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-two.
The Minnesota Twins start this week with a 59-79 record and they are officially playing out the string after being mathematically eliminated from any shot of winning the AL pennant this past week. They are currently in eighth place in the AL but have a chance to move up a spot or two.
September 7 – No game today, scheduled day off.
September 8 – Only 5,594 fans show up at Municipal Stadium to see the ninth place Kansas City Athletics beat the eighth place Minnesota Twins 6-4. The Twins out hit KC 11 to 7 but two Zoilo Versalles errors (numbers 23 and 24) lead to four unearned runs for the opponents. Harmon Killebrew hits his 40th home run and gets two RBI but it won’t be enough. Versalles is 3 for 4 and scores once but on this day his glove lets the team down. Starter Jim Kaat goes 6.2 innings allowing 5 runs but only 1 is earned and he takes his 15th loss of the season. John Wyatt makes his major league debut for KC with two scoreless innings of relief and earns his first big league save, by the time his career is over he will have 103 saves. Box Score
September 9 – The Kansas City Royals come flying out of the blocks with four hits, a walk and a wild pitch in the first inning off Twins starter Al Schroll and in the third inning tack on one more run and have a nifty 4-0 lead after five innings. But things change in the sixth when A’s starter Bob Shaw gives up back-to-back singles to Lenny Green and Billy Martin putting runners on the corners for Harmon Killebrew who delivers a Sac Fly to break the ice and put Minnesota on the board. Jim Lemon scores Martin with a double and Earl Battey whacks his sixteenth home run of the season and all of a sudden it is a 4-4 ballgame and Shaw is headed for the showers. KC gets out of the inning without any further damage but it is too little and too late. Killebrew hits his 41st home run in the seventh inning off Ed Rakow and all of a sudden the Twins have a lead for Twins reliever Bill Pleis to protect. Pleis pitches four scoreless innings of relief and he picks up the win as the Twins come from behind to beat the A’s 5-4 and break their five game winless streak. Lemon has a 3 for 4 day with a double, RBI and run scored and Martin chips in with two safeties. Box Score
September 10 game one – Twins starter Jack Kralick lasted just 2.2 innings and reliever Gary Dotter who is making his MLB debut gave up six runs in his four innings of relief and could not get out of the eighth inning so manager Sam Mele brought in first baseman Julio Becquer to pitch. Julio Becquer becomes the Twins first position player to pitch in a regular season game when he pitches 1 and 1/3 innings against the Kansas City Athletics at Municipal Stadium in a 13-1 loss and gives up 3 earned runs in the process. Julio also pitched in a game as a Washington Senator in 1960. KC shortstop Dick Howser was 5 for 5 with a double, triple, 3 runs scored and 2 RBI. Harmon Killebrew was the only Twins player with two hits and one of those was a home run. Box Score game 1
September 10 game two – The Twins turned the tables on the Kansas City A’s at Municipal Stadium and larupped them 7-0 when Pedro Ramos pitched a complete game allowing 5 hits and 4 walks to up his record to 11-17. Harmon Killebrew hit another home run (43) and was 1 for 2. Early Battey connected for his 17th long ball of the season while left fielder Joe Altobelli went 2 for 5. Only 7,706 fans showed up to watch the 53-90 A’s play the 61-81 Twins. Box Score game 2
September 11 – After a short four game road trip to Kansas City the Twins returned home to the Met to take on the Los Angeles Angels, the team they are trying to over-take in the standings. Camilo Pascual started for the Twins against Dean Chance who was making his big league debut. Chance was originally signed as a “bonus baby” by the Baltimore Orioles prior to the 1959 season but was taken from the Orioles by the Washington Senators in the 1960 expansion draft. The Senators then flipped him to the expansion Los Angeles Angeles for Joe Hicks that same day. The Twins put the first road on the board when Zoilo Versalles led off the second inning with a double and Camilo Pascual followed with another double scoring Versalles. The score remained 1-0 in Minnesota’s favor until the Angels pushed across two runs in the seventh on a Lee Thomas home run and a Buck Rodgers single that scored Ken Hunt who had just doubled. Trailing 2-1 Billy Martin led off the eighth inning by getting on base on an error, Killebrew struck out, Bob Allison singled and the Twins had runners on the corners with one out. Earl Battey then singled in Martin tying the game at 2-2 and sent Chance to the showers. Joe Altobelli was brought in to pinch-hit for Jose Valdivielso and on a 2-0 pitch he greeted Angels reliever Tom Morgan with a blast deep to right for a three-run home run putting the Twins out in front 5-2. It was Altobelli’s first home run as a Twin. Pascual retired the Angels 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth for a complete game win in which he allowed just five hits while striking out 13 to up his record to 13-15 and pinning Chance with his first big league defeat. Not only did Pascual pitch a great game, he was also 3 for 3 at the plate with a double and an RBI. Box Score
September 12 – The Twins vs Angels twi-night doubleheader at Met Stadium was rained out and rescheduled for tomorrow. Some of these rains were caused by the remnants of Hurricane Carla that hit the Louisiana coast a few days ago.
September 13 – The rain continues at the Met. The twi-night DH that was originally scheduled for yesterday and moved to today was rained out again and moved to tomorrow (14th). The final (fourth) game of the Twins/Angels series has been cancelled.
The Twins finished a week with a 3-2 mark remaining in eighth place but are battling to take over seventh place from the expansion Angels. The Tigers have fallen 11 games off the pace making the 100 win Yankees a shoe-in for the AL pennant. Over in the NL the Reds have stretched their lead to 5.5 games over the Dodgers as we count down the final days in the Minnesota Twins first season. Calvin Griffith has stated he has not made up his mind if Sam Mele will remain as the Twins skipper in 1962 and he has stated publicly that only five Twins are untouchable this off-season and he is looking to make some moves.
