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 6.
Prior to play on May 18 the Twins are 16-13 on the season good for third place but trailing the leaders by 5.5 games. The league leading Detroit Tigers who are 23-9 and have a five game lead on the second place New York Yankees.
May 18 – A three-run home run by Marv Throneberry off Twins starter Jim Kaat in the second inning erased a Twins 1-0 lead and Kansas City A’s starter Ray Herbert pitched a complete complete game for his third win. Kaat went six innings and his record dropped to 1-3. 8,878 fans at the Met saw Bob Allison club his 8th home run of the season. Zoilo Versalles contributed two of the Twins seven hits. This was the Minnesota Twins first ever night game played at Met stadium and it drew less than 9,000 fans. Box Score
May 19 – Outfielder Dan Dobbek hits two home runs with the first one being the Twins first grand slam home run at Metropolitan Stadium as the Twins triumph over the Kansas City A’s 11-1 . The unlucky hurler is Kansas City Athletic pitcher Ed Rakow. Don Mincher also hits a home run and Billy Gardner goes 4 for 4 while Jack Kralick goes the distance for the win. Box Score
May 20 – The Twins beat the visiting Kansas City Athletics 2-0 as Camilo Pascual (4-3) pitched his second complete game shutout in a row. Pascual, who is considered by many as the best right-hander in the American League allowed just five hits while striking out nine giving him a league-leading 50 and has allowed no walks in his last two starts. Harmon Killebrew supported the cause with his ninth long ball of the season. Former Reds starter Joe Nuxhall (1-1) took the defeat for the A’s though he went seven strong innings allowing just one run. The second place Twins are now just four games out of first and have an 18-14 record. Box Score
May 21 – The attendance for the first ever Twins home double-header at the Met was 30,999 but they were not a happy crowd when they left Met Stadium after witnessing the Twins get shutout not once but twice losing to the Cleveland Indians 9-0 and 2-0. In the first game the Twins managed two hits and were shut out by rookie Wynn Hawkins and in the second game the Twins managed three hits and were shut out by Mudcat Grant. Indians second baseman Johnny Temple had 6 hits himself going 6 for 11 in the DH. Pedro Ramos lost game 1 and Don Lee lost game 2. The Twins got outhit on the day 28 to 5 and all five hits were singles. The only good thing that happened to the Twins was that Lenny Green had a hit in each game and stretched his hitting streak to 18 games. Something happened that day that you won’t see nowadays, Ramos started game 1 for Minnesota and lasted just 1.1 innings before being taken out of the game after allowing three runs on 6 hits, so what happens? Ramos relieves Twins game 2 starter Don Lee after he lasts just 1.2 innings and Ramos goes on to pitch 5.1 scoreless innings of relief allowing just three hits.
May 22 – It took the Cleveland Indians 4 hours and 8 minutes and 15 innings but they extended the Twins losing streak to three games and swept the three-game series with a 7-5 win when they bunched four singles off Twins reliever Ted Sadowski (0-2). Frank Funk the Indians fourth pitcher of the game pitched the last 8 innings allowing no runs on just two hits, two walks while striking out seven. When the 1961 season ended, Funk had appeared in 56 games, all in relief, and he had an 11-11 record with a 3.31 ERA. Woodie Held led the Indians hitting attack with two home runs. Twins spot starter Ed Palmquist went 8 innings and received a ND for his work. Palmquists’ big league career lasted only 39 games (between the Dodgers and the Twins) and he had never pitched more than 4.1 innings in any other game. Harmon Killebrew hit number 10 out of the park but it was not enough. Lenny Green had just one hit bit it stretched his hitting streak to 19 in a row. Turns out this was one of the two (August 6) longest games (in terms of innings) the Twins would play in 1961. Box Score
May 23 – Another day and another loss for the Twins as the Detroit Tigers show up at Met Stadium and hand the Twins their fourth loss in a row. The game started out as a pitching duel between the Tigers starter Jim Bunning and Twins starter Jack Kralick and after 8 innings the game was knotted at 2-2. The Twins had a shot in the bottom of the eighth to break the game open when they loaded the bases with no outs but a double play and a flyball killed that chance. Twins skipper Cookie Lavagetto went to his bullpen after Kralick was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the eighth inning but that would prove to be a bad move when reliever Ray Moore was greeted with back-to-back home runs by Norm Cash and Steve Boros. Cookie went to his bullpen again and brought in Paul Giel but Dick Brown greeted him (first pitch) with a home run too. Giel finally got out of the inning but it was too late as the Tigers took a 5-2 lead. Hank Aguirre shut the Twins down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth for the win. Billy Gardner had two of the Twins seven hits but when you commit 3 errors and go 0 for 10 with RISP you can’t expect to win. Box Score
May 24 – The Twins outhit the visiting first-place Bengals at Met Stadium 11-9 but they commit the games only two errors and go 0-6 with runners in scoring position and guess what? You bet, they lose 5-4 and stretch their losing streak to five in a row and their record slipped below the .500 mark for the first time this season to 18-19. Camilo Pascual (4-4) didn’t have his best stuff and lasted just 4.2 innings allowing 5 runs, 4 earned, on 6 hits and 3 walks. Pascual’s scoreless streak ended at 20 innings. Don Mossi (Ears) went 6 solid innings to up his record to 5-0. Zoilo Versalles had a big day at the plate going 4 for 5 with a home run and a double, scored twice and knocked in two. Harmon Killebrew continued his home run tear hitting number 11. The Tigers got home runs from future hall of famer Al Kaline and Rocky Colavito. Box Score.
A bad week for the Twins as they go 2-6 and are currently on a five game losing skid. They started this week in third place 5.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers and now find themselves in fifth place and 8.5 games behind the first place Detroit Tigers.
