 5-5 with a Reno Bertoia single that scores Dan Dobbek who had a pinch-hit double in the home half of the ninth. The Tigers went ahead 6-5 in the 10th inning on a Bill Bruton home run off reliever Ted Sadowski but the Twins fought back in the bottom of the 10th and scored a run to tie the game when Bob Allison singled, Earl Battey sacrificed him to second and Hal Naragon delivered a pinch-hit single. Paul Giel keeps the Tigers off the board in the 11th inning and the Twins bats got to work once again. Lenny Green who extended his hitting streak to 22 games doubles for his fourth hit of the game, Bertoia’s sac bunt moves Green to third base bringing up the Killer, but he gets a free pass putting runners at the corners and the slumping Jim Lemon steps up and slams the first pitch he sees to left field for a game winning walk-off single. The 7-6 walk-off win in front of 10,987 Ladies Day fans brings the Twins back to the .500 mark and finally ends the five-game losing streak. The win by Paul Giel was his first and only win he would get for the Minnesota Twins. The Twins wrapped up a long homestand that saw them play 22 out of their last 24 games at Met Stadium while posting 10-14 mark. Now they have to hit he road for 18 games in six cities and if you follow along here, you will see it won’t be pretty. First stop, Washington D.C., the city that used to be their home from 1901-1960. Box Score
May 26 – The Minnesota Twins play in Washington for the first time and lose 4-3 to the expansion Washington Senators in their old stomping grounds, Griffith Stadium. Both starters, Jim Kaat for the Twins and Joe McLain for the Senators pitched complete games but McLain allowed one less hit and got the win. Kaat also had two of the Twins seven hits and both were doubles. Lenny Green extended his consecutive games hitting streak to 23. The Twins continued their sloppy play in the field with three more errors and the loss drops them below the .500 mark again, they won’t see it again this season. Box Score
May 27 – Shortstop Zoilo Versalles becomes the first Twin to get 5 hits in a game when he hits 2 doubles and 3 singles against the Washington Senators on the road but the Twins come up on the short-end of a 14-4 game when the Senators jump on Minnesota pitching for nine runs in the first three innings. Ed Palmquist was the Twins starter and loser. The Senators pounded out 11 extra-base hits in the game. Box Score
May 28 – The Twins and starter Jack Kralick could not hold a 4-1 lead and the Twins got beat 6-4 by the expansion Washington Senators. Much to the delight of the Senators and their fans, the Minnesota Twins got swept at Griffith Stadium in their first visit there since leaving the city after the 1960 season and becoming the Minnesota Twins. Twins fans had little to cheer about other than Harmon Killebrew’s 12th home run of the season and the fact that Lenny Green extended his hitting streak to 24 games with a bunt single. Killebrew also had a double, two walks, scored twice and had 2 RBI. Marty Kutyna upped his record to 3-0 with 3 innings of relief. The Twins third straight loss dropped them to seventh place in the standings and 8.5 games behind the first place Detroit Tigers. The Twins will enjoy a day off before facing the Cleveland Indians in a Memorial Day twinbill. Box Score
May 29 – Scheduled Day Off. The Twins record is 19-22 and they are now in 7th place.
May 30 (Memorial Day) – In the first game of two, Twins starter Camilo Pascual allowed just three hits and had a 3-0 lead after six innings but things unraveled in the seventh when he gave up three singles and a walk allowing the Indians to narrow the score to 3-2. The Twins, the worst fielding team in the league committed two errors in the eighth inning allowing the Indians to knot the game at 3-3. In the bottom of the ninth Pascual allowed a lead-off single to John Romano and when outfielder Lenny Green allowed the ball to get past him for the teams third error of the game, Romano took second. An intentional walk followed putting runners at first and second bringing up Bubba Phillips who popped up for the first out of the inning. Don Dillard pinch-hit for pitcher Frank Funk and on a 1-1 pitch delivered a single over second base scoring Romano with the winning run and the Indians had a walk-off win over the visiting Twins at Cleveland Stadium. Pascual (4-5) pitched the entire game allowing 8 hits, 3 walks and 4 runs of which 3 were earned. The Twins had just 7 hits with Earl Battey getting two of them. Lenny Green went 0 for 4 and his 24 game hitting streak came to and end. Green hit .362 going 34 for 94 between May 1 and May 28. Box Score game one
May 30 (Memorial Day) – In game two of the DH the Twins quickly found themselves down 3-0 in the first inning when Twins starter Pedro Ramos gave up three hits. Things got worse in fourth when a Billy Gardner error put Willie Kirkland on first to lead off the inning which led to three unearned runs and quick trip to he showers for Ramos after just 3.2 innings. The Twins fought back with a five run sixth inning off Indians starter Mudcat Grant that was capped off by Bob Allison’s ninth home run of the season and the Twins closed the gap to 6-5. The Indians however; scored a run in the bottom of the frame and led 7-5 going into the ninth. The Twins put the tying runs on base in the ninth but Reno Bertoia popped up to the third baseman for the final out of the game and the Twins ended up the day with two losses and a their losing streak reached five games. The Twins had eight hits with Zoilo Versalles and Hal Naragon getting two each. Box Score
May 31 – Twins vs Indians game in Cleveland was rained out and rescheduled for July 13. The 19-24 Twins find themselves in 7th place today, 9 games behind the AL leading Detroit Tigers. The record in May goes in the books as 10-18.
The Minnesota Twins start the week with a nice walk-off win at home ending a long home stand but lose their next five games and their record drops 19-24 and they find themselves dropping in the stadings like a rock and now sitting alone in seventh place a full nine games behind the high-flying Detroit Tigers.
The Minnesota Twins 1961 Media Guide can be found on our Twins Media Guides page.
