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 fourteen.
The Twins are now 34-50 and mired in ninth place 20.5 games behind the AL leading Detroit Tigers who have the New York Yankees nipping at their heels just a 1/2 game back.
July 13 – The Twins make a quick trip to Cleveland to make up a May 31 rain-out and see if they can beat the only team they have not registered a win against this season. The Twins are 0-5 versus the Indians so far but they take a quick 5-0 lead against Indians starter Mudcat Grant when he walks Lenny Green but then retires Billy Martin and Harmon Killebrew on fly balls. Bob Allison draws another walk bringing up Jim Lemon who grounds one to third but the throw to second is off-line and the bases are loaded for Earl Battey who draws a bases loaded walk bringing in the Twins first run. Recent acquisition Ted Lepcio who has just two hits in 16 AB’s but both are home runs, makes it three hits, all home runs with a grand slam to deep left field. Jose Valdivielso is retired for the final out but the damage is done, all five runs are unearned. Mudcat survives the inning and ends up going eight innings allowing seven runs but only two are earned on six hits and six walks and takes the loss. Pedro Ramos got his sixth win of the season against tem losses but was not terribly effective going 7.1 innings and allowing six runs on 10 hits and 2 walks with 3 strikeouts. The final score was 9 to 6 for the Twins even though they were out hit 11 to 8. Jim Lemon (10) and Harmon Killebrew (27) also contributed home runs. Lepcio’s GS was the Twins seventh of the season. The 35-50 Twins are now off to Detroit to take on the first place Tigers. Box Score
July 14 – The Twins tame the Tigers at Tiger Stadium 5-2 as Twins starter Jack Kralick goes the distance allowing two runs on ten hits while striking out 8 for the win in front of a huge crowd of 30,999. Bob Allison homers and Lenny Green gets three hits and a stolen base to support the cause. Still no Zoilo Versalles in the line-up. Kralick ups his record to 9-5 in the Twins (36-50) third straight win. The Tigers loss drops Frank Lary’s record to 13-5. Box Score
July 15 – The crowd was smaller today, only 12,325 baseball fans were on hand at Tiger Stadium for a great pitchers duel between the Tigers Jim Bunning and the Twins Camilo Pascual. The Tigers drew first blood in the bottom of the fifth on a Al Kaline double and the Twins tied it up at 1-1 when Earl Battey homered in the seventh. Tigers Utility player Bobo Osborne who was playing first base for Norm Cash who sat out the game with a foot infection took Pascual deep in the bottom of the eighth with his first home run of the season and the Tigers had a 2-1 lead. Bunning struck out the side in the ninth doubling his strikeout total on the day to six and the Twins short winning streak was over. Pascual who pitched a complete game allowed two runs on seven hits and four walks while striking out seven took the loss bringing his record to 7-12. Bob Allison’s day was not so great either as he struck out three times and hit into a DP in four at bats. Zoilo Versalles was still not in the line-up but his wife arrived from Cuba today and Zoilo is ready to play ball again. In another odd scheduling scenario, the Twins are off to Cleveland to start a series on Sunday with a DH after playing the Tigers in Detroit on Friday and Saturday (today). Box Score
July 16 – For the fourth time this season the Twins take on a different team in a Sunday game(s) then they played in the Saturday game the day prior. In this case the Twins stop off in Cleveland after playing in Detroit a day earlier. Even stranger, their stop today is just for a one day scheduled doubleheader. Scheduling was a bit different back in the early 60’s.
Game one box score – The (36-51) Twins send starter Jim Kaat out to take on the (48-41) Indians and the Indians jump all over Kaat at the get-go and darn near tear his face off, here is what transpired in the bottom of the first inning. Johnny Temple walks, Bob Nieman singles, Tito Francona is HBP to load the bases, Bubba Phillips bounces a slow grounder to Jose Valdivielso at short who tosses poorly to Billy Martin at second on the force-out attempt and everyone is safe, Phillips is credited with a hit scoring Temple. Valdivielso picks up the ball and fires home to nail Nieman for the first out. Willie Kirkland singles and Francona scores. Chuck Essegian hits a three-run homer run (his first of two home runs) and chases Kaat to an early shower. John Romano greets Twins reliever Chuck Stobbs with a shot to the left field bleachers and Woodie Held follows with a double before Stobbs gets pitcher Gary Bell to ground out for out number two. Johnny Temple the 10th Indian to bat in the long inning is retired on a flyball and the Twins are finally out of the inning but find themselves down 6-0. The Twins scratch and claw to get back in the game but the closest they can get is 7-5 when Julio Becquer hits a two-run homer in the ninth and that is how the game ends. Lenny Green gets 3 hits including a triple, one RBI and scores one run.
Game two box score – Lenny Green who was 3-for 5 in game one is still on fire in game two as he goes 5 for 6 with a double and triple, two RBI and 3 runs giving him 8 hits on the day. The Twins jump out to a 4-0 lead after three innings but the Indians score four times in the bottom of the third on two two-run home runs off Twins rookie starter Bert Cueto to tie the game at 4-4. Both starters in the game, Cueto for Minnesota and Wynn Hawkins for Cleveland went 2.2 innings before heading for the clubhouse. Twins reliever Don Lee pitched better then the Indians relievers did going the final 6.1 innings allowing just one run on four hits and two walks while striking out three and garnering his first win of the season again 2 losses. The Twins had 15 hits in this game giving them 26 hits on the day. The Twins win 12-5 but remain in eighth place and have a day off on their way to LA to play the Angels.
July 17 – No Game Today, scheduled day off.
July 18 – The 37-53 expansion Los Angeles Angels host the 37-52 Minnesota Twins at Wrigley Field and 4,002 fans show up to watch as the Angels win 4 to 1. Angels starter Ken McBride pitches a complete game striking out 11 Twins and allowing 7 hits. Twins starter Pedro Ramos allows three runs in seven innings striking out 10 Angels and takes the loss making his record 6-11. Jim Lemon goes 2 for 4 with a double and Earl Battey has the Twins only RBI. The Twins outhit the Angels 7-6 but left 11 runners stranded. The Twins loss allowed the Angels to leap-frog the Twins and take over eight place and dropped the Twins to ninth, just above the lowly Washington Senators. Box Score
July 19 – The Twins play two against the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Field and win game one 6-0 when Camilo Pascual pitches a five-hit shutout and strikes out 15 Angel batters and becomes the first Twins pitcher to strike out that many batters in a nine inning game. Bob Allison had a big game going 4 for 5 with two home runs, 2 runs scored and four RBI. Earl Battey chipped in three hits in his five plate appearances.
The second game was a pitchers duel between the Twins Jack Kralick and the Angels Jim Donohue. Kralick gave up one unearned run in seven innings and Donohue gave up a lead-off home run to Harmon Killebrew in the ninth and was taken out after 8.1 innings and the one run on five hits. Outfielder Lee Thomas hit a long walk-off home run off Twins reliever Ray Moore (4-3) with two outs for the victory giving the Angels a split on the day. The Twins now head for home to take on the Cleveland Indians.
The Twins play .500 ball winning four and losing four and when the week comes to an end, they find themselves with a 38-54 record and eight AL teams are ahead of them in the standings. The embarrassing part is that both expansion teams (Senators and Angels) are ahead of them in the standings.
