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 twenty.
The Minnesota Twins begin this week in seventh place with a 54-70 mark and they trail the first place Yankees by 28.5 games as they near the end of August.
August 24 – Twins starter Jim Kaat matched Camilo Pascual’s 4-0 shutout yesterday with one of his own as the Twins whitewashed the Chicago White Sox 3-0 on just five hits with only one runner getting as far as third base. The shutout for Kaat was his first in the big leagues and it was his first win over the pale hose. Kaat wasn’t just tough on the mound either, he led off the third inning with a triple and scored on a Billy Martin double giving the Twins a 1-0 lead which was all they would need on this day. Harmon Killebrew doubled home two more runs in the fifth inning giving Kaat and the Twins some insurance in the 3-0 victory. With his 1-3 effort at the plate Kaat is hitting .280 with 14 hits in 50 AB’s. The win for Kaat was his seventh against 12 losses. Sox starter Ray Herbert (8-12) took the loss. The Twins had just seven hits with four going for extra bases (3 doubles and a triple). The Twins win gave them a 4-2 six-game road trip and moved their record to 55-70, good for seventh place. Now they head for home and a 14-game homestand. Box Score
August 25 – The visiting Baltimore Orioles and their manager Paul Richards sacrificed four times and used a sacrifice fly to build a 5-0 lead and held on for a 5-2 win behind Jack Fisher’s (7-11) complete game win in which he allowed 8 hits and 2 walks while striking out seven. You sure wouldn’t see this kind of game from the Orioles under Earl Weaver’s 1968-1982 and 1985-1986 regime. Prior to heading for an unplanned early shower Twins starter Jack Kralick (11-9) gave up 10 hits and one walk in his 5.1 innings. Don Lee and Bill Pleis kept the O’s off the board the rest of the way. The Twins scored their two runs on three singles and a sac fly in the sixth inning make it 5-2 but that was a close as they would get. Billy Martin, Bill Tuttle and Joe Altobelli each had two hits accounting for 6 of the teams eight hits. Box Score
August 26 – The Baltimore Orioles score four quick runs off Twins starter Al Schroll thanks to third baseman Bill Tuttle‘s throwing error and a Jim Gentile home run before the Twins even pick up a bat. Schroll is headed for the showers without retiring a single Oriole batter on 2 walks, 3 hits and 4 runs and ends up getting charged with the loss as the O’s and Chuck Estrada (11-7) prevail over the Twins 7-4. This was the first time that a Twins starter exited a game without retiring a single batter. The Twins score two in the fifth on a pinch-hit double by Jim Lemon and two more in the ninth on a triple by Zoilo Versalles. Box Score
Let’s take a look at some MLB stats – MLB Stats.pdf
August 27 – The Baltimore Orioles beat the Twins 3-0 at Met Stadium. O’s starter Milt Pappas pitches a complete game allowing just two hits while striking out 11 Twins batters. Oh yes, he also hits two home runs in the game (both off Pedro Ramos) becoming the first of two opposing pitchers to hit two home runs in a game against the Twins. Kansas City Royals Jim Rooker hit two home runs off Twins starter Jim Kaat in 1969. Ramos went 8 innings and allowed all 3 runs on home runs and he took his 16th loss of the season. Lenny Green and Bob Allison each had a hit and each was a double. The Twins were swept in the three game series and scored a total of just 6 runs by what is widely acclaimed as the best pitching staff in the American League. Fortunately for the Twins they have a day off tomorrow to catch their breath before the Bronx Bombers come to town. Box Score
August 28 – No game today, scheduled day off.
August 29 – The Minnesota Twins went over the million mark in attendance as 40,118 fans, the largest crowd to ever see a game at Met Stadium watched the Twins and Camilo Pascual (12-13) shutout the New York Yankees 3-0 on four hits, two walks while sending nine back to the dugout with their tails between their legs. Yankee starter Ralph Terry (11-2) took the defeat. The Twins scored their first run in the third inning on a single by Lenny Green. Then with Billy Martin at the plate Green stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by Elston Howard. Green then scored on a sac fly by Martin. The Twins scored their final two runs in the sixth when Bob Allison and Jim Lemon singled and Earl Battey doubled them home to make the score 3-0. No Yankee runner reached third against Pascual as he posted shutout number six on the season putting him in a tie with Steve Barber of the Orioles for the league lead. Yankee bombers Roger Maris with 51 homers and Mickey Mantle with 46 homers didn’t get to increase those numbers today. The game lasted just 2 hours and 17 minutes. The Yankee lead over the Detroit Tigers drops to just 1.5 games. After the game was completed, all ticket stubs for the game were thrown into a barrell and three names were drawn to represent fans number 1,000,000 and 1,000,001 and 1,000,002, each of these fans was given a new car courtesy of the Minnesota Twins and their “cheap” owner Calvin Griffith. Box Score
August 30 – Holey moley, an even bigger record-breaking crowd of 41,357 shows up at Met Stadium as the Twins take on the New New York Yankees again. The outcome however; was not what Twins hoped for as Mickey Mantle hit his 47th home run and Yankee starter Bill Stafford blanked the Twins 4-0 allowing just four hits and striking out five raising his record to 12-7 on the season. Twins nemesis Elston Howard also hit a home run, his 14th on the season off Ray Moore in the ninth. Twins starter Jim Kaat went a respectable eight innings allowing three runs on six hits with a career high of eight strikeouts but had his personal three game winning streak snapped as his record dropped to 7-13. No Twins batter had more than one hit off Stafford. Box Score
The Twins slip to a 2-4 week and a 56-74 record on the season as they drop to eighth place and they darn near need a set of binoculars to see the league leading New York Yankees who are 30-5 games up in the American League standings. The Detroit Tigers are still in the race just 2.5 games behind the New Yorkers. In the National League the Cincinnati Reds are 2.5 games up on the Bums from Los Angeles and seem to have things well in hand.
