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 seventeen.
The 46-57 Twins start the week on a long East coast road-trip tied for seven place with the Washington Senators The Twins have to look up a long ways, 21 games as a matter of fact to spot the league leading New York Yankees who now have a 2.5 game lead on the Detroit Tigers.
August 3 – 36 year-old Orioles starter Hal “Skinny” Brown and 22 year-old Twins starter Jim “Kitty” Kaat had an old fashioned pitchers duel where both pitched complete games with Brown extending his scoreless streak to 32 innings. The Orioles scored all three of their runs in the eighth inning on one of those “throw the ball all over the ballpark” home runs that was actually a single. Here is the rest of the story. Dick Williams starts the inning off with a walk, Ron Hansen singles and the O’s have runners at first and second. The Twins guessed that Marv Breeding would sacrifice the runners up but he didn’t, instead slapping a single to left past a drawn in infield. Joe Altobelli who had PH earlier was now in left field and tried to thrown out the lead runner at home but threw the ball far and wide of home plate. Kaat, backing up the play caught the ball and they had Breeding nailed dead to rights between first and second but Kaat’s throw to second was wide of its mark and rolled all the way to centerfield allowing Breeding to circle the bases and the Orioles had a 3-0 lead. Kaat retired the next three Baltimore batters but it was too little too late. Brown retired the Twins 1-2-3 in the ninth and the Twins came out on the short end of a ballgame in which they out-hit the opponents 8 to 5 but lost where it counted 3-0 in the runs column. Kaat’s loss dropped his record to 4-12 and Brown upped his to 9-3. Zoilo Versalles and Lenny Green led the Twins hitting attack with two hits each. A tough loss to swallow but they are now off to visit the Bronx. Box Score
August 4 – The Twins and Camilo Pascual were down 4-0 at Yankee Stadium before they finally got two of their own in the fourth inning. The Yankees went up 5-2 in the sixth inning but the Twins bounced back with a three-run home run by Harmon Killebrew (33) in the eighth off Luis Arroyo to tie the game at 5 runs each. The game remained tied at the end of regulation play. The Twins put runners on first and second in the tenth but Bob Allison hit into an around the horn double-play ending the threat. Bill Pleis who relieved Pascual after seven innings started his third frame by retiring the first two batters but Mickey Mantle walked, Yogi Berra singled with Mantle going to third. Catcher Johnny Blanchard was up next and on a 2-1 pitch he got the curve he was waiting for and deposited it in RF for his 14th home run of the season giving the New York Yankees an 8-5 walk-off win over the Twins. The Yankees committed three errors but their three home runs accounted for 7 of the teams 8 runs. Luis Arroyo (9-3) got the win after blowing the save on Killebrew’s home run and Pleis (3-2) took the loss. Lenny Green had 3 hits for Minnesota and Killebrew had three RBI with his home run. The 46-59 Twins have now lost three straight games. Box Score
August 5 – Yankee pitcher Jim Coates made an infrequent spot start and pitched his first complete game of the season as he held the Twins to just one run at Yankee Stadium as he scattered just four hits while walking five in a 2-1 Yankee win over the Twins and Jack Kralick (10-7) who also pitched a complete game allowing 2 runs on 9 hits and three walks. There were a total of three strikeouts combined in the game. The winning run scored in the eighth inning on a Roger Maris single followed by a Mickey Mantle hit that was mis-played by Jim Lemon in left field and when all was said and done Mantle was perched on third base with a triple. The Twins tried to battle back in the ninth and had runners at the corners with two out when Coates got Bill Tuttle to pop out to the second baseman for the final out of the game and the Twins fourth consecutive loss dropping their record to 46-60. Box Score
August 6 game one – The Twins and Yankees have a DH scheduled for today and another scheduled for tomorrow. In game one Pedro Ramos faced off against the 19-2 Whitey Ford who was trying for win number 20. Surprisingly, after just three innings the Twins had 5 runs on the board on 5 hits which included two home runs. The Yankees tied the game at 5-5 after five innings and then the bats went to sleep on both sides and it was tied after nine but both teams scored a run in the tenth and the game went on. The Yankees scored the winning run in the 15th inning with the bases loaded and one out and the Twins attempt at an inning-ending double play off the bat of Yogi Berra came up a split second short on the relay throw to pitcher Ray Moore covering first. A 4 hour and 16 minute 15 inning walk-off loss is not the way you want game one of a DH to go. Ramos went the first 8 innings for the Twins giving up five runs, Bill Pleis gave up a run in the tenth and Ray Moore (4-4) who pitched the final 5.2 innings of relief took the loss. The Twins had three home runs Versalles with his fourth, Allison with number 24 and Bill Tuttle with number two in the game, all off Yankee starter Ford who went 10 inning but got a ND. Mantle had a great game with four hits including two home runs, a double, a SB, an IW, 3 runs scored and 3 RBI in 8 PA’s. This 15 inning game was one of the two longest games in terms of innings played by the Twins in 1961, the other game took place on May 22. Box Score game one
August 6 game two – Game two had Twins starter Al Schroll (0-1) face off against Rollie Sheldon (8-3). Mickey Mantle’s 43 home run of the season leading off the second inning put the Yankees on the board first but the Twins came back with one of their own in the fourth on a Ted Lepcio sac fly. The Yanks jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the sixth when New York got an unearned run due to a Bill Tuttle error. The Twins fought back and tied it in the seventh after Scroll doubled and Lenny Green singled him home. In the ninth inning with two out and runners at the corners, Clete Boyer singled in Mantle and the Yankees walked off the Twins for the second time today in the 3-2 win. Both pitchers went the distance and Schroll who took the loss gave up 7 hits, 3 runs but only 2 earned while striking out 5 and deserved a better fate. Schroll also had two of the Twins 8 hits and scored once. Green and and Julio Becquer also had two hits for Minnesota. The two losses extended the Twins losing streak to six games which includes three walk-off losses in the last four games. The Twins are now off to Boston where they get to play another DH tomorrow. Box Score game two
August 7 game one – For the second day in a row the Twins play a DH, this time at Fenway Park. The first game serves as a make-up for an April 19 game that was postponed due to cold weather. Lenny Green put the Twins up 1-0 in the first inning with a long home run to right field off off Red Sox starter Ike Delock but the Red Sox came back with two of their own in the bottom of the first. The Twins might have gotten out of the inning unscathed but Twins starter Don Lee said “he froze” (brain fart in today’s terminology) when with runners at first and second and no outs Carl Yastrzemski hits a bouncer back to the mound and Lee instead of throwing to second to start a doubleplay (like first baseman Harmon Killebrew was yelling for him to do) Lee instead threw to first for the one out and the runners moved up to second and third. Vic Wertz grounded into the second out scoring a run and then Frank Malzone doubled in another run. A Don Buddin two-run home run in the second inning made it 4-1 Red Sox. The Twins scored three times in the fourth and it was a tie ballgame. It stayed that way until Yaz singled off Lee with two on and two out in the ninth inning scoring relief pitcher Mike Fornieles who had started all the problems in the inning with a one out double. The 5-4 walk-off loss was the third game in a row the Twins had lost in walk-off fashion and their seventh consecutive loss which started right after a six game winning streak. Fornieles got the win to up his record to 6-5 after pitching 5 scoreless innings of relief allowing just 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 3. With the loss Lee’s record dropped to 3-3. Bill Tuttle was the only Twin win more than one hit. Box Score game one
August 7 game two – Game two starters were Jim Kaat for Minnesota and Don Schwall for Boston. The visiting Twins had a 3-0 lead but in the bottom of the fourth the Red Sox scored once and then knocked Kaat out of the game with a three run uprising in the fifth. The Twins made it a 4-4 tie game when Hal Naragon singled home Jim Lemon in the sixth. In the eighth inning with Pedro Ramos on the mound starting his third inning of relief the Reds Sox scored what turned out to be the winning run on a PH single by Vic Wertz and the Twins were losers of number eighth in a row, again by a 5-4 score, just like in game one. Ramos took the loss dropping his record to 8-13 and Schwall got the win moving his record to 13-2. The 200 pound 6′ 6″ right-handed Schwall would go on to win the 1961 ROY award with a 15-7 record and a 3.22 ERA. Zoilo Versalles led the Twins attack going 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored. Only 11,241 fans showed up to see the twin-bill today. Box Score game two
August 8 – When the Twins started play today at Fenway Park they had lost eight-games in a row, four of them in walk-off fashion. Camilo Pascual held the Red Sox hitless for the first two innings but the Red Sox started the third with a Jackie Jensen double, a Don Buddin walk but Pascual got a groundout to third to register his first out of the inning. Pete Runnels drew a walk and the bases were loaded for center fielder Gary Geiger. Geiger took a called strike and then swung an an inside pitch hitting the ball low and hard toward the right field corner, somewhere between the grandstand and right fielder Bob Allison. After bouncing off the turf, the ball hit low on the grandstand wall and rolled along beside the curving structure, with Allison in awkward pursuit. Geiger was of course running around the bases and with a good slide at home was safe with an inside-the-park grand slam home run. Ed Rumill of the Christian Science Monitor wrote that this was believed to be a first ISP Grand Slam at Fenway Park. Pascual retired the side without further damage but he and the Twins found themselves down 4-0 after just three innings. The Twins bounced back with three in the fifth, three more in the sixth and held on for a 6-5 win with Pascual pitching a complete game, allowing just 6 hits and striking out 10 Red Sox batters for his ninth win of the season and ended the Twins long losing streak. In addition to pitching a complete game win, Pascual was 2 for 4 with a double and 3 RBI making him kind of a one-man show for Minnesota. The win brought the Twins record to 47-64 but they were 26.5 games behind the league leaders. Box Score
August 9 – After a 6-5 win yesterday over the Boston Red Sox the Twins are back to their losing ways with yet another loss at Fenway Park and guess what? Yep, the score is 5-4 again, the Twins third 5-4 loss to Boston this series. Twins starter Jack Kralick locked horns with Gene Conley and neither starter lasted pasted the sixth inning. Red Sox pitchers gave up 10 hits and seven walks but the Twins only pushed 4 runs across home plate and left an amazing 14 runners stranded. Jim Lemon had two hits including a double and home run, Lenny Green had two doubles and Bob Allison and Zoilo Versalles also each had two hits. Box Score
Oh my! What a miserable week for our hometown boys. On a East coast road swing they win one and lose eight times, four times they were walked-off. At the end of the week their record stands at 47-65 and they trail the first place Yankees by 27.5 games. On the bright side, they have just one road game left in Boston before heading for home. But the news isn’t all good, who will be waiting for them? No one but the second place Detroit Tigers who are 71-41.
