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 8.
The Twins started the month of June at 19-24 and in seventh place in the American League, nine games behind the league leading Detroit Tigers.
June 1 – No scheduled Twins game today. In the Twins first ever trade, the Twins trade third baseman Reno Bertoia and pitcher Paul Giel to Kansas City for outfielder Bill Tuttle. That very same day they acquire second baseman Billy Martin from the Milwaukee Braves in exchange for shortstop Billy Consolo.
The Minnesota Twins also announced that they had signed Purdue’s Bernie Allen for $50,000 beating out the Yankees, Mets, and six other teams that were in the hunt to sign Allen. Allen was also the starting QB for the Purdue Boilermakers football team. There was some discussion of having Allen start his pro career with the Minnesota Twins but the ballclub decided to have him report to the class A Charlotte Hornets. Allen played in 80 games for the Hornets in 1961 and then made the Twins big league roster in spring training the following season.
June 2 – A 58 minute rain delay as the game started just postponed the inevitable as Tigers starter Jim Bunning shuts out the Twins 2-0 at Tiger Stadium allowing just four hits and two of those belonged to Zoilo Versalles. Jack Kralick allowed just six hits in seven innings but two of them were home runs by Rocky Colavito and Al Kaline. Bunning was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1996 by the Veteran’s Committee. Box Score
In off the field news Twins owner Cal Griffith opened his wallet for the second day in a row when the team spent $50,000 to sign their second bonus selection in as many days when they inked Joe Nossek a slugging outfielder from Ohio University. Nossek made his Twins debut on April 18, 1964.
June 3 – Twins pitchers Pedro Ramos (3-6) and Ray Moore hold the Detroit Tigers to just five hits but the slumping Twins still find a way to lose their seventh game in a row when they come up on the short end of a 2-1 game at Tiger Stadium. Granted, five walks and two errors did not help the situation. The Twins who trailed 2-0 after eight innings rallied for one run in the top of the ninth but Billy Martin’s ground out with runners at first and second snuffed that rally. Zoilo Versalles had two of the Twins seven hits, all of which were singles. Tiger lefty Don Mossi upped his record to 6-0. The eighth place Twins play a DH against the first place Tigers tomorrow. Box Score
June 4 – The Twins take on the league leading Tigers as 32,761 baseball fans pack Tiger Stadium and most go home happy, a number of them with Tiger home run balls in their pockets as the home town Bengals pound the visiting Twins 10 to 4 and hit five home runs in the process. Tigers starter Frank “Yankee Killer” Lary won his eighth game against just 3 losses logging his eighth complete game in 12 starts this season. Camilo Pascual went the first seven innings and allowed two of the five home runs and was nailed with his sixth loss against just four wins. Ed Palmquist relieved Pascual and probably wished he hadn’t. Palmquist retired the first batter he faced in the eighth inning but then gave up a single, a SB, then back-to-back home runs followed by a single, another home run and a double making the score 10-1 before Cookie Lavagetto had to take him out and burn another pitcher to get the final two outs of the inning. Jose Valdivielso and Julio Becquer each hit their first home runs of the season for Minnesota but it was not nearly enough to prevent the Twins eighth straight loss. Box Score game one
June 4 – Game two didn’t go much better for Minnesota as the Tigers greeted Twins starter Jim Kaat with a three run blast from Rocky Colavito in the first inning and another three run blast from Bubba Morton in the second inning. Kaat fought back and lasted six innings but he took the loss and his record now stood at 1-5. Twins reliever Ted Sadowski who got the final two outs in the first game came in again in game two but the Tigers got to him too as he gave up the Tigers third home run of the game and 3 runs on 4 hits over the final two innings. Manager Lavagetto even tried coaching first base himself starting in the third inning but it did not help much. Tigers reliever Paul Foytack (3-3) relieved starter Bob Bruce and got credit for the win with 6.1 innings of stellar relief allowing just two runs on four hits. Harmon Killebrew broke an 0-15 slump with two hits and Billy Martin had two hits. The two losses dropped the Twins record to 19-28, thirteen games behind the high flying Tigers. Just when you think things can’t get any worse, the Twins get to fly to New York to play two games again tomorrow after having burnt through their best starters against the Tigers. Box score game two
June 5 – The Twins are in New York to take on the Bronx Bombers and will play their second DH in two days. The first game today is a make-up game for the April 13 game that was rained out. The Twins jumped out to a quick lead in the first inning when Zoilo versalles singled and went to third on a throwing error and scored on a Bill Tuttle’s ground out to second. Lenny Green followed that with a home run off Yankee starter Jim Coates and the Twins had a quick 2-0 lead. Don Lee started for Minnesota and held the Yanks to just two hits through the first six innings. Things went to pot for Lee with one out in the seventh inning when the Twins committed their third error of the game behind him allowing Bill Skowron to reach first. Elston Howard then singled putting runners at first and second and Minnesota native Johnny Blanchard stepped up to the plate as a pinch-hitter. Blanchard was in an 0 for 11 slump as a pinch-hitter and Lee had him down 0-2 before trying to throw another fastball past Blanchard who quickly deposited the ball 360 deep in the right field stands. Lee quickly dispatched the next Yankee hitters but the Twins and Lee found themselves down 3-2. In the eighth inning the Yankees kept the peddle to the metal and scored three insurance runs with two runs coming off a Mickey Mantle home run off Twins reliever Ray Moore. The Twins tried to mount a rally in the ninth inning of Coates with singles by Jim Lemon and Julio Becquer but the Yankees brought in reliever Luis Arroyo who got Billy Martin to hit a ground ball that forced Becquer at second laving the Twins with runners at the corners. That brought up Billy Gardner who was not having a great game with two errors in the field and a 0 for 3 day with the bat and he added to his bad day by hitting into a game-ending double play and the Twins losing streak reached double figures (10). Lee went 7 strong innings allowing just four hits and one walk but all he got for his efforts was his second loss of the year. Lenny Green who got himself ejected in the fifth for arguing a third strike call had two hits including his home run, and Bill Tuttle also chipped in two hits, one of which was a double. Box score game one
June 5 – In game two the Twins faced 24 year old rookie right-hander Rollie Sheldon who was pitching in his eighth big league game and making just his fourth start in the majors. What was “crazy” about Sheldon was that he spent the previous season, his first in pro ball with class D Auburn in the New York-Pennsylvania League where he made 17 starts, completing 15 of them going 15-1. In 150 innings he struck out 127 and posted a 2.88 ERA. The Twins drew first blood in this game when Twins starter Chuck Stobbs doubled in Billy Martin who had singled earlier and after 3 innings the Twins had a 1-0 lead. Things started unraveling for Stobbs in the fifth when he gave up 3 runs on 4 singles. The Yanks knocked Stobbs out of the game in the following inning and after six innings the Twins found themselves down 4-1. The Yankees added on two more insurance runs and when the final score was posted, it said Yankees 6 and Twins 1. Sheldon had pitched his first big league complete game allowing just 6 hits and upped his record to 2-2. Twins hitting woes continued as Billy Martin had two of the Twins 6 hits. Things were looking bleak for Minnesota who have now lost 16 out of their last 17 and 11 in a row and Whitey Ford couldn’t wait to take the mound for the Yankees the following day. Box Score
June 6 – The Twins find themselves in ninth place in the with a 19-30 record to begin the day. Twins manager Cookie Lavagetto is given a weeks “furlough” by owner Calvin Griffith prior to the game today. Coach Sam Mele temporarily replaces Lavagetto but it doesn’t help much as the Twins lose 7-2 to New York at Yankee Stadium I making it 12 losses in a row and 17 losses in their last 18 games. Interim manager Sam Mele was ejected in the second inning and coach Ed Lopat took over, making him the Twins third manager of the day. Yankee starter Whitey Ford was tough, allowing just one hit through the first seven innings before being pulled after allowing two hits in the eighth inning. Two of the Twins three hits were by pinch-hitters Billy Gardner and Jim Lemon. Yankee Roger Maris hit the games only home run and Tony Kubek was 3 for 5. Box Score
June 7 – A Yankee five-run third inning does in the Twins in Gotham as Roger Maris and Yogi Berra both go long off Twins starter Pedro Ramos. The Maris home run was number 17 and leads the league. The Yankees had two more hits in the fourth inning but Ramos got out of that situation with no runs allowed and neither he or reliever Ed Palmquist allowed another Yankee hit for the remainder of the game. The Twins can only muster two hits off Yankee hurler Ralph Terry as he goes the distance for the win and the Twins drop into the AL cellar with the 5-1 loss, their 13th loss in a row. The Twins actually had a 1-0 lead when they bunched their two hits in the first inning and then were held hitless by Terry for the rest of the game. The Twins are off to Baltimore to continue their long six city 18 game road-trip. Box Score
There are bad weeks and then there are real bad weeks, the Twins had one of those real bad ones as they went winless with a 0-9 record in just 6 days and they are in the midst of an 18 game road trip. On the plus side, June 7 is the only day this year that the Twins will find themselves in the AL cellar. The Twins are now 19-32, a whopping 14-5 games behind the Cleveland Indians who have taken over first place by a 1/2 game over the Detroit Tigers. After 51 games the Twins have given up a MLB leading 274 runs, an average of 5.37 a game.
