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 eleven.
Starting a new week the ninth place Minnesota Twins are 25-40 on the season and 16.5 games behind the league leading Detroit Tigers.
June 22 – The Orioles jumped on Twins starter Jim Kaat for two quick runs in the first inning on a walk and three singles and scored two runs again in the sixth, seventh and ninth innings and beat the Twins 8-2 as Milt Pappas evened his record at 3-3 in a complete game effort. Pappas’s battery-mate Gus Triandos had a huge game going 3 for 5 with 5 RBI and two doubles. The Twins had 8 hits with Zoilo Versalles getting three of them. Killebrew chipped in two hits, one being a double and had the only two Twins RBI. Allison was 0-2 and his hitting streak ended at 13 games. Kaat’s record slipped to 2-7 with the loss as he gave up 9 hits, 5 walks and 6 runs (4 earned) while striking out seven. Box Score
June 23 – Cookie Lavagetto (on the right) is axed as manager of the Twins. Sam Mele, 38, takes control of the club. As a coach, the Astoria, New York native filled in as the skipper of the club while Lavagetto took a seven-game leave of absence earlier in the month. The Twins win their first game under Mele by shutting out the Yankees 4-0 on Camilo Pascual’s six-hitter. Harmon Killebrew was the hitting star with a 3 for 4 day with a home run and a double and knocked in all four Minnesota runs. Box Score
June 24 – Over 35,000 fans packed Met Stadium to catch the Twins play the New York Yankees and they saw shaky pitching and poor play in the field by the home town team and in the end the Yankees beat the Twins 10-7. Cuban rookie Bert Cueto started for the Twins and gives up two runs in the first but when he starts the second by giving up a home run to Skowron, another home run to Blanchard, and a double to Billy Gardner, Sam Mele has seen enough and pulls him for an early shower. The four Twins relievers that followed Cueto didn’t fare much better. Jim Lemon is finally starting to hit and hits two home runs, Harmon Killebrew hits one out too and Earl Battey chips in three hits including a double and a triple (his only one of the season) giving these three hitters 8 out of the Twins 9 hits in the game. The loss dropped Cueto to 0-2 on the season. Box Score
June 25 – The Twins score first and last but the New York Yankees score enough in between to win 8-4 at Met Stadium. Harmon Killebrew had two hits including his 22nd home run and Dan Dobbek also had two hits but starter Jack Kralick (6-5) gives up 8 runs in 6.2 innings and takes the loss. Yankees Elston Howard and Bob Cerv hit home runs for the Bronx Bombers and Bill Stafford gets the win. The Twins drew a very nice crowd of 101,291 fans for the three game series which was back in the day when they counted “butts in the seats” and not tickets sold. Box Score
June 26 – Scheduled Day off for the Twins
June 27 game one – The ninth place Twins play two against the visiting Boston Red Sox at Met Stadium with the first game being a make-up game from a May 6 game that was rained out. Twins starter Jim Kaat and Red Sox starter Galen Cisco hooked up in a scoreless pitching duel until the bottom of the fifth when the Twins put the first run on the board when Kaat singled Bill Tuttle home for the first run of the game. Apparently the Twins scoring a run woke up the Red Sox who then got to Kaat in the top of the sixth on a walk and three straight singles that scored two runs and that was the end of the line for Kaat. With two on and no one out reliever Don Lee faced Don Buddin who promptly doubled to right field and just like that the RSox had a 4-1 lead. The Twins came back with one of their own in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 4-2 game. In the bottom of the seventh the Twins tied it up at 4-4 when pinch-hitter Julio Becquer hit his second pinch-hit home run of the season (and seventh hit in his last 12 PH appearances) that scored Bill Tuttle and all of a sudden it was anyone’s game once again. The Red Sox retook the lead in the eighth against Danny McDevitt who had relieved Don Lee to start the inning. With runners at the corners and just one out, Sox reliever Mike Fornieles singled in pinch-runner Pete Runnels to put the Reds Sox up 5-4. In the bottom of the inning ace reliever Mike Fornieles quickly disposed of Bob Allison for the first out of the inning. Then the worm turned when Earl Battey drew a walk, Bill Tuttle followed with a double putting runners at second and third. Dan Dobbek pinch-hit for Billy Martin and he too drew a walk loading the bases for Julio Becquer who had stayed in the game after his PH home run earlier. This time Becquer struck out for the second out of the inning. That brought up lead-off hitter Zoilo Versalles who was 0 for 3 with two strikeouts. Versalles swung at Fornieles first pitch, a curve and smacked it into center scoring Battey and Tuttle and all of a sudden the Twins had the lead for the first time since the fifth inning at 6-5. With McDevitt starting his second inning, Yaz reached first on a Killebrew error but then McDevitt buckled down and retired the next two batter before allowing a walk that put two runners on. McDevitt retired Pete Runnels on a fly to left and the Twins had a come from behind 6-5 win that ended a two game losing skid. Mcdevitt got the win and evened his seasons record at 2-2 and Mike Fornieles took the loss putting his record at 5-4. Twins pitchers allowed nine hits in the game and in the process broke an 0 for 17 streak for Fornieles, Chuck Schilling also ended an 0 for 17 and Vic Wertz ended an 0 for 18 slump but all that mattered was that the scoreboard showed Twins 6 and Red Sox 5. Versalled stole his 13th base in 16 attempts in the 7th inning. Box Score game one
June 27 game two saw the Twins Pedro Ramos face-off against the Red Sox right-handed 6’8″ Gene Conley. Conley also played pro basketball for the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks. The game was scoreless with each pitcher giving up just 3 hits when in the sixth inning Conley started to tire walking Lenny Green and Harmon Killebrew. Jim Lemon followed and reached first on a bad throw to first base by Conley on a attempted sac bunt loading the bases. On a 0-1 count Bob Allison promptly unloaded one 380 feet deep to left-center field for a grand slam home run, lucky number 13 on the season and a nice 4-0 Twins lead. Ramos had the game under control with a 6-0 lead until the ninth inning when the Red Sox got to Ramos for 3 runs on 3 hits and Don Lee had to be brought in to get the final out of the game ensuring the 6-3 victory and ending six hours of baseball on the day. Allison’s grand salami was his second of the season and the third of his career. The win upped Ramos’s record to 5-9 on the season and the Twins record to 28-43. The two losses dropped the Red Sox from fourth to sixth place. Box Score game two
June 28 – It was a hot day in Minneapolis as the temperature peaked at 95 degrees but it was only 92 degrees in Bloomington when Camilo Pascual threw the first pitch in a night game against the Boston Red Sox. The Twins out hit the Red Sox 5 to 4 at Met Stadium but lose 6-2. Twins starter and loser Camilo Pascual walked 5 batters in 6.1 innings and stories circulated that Pascual was tipping his pitches. That being said, it didn’t help that the Twins committed two errors behind him costing two unearned runs and the loss dropped his record to 5-10. Meanwhile Red Sox starter Ike Delock walked one and pitched a complete game for his fifth win of the season. Bob Allison was 2 for 4 with a double and a home run for Mele’s team. Box Score
The Twins once again had a 3 win and 4 loss week and you can’t gain a lot of ground in the standing playing sub .500 baseball. The Twins remain in ninth place with a 28-44 record and now a full 18 games out of first place. The Angels are in 10th place two games behind Minnesota and the Kansas City A’s are in eighth place two games better than the Twins. The 46-26 Detroit Tigers have a 1.5 game lead on the Bombers from New York.