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 sixteen.
The Twins start the week in ninth place with a 41-56 record but are now 22.5 games behind the league leading Yankees who are just a 1/2 game up on the Tigers.
July 27 – The Twins beat the Senators 5-2 with Lenny Green, Jim Lemon, Hal Naragon and Bill Tuttle getting two hits apiece. Killebrew hit his 31st home run of the season. Don Lee pitched a complete game (second straight) and allowed the two runs on four hits to raise his record to 3-2. The 42-56 Twins win was the first time they had won back-to-back games since just after the AS break on July 13-14. The Twins now head out for a long road trip and won’t be home until August 11. Box Score
July 28 – Bob Allison’s two home runs, both two run jobs in the first and ninth innings powered the Twins to a 4-3 win over the second place Detroit Tigers before a crowd of 35,034 at Tiger Stadium and kept the Tigers from reclaiming first place from the Yankees. Pedro Ramos started for Minnesota and almost pitched a complete game but need relief help from Ray Moore with two out in the ninth inning when Ramos gave up a home run to Charlie Maxwell making it a 4-3 ballgame and then walking Bobo Osborne. Moore retired Frank House on a grounder to wrap the Twins third straight win. The Twins had just four hits in the game with two of them being Allison’s home runs. Box Score
July 29 – The Twins were out-hit for the second day in a row by the high-flying Detroit Tigers in Detroit but thanks to a three-run home run by Harmon Killebrew in the eighth inning with two on and two out to greet reliever Manny Montejo who had just replaced Jim Bunning, a 3-2 Tigers lead was quickly turned into a 5-3 Twins lead. The Tigers made it 5-4 in the bottom of the inning off Twins reliever Ray Moore. In the ninth Moore retired the first two Tigers but then a single and an error put runners at first and second. Sam Mele brought in Bill Pleis who proceeded to strike out Bill Bruton and the Twins (44-56) were winners again. Twins starter Jim Kaat got his fourth win against 11 losses when he went 7 strong innings allowing three runs, two earned on five hits. Box Score
July 30 – The Twins once again beat the high flying Detroit Tigers 4-0 at Tiger Stadium behind Jack Kralick’s complete game shutout in which he allowed 8 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7. Kralick upped his record to 10-6 when he beats the 14-6 Frank Lary. Lary doesn’t get out of the second inning when the Twins jumped on him for three runs on a bases empty homer by Bob Allison (23) and a two-run home run later in the same inning by Ted Lepcio (6). The Tigers had 8 hits but an 0 for 10 with RISP left the runner’s high and dry. Back-up catcher Hal Naragon was 3 for 4 with a run scored. The Twins win completes a three game sweep of the Tigers and is the fifth win in a row for Sam Mele’s bunch as they head into the break for All-Star game number two. MLB had two All-Star games between 1959-1962. After the break the suddenly hot 45-56 Twins, now in sixth place will move on to Baltimore. The Twins finish July with a 16-11 record, their first winning month since April. Box Score
July 31 – The second All-Star game of 1961 was played in Boston at Fenway Park but after 9 innings the game was determined to be a 1-1 tie due to rain. The first AS game to be called a tie game. The Twins were represented by Harmon Killebrew and Camilo Pascual. Killebrew did not play but Pascual pitched the final three innings for the AL allowing no hits, no runs and just one walk while striking out four. The AL used just three pitchers with Jim Bunning starting and going the first three innings, Bunning had just pitched 7.2 innings against the Twins two days earlier. Home town Red Sox pitcher Don Schwall went the next three innings and allowed the NL their only run. Box Score
August 1 – No regular season game scheduled for today. However, the Twins played an in-season exhibition game at Connie Mack Stadium (previously called Shibe Park) in Philadelphia against the Phillies and came up on the short end of a 9-1 game. Star Tribune write-up and box score of the game can be seen in the PDF below.
August 2 – The Twins are in Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium and will play two games today, the first will be a make-up game for the June 9th game that was rained out. The Orioles get on the board first when “Diamond Jim” Gentile takes Twins starter Don Lee deep to right field for the games first hit and first run. O’s starter, 21-year-old Chuck Estrada has a perfect game against the Twins for the first six innings, a no-hitter for seven, and a one-hit shutout for eight innings. Twins starter Don Lee departs after seven good innings in which he allows just the one run on six hits, one walk, while striking out five. Twins reliever Bill Pleis pitches a clean eighth inning. The Twins start the ninth with a Zoilo Versalles single but Estrada retires Lenny Green and Harmon Killebrew and with two strikes on Bob Allison, he singles to move Versalles to third. Joe Altobelli the Twins most recent call-up from Syracuse who had arrived at the ballpark just a couple hours earlier pinch-hits for Pleis and coaxes a walk from Estrada but not before Allison steals second. Now the Twins have the bases loaded and their second-string catcher Hal Naragon coming to the plate. Naragon delivers a double to right scoring two and Ted Lepcio works Estrada for another walk loading the bases and Baltimore skipper Paul Richards finally has seen enough and brings in Wes Stock who promptly gives up a double to Bill Tuttle and the Twins have four on the board before Stock finally gets Billy Martin, the ninth hitter of the inning for the Twins to lineout to first. Mele bring in Chuck Stobbs for the save but he gives up a quick walk and then Earl Robinson pinch-hits (for Whitey Herzog) a two-run home run and it is suddenly a 4-3 game. Mele wastes no time telling Stobbs he is done and bring in Ray Moore who retires the next three Oriole batters to give the Twins their sixth straight win in the 4-3 victory. The Twins had but five hits and all took place in the last two innings. Pleis (3-1) got the win and Moore notched his eighth save. Estrada (8-6) who struck out 10 was the tough luck loser. Box Score game one
August 2 – Game two starters were Dick Hall for the Orioles and Pedro Ramos for Minnesota. The Twins scored one in the third inning but the Orioles came back with two in the bottom of the frame to take a 2-1 lead. The Twins regained the lead in the fourth when a Ted Lepcio two-run home run put them up 3-2. The O’s decided that 4 innings from Dick Hall was enough and brought in knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm. The Orioles scored again in the fifth and the games remained tied at 3-3 until the bottom of the eighth inning when the Orioles pushed across what would turn out to be the winning run when pinch-hitter Dave Philley singled off Pedro Ramos with two on and two out to score the Orioles fourth and final run. Wilhelm retired Twins pinch-hitter Julio Becquer with two on and two out in the ninth to wrap up the 4-3 Baltimore win with 5 scoreless innings of relief and ended the Twins six game winning streak which as it turned out was the longest they would have all season. The future Hall of Fame knuckleballer upped his record to 8-5. Ramos pitched a complete 8 innings allowing all four runs and his record dropped to 8-12. Harmon Killebrew was 3 for 5 with a double and triple and Lenny Green also had 3 hits in 5 AB’s. With the DH split the Twins record stands at 46-57, good for seventh place. Box Score game two
A 5-1 week on the road (except for one game) is nice anytime but particularly satisfying when it starts a long road trip through Detroit, Baltimore, New York and Boston. When the week is done the Twins find themselves at 46-57 and tied for seventh place with the Washington Senators. The New York Yankees now have a 2.5 game lead over the Detroit Tigers and are waiting for the Twins to come to town as soon as the Twin finish their series with the Orioles.
