Tag Archives: Billy ball

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1961, Game Twenty-five

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MINNESOTA 5, LOS ANGELES 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, May 12.

Batting stars:  Pedro Ramos was 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs.  Jim Lemon was 1-for-3 with a double, a walk, and two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Pedro Ramos struck out eight in eight innings, giving up four runs on six hits and five walks.  Ray Moore pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.

Opposition stars:  Earl Averill was 2-for-4 with a home run (his sixth) and a double.  Eli Grba was 1-for-2 with a home run.  Ken Hunt was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fifth.  Johnny James struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up a walk.

The game:  Neither team got a hit for the first three innings.  In the fourth, Leon Wagner led off with a walk and Hunt hit a one-out two-run homer to give the Angels a 2-0 lead.  The Twins tied it in the bottom of the fourth.  Harmon Killebrew drew a one-out walk, Earl Battey singled, and Lemon hit a two-run double, making the score 2-2.

Los Angeles pitcher Grba homered in the top of the fifth, but Twins pitcher Ramos answered with a homer of his own in the bottom of the fifth, once again tying the game.  In the sixth, Lemon led off with a walk and went to second on a ground out.  Bob Allison was intentionally walked and Reno Bertoia was accidentally walked, loading the bases.  Ramos then came through again, knocking a two-run single to left to give the Twins a 5-3 lead.

The Angels put men on second and third with two out in the seventh, but did not score.  Averill led off the ninth with a home run, cutting the margin to 5-4, but Moore came in and allowed only a two-out walk to Faye Throneberry before closing the door.

WP:  Ramos (3-2).  LP:  Grba (3-3).  S:  Moore (4).

Notes:  Billy Gardner was the second baseman.  He would be replaced by Billy Martin after he was acquired on June 1 for Billy Consolo.  The Twins had quite the Billy club in 1961.  A little odd, too, that one future Twins manager was replaced by another.

Bertoia was at third base.  Bill Tuttle was the mostly regular at third, with Killebrew playing a fair number of games there as well.  At this stage of the season, however, Tuttle was an outfielder; he did not shift to third until late June, and had not played the position in the majors before.  He would not play it again, either, as he shifted back to the outfield in 1962.

The only position player substitution came in the ninth inning, when Dan Dobbek came in to replace Lemon in left field.

Battey was batting .345 in the young season.  He would finish at .302.  Killebrew was batting .342.  He would finish at .288.  Zoilo Versalles was batting .319.  He would finish at .280.  Lenny Green was batting .308.  He would finish at .285.  The Twins batted .250, good for seventh in the league.  Cleveland led the league at .266.

Killebrew, naturally, led the team in home runs with 46.  Allison hit 29, Battey had 17 and Lemon hit 14.  The Twins hit 167 home runs, fourth in the league.  New York led with 240.

It would be hard to say who the staff ace was in 1961.  Ramos led the team in starts at 34, and also pitched in relief 8 times.  He was 11-20, 3.95. 1.30 WHIP.  Camilo Pascual was 15-16, 3.46, 1.21.  Jack Kralick was 13-11, 3.62, 1.33, and Jim Kaat was 9-17, 3.90, 1.35.  The only other pitcher to make double digit starts was Don Lee, who was 3-6, 3.52, 1.11.  Closers weren't really a thing then--Moore led the team with 14 saves.  Each of the four main starters pitched over 200 innings and they had 49 complete games, so their weren't just a whole lot relief innings to be concerned about.

As a team, the Twins had an ERA of 4.28, seventh in the league.  Baltimore led at 3.22.  The Twins were fifth in WHIP at 1.39.  Baltimore led at 1.25.

I'm guessing that, back in the day, both starting pitchers hitting a home run wasn't that rare, but it was certainly uncommon.  I don't recall it happening in any of the random rewind games, nor do I recall it in the 1965 or 1969 rewinds, although I certainly could have forgotten.

Record:  The Twins were 13-12, in fourth place in the American League, 5.5 games behind Detroit.  They would finish 70-90, in seventh place, 38 games behind New York.

The Angels were 9-14, tied for eighth in the American League, 8.5 games behind Detroit.  They would finish 70-91, in eighth place, 38.5 games behind New York.

Detroit went 101-61 and finished eight games out of first place.  That had to be discouraging.

Random record:  The Twins are 41-40 in Random Rewind games.  If we do this for 162 games (which we won't, unless there's no 2020 season at all), we'd be at the half-way point of the random season.

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1961, Game Six

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MINNESOTA 3, BOSTON 2 IN BOSTON

Date:  Tuesday, April 18.

Batting stars:  Lenny Green was 4-for-4 with a stolen base, his second.  Jim Lemon was 2-for-4 with a home run and a double.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat pitched 7.1 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on three hits and three walks and striking out six.  Bill Pleis pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up a walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Dave Hillman pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk.  Pumpsie Green was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.

The game:  In the first, Green singled, went to third on a stolen-base-plus-error, and scored on a Bob Allison single to put the Twins up 1-0.  In the third, Zoilo Versalles singled, was bunted to second, and scored on a Don Mincher single to make it 2-0 Twins.  It stayed there until the sixth, when Lemon homered to make it 3-0.

The Twins loaded the bases in the seventh but did not score.  Still, the Red Sox had only one hit to this point, and the lead looked secure.  In the eighth, however, Green doubled and Rip Repulski singled, putting men on first and third with none out.  A ground out scored a run, Gary Geiger walked, and Jackie Jensen was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with two out.  Frank Malzone grounded to short, but the ball was booted by Versalles, allowing a run to score and cutting the margin to 3-2 with the bases still loaded and Carl Yastrzemski up to bat.  He flied to center, however, ending the inning.

The Twins again left the bases loaded in the ninth, so the lead remained just one.  Green drew a one-out walk, but Lou Clinton fanned and Chuck Schilling popped to short to end the game.

WP:  Kaat (1-0).  LP:  Billy Muffett (0-1).  S:  Pleis (1).

Notes:  Mincher was at first base in place of Harmon Killebrew, who missed a couple of weeks.  Billy Gardner was the starting second baseman at this point in the season, but would be replaced later by Billy Martin, who the Twins acquired in a trade for Billy Consolo.  Reno Bertoia was the starting third baseman at this point, but would be traded for Bill Tuttle, who would take his place at third.

The only non-pitcher substitute was Dan Dobbek, going in to replace Lemon in left field in the eighth inning.

This early in the season there are always extreme batting averages.  Versalles was batting .429--he would finish at .280.  Allison was batting .375--he would finish at .245.  Green raised his average to .304--he would finish at .285.  Earl Battey, who was batting just .211 at this point, would lead the team with an average of .302.

On the other end, Bertoia was batting .150.  He would leave the Twins with an average of .212.

Killebrew would lead the team in home runs with 46.  Allison was second with 29, followed by Battey (17) and Lemon (14).  The Twins were fourth in home runs in the ten-team league.

The Twins rotation in 1961 was Pedro Ramos (11-20, 3.95), Camilo Pascual (15-16, 3.46), Jack Kralick (13-11, 3.61), and Kaat (9-17, 3.90).  Ray Moore led in saves with 14.  Ramos, who led the team in starts with 34, also had two saves.

Muffett, who started for Boston, pitched six innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out none.  He would go on to go 3-11, 5.67.  He played from 1957-1962.  He had good years in 1957 (3-2, 2.25, 1.09 WHIP in 23 relief appearances (44 innings)) and 1960 (6-4, 3.24, 1.22 WHIP in 11 starts and 27 relief appearances (112.2 innings)).  In the other years, though, he was not good at all.  His next lowest season ERA was 4.93 in 1958 and his next lowest WHIP was 1.47 in 1961.  For his career, he was 16-23, 4.33, 1.43 WHIP.  He was in 125 games, 32 of them starts, and pitched 376.1 innings.  He went into coaching after that, and continued to be a major league coach through 1994.

The Twins were off to a fine start in their inaugural season.  I suspect this fueled some high hopes, which were ultimately to be dashed.

Record:  The Twins were 5-1, in first place in the American League, one game ahead of Cleveland.  They would finish 70-90, in seventh place, 38 games behind New York.

The Red Sox were 2-2, in fifth place in the American League, two games behind Minnesota.  They would finish 76-86, in sixth place, 33 games behind New York.

Random Record:  The Twins are 34-27 in Random Rewind games.