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-one.
The Minnesota Twins start this week with a 56-74 record and in eighth place but miles behind the league leading New York Yankees. The end is near in more ways than one.
August 31 – The Minnesota Twins scored five runs in the third inning, an inning which was topped off by a two-run home run by Jim Lemon (13) greeting reliever Jim Coates who had just takes over for Yankee starter Rollie Sheldon. The Yankees fought back with home runs from Mantle (48), Skowron (23) and Hector Lopez (4) breaking the AL home run record they set in 1960 but they came up a run short. Twins starter Jack Kralick (12-9) battled through 11 Yankee hits and pitched a complete game for the win. The win was only the fourth against 14 losses versus the Yankees this season. The Twins had 10 hits but only Billy Martin managed more then one with a 3 for 3 day including a sacrifice and a stolen base. The Yankees are now heading home to take on the second place Tigers as the Twins await the arrival of the Boston Red Sox. The Twins finish August with a 12-18 record. Box Score
September 1 – Newlywed Cuban Pedro Ramos pitched a complete game against his favorite patsy, the visiting Boston Red Sox against whom he has a career mark of 22-14 as the Twins beat the Boston Red Sox and ROY candidate Don Schwall (13-4) 5-1 at the Met in a quick 2 hour and 18 minute game. Ramos who was recently married by proxy over the phone to Cuba is expecting his new wife in Minnesota as soon as the paperwork clears. Ramos won his tenth game of the season again 16 losses as he limited the Red Sox to one run on six hits while striking out eight. Ramos also contributed with the bat with two hits and a RBI. Three other Twins had two hits each and all five RBI came from the bottom third of the line-up. Box Score
September 2 – The Boston Red Sox drew first blood against the Twins when they scored a run in the first off Twins starter Don Lee and scored again in the top of the fifth taking a 2-0 lead before the Twins countered with an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 2-1 game. Red Sox starter Bill Monbouquette and Twins starter Lee kept it scoreless the rest of the way. The Twins did threaten in the bottom of the ninth when Hal Naragon, who had replaced Earl Battey in the sixth inning after he hurt his finger, singled to start the inning. Ramos replaced Naragon as the pinch-runner and promptly moved to second on a sacrifice by Bill Tuttle and Zoilo Versalles beat out a slow roller to the left of the pitchers mound putting runners at the corners with just one out and Lee due up. The Twins announced that Joe Altobelli would hit for Lee and the BoSox countered with Arnold Early coming into pitch for Monbouquette so the Twins countered again and brought in Ted Lepcio to hit for Altobelli. Lepcio then hit an easy hopper to Red Sox third baseman Frank Malzone who started the twin killing through second base to end the game and give the Red Sox the 2-1 victory. The Twins out hit the Red Sox 9 to 6 and the Red Sox committed two errors to none for Minnesota but the Red Sox put up one more run than did the Twins. Versalles had three hits and Billy Martin added two hits. The Twins loss mathematically eliminated them from any chance of catching the league leading Yankees. Lee who took the loss saw his record drop to 3-5 but in his fathers eyes his son pitched a heck of a good game. Thornton Lee should know, he himself pitched in the big leagues for 16 seasons and won 117 games for the Indians, White Sox and New York Giants. Thornton Lee was a lefty and his son Don was a right-hander. The Twins announced that they had called up minor league players Lamar Jacobs, Dan Dobbek, Ted Sadowski, Lee Stange and Don Mincher for their September cup of coffee once their minor league seasons ended. According to the Star Tribune the Twins also called up an 18-year-old Tony Oliva from class D Wytheville but only to work out with the team. B-R.com shows Tony Oliva as being 22 and the Star Tribune reported Oliva as being 18. The following season (1962) Oliva was again called up in September and made his big league debut. So how old is Tony O? I am not sure anyone knows for sure. Box Score
September 3 – The Boston Red Sox jump all over Minnesota at the Met in the rubber game of a three game series and take a 8-0 lead after five innings of play as Tracy Stallard holds the Twins to just two hits through five innings. But the worm turns quickly as the Twins send Stallard to the showers after he starts off the sixth with two walks and a single to load the bases. Reliever Mike Fornieles retires Jim Lemon on a sac fly but Harmon Killebrew follows with his first home run in about three weeks and suddenly the Twins have cut the deficit in half and trail 8-4. They score two more times in the eighth on solo blasts by Lemon and Earl Battey but the Red Sox hold on and take the win 8-6 and the series two games to one. Stallard gets the win and his record now stands at 2-4 with both wins coming against the Twins. Twins starter Camilo Pascual had one of “those days” when he went just four innings allowing 7 runs (5 earned) on 3 hits and 5 walks. Box Score
September 4 game one – The Minnesota Twins played their first ever split day/night doubleheader at Met Stadium and this Labor Day DH turned out to be kind of a 9 to 5 day. Yesterday, the Twins lost 8 to 6 to the Red Sox when the Red Sox scored the first eight runs and the Twins the last six. Today the Twins beat the White Sox 9 to 5 with the Twins scoring the first nine runs and the White Sox scoring the last five runs. Twins starter and winner Al Schroll was sailing along having given up just two harmless singles through five before the White Sox pushed a run across in the sixth on a HBP, a walk and two groundouts. A tough seventh in which Schroll gave up four more runs on three singles and two home runs while retiring just one batter proved to be his undoing and brought in Ray Moore to finish the game. Harmon Killebrew who hit his 39th home run of the season supplied the power and Jim Lemon contributed a 3 for 3 day with a double and 3 runs scored. Three Twins double-plays and two White Sox errors helped the “good guys” cause. Box Score game one
September 4 game two – I know, it is hard to believe but the nite-cap turned out to be a 9 to 5 game also but this time the White Sox prevailed thanks to a big five run fourth inning that erased a Twins 5-3 lead and put the White Sox up 8-5. The Whitey’s added another in the ninth inning and won 9 to 5. Rookie Jim Kaat started for Minnesota and got beat up pretty bad allowing 13 hits, 2 walks and 8 runs while striking out just one in 5.2 innings and took the loss, his fourteenth against half as many wins. Earl Battey led the Twins hitting attack going 3 for 3 with a home run, number 14 on the season, two RBI and a run scored. Bob Allison hit his 28th long ball of the season. The White Sox pounded out 14 hits with Al Smith getting four of them, one of them was a home run. Cal McLish started for the Sox but was gone after just three innings allowing 5 runs (3 earned) on six hits and getting a ND for his work. He was relieved by Joel Horlen who was making his big league debut after just being called up from AAA San Diego. He was so new in fact that his uniform didn’t have a name or even a number when he entered the game. Horlen pitched four scoreless innings giving up 2 hits and 4 walks while whiffing 2 and earned his first big league victory. Turk Lown pitched the final two innings for his tenth save of the year. Box Score
September 5 – Today’s game at the Met was one for the record books as it ended in a 3-3 tie when the game was called after nine innings due to heavy fog. It was the first tie game in Minnesota Twins history. The game was delayed due to fog for 30 minutes in the sixth inning and again for 37 minutes after nine innings before it was declared a tie game at 11:50 p.m.. Almost immediately after the game was called it started to drizzle and a breeze cleared the fog but it was too late. Twins starter Jack Kralick faced off against Billy Pierce and it was a 1-1 game after seven innings. The White Sox took a 2-1 lead in the top of the eighth on a Camilo Carreon double that scored Luis Aparicio whose short fly to left two batters earlier wasn’t seen by Jim Lemon or Lenny Green due to the fog and rolled all the way to the wall. But the Twins bounced back with two of their own in the bottom of the inning off reliever Turk Lown when Bill Tuttle hit a wicked shot off the glove of third baseman Andy Carey who was playing in for a play at the plate and the ball rolled into left field scoring two runs. White Sox outfielder Al Smith led off the ninth inning with a long home run to left off Kralick’s first pitch of the ninth inning tying the game at 3-3. Kralick then allowed another single and was relieved by Don Lee who escaped without any further damage. When the Twins came to bat in the bottom of the ninth the White Sox outfielders could not be seen from the Pressbox due to the heavy fog but White Sox reliever Warren Hacker retired the Twins 1-2-3 by striking out PH Julio Becquer and Lenny Green and then getting Billy Martin to pop up to the catcher for the final out before the game was deemed a tie. All the stats in the game counted as if the game had a real outcome. Earl Battey had two the Twins Twins six hits and Bob Allison hit HR number 29. Warren Hacker is not related to the Eric Hacker who pitched briefly for the Twins in 2011. Box Score
Star Tribune 090661 Umps call game.pdf
September 6 game one – The Twins faced one of the hottest pitchers in baseball in game one of a twin-bill at Met Stadium against the visiting Chicago White Sox and Juan Pizzaro a 24-year old southpaw pitched his sixth straight complete game win as he led his team to a 6-3 victory. The Twins scored two in the bottom of the first frame when Earl Battey hit his fifteenth home run of the season deep to left scoring Bob Allison ahead of him for a 2-1 lead but Pizzaro kept the Twins off the board until Lenny Green hit a home run (9) in the seventh inning for the Twins final run of the game. Pizzaro (13-5) has allowed just 32 hits over his last 54 innings while striking out 59. In addition to his complete game, Pizzaro was 2 for 4 with the stick and scored once. Twins starter Pedro Ramos took the loss dropping his record to 10-17 after going just 4.1 innings and allowing six runs on 12 hits. Ramos who is prone to giving up the long ball gave up just the one today (36th on the season) and it was an inside-the-park home run by Nellie Fox. Oddy, Fox has hit two home runs this season, both off Ramos. Bill Pleis and Don Lee finished the game with 4.2 innings of scoreless relief. Green had a good day at the plate with 3 hits including his home run and Battey who had the other homer had two hits. Box Score game one
Come catch with Battey 090861.pdf
September 6 game two – Game two went into extra innings knotted at two runs apiece. White Sox starter Don Larsen went the first 9.1 innings allowing just two runs on 4 hits before being relieved. Larsen gave up both the runs on three hits in the third inning and didn’t give up another hit until Bill Tuttle singled in the tenthing inning. Camilo Pascual the Twins starter wasn’t as effective but he pitched out of trouble as needed. The tenth inning proved to be his undoing as two Twins errors behind him and a double pushed two White Sox runs across home plate as the White Sox took a 4-2 lead. After Tuttle’s single in the tenth off Larsen, Warren Hacker retired Zoilo Versalles and then Turk Lown retired PH Julio Becquer for the games final out and 17,898 fans went home disappointed. Pascual pitched a complete ten inning game but saw his record drop to 12-15 as he gave up four runs but just two earned on ten hits and four walks. Tuttle who was 2 for 4 was the only Twins hitter with more than one hit. Box Score game two
What a week, the Twins win three, lose five and tie one. What’s with that? A tie in baseball? The mathematically eliminated Twins have a 59-79 record and sit alone in eighth place but they do have a chance to over-take the expansion Los Angeles Angels whom they trail by just a game. The AL leading New York Yankees have expanded their lead over the second place Detroit Tigers to eight games and have pretty much wrapped up the pennant. The big question that remains is if Mantle or Maris can break the Babe’s HR record of 60. The one thing we knew for sure is that they won’t do it against the Twins as they are done with the Bronx Bombers for the season. Over in the National League the Cincinnati Reds lead is shrinking over the LA Dodgers and currently sits at just one game.
