"Ain't Gonna Work As Topping's Farm No More" -- A's Baseball in a Reimagined Fifties

[jksander]

December 15, 1957: We decided to take a risk on a few fringy Rule 5 picks this year, with the possibility that all (or none) of them could wind up being returned to their original teams by the end of spring training. We picked up the following players:

Round 1: RP Jerry Staley (New York Yankees) ... the 37-year-old hasn’t played in the majors since 1954 when he was with St. Louis, but last year in AAA across the Redlegs and Yankees farm systems, he put up a 4-7 record with 19 saves, a 4.04 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP through 111 innings, striking out 45 batters. His control is still impeccable, and he has a five pitch arsenal, so even with below average stuff in general, he’s got the ability to keep guys guessing.

Round 2: SP Bob Blaylock (St. Louis Cardinals) ... Blaylock, at 22, is the opposite of Staley in almost every way. He relies almost entirely on his above average stuff, including a loopy curveball, an above average changeup and a decent fastball, to make up for his lack of movement and control. His stamina is also low, but I think he could have value out of the bullpen, potentially as a closer or lockdown late-innings stopper.

Round 3: Dan Osinski (Cleveland Guardians) ... At 24, Osinski is similar to Blaylock, but with even more limited stamina and control. He’s the most likely of the three to be sent back, but I like the idea of giving him a chance. If we fail, he just goes back to the minors, and that’d likely be his ceiling. If we succeed, we give a guy a chance to build a career in our bullpen.

I’m hoping one or two of them will show enough promise to keep around, and they’ll all get plenty of spring training innings to show their stuff.

January 6, 1958: We’re proud to announce that, led by 18-year-old reliever Bob Miller, we’re launching a local charity to raise money to fund baseball programs in our inner-city schools -- the "KC Cares Foundation". Miller grew up poor in St. Louis, and being able to work within the community as a local, popular A’s player to bring the youth athletic funding disparity to light has been important to him from the start. Our fan interest has skyrocketed, and our fan loyalty seems to be getting a nice bump as well, as donations are already pouring in.

January 8, 1958: We’ve made a trade with the San Francisco Giants, sending them 24-year-old right fielder Thomas Paddock in exchange for 30-year-old shortstop Carl Sawatski and 22-year-old third baseman Steve Boros (#30 BNN). With Ron Fairly looking to start out at the major league level this year, and with Andy Pafko cemented at the position already, we really don’t need Paddock, and adding to our farm has been one of our owner’s biggest imperatives. So it looks like a solid deal all around -- especially since Sawatski is definitely an excellent defender at short and should pair nicely with George Wilson.

January 15, 1958: There were only 24 players on the Hall of Fame ballot, and once again nobody made the cut. Tommy Bridges, in his third year, came closest with 54 percent of the vote. At this point it may be a decade before we see anyone new enshrined. We’ve been at work shoring up our minors with some free agent signings, and gearing up for the new season ahead.

[jksander]

February 6, 1958: We’ve made some solid minor league deals this year, but the most surprising may be the signing of former Yankees sparkplug Billy Martin to play on a straight-up minor league contract. The 29-year-old second baseman will be playing for our AAA Buffalo Bison, and he’ll be a solid backup option as an injury replacement if we ever need it. The Yankees let him go to free agency back in October, and he was holidng out for a major league deal, but no one came calling. Eventually the urge to still get to play won out. Last year in AAA Denver he hit .280 with 21 runs scored, while for the Yankees he played in 29 games, batting .231 with four runs and two RBIs. If he doesn’t make something happen this year, it’s likely he’ll have to start looking for managing jobs ... but I’m glad to have him as an option, he’s the kind of serious-minded player who can make things happen around him.

We also brought Cloyd Boyer to play for the AA Albany Senators ... the 30-year-old is well known in the community alongside his brothers Ken and Clete, and though he doesn’t have the skills of his younger brothers any longer, the 30-year-old is well regarded in the community, and paying him minor league money to keep playing as long as his body holds up doesn’t seem to be that bad a deal. He hasn’t played in the majors since 1952, so making it back beyond the AA level may be a tough ask ... but he’s always been a good clubhouse influence, and we can always use good mentors for the young guys.

February 15, 1958: Things are looking good for us right now. Our owner has added $300,000 to our budget, and even with our ticket prices rising to $1.50 each, we’re on pace for 3,800 season tickets sold, a 15.6 percent increase! Attendance is projected to average in the 13,000 range, which would be a nearly 18 percent bump, which would mean potentially $9,000 per game more than we made last year -- that would be nearly $700,000 in extra revenue, so the bump in budget makes sense. We have $175,000 in cash to work with now that we didn’t have at the start of the offseason, and our fan interest is at 62% and our loyalty is now “Poor” rather than “Pathetic” ... it’s all trending in the right direction!
 
March 10, 1958: It’s finally time for spring training games to start, and we have 42 players we’ve invited to participate this season. Here’s a breakdown by position, along with notes about where the real battles are likely to shape up competitively.

Catcher
Del Crandall
Joe Astroth

Not any competition happening at this position. Crandall has the starting spot wrapped up, and Astroth, at age 35, is a perfect backup, still capable of playing when needed, but not on a regular basis.

First Base
Ernie Banks
Harry Walker

Ernie Banks actually played in 155 games last year because of how the Cubs’ schedule sinked with ours around the trade. So you can count on him playing every day, which is perfect because Walker, at 41, is still a legit option as a pinch-hitter but not so much as a regular first baseman.

Second Base
Danny O’Connell
William Cottrell
Bob Lillis
Billy Martin

This ought to be a fun competition, with O’Connell locking up the everyday starter role as as the reigning gold glover at the position. Billy Martin actually may have the leg up on the competition for a bench role, but Lillis hit .341 last year in 16 games off the bench, and Cotrell, at 21, has yet to make his debut for the major league club. He hit .217 in Buffalo last year, with 14 doubles and 50 RBIs, so I expect there to be a real fight to see who gets to sit behind Danny O.

Third Base
Daryl Spencer
Chris Cannizzaro
Phil Jantze

Cannizzaro has continued to improve as a fielder at third base, and he hit .270 last year through 204 at-bats, with 20 RBIs and 0.8 WAR. He also had just six errors all year across catcher and third base, with a 2.0 zone rating at third. That gives the 19-year-old a leg up on Jantze, who is mostly up because he did reasonably well in September in his one-game call-up. Most likely he’ll wind up back at AAA for another year, giving the 22-year-old former 10th rounder a chance to further improve his game.

Shortstop
Carl Sawatski
George Wilson
Donald Prohovich

Prohovich was a seventh rounder in 1955’s draft for the Washington Senators who we claimed off waivers last April. Right now it looks like he’ll be spending another year at AAA unless he can show he’s better than George Wilson as a backup for Sawatski. He did hit .252 with 70 RBIs, 19 doubles and 17 homers last year for AAA Buffalo, but he’s yet to prove he can handle major league defense. He’ll get his chance this spring, and Wilson, at 33, better bring his A-game ... he only hit .179 last year through more than 200 at-bats, though his 1.8 zone rating at short, with 118 putouts, 197 assists and just 16 errors.

Left Field
Roy Sievers
Walt Bond
Russ Sullivan
Wally Westlake

Obviously Sievers is the day one starter. Bond played 16 games at first and four games in left field last year, so the data on him is thin, but the 20-year-old’s hitting was sporadic at best last year. But he works like crazy, and I think giving him a chance to compete to be Sievers’ backup this year is a smart move ... as last year’s second rounder and a top 50 prospect, we’re motivated to bring him up full-time once he’s ready. Sullivan and Westlake are guys who may be over the hill, at 35 and 37 respectively, and they’re competing for a last shot ... Sullivan hasn’t played at the major league level since 1955, while Westlake did play in one game for us last year after we signed him as a September minor-league free agent. Neither are likely to make the roster, and if they refuse to be demoted after the spring, they’ll likely be cut. But why not give them a shot? Competition breeds success in my opinion.
 
Center Field
Chuck Diering
Ernest Johnson
Catfish Metkovich
David Shea

Diering has his spot sewn up, and right now I am most interested in how Johnson, 26, and Shea, 23, handle the spring games. Shea hit .266 at AA and .250 at AAA last year, spending most of his time in Buffalo, where he put up half a game of WAR. But in his 14 games at the major league level, he only managed to hit .143 (just 49 at bats, so small sample size) and he struggled in the outfield. Johnson, meanwhile, hasn’t made it past our A-league team in Stockton, and at 26 his time is starting to run out. He hit .366 with 27 doubles, 16 homers and 121 RBIs last year in Stockton, and if he doesn’t make the opening day roster he’ll likely head to AAA this year (he put up 9.1 WAR last year in A-ball and I’ll be the first to admit he slipped through the cracks. Meanwhile, Catfish Metkovich, at 37, has been our tried-and-true guy for the last two years ... but he’s started to fall off, finishing with nearly 1.0 in negative WAR last year and a negative 10.7 zone rating. So if he doesn’t make the roster as a backup this season, he may not last past this year as more than injury replacement fodder from AAA. If in doubt, I’d rather give one of our young guys a chance to get bench at-bats and develop, rather than rely on an aging fielder who doesn’t have it anymore.

Right Field
Ron Fairly
Andy Pafko

This will be a battle of who starts and who rides the bench, and Fairly, who has reportedly been excelling while working on his two-strike approach in our practice facility down in Florida, already looks like he’s well on the way to fully developed at age 19. The difference maker may be his fielding, as his defense is still a work in progress ... but that arm, it’s a thing of beauty! Pafko, at 37, still hit .273 last year with 45 RBI and 1.1 WAR, and though his arm isn’t what it once was, he can still handle right field in a pinch. If he falls to the bench, he’ll be capable of getting starts at left and right when our starters are tired. So he’ll still be a useful part of our roster. But I’m thinking it’s more and more likely that Fairly will get the main starting spot.

Starting Pitchers / Emergency Starters
Milt Pappas
Carl Erskine
Bill Wight
Art Ditmar
Jarry Jansen
Charlie Rabe
Sam Jones
Johnny Gray

Aside from Pappas and Erskine at the top, there’s still a lot to be decided here about our rotation. Any of a combination of Wight, Ditmar, Jansen, Rabe, Jones or Gray could make the back half of the rotation at any time this year, and any of them who get demoted to AAA will be easy call-ups as the season ebbs and flows. We’re definitely going to have to be on the lookout for any chance to snag a truly solid fourth or fifth starter if we can, but otherwise it’ll be like last year ... piecework.

Long Relief
Dean Stone
Arnie Portocarrero
Dick Marlowe

Right now all three of these guys should be highly motivated to impress me, because they’re all 26 or older, and they’re all still mostly unknown commodities. Marlowe hasn’t played at the major league level since 1955, and at 28 he’s running out of chances. Stone struggled at the major league level last year for us and Washington, but after we traded for him in April he did do well in AAA (6-6, 2.98 ERA, 95 K’s in 166 innings, 3.6 WAR) so the 27-year-old looks like he deserves a bigger chance. And then there’s Portocarrero ... hard worker and dedicated, but weak stuff and control; he’s 17-38 over the last four years in the majors with a 4.57 ERA, and it’s been a steep dropoff since he went 9-18 for us in 1954 and 5-14 in 1955. He’s the youngest of the three but may want to bank his money because if he doesn’t make the roster this year, I don’t think he has the stuff to play pro ball anymore. It’s quite possible that none of these three will make the cut.
 
Middle Relief
Dan Osinski
Bob Miller
Bob Lee
Don Bessent

Osinski is a rule fiver, and this spring we’re going to give him the most reps until we decide if he’s going to stick around or be returned to Cleveland. Miller’s spot is secure ... he was 6-5 with seven saves and a 4.18 ERA through 92.2 innings as a rookie, striking out 39 and putting up a 1.34 WHIP. He’s not all the way there yet, but he was a top 40 prospect and he shows a ton of promise. Same goes for Don Bessent, who was 10-4 last year with a 3.18 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 65 innings. He’s not flashy, but he gets the job done and does so consistently. Bob Lee made four appearances last September and though he was a bit all over the place, with a 7.71 ERA through 4.2 innings, he struck out three with just one walk, and had a 1.07 WHIP ... he’s getting better, but only had two games at AAA, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be moving him back down to Buffalo once spring is done. But he deserves some reps so the 20-year-old can show he’s progressing.

Closer / Stopper / Setup
Rob Blaylock
Tom Gorman
Jerry Staley

Gorman’ s place as our highest leverage stopper is secure for now ... he was 8-5 with seven saves through 95 innings with 44 K’s and a 3.69 ERA. He’s a control pitcher, so his stuff may underwhelm but he gets the job done even in the toughest spots, and can go at least two innings almost every time. Blaylock and Staley will get their reps as rule fivers, but Blaylock, at 22, is the one of the three R5 picks I’m most hopeful will succeed. He’s got amazing stuff, and if he can pull it all together, I can see him being a real keeper.

In the end we’ve got to cut this list down from 42 to 25 in a matter of weeks, so the challenge is going to be real, especially for our pitchers. We open the regular season with three games in Cleveland April 15-17, and then play three against Chicago April 18-20 to give our fans the first taste of A’s baseball in ’58.

[jksander]

March 10, 1958: We played our first spring game of the season against the Orioles, with Milt Pappas pitching against Jim Owens. Del Crandall hit an RBI single in the top of the second and Diering doubled him home moments later to put us up 2-0. Pappas only pitched the first three innings, with Dan Osinski taking over in the bottom of the fourth. Dick Marlowe came out in the bottom of the fifth and promptly gave up a pair of runs to the Orioles. The game stayed tied until the bottom of the ninth, when Hoot Evers walked it off with a three-run homer as they beat us 5-2. Chuck Diering led the way with two hits and a run, and Pappas allowed a hit and a walk via his 43 pitches. Orsinski picked up a hold, and he, Lee and Stone got through their innings unblemished. Dick Marlowe blew the save, however, allowing three hits, two walks and two earned runs with a strikeout through two innings, and Bob Miller had the bad luck of getting hit by that three-run walkoff homer.

March 11, 1958: Carl Erskine pitched against Cleveland’s Mike Garcia today, and the Guardians knocked us around for six runs through three innings before Del Crandall ground out to first and drove in our first run of the game in the top of the fourth. They wound up slaughtering us 12-1, outhitting us by a staggering 18-8 margin. Nobody for us got on base twice, and only Blaylock and Bessent got through from the bullpen without any damage.

March 12, 1958: We hosted the Washington Senators today, pitting Bill Wight against 22-year-old Harold Larned, who they picked up in the first round of the Rule 5 draft via Cleveland. It was pretty ugly early, with Washington scoring seven unanswered runs in the first four innings, but we kept it that way the remainder of the game, losing 7-0. Wight only lasted 1.1 innings before hitting his pitch limit, and Sam Jones got rung up during his 2.2 innings as well. But Portocarrero, Osinski, Staley and Miller got through five innings combined with one hit, three strikeouts and nothing else. We were outhit again 11-3, and it’s hard to make up for that. So far in three spring games we’ve yet to get a hit from Banks.

March 13, 1958: Art Ditmar pitched against the Yankees’ Saul Rogovin in today’s game, and again we got rung up early ... they put up three runs in the bottom of the first, and we got beat in the end 4-1, our offense continuing to do next to nothing. I know the games don’t count, but this is disconcerting at best. This one was a pitching duel, we were only outhit 4-3 ... Shea did have a nice moment, hitting the homer in the eighth that broke our scoreless streak. Ditmar only lasted 1.2 innings, but as for our bullpen, Lee, Osinski, Blaylock, Stone and Bessent managed to keep their ERA’s spotless.

March 14, 1958: Larry Jansen pitched today against Detroit’s Paul Foytack, and in the top of the third Ron Fairly hit a two-run double to give us the lead! In the top of the fifth we added on with an RBI single by Pafko and a two-run single by Ernest Johnson, and Walt Bond hit a two-run homer in the top of the sixth to make it a seven run lead. Detroit got one run back in garbage time, bottom of the ninth, thanks to a John Greengrass homer, but we won 7-1 regardless and finally showed some signs that our bats are waking up. Jansen pitched three innings with four hits and a walk, taking our first win of the spring, and Gorman got a hold while bringing his ERA down to 9.00. Bob Lee pitched two innings to close it out, allowing three hits, two walks and the earned run, giving him a 2.70 ERA, while Stone and Bessent stayed perfect.
 
March 15, 1958: Chicago pitted Bob Rush against Charlie Rabe, and Ernie Banks hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first to give us the early lead. He then batted in a run with a single in the top of the third to break a 2-2 tie. Gene Wallace tied it up with an RBI single in the top of the sixth, but Danny O’Connell hit a two-run single in the bottom of the inning to put us back on top. We added four more in the bottom of the seventh as we shut them down 9-3. Johnny Gray blew the save for us, but picked up the win, going two innings with three hits, a walk, three strikeouts and an earned run. Rabe got through 2.1 scoreless innings but hit his pitch limit, but we outhit Chicago 11-9, led by Banks with two hits, a run and three RBIs.

March 16, 1958: Milt Pappas pitched his second start of the spring, facing Boston’s Frank Baumann. Pappas had two solid innings and then gave up four runs in the third and fourth, getting pulled after 3.2 innings and 65 pitches as we trailed 4-0 after four innings. Joe Astroth hit a two-run double in the top of the sixth, but we wound up losing this one 5-3 in the end, getting outhit 12-9, nobody on our team hitting more than once. Pappas has a 1.35 ERA through his first two starts, allowing five hits and four runs, but only one was earned.

We made our first round of cuts after today’s game, releasing Jerry Staley to the Yankees and sending Sam Jones down to AAA.

March 17, 1958: Baltimore’s Ted Wills pitched against Carl Erskine, as “Oisk” looked to have a better start by far than his first. He got through three innings, and then in the bottom of the third George Wilson hit a two-run homer to put us in the lead! Bobby Young scored for Baltimore off a groundout by Don Leppert in the top of the eighth, but we got the run back in the bottom of the inning with a solo homer by Ernest Johnson. Johnny Gray gave up a run in the top of the ninth but was able to hold on as we won 3-2! We outhit them 8-6, led by Johnson with two hits, a run and an RBI. Erskine took the win, improving to 1-1 with a 9.00 ERA, but he needs to trim his walks down ... he had one hit, four walks and three strikeouts, throwing 64 pitches in three innings. Blaylock and Stone combined for four innings with two hits, four walks and two strikeouts, both of them keeping their 0.00 ERAs, while Lee picked up a hold and Gray saved his first spring game.

We had some good news from the player development complex today:

- Bob Miller successfully added a fourth pitch, picking up a slider that right now is merely useable, but if he keeps up the work on it, it’s got the potential to become a plus pitch. Add that to his fastball, changeup and sinker, and he’s a dangerous option out of the pen for sure!

- Ernie Banks spent the offseason working on his batspeed and homerun power as he strives to keep up with the Mickey Mantles of the world. And he had an outstanding result, his power rating jumped significantly, as did his potential! He’s gone from a four star player to a five star overnight, and his eye rating has increased slightly as well. I love seeing a 27-year-old putting in the work to get better even when he finished second last year in homers by just a single dinger. That shows incredible dedication to our team, and the fans absolutely love him!

- Dean Skidgel, last year’s fourth rounder, spent all offseason working on his control, and he had an outstanding result as well. The 23-year-old’s control went up four points, and his potential went through the roof. He’s still a long shot to make the majors any time soon, but he should become a solid middle relief option in a few years if he can keep putting in the work like this ... his stuff is mediocre, though, so he’ll depend on reaching his pinpoint potential.

Ron Fairly is currently excelling at working on his two-strike approach, but is still three to four weeks away from completing the program. Of the others in our development lab, all of them with four to five weeks left, Gerald Reimer is on track with his work on his gap power, as is Jack Damaska. Richard Sovde is on track to improve his pitch velocity, while Jim Duckworth (doing the same program) is currently excelling ... if he can pull it off, he could become the first player in major league baseball with a legit 100 mile per hour fastball!

March 18, 1958: Bill Wight made his second start of the preseason, facing Cleveland’s Ruben Gomez. Danny O’Connell hit a solo homer in the bottom of the third, and Joe Astroth added an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth. That wound up being all we’d need, as we went on to win 2-0. Wight got the win, lasting four innings with 51 pitches thrown, while Marlowe, Miller and Osinski picked up holds and Portocarrero his first save of the spring. We outhit them 5-3 in a duel, O’Connell leading the way with his homer and Astroth with a hit and an RBI.

March 19, 1958: Art Ditmar pitched against Washington’s Walt Masterson, and the Senators slammed us with four early runs in the first three innings. We picked up a pair in the bottom of the seventh when Andy Pafko hit a two-run single, but we lost badly in the end 6-2. Ditmar was completely outmatched in his 2.2 innings, allowing five hits, two walks and four earned runs. We were outhit 12-5, with Pafko’s hit and two RBIs are only real offense.

We’ve decided to waive and DFA Art Ditmar with eyes to move him to AAA if no one takes him. William Cotrell and Bob Lillis also are not cutting it, as Billy Martin is clearly our best backup option at second base, so they have both dropped back down to the minors. Same thing with shortstop Donald Prohovich, who will go back down with the knowledge that he’ll have a chance to come back up when injuries or other depth issues require it. As for outfielders, we’ve chosen to move David Shea down as well. This gets us down to 35 players on our spring roster, with plenty of tough cuts yet to come.

[jksander]

March 21, 1958: Larry Jansen pitched against Don Mossi and the Yankees today, and Roy Siever picked up an RBI double in the bottom of the first, giving him a much-needed boost. Unfortunately it was our only offense of the day, as the Yankees crushed us 7-1. Jansen lasted four innings and threw 48 pitches, allowing three hits and two earned runs. Tom Gorman got banged up the most out of our bullpen guys, allowing three hits, two walks and two earned runs in his one inning ... he now has an 8.44 ERA and has given up six runs in five games, his control failing him so far. The Yankees only outhit us 9-8, but they dominated us nonetheless. Astroth, Martin and Sievers each hit twice, but only Sievers, with an RBI, and Ernie Banks with a walk and a run scored, got us anything.

March 22, 1958: Charlie Rabe pitched against Detroit’s Bob Shaw today, and in the bottom of the fourth Daryl Spencer scored off an RBI single by O”Connell that was assisted by an E7 error. Billy Martin hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth, driving in Walt Bond, who had stolen second before the single brought him around to score. But Whitey Lockman hit a two-run single aided by our own E7 error, tying it up in the top of the sixth, and Bob Miller gave up three runs in the top of the ninth as the Tigers beat us 5-2. Rabe was solid in four innings, with three hits, two walks and three strikeouts on 53 pitches. Blaylock, Osinski, Lee and Marlowe were all solid out of the pen, but Miller took his second loss and dropped his ERA to 9.45 ... The 19-year-old has struggled this spring, but is almost certain to keep his starting spot because of the small sample size and his solid performance all year last year. We were outhit 12-8 which didn’t help ... but Billy Martin’s done well so far, hitting .417 including today’s hit and RBI.

Dean Skidgel improved his control in the development lab with an outstanding result, raising his rating by four points. His lack of stuff makes the 23-year-old a long term prospect at this juncture, and he’ll still be lucky if he makes it up to the bigs without a plus pitch. But he’ll play for AA Rochester / Winona this season, our lowest of three AA level teams, where he’ll continue to work on his control ... if he can master ball placement and work on his movement, he’ll have a chance to keep moving up for us.

March 23, 1958: Milt Pappas pitched his third start, and once we get through a third start for our main rotation, we’ll have to start making serious cuts to the pitching corps. Pappas pitched today against Jim O’Toole of the White Sox, and he did well, aided by our offense that put up a run each in the first, second and third innings. We dominated in this one, winning 5-0, with Pappas throwing 56 pitches through four innings with just one hit and five strikeouts. Bessent, Blaylock, Gray and Lee combined for two hits, four walks and four strikeouts in their five shutout innings, making my job even harder discerning who might need to go down eventually. Blaylock in particular has been as good as I expected when we took him in the Rule 5 a few months ago ... he has played in five games and thrown six innings of work, with just three hits, two walks and three strikeouts without giving up a single run which gives him a WHIP well below 1.00 -- he really may be the closer we’ve been looking for. We outhit the White Sox 12-3 today, led by Billy Martin (two hits and a run) and Del Crandall (two hits, a run and an RBI), while George Wilson had a solo homer in the second inning as well.

March 24, 1958: Carl Erskine pitched against Boston’s Willard Nixon, and we really need to start seeing him pitching well, as his first two starts were well below par. He gave up three runs in the top of the first but did make it through four innings today, and though our bullpen did the best they could to get us back into the game, we still wound up losing this one 4-3. Erskine has an 8.00 ERA through three starts, and if he can’t get it together we’re going to be in real trouble this season. We outhit them 8-7, led by Cannizzaro who hit two times with a run and an RBI, and Ernest Johnson had a two-run homer in the eighth inning as we tried to rally.

March 25, 1958: We gave Arnie Portocarrero a start today, facing Baltimore’s Don Larsen. O’Connell hit an RBI double in the top of the first and Roy Sievers scored a second run by batting in O’Connell with a single. Portocarrero pitched four innings, but gave up two runs in the bottom of the fourth to tie it up. But Carl Sawatski hit a two-run homer in the top of the fifth, and neither of Portocarrero’s runs were earned, so he had a pretty solid night (four hits and a strikeout, no walks). This one wound up going back and forth the rest of the way and went into extra innings in the end, but Baltimore walked it off in the bottom of the 10th and we lost 6-5. Dick Marlowe gave up our only two earned runs of the night in the two innings he pitched, blowing his save / hold opportunity in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI triple and a flyout. We outhit them 12-11, led by O’Connell with two hits, a run and two RBIs, and by Sawatski who had three hits, a run and an RBI.

March 26, 1958: Bill Wight pitched against the Guardians’ Taylor Phillips, and a Sawatski flyout put us up 1-0 in the top of the first. Paul Jantze hit another sac-fly in the second to drive in Walt Bond, but we gave up five unanswered runs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth, sending us into the top of the seventh trailing by three. But Harry Walker hit a three-run homer in the top of the seventh to tie it up, and Chuck Diering hit an RBI single to drive home Metkovich to put us up 6-5 in the top of the eighth. Johnny Gray blew the save opportunity, however, and we got beat 7-6 in the end. It was his second blown save and first loss of the preseason, and I’ve seen what I need to from the 31-year-old ... his stuff is average at best, and he lacks the control and movement to not get eaten up by opposing batters in tough games. Cleveland only outhit us 12-11, our bats led by Metkovich and Diering who each hit twice ... Diering had a run and an RBI, while Metkovich scored a run on the ground.

We’ve decided to release Johnny Gray outright, eating the remaining $2,400 that was guaranteed under his contract. We waived and DFA’d Dick Marlowe and Dean Stone as well. Osinski and Blaylock have done well enough that I plan to keep them (both were Rule 5 picks), but right now our three worst pitchers so far have been Carl Erskine, Tom Gorman and Bob Miller. Miller still has all his options, but he’s a much stronger pitcher overall than Gorman, and the fans (and our owner) love the 19-year-old. Gorman, being 33 and with less than stellar stuff, is at risk of being dropped down if he doesn’t finish the spring games on a strong note.
 
March 27, 1958: Larry Jansen pitched against Art Houtteman of the Washington Senators today, and he pitched four innings with the score tied up at 1-1. We caught fire in the bottom of the sixth with a three-run homer by Paul Jantze, and Cannizzaro and Bond batted in runs later in the game as we beat them 6-1, outhitting the Senators 13-6. Dick Bessent pitched two innings and took the win, and our bullpen was perfect, including Gorman, who only allowed one hit and brought his ERA down to 6.14 ... there are definitely not going to be easy cuts from here, that’s for damned sure. Jantze led the way with his homer, and Metkovich hit twice as his batting average continues to improve.

March 28, 1958: Charlie Rabe started against the Yankees’ Billy O’Dell, and he gave up his first run of the spring in the third inning to Hank Bauer off a solo homer. The Yankees held that same lead into the bottom of the eighth, at which point they rung Gorman up for four hits, a walk and four earned runs as we lost 5-0. They outhit us 9-2, with Banks and Cannizzaro our only hitters of the day (Banks also walked once, as did Pafko), giving us four baserunners to their 13.

We’ve waived Tom Gorman, and moved Marlowe and Stone into AAA, as they were not claimed by anyone. We’ve also waived Russ Sullivan and Wally Westlake, making Walt Bond our winner as to who gets to be our main backup at left field. Ernest Johnson still had an option left, so he’s been moved down to AAA as well, losing the center field backup competition (for now) to Catfish Metkovich.

March 29, 1958: Milt Pappas started against Detroit’s Billy Hoeft today, and I really want to see him go past four innings this time. Ernie Banks hit a two-run homer in the top of the third, and Pappas did better than four, giving us seven innings of work before handing the ball over to Bessent. Lee blew the save in the ninth, giving up RBI singles to Randy Jackson and Irv Noren to tie it up and force us into extras. Roy Sievers hit a solo homer in the top of the 11th to give us back the lead, and Dan Orsinski came out in the bottom of the inning and got us through as we won 3-2. Lee has been much improved, but allowed three hits and two runs in his inning, giving him a 3.27 ERA through 11 innings of work in spring games.

March 30, 1958: This is a make or break game for Carl Erskine, who is still trying to show us that last year wasn’t a fluke.He pitched today against Bob Rush and the Chicago White Sox, and he did very well early, keeping them scoreless through four, at which point Carl Sawatski hit an RBI single that, coupled with an E8 error, allowed Ernie Banks to score the go-ahead. Erskine stayed out for the fifth, and with the lead still 1-0, Don Bessent took over, and our bullpen did the rest as we completed the one-run shutout. Erskine improved to 2-2 in spring games with a 5.14 ERA, allowing three hits and striking out five, so he’s trending in the right direction. Bessent, Blaylock and Miller got through the other four innings with a combined one hit, two walks and four strikeouts as our bullpen continues to impress. Incredibly, they outhit us 4-3, but we drew more walks, and Sawatski had the hit, walk and RBI we needed to get this win even on a bad offensive night.

We’ve made some huge waiver wire moves to bolster our pitching depth this season, claiming Tom Poholsky from St. Louis, along with “Bullet Bob” Turley and Tom Sturdivant from the Yankees. Sturdivant will serve as our stopper, replacing Gorman as our high leverage man in the bullpen ... the 27-year-old has been grossly underused by the Yankees over his three seasons in the majors, pitching in just 51 games despite a 3.77 ERA, 50 K’s in 74 innings, and a career WHIP of 1.22. Poholsky, 28, while in St. Louis, has put together a 37-50 record and a 3.95 ERA, but last season he was 11-11 with a 4.30 ERA, striking out 117 batters through 205.1 innings, with a 1.23 WHIP and 1.0 WAR. And Turley, a 27-year-old who has incredible stuff and above average movement on his five pitches, more than makes up for his poor control with a blistering fastball and slider combo ... he just never got used by the Yankees. He put up 4.1 WAR back in 1954, with a 14-15 record, a 3.45 ERA, and 185 K’s in 247 innings, but since then the Yankees just refused to play him. His salary, at under $18,000, makes him more than worth a risk if he can help us stop the merry-go-round of starters who have gone through here.

Due to these additions, we’ve made the call on Jansen, Rabe and Bob Lee ... Lee will go back down to AA Little Rock, with a chance to move up to AAA mid-season, while Rabe went back down to AAA. Jansen, meanwhile, was waived and DFA’d. We have our roster down to 28, with Arnie Portocarrero moving over to the bullpen to handle long relief. At this point we’re looking at a starting five of Pappas, Erskine, Poholsky, Turley and Wight barring any unforseen situations, and our bullpen will have six arms ... any remaining cuts will come from the offensive side.

[jksander]

March 31, 1958: Tom Poholsky made his A’s debut today, facing Boston’s Mike Fornieles, and he pitched five shutout innings with five hits and seven strikeouts. But the Red Sox got on the board with four unanswered runs in the sixth and seventh, and though Billy Martin hit a two-run homer in the top of the eighth it wasn’t enough for us to claw our way back, losing this one 4-2. We were outhit 11-7, led by Martin with a hit, a run and two RBIs.

Wally Westlake has refused to be demoted after clearing waivers, so the 37-year-old has been released at a cost of $2,714.

April 1, 1958: Bob Turley pitched against Baltimore’s Dave Wickersham, and we took the lead in the bottom of the third when Chuck Diering grounded out to drive in Danny O’Connell to score. Turley got through five scoreless innings, and Ron Fairly hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to add on! The bullpen held it and we won this one 3-0! Turley improved to 2-0 in spring games with an 0.00 ERA, allowing just a hit with five walks and five strikeouts in his five innings. Sturdevant, Osinski and Blaylock each held the lead, and Don Bessent finished it out with a perfect final frame as he saved his first game and got his spring ERA down to 0.69! We outhit Baltimore 7-5, led by Fairly’s homer and a pair of hits by Sievers.
 
April 3, 1958: Larry Jansen cleared waivers but refused to be demoted, so the 37-year-old became our latest player to get a full contract release, at a cost of $2,727. Bill Wight pitched this afternoon, facing Cleveland’s Tom Cheney, who looks like he’s made incredible progress in the offseason at age 23. Cleveland took a one-run lead in the top of the fourth, but in the bottom of the seventh Billy Martin scored off a single by Harry Walker, and Metkovich gave us the lead when he came around to score off a sac-fly by George Wilson! Walt Bond hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth, and we held tough to win 4-1. Wight pitched five innings with three hits, four walks, three strikeouts and an earned run. Arnie Portocarrero got the win with a two inning effort (two hits, one walk) and Don Osinski got his first spring save with just a walk to pitch around in the ninth -- his ERA stands at 0.69 so far this spring, making him a real Rule 5 steal! Each team had just five hits today, ours led by Bond with his hit, walk and two-run homer.

April 4, 1958: We have seven spring games left including today’s. Milt Pappas pitched against Washington’s Mickey McDermott, and he left the game after five innings holding a 4-3 lead. The bullpen again came through for us as we were able to add on and hold the Senators off by a 6-4 margin. Pappas improved to 2-1 in spring games with a 1.19 ERA, allowing seven hits with a walk and three runs, two of which were earned. Bessent allowed a hit with a strikeout in his two innings, and then Blaylock, our other Rule 5 wunderkind, allowed just three hits and an earned run with a strikeout in his two innings, picking up his first save and giving him a 2.45 ERA so far. Washington outhit us 11-9, but we got an incredible game out of Ernie Banks -- he hit four times with two runs and four RBIs, including a triple and a homer. He and 20-year-old Walt Bond lead the team with three homers each so far this spring.

April 5, 1958: Carl Erskine pitched against the Yankees’ Mike McCormick this afternoon, and he gave up four runs in five innings as we dug ourselves a big hole. The bullpen didn’t give an inch from there, but we were outhit 8-6 and lost this one 4-0. Erskine remains erratic on the mound ... he’s gone 2-3 with a 5.68 ERA through his five starts, and he’s given up six or more hits and three or more runs in three of them. He’s looking like a starter who will be moving lower in our rotation so we can use him more sparingly, but he’s still got a starting spot for now. Billy Martin hit twice to lead our offense, and he has hit .353 this spring, making him a solid backup option for O’Connell, who has struggled thus far.

Dan Osinski suffered a day-to-day injury with shoulder tendinitis. We’re putting him on the 15-day IL, and we’re hoping he’ll be able to return to the 25-man roster by the time Cleveland comes to town on the 21st. In the meantime we’ll keep our bullpen of Blaylock, Sturdivant, Miller, Bessent and Portocarrero for the time being. We may bring Bob Lee back up for our opening day roster to be used sparingly until his return, but I’ll make that decision when we have a better idea of his recovery time.

April 6, 1958: Tom Poholsky pitched against Detroit’s Paul Foytack this afternoon, and the Tigers dominated their way to an easy 4-1 win. Poholsky gave us five innings with eight hits, striking out four but allowing four runs (three earned) as his spring ERA dipped to 4.05. But we knew he’d have games like this ... his control is excellent, but he has to work hard to put the ball where it needs to be to make up for average stuff. He’s still an improvement over our starters at the bottom of the rotation last year, and we have a much improved bullpen, so we’re just looking for starters who can get us deep enough for the bullpen to put games away. The Tigers outhit us 11-9 today, and only Crandall picked up more than one hit, though Sievers and Spencer had a hit and a walk, Spencer scoring our only run.

April 7, 1958: Bob Turley pitched today against Chicago’s Bernie Daniels, and Turley only made it through four innings before leaving with us trailing 3-0. Phil Jantze walked in a run to get us on the board in the top of the sixth, however, and Catfish Metkovich hit a two-run homer to tie it up in the top of the seventh! In the top of the eighth we took the lead with a sac-fly and an E9 error that allowed Phil Jantze to score, and we added on three more in the top of the ninth to seal it, beating the White Sox 7-3! Turley allowed six hits, four walks and three earned runs in his four innings with just two batters striking out ... but the bullpen got through five with just three hits, a walk and three strikeouts between them! Portocarrero got his second spring win with a two-inning effort, and Bob Miller finished them off in a non-save situation. We outhit Chicago 15-9, and six players (Bond, Banks, Wilson, Metkovich, Astroth and Jantze) hit more than once ... but Metkovich led the way with his two-run homer.

April 8, 1958: Bill Wight pitched against Boston’s Frank Baumann today, and an RBI double by Danny O’Connell and a Roy Sievers two-run homer in the bottom of the first quickly put us in the lead. Sturdivant came out to relieve Wight in the sixth inning leading 3-2, and he held the lead for two innings, Daryl Spencer adding on in the bottom of the seventh as Harry Walker reached on an E4 error. Blaylock held on for the final two innings for his second save of the spring, as we beat the Red Sox 4-2! Wight had four hits, five strikeouts and two earned starts in his win, and though each team had seven hits, ours was led by Sievers with two hits, a run and two RBIs.

April 9, 1958: Carl Erskine pitched against Baltimore’s Jim Owens, and a two-run homer by Banks quickly put us on top in the top of the first. But Baltimore slammed Erskine in the bottom of the second, scoring five quick runs, and he was out of the game after three innings. Portocarrero came out in the bottom of the fourth trailing by three, and this one got ugly from there ... the bullpen had its first real rough night of the spring and we lost 11-5, getting outhit 13-8. Erskine allowed seven hits, three walks and struck out two, letting them score six earned runs in three innings, and though Blaylock and Bessent were unscathed, Portocarrero allowed three runs off three hits and Miller had two (unearned) runs with two hits and a strikeout in his inning. Banks and Pafko each homered, with Banks leading the way with two hits, two runs and three RBIs.

April 10, 1958: Today in our final spring game we started Tom Poholsky against Cleveland’s Mike Garcia. Cleveland took the lead quickly, and had a 4-1 lead on us when we brought out Turley to pitch the remainder. We got a run back in the seventh but didn’t have a real rally in us as we lost the game 4-2 despite outhitting them 10-7. Poholsky allowed seven hits and four runs with three walks and three strikeouts in his five innings, but Turley was solid with three innings and just a single strikeout. O’Connell had a hit, a walk and an RBI to lead the way, but Carl Sawatski hit three times and got nowhere to lead on hits alone.
 
We finished the spring season with a record of 13-17, tied for fifth place. New York led the way at 19-11, while Detroit and Washington were 17-13 each. I am going to bring Bob Lee up for at least the first week of the season, or until Osinski returns from his injury, whichever comes first. That means we have three players to cut on the offensive side of things -- I’ve settled on 37-year-old Catfish Metkovich, 19-year-old Chris Cannizzaro and 41-year-old Harry Walker. Cannizzaro has all his options left, so he was able to go down to AAA easily. But Metkovich and Walker had to be released, as they were both going to (rightfully, at their ages) refuse demotion. Metkovich cost us $4,050 to release, while Walker cost us $2,921.

OPENING DAY ROSTER

Lineup
C - Del Crandall
1B - Ernie Banks
2B - Danny O’Connell
3B - Daryl Spencer
SS - Carl Sawatski
LF - Ray Sievers
CF - Chuck Diering
RF - Ron Fairly

Bench
C - Joe Astroth
2B - Billy Martin
3B - Phil Jantze
SS - George Wilson
LF/CF - Walt Bond
LF/RF - Andy Pafko

Starters
1 - Milt Pappas
2 - Bob Turley
3 - Bill Wight
4 - Tom Poholsky
5 - Carl Erskine

Bullpen
CL - Bob Blaylock
ST - Tom Sturdivant
SU - Bob Miller
MR - Don Bessent, Bob Lee
LR - Arnie Portocarrero

Wight and Erskine are our only pitchers over the age of 30, and Sturdivant and Bessent, at age 27, are our oldest relievers. Our lineup, while still skewing older overall, does feature 19-year-old Ron Fairly, and Walt Bond (at 20) and Phil Jantze (at 22) look solid coming off the bench.

April 14, 1958: While we don’t open our season until tomorrow, Boston and Washington get things started today, and our owner reached out to me to let me know he still expects us to compete for a .500 record this season. Early predictions were not great, the national sportswriters being very familiar with our lack of starting depth, but now that we’ve added Turley and Pohosky, and with our bullpen proving to be exceptional in spring games, the Baseball News Network has upped our expected record to 75-79, which would be good for fifth place if the prognostications held. The BNN is anticipating a real hot race between Cleveland and New York, with both teams expected to win 95 or more games. Over in the NL the Dodgers, now in Los Angeles, are predicted to win 91 games and narrowly beat out Milwaukee, though I’m sure the two-time reigning champs are going to have plenty to say about that!

Despite their solid draft haul this year, Baltimore is still expected to finish last in the AL, with the Cubs earning that level of disrespect in the NL. The Orioles have Billy Williams, the #1 prospect in the nation, however, though for now he’ll be playing off the bench and trying to secure the starting spot at left field. They also have Gaylord Perry (#6 BNN), but the 19-year-old right handed ace is going to be starting out at AA San Antonio, down in the Texas League. None of our prospects ranked in the top ten ... here’s how our farm is looking at the moment, with prospects within the BNN 250:

#14 - RF Ron Fairly (MLB)
#58 - 3B Steve Boros (AAA Buffalo) ... expected in majors by 1960
#66 - LHP Dennis Bennett (AA Little Rock) ... expected in majors by 1960
#77 - RHP Bob Lee (MLB)
#99 - RHP Jim Duckworth (AA Albany) ... expected in majors by 1961
#102 - LHP Dean Skidgel (AA Rochester / Winona) ... expected in majors by 1961
#105 - CF Jose Tartabull (AA Albany) ... expected in majors by 1960
#192 - LFP Juan Piedra (AA Rochester / Winona) ... expected in majors by 1960
#217 - RHP Dan Osinski (MLB)

We’ve had three more solid results come through, with a couple guys’ final analysis expected to come in within the next week (though the development complex is now closed down for the season).

- First baseman Gerald Reimer, currently in AAA Buffalo, spent his season working on his gap power, and he’s made noticeable improvements at driving balls through the alleys, and his defense at first base is coming along nicely as well. His gap power rating rose five points, and he’s now nearing his ceiling in that regard. The fifth rounder from last year’s draft doesn’t have a ton of upside, and is going to need to put in continued work if he wants to make the majors, but this is a nice start.

- 17-year-old right handed starter Larry Maxie was our sixth rounder this year, and he spent the winter working on his control. He’s still got a long way to go, but his control has improved by leaps and bounds over what he left high school with. If he can keep showing these kinds of developmental leaps, he’s got a future in the back end of our rotation in a few seasons.

- Middle infielder Jack Damaska had outstanding results working on his gap power, and though he’s still on the bubble as a prospect, the 1956 5th rounder still has the potential to make the leap eventually if he keeps putting in work on self-improvement. But he’ll need more power if he’s going to compete for a starting spot as a first baseman, and his defense needs significant improvement elsewhere.

[jksander]

April 15, 1958: We get to open our season this year with a road trip to Cleveland, so our fans will have to wait for this weekend to get their first view of our team in Kansas City unless they feel like taking a 12-hour road trip. Milt Pappas started this afternoon against 28,000 Cleveland fans, facing their ace Tom Cheney in game one. We took the lead in the top of the third, when Carl Sawatski hit an RBI single, which was immediately followed by an RBI double by Daryl Spencer. But Pappas got hit hard in the bottom of the fifth, allowing a two-run homer by Stan Lopata to tie things up, and an RBI single by Norm Cash to put them into the lead. Bob Miller took over in the bottom of the sixth, still trailing by a run, and he got us through the seventh safely. Tom Sturdivant came out in the botom of the eighth, getting three outs off nine pitches to keep us in the game, but we couldn’t get anything done in the top of the ninth, losing our opening game 3-2. Pappas started out with a loss, allowing four hits with four walks and a strikeout, giving them three earned runs in five innings, but the bullpen guys kept this one a duel. We actually outhit the Guardians by a 5-4 margin, led by Sawatski with a hit, a run and an RBI while Sievers had two hits and a walk but didn’t manage to do anything with them.

April 16, 1958: Bob Turley started our second game in Cleveland, going up against Mike Garcia. Ernie Banks hit an RBI single to give us the lead in the top of the first, and Sawatski doubled him home to give us a quick 2-0 lead. But Turley got slammed in the bottom of the sixth, giving up six runs, definitely setting his day to be on the short side. He stayed out there, though, getting through the third and the fourth without any further scoring explosions, and we were able to hold off on bringing Portocarrero out until the bottom of the fifth. He gave up a run in the bottom of the sixth to make it a five-run Cleveland lead, and then with two outs Rocky Colavito hit a three-run homer that turned it into a rout. I can see why the sporting press picked this team to be the one to keep the Yankees out of the World Series in their preseason predictions, because they are STACKED. Roy Sievers hit a solo homer in the top of the seventh, and Portocarrero stayed out there to keep us from burning through too many arms in a lost cause. Bob Lee came out in the bottom of the eighth and immediately gave up a solo homer to Gordy Coleman, and with two outs George Crowe hit a double that drove in three more, and we quietly went down 14-3. Turley took the loss, allowing six hits and six runs with five walks and three strikeouts in his four innings, and neither Portocarrero or Lee were able to keep the game from careening out of control. We were outhit 14-6, led by Sawatski with two hits, a walk and an RBI.
 
April 17, 1958: Bill Wight got the start against Ruben Gomez in our final game of this series in Cleveland, and Ernie Banks hit a solo homer to put us on top in the top of the first, his first homer of the young season. Vic Power tied it up with an RBI double in the bottom of the second, and Wight did well to hold it, until he came out in the sixth and loaded the bases in the blink of an eye, bringing Bessent out with loaded bags and no outs. He got an out, and then George Crowe hit a two-run single to push the Guardians into the lead. A sac-fly by Power scored another, and we went into the top of the seventh trailing 4-1. But Crandall hit a three-run blast that sent us into the stretch tied up! With two outs and a man on first, we brought out Bob Miller ... who did not have a great night. He faced three batters, walking Stan Lopata and Dale Long and then letting Norm Cash hit a sweet fastball into right field, driving in a pair of runs. Tom Sturdivant came out with men on second and third, still two outs, and got us out of the inning trailing by a pair. He would pitch the remainder of the game, and we lost 6-4 despite him getting four outs on seven pitches total with no baserunners. We’ll return to KC for our opening game there with an 0-3 record after the sweep. Bessent took the loss, allowing two hits and a run with two strikeouts in his 1.2 innings of work, and Wight allowed 11 hits and four earned runs in his five innings. But we were outhit again 14-6, so our bats didn’t give the pitching any real support at all in this series.

We got the rest of our good news from the now-closed development compound! Jim Duckworth had an outstanding result while working on his pitching velocity, and the 18-year-old right handed future bullpen ace now has a fastball that clocks at anywhere from 99 to 101 miles per hour! Though he still has no real control over his pitches, his ceiling is now significantly higher than it was before .. he now projects to be a future four-star player with top-of-the-line stuff. I’m looking forward to hearing good news from him all year down in AA Albany, and he should quickly rise up in the prospect rankings once the rest of the baseball world figures out what he has.

April 18, 1958: Nearly 25,000 fans showed up for opening day here in Kansas City, as Milt Pappas (0-1, 5.40 ERA, 5.0 IP, 1 K, 1.60 WHIP) started against White Sox pitcher Stan Williams, who went 1-6 last year with six saves and a 5.16 ERA in his rookie campaign. Pappas got us through the sixth inning without any runs scoring, including getting out of a jam in the bottom of the sixth with runners on the corners. In the top of the seventh we brought Sturdivant out with one out and a man on first, and he got two quick outs to keep the game scoreless heading into the seventh inning stretch. Daryl Spencer was injured sliding into second, bringing in Jantze to replace him both as a runner and as our third baseman. That’s when Crandall hit a slow roller out of the infield past the shortstop, and Jantze used his speed to get around to score off just a single, putting us into the lead by a run! With two outs, Ron Fairly hit an RBI double and we went into the top of the eighth leading 2-0. Sturdivant got us through the eighth with ease, and we brought out Bob Blaylock to close ... but with the bases loaded and one out, they got a run to score with an RBI single by Gene Stephens, and with arms warming in the pen, Minnie Minoso screwed us with a grand-f---ing slam and suddenly we were in a three-run hole. Don Bessent came out with a man on first and still just one out, getting us the outs we needed off a double play, but we lost all the same, dropping a winnable game 5-2. Blaylock, at 22, got a rude awakening in his major league debut, blowing the save and taking the loss while giving up five hits, a walk and five earned runs with one strikeout ... since he only got one out, he has an absolutely astronomical ERA I won’t print here because it makes me sad. We matched them on hits with eight, wasting a great game from Fairly who hit three times and walked once while driving in what should have been the winning run.

April 19, 1958: Carl Erskine made his first start of the season, and in the bottom of the third we took the lead thanks to a groundout by Fairly that drove in Crandall. Sievers hit a solo homer in the bottom of the fourth, and we piled on in the bottom of the fifth, thanks to an RBI single by O’Connell and a three-run homer from Ernie Banks! It became a rout in the sixth ... Fairly batted in a run with a single, O’Connell singled in another, and then Banks hit his second three-run blast of the afternoon, making it an 11-0 lead! Portocarrero took over for Erskine in the top of the seventh, pitching the rest of the way as we completed the 11-0 shutout victory in front of 15,000 fans here in Kansas City. That’s a great way to get your first win of the season! Erskine pitched six innings with five hits, three walks and three strikeouts, and Portocarrero picked up a three-inning save, with one hit, one walk and one strikeout. We outhit Chicago 13-6, led by Ernie Banks who hit three times with two runs and six RBIs. He’s already now got three homers in five games!

April 20, 1958: Today’s game was called due to inclement weather and will be played on May 13th as part of a doubleheader. So we get an extra day of rest and then Cleveland (4-2) comes to town for a pair of games, followed by Detroit (5-1) for two. Daryl Spencer is now out for the next four to five weeks at the least, due to what the team trainer is calling chronic back soreness. That really hurts us, but it’s going to give Steve Boros, the #58 prospect in the nation, to get a chance to come up ahead of schedule. Bob Lee is going back down to AA Albany to make room for Dan Osinski, who is coming off the IL.

April 21, 1958: Tom Poholsky made his first start of the year, facing Cleveland’s Mike Garcia (1-0, 3.38 ERA, 8.0 IP, 6 K’s, 0.88 WHIP), and he got absolutely shelled in the first inning, giving up four runs on his first 21 pitches. But he’s a starter, I’m not pulling him that quickly, he can stay out there and put some work in. In the bottom of the second, we got a run back with an RBI single by Del Crandall, and we got another from Crandall in the fourth to cut their now five-run lead down to four. Bob Miller came out in the top of the fifth, trailing 6-2, and Banks batted in a run in the bottom of the fifth to cut the Cleveland lead down to three. Portocarrero came out in the seventh, trailing again by four, and he pitched the rest of the way as Cleveland simply had their way with us, beating us 11-5. Clearly our pitching woes from a starter standpoint are abjectly bad at this point even with the waiver wire moves -- Poholsky lasted four innings with seven hits, four walks and six earned runs, striking out a pair, leaving it to our bullpen to dig out of his hole. They only outhit us 13-12, but they hit three homers and a pair of doubles and just beat us down with their power. Ernie Banks did his part, hitting four times with two runs and an RBI, and Jantze hit three times with a run and an RBI, but it didn’t matter as we fell to 1-5. We’re now in a three-way tie for last place with Baltimore and the White Sox.
 
April 22, 1958: Milt Pappas (0-1, 2.38 ERA, 11.1 IP, 7 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) started against Cleveland’s Ruben Gomez (1-0, 3.68 ERA, 7.1 IP, 3 K’s, 1.36 WHIP), and we spotted the Guardians a top-of-the-first lead with an RBI single by Colavito. We got the run back in the bottom of the fifth with a solo homer by Sievers, but they retook the lead in the top of the eighth, with a solo homer by Colavito. Sturdivant came out with two outs and no one on, now trailing by a run. In the bottom of the eighth Del Crandall hit a sac-fly that drove in the tying run via Carl Sawatski, and we walked it off in the bottom of the ninth with a solo homer by Banks as we won 3-2! Pappas had a great night, lasting 7.2 innings with eight hits, two walks, four strikeouts and two earned runs, and Sturdivant pitched 1.1 innings with just a walk, keeping his ERA perfect through 5.1 innings over four appearances. Cleveland outhit us 8-5, but Banks and Sievers each had homers, and Sawatski hit once for a run on the ground. Banks already has ten RBIs and is slugging .828 through his first seven games.

The win is great, but now Detroit is coming to town with their 7-1 record and four-game winning streak, and we’ll need to be at the top of our game to start turning this season back around.

April 23, 1958: Carl Erskine (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 6.0 IP, 3 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) pitched game one against Detroit’s Jim Bunning (0-0, 1.12 ERA, 8.0 IP, 7 K’s, 0.50 WHIP). Carl Sawatski hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second to give us an early lead, but Detroit answered in the top of the fourth with an RBI double by Red Wilson, and they took the lead with a solo homer by Johnny Callison in the top of the sixth. Sievers batted in Banks with a double to tie it up in the bottom of the sixth, and in the bottom of the seventh O’Connell and Banks hit back to back RBI singles to give us a 4-2 lead! Erskine stayed out in the top of the eighth to his detriment, and after back to back hits by Kaline and Kuenn put runners on the corners, we brought Sturdivant out, no outs, to try and get out of the jam. He got Kaline out on a fielder’s choice sliding into home plate, putting Johnny Callison on first and moving Kuenn into scoring position. A run came in to score off a single by Randy Jackson, and Fred Hatfield walked the bases loaded. Red Wilson hit into another fielder’s choice, with the out coming at home plate, bases still loaded ... and then Bill Virdon kicked us in the face with a grand slam. We fought hard from there, but you could feel the wind taken out of us, and we weren’t able to make the runs up ... we’d go on to lose 7-6. Sturdivant took the loss after the blown save, allowing two hits, two walks and three earned runs with two strikeouts, giving him a 3.68 ERA through 7.1 innings in his first five starts. They outhit us 12-9, and Fairly led the way for us with two hits, a walk, a run and two RBIs, while Banks added two hits, a run and an RBI.

April 24, 1958: Bob Turley (0-1, 13.50 ERA, 4.0 IP, 3 K’s, 2.75 WHIP) got his second start, facing Bob Kuzawa (0-0, 2.57 ERA, 7.0 IP, 2 K’s, 0.71 WHIP). Detroit scored two each in the first and second, but in the bottom of the third Ernie Banks hit his fifth homer of the year, a grand slam, to tie the score at 4-4! Given a chance to redeem himself, Turley barfed all over the mound, giving up three more runs to the Tigers, and his night was over. Don Bessent came out to pitch in the top of the fifth, and he shat the bed as well as this game became another embarrassment, the Tigers putting up three more on us to take a 10-4 lead as we came up to hit in the bottom of the fifth. We’d go on to lose 15-5 and our fans, who have been quite supportive overall, couldn’t stand it, heckling mercilessly as they poured out. We fell to 2-7, and we’ll have the next two and a half weeks on the road to think about it. They outhit us 20-10, wasting a great comeback grand slam by Banks, who finished the day with three hits, two runs and five RBIs, including a solo homer in the seventh that gives him six this season.

Our pitching is a shambles, with only Pappas and Erskine truly looking good ... Poholsky and Turley are both giving up more than 13 runs per nine, as are Bessent, Portocarrero and Blaylock, though on much smaller samples for the bullpen guys. And I’m not going to ride it out without making some moves to try and find some improvement ... we put Turley on waivers and I called up Richard Sovde to take his place in the rotation, and though Poholsky will get a longer leash, we’re expecting a lot more than we got from him in his first start as the month goes on. Sovde, at 23, will be making his debut after improving his pitching velocity this winter in the dev lab ... he has a six pitch mix, and the former 24th rounder from the 1955 draft has gone from a no-name minor league spacefiller to a potential spot starter, so I’m excited to see what he can do with the opportunity.

We start the road trip off against Chicago (1-8) for three games this weekend, followed by a day off and three games in four days against Boston (4-6). We’ll then face New York (7-3) for two, Washington (6-3) for three, Baltimore (2-7) for two and then, after a day off, Detroit (9-1) for three before getting three full weeks at home to get us through the month of May.

April 25, 1958: Bill Wight (0-0, 7.20 ERA, 5.0 IP, 0 K’s, 2.40 WHIP) got the start against Chicago’s Bernie Daniels (0-1, 11.57 ERA, 4.2 IP, 2 K’s, 1.71 WHIP). Chuck Diering hit an RBI single to give us the lead in the top of the first, but Chicago picked up three runs in the second and third to take the lead back. Ernie Banks got us tied up in the top of the fifth with a two-run double, but we gave it right back with an RBI triple by Felipe Alou in the bottom of the inning, and Portocarrero took over with one out and a man on third. Sherm Lollar grounded out to first and they added a fifth run, but we got out of the inning without further embarrassment, trailing 5-3 heading into the top of the sixth. We gave up another run in the bottom of the sixth, but O’Connell hit a two-run triple to get us back within one as we went into the stretch. Dick Bessent gave a run back in the bottom of the seventh, but O’Connell got us another chance with a two-run homer in the top of the ninth that tied the score 7-7! Tom Sturdivant came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning and got us into extra innings, but he had to be replaced due to an injury that has not been determined ... Crandall hit another RBI single to give us the lead in the top of the 10th, Bob Blaylock held them off, and we escaped with an 8-7 win.

Sturdivant got the win, improving to 2-1 with a 3.24 ERA thanks to just one hit, one walk and one strikeout in his inning of work, while Blaylock got his first save, allowing just a hit as his ERA came down to 33.75 ... he’s got a lot of work to do to erase his first appearance, but tonight was definitely a great start. They outhit us 15-13, but Danny O’Connell had a great night with three hits, three runs and four RBIs while Banks added two hits and two RBIs and Ron Fairly hit twice with two runs scored. The rookie is now hitting .300 with two doubles and five RBIs through his first 40 at-bats!

But we got brutal news ... Sturdivant underwent an MRI on his shoulder, and it’s been determined the 27-year-old tore his rotator cuff. He’s out the remainder of the season, and only time will tell if he can recover from this at all. That’s absolutely brutal. Tom Gorman got the call and will be coming back up from AAA, but that puts us under a really black cloud as the season’s barely started. 

April 26, 1958: Tom Poholsky (0-1, 13.50 ERA, 4.0 IP, 2 K’s, 2.75 WHIP) pitched against Billy Pierce (0-2, 10.64 ERA, 11.0 IP, 9 K’s, 1.82 WHIP) in our second game in Chicago. Poholsky gave up three runs in the bottom of the first and then held his ground the rest of the way, getting pulled for Don Bessent as we went into the bottom of the seventh trailing 3-1. Bessent got shelled, giving up four runs in the bottom of the inning and getting relieved by Portocarrero with loaded bases, one out, and we wound up getting our asses handed to us from there, losing 11-2. This season started out badly and seems to be determined to get worse ... we were outhit 13-5, and none of our three pitchers came out looking great. Poholsky got his ERA down to 8.10 with a seven hit, three run performance, if you want to look at a “silver lining.” Crandall led the offense with a solo homer in the eighth inning, his second of the season.

April 27, 1958: Richard Sovde made his major league debut this afternoon, facing Chicago’s Jim O’Toole (0-2, 6.14 ERA, 14.2 IP, 7 K’s, 1.30 WHIP). Del Crandall hit a two-run double in the top of the second to give us a lead, and Carl Sawatski hit an RBI single that gave us a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth, and Sovde got through the inning to quality for the win if such a thing were to occur. Tom Gorman came out to pitch in the bottom of the sixth, and Jantze hit an RBI single to score a run in the top of the seventh, another coming in when Del Crandall was hit by a pitch. Dan Osinski came in with a four-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, and he shut them down as we won 5-1! Sovde took the win, going five innings with seven hits, two walks, a strikeout and one earned run in his major league debut! Gorman picked up a three inning hold with just three hits, and Osinski had a walk and a strikeout but got us through a non-save situation in just his second appearance. They outhit us 10-9, but Sawatski had two hits, a run and an RBI, and Ernie Banks had two hits, a walk and a run scored to lead our offense.

April 29, 1958: Milt Pappas (0-1, 2.37 ERA, 19.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) got the start in game one against Boston, going up against Frank Baumann (0-1, 5.19 ERA, 17.1 IP, 9 K’s, 1.50 WHIP). In the top of the fourth, Carl Sawatski hit a two-run homer to give us the lead, and Sawatski hit a three-run blast in the top of the seventh to make it a 5-1 lead! The Red Sox got two runs back in the bottom of the inning, and we brought Bob Miller out in the bottom of the eighth to protect our 5-3 lead. Sawatski kept his wild night going with a two-run double in the top of the ninth, and Miller stayed out there to close out the game, giving up a pair but escaping with the 7-5 win still safe. We outhit them 10-9 in this one, and Sawatski was outright dominant, with three hits (two homers and a double) for two runs and SEVEN batted in! Pappas got the win, improving to 1-1 with a 2.77 ERA, allowing six hits and three earned runs with a walk and four strikeouts in his seven innings, while Miller got a save despite two earned runs off two hits, giving him a 4.50 ERA through his first eight innings.

April 30, 1958: Carl Erskine (1-0, 2.77 ERA, 13.0 IP, 7 K’s, 1.46 WHIP) pitched against Frank Sullivan (1-2, 4.64 ERA, 21.1 IP, 8 K’s, 1.31 WHIP) in our second game against Boston. O’Connell batted in Fairly with a double in the top of the first to put us up 1-0, and Diering scored in the second off an Erskine sac-fly to make it a two-run lead. But Boston got it all back with an RBI double by Sammy White and an RBI single by Nellie Fox. We traded runs, getting the lead back with an RBI single by Diering in the top of the third, and kept it going with an RBI single by O’Connell in the fourth. But again Erskine gave it all back and then some ... Ted Williams hit an RBI double and Albie Pearson and Sammy White hit back to back RBI singles to give Boston a 5-4 lead as we came up in the top of the sixth. But O’Connell hit an RBI double and Sievers an RBI single to flip us back into the lead, with Tom Gorman coming out to pitch in the bottom of the inning. He promptly blew the save, giving up a solo homer to Frank Robinson, so Ron Fairly hit an RBI single in the top of the seventh to get us into the stretch still leading 7-6. Dan Osinski came out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh, and this time we held our ground and built the lead -- in the top of the eighth Crandall doubled in a run and Steve Boros hit a single that scored two more off just the second major league hit for the 21-year-old backup! Bob Miller came out in the bottom of the inning and Rob Blaylock pitched the bottom of the ninth with a three-run lead, getting us out of Fenway with a 10-7 win!

It was ugly, but we got it done. Gorman blew the save but got the win, allowing a hit and a run in his one inning on the mound. Osinski got a hold, and Blaylock saved his second game, with one hit, one walk and one strikeout as his ERA improved to 19.29. We outhit them 18-14 in a slugfest, led by O’Connell with five hits, a walk, a run and three RBIs, while rookie Ron Fairly hit four times for three runs and an RBI.

May 1, 1958: After our day off, Richard Sovde (1-0, 1.80 ERA, 5.0 IP, 1 K, 1.80 WHIP) got the start in our third game against Boston, facing Mike Fornieles (0-2, 4.24 ERA, 17.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.65 WHIP). O’Connell hit an RBI double to get us on the board in the top of the first and Sawatski hit an RBI single, giving us a 2-0 lead heading into the bottom half. Ron Fairly singled in a run in the top of the second, but Sovde gave them all back in the bottom of the sixth thanks to an RBI single by Mike Fornieles and a two-run double by Nellie Fox. Dan Osinski came out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh, still tied up at 3-3, but he gave up a pair of runs, and Gorman came out to finish what wound up being a 5-3 loss. Osinski fell to 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA after the loss, allowing four hits and two earned runs in his inning. They outhit us 7-6, our team led again by Fairly and O’Connell who each had two hits, a run and an RBI.

We’ll go into a two game series against the 10-6 Yankees as we sit in sixth place with a 6-9 record. The Yankees are tied with Detroit for second, while the Cleveland Guardians have run away to a 13-4 record and a 2.5 game lead in the AL.

- - - - -

OOC: This thread's been going since August and now is at 200,000 words ... during that time I've managed my way to a 211-266 record and a 44.2% winning percentage. This has proven to be a much more brutally difficult challenge than I anticipated when I started the thread, but I'm still enjoying it despite the fact that every season I have to wonder if my job will soon be on the line. If any of you are still reading all of this, I salute you!

[jksander]

May 2, 1958: Milt Pappas (1-1, 2.77 ERA, 26.0 IP, 15 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) made his fifth start of the season today, going up against Vinegar Bend Mizell (2-1, 2.82 ERA, 22.1 IP, 15 K’s, 1.34 WHIP), who missed all but nine starts last year due to a torn labrum he suffered in May after winning the 1956 Cy Young award. Pappas got hammered for six runs in the bottom of the first. Del Crandall got a run back in the top of the third with a solo homer, but Pappas gave up two more in the bottom of the inning and we had to go to the bullpen, that being perhaps Pappas’ worst start of his young career. Gorman came out in the fourth, and then suddenly we came back with a vengeance -- Ron Fairly batted in a run with a single, O’Connell followed him with an RBI single of his own, Ernie Banks singled in Gorman, Ron Sievers hit a two-run double, and ... after they pulled Mizell ... Ernie Banks scored from third off a sac-fly by Jantze! Just like that we were back within a run. Billy Martin sac-bunted Crandall into scoring position with one out in the top of the sixth, and Ron Fairly singled him over to third. Danny O’Connell dropped an RBI single into right field to drive Crandall home, tying the score! Ernie Banks then loaded the bags with a single, and Roy Sievers then grand-slammed, hitting his fourth homer of the year to make this a 12-8 lead ... unbelievable! Don Bessent came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning and the Yanks got a pair of runs back, and Bob Miller came out in the bottom of the seventh. Ernie Banks added an insurance run in the top of the eighth to get us back to a three-run lead, but the Yankees got it back in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single by Hank Bauer that cut our lead down to two runs heading into the top of the ninth. Still leading by two, Bob Blaylock came out in the bottom of the ninth and shut them down as we won 13-11!

That game was absolutely INSANE ... when we pulled Pappas after three innings with seven hits, five walks, three strikeouts and eight earned runs, this game seemed like a surefire loser. But Gorman lasted two innings with just a hit, improving his ERA to 1.29, Miller picked up a hold with two innings and three hits, a strikeout and an earned run, and Blaylock earned his third save of the year with a walk and a strikeout, improving his ERA to 13.50. Bessent also has a 13.50 ERA, but his struggles have been more consistent ... in six relief appearances, he’s given up multiple runs in half of them and at least one run in all but one game, and he has a 3.00 WHIP. The Yankees outhit us 14-12, but we outwalked them 7-6, and were led by another great Ernie Banks performance (four hits, two runs, two RBIs) and by Sievers who was even better with three hits, a run and six RBIs. Fairly, O’Connell, Banks, Sievers and Crandall are all hitting better than .300, which has allowed us to make up for a lot of our pitching woes for now.

We’ve decided to demote Portocarrero and Bessent ... Bessent was able to move down without any trouble due to still having all his options, while Portocarrero had to be waived. But I don’t see anyone taking him off our hands, so I’m not worried about it. Art Ditmar, who has gone 2-2 with a 2.21 ERA, 34 K’s and a 1.17 WHIP through 36.2 innings at AAA, got called back up, and I’m calling up AA flamethrowing reliever Jim Duckworth from AA Albany. Ditmar will be a long reliever, and Duckworth will give us an extra late-innings high leverage option.

May 3, 1958: Carl Erskine (1-0, 4.50 ERA, 18.0 IP, 9 K’s, 1.67 WHIP) pitched against New York’s Mike McCormick (3-0, 1.73 ERA, 26.0 IP, 15 K’s, 0.77 WHIP). Carl Sawatski hit an RBI single in the top of the first to give us an early lead, but we gave up three in the bottom of the fifth to shoot them into the lead, thanks to a wild pitch and a Lee Thomas two-run double. Bob Miller came out to pitch in the bottom of the sixth, and Carl Sawatski scored off a sac-fly by Steve Boros in the top of the seventh to get us back within a run. Ditmar came out to pitch after the stretch, but he gave up two runs to dig our hole deeper. He stayed out for the eighth, and we were silent in the ninth as we lost this one 5-2. Erskine took the loss, falling to 1-1 with a 4.70 ERA after allowing six hits and three earned runs with a walk and three strikeouts through five innings. And though Miller had a good inning in the sixth, Ditmar then allowed five hits, a walk and two earned runs in his two innings, to give him a 9.00 ERA starting out. We were outhit 11-5, led by Sawatski with two hits, a run and an RBI.

May 4, 1958: We’re now in Washington for a trio of games over the next two days, including a doubleheader today, pitting our 7-10 A’s against the 9-8 Senators. Bill Wight (0-0, 8.68 ERA, 9.1 IP, 3 K’s, 2.25 ERA) pitched game one against Camilo Pascual (3-1, 2.45 ERA, 33.0 IP, 23 K’s, 1.21 WHIP), We gave up three runs in the bottom of the second, and Art Ditmar came out with an out and a man on first in the bottom of the sixth. Ernie Banks hit a two-run homer in the top of the eighth, his seventh of the year, to pull us back within a run and we brought Gorman out to pitch, getting the outs we needed to stay in this. In the top of the ninth, however, we got three quick outs and we lost this one 3-2. Wight took the loss, falling to 0-1, though his ERA improved to 7.36, allowing three hits, four walks and three earned runs with four strikeouts in 5.1 innings. Each team had four hits, ours led by Ernie Banks with a hit, a run and two RBIs thanks to his homer ... right now he’s tied with Eddie Mathews for second place in the homerun race, with Cleveland right fielder Rocky Colavito leading both leagues with nine.

Tom Poholsky (0-2, 8.10 ERA, 10.0 IP, 3 K’s, 2.00 WHIP) pitched in game two, facing Mickey McDermott (2-1, 2.12 ERA, 29.2 IP, 13 K’s, 1.18 WHIP). Washington went up 2-0 in the bottom of the second thanks to an RBI double by Ed Fitz Gerald and a groundout by Tommy Davis that drove in Fitz Gerald. Roy Sievers answered in the top of the fifth with a two-run double, and Dan Osinski took over pitching in the bottom of the sixth, the Senators retaking the lead with an RBI single by Allison. Bob Blaylock came out to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, trailing by a run, and that’s how it stayed ... for the second time today we lost 3-2. This time we outhit them 7-5, led by O’Connell with two hits and a run and by Sievers with a hit, a walk and two RBIs. Osinski took the loss, falling to 0-2 with a 4.05 ERA, allowing a hit, a walk, a run and striking out one batter.
 
May 5, 1958: Richard Sovde (1-0, 3.27 ERA, 11.0 IP, 4 K’s, 1.36 WHIP) pitched against Harold Larned (0-1, 2.96 ERA, 27.1 IP, 20 K’s, 1.79 WHIP) in our third game against the Senators. Ron Fairly led off with a triple in the top of the first and Billy Martin got him home with a sac-fly to give us an early lead, but Washington answered in the bottom of the second with a groundout by Dee Fondy, driving Gene Freese home to tie it up. They took the lead in the bottom of the sixth with a solo homer by Willie McCovey, and Jim Duckworth came out to make his MLB debut in the bottom of the eighth still trailing by a run. He got two outs, but loaded the bases while doing it, and Mickey Vernon batted in a run with a single. We’d go down quietly in the top of the ninth, losing this one 3-1. Sovde lasted seven innings with six hits, a walk, two earned runs and six strikeouts, while Duckworth had a hit, three walks, a strikeout and an earned run in his inning. They outhit us 7-4, our team led by Sievers with two hits and a walk, while Fairly had a hit and a run scored.

May 6, 1958: Onward to Baltimore for a pair of games against the 7-14 Orioles. Milt Pappas (1-1, 4.97 ERA, 29.0 IP, 18 K’s, 1.52 WHIP) started against Roger Craig (0-1, 1.93 ERA, 14.0 IP, 9 K’s, 1.43 WHIP). Pappas had another rough outing, giving up five runs in the first five innings, and Ditmar came out to relieve the frustrated ace in the top of the sixth trailing 5-0. Ditmar would pitch the remainder of the game ... Ernie Banks hit an RBI single in the top of the seventh, but that was our only offense, and we lost 5-1. Pappas fell to 1-2 with a 4.76 ERA, allowing five hits and five runs (only two of them earned) with five walks and five strikeouts, while Ditmar pitched three innings with four hits, two walks and no runs, improving his ERA to 2.70 thorugh 6.2 innings. They outhit us 9-8, Banks batting in our only run while Diering and Bond each had a hit and two walks while getting nothing from them.

May 7, 1958: Carl Erskine (1-1, 4.70 ERA, 23.0 IP, 12 K’s, 1.61 WHIP) started against Baltimore’s Jim Owens (1-2, 3.64 ERA, 29.2 IP, 13 K’s, 1.42 WIHP). Del Crandall hit a two-run single in the top of the third to put us on the board, but though we traded runs from there and held our lead into the sixth, Erskine gave up three runs in the bottom of the inning to put Baltimore up 4-3 heading into the seventh. Tom Gorman came out in the bottom of the seventh, and he stayed out the rest of the game but gave up two more in the bottom of the eighth as once again we lost 6-3. Erskine fell to 1-2 with a 4.97 ERA and we got outhit 11-10 ... Banks had a solo homer in the sixth and led the way with two hits, a run and an RBI. The loss knocks us down to 7-15 for the year thus far, flat out the worst start we’ve had in my tenure. We’re now locked in a tie for last place with the White Sox (6-14) who have played two fewer games than us, and we’re already out of the pennant race by double digits.

May 9, 1958: We’re now in Detroit for the final three games of this road trip, facing the 16-8 second place Tigers. Richard Sovde 1-1, 3.00 ERA, 18.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) pitched against Jim Bunning (1-2, 4.97 ERA, 29.0 IP, 16 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). He gave up four runs in the bottom of the first, and after Sawatski hit a solo homer to get us on the board in the top of the fifth, Tom Gorman came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning. He got through two solid innings and then got destroyed with five runs in the bottom of the seventh, and Miller gave up four more IN THE SAME INNING ... Ditmar came out in the bottom of the seventh still with just one f---ing out, and he stayed out the remainder of the game as we got reamed 15-1. This may be the worst game I’ve ever experienced as a manager, and it’s maddening to see this team in complete and total freefall. We were outhit 17-5, and Sovde fell to 1-2 with a 4.50 ERA after his eight hits, two walks, two strikeouts and five earned runs in the first four innings.

May 10, 1958: We’re now alone in last place. Bill Wight (0-1, 7.36 ERA, 14.2 IP, 7 K’s, 1.91 WHIP) started against Detroit’s Bob Kuzawa (3-0, 2.25 ERA, 24.0 IP, 15 K’s, 1.12 WHIP), and it was a nailbiter early, though we drew first blood in the top of the sixth when Danny O’Connell scored off a wild pitch. Wight was absolutely incredible in this one, blowing his perfect game with two outs in the bottom of the eighth with a base hit by Lee Walls. Chuck Diering scored in the top of the ninth when Crandall reached on an E2 error, and we brought Blaylock out in the bottom of the inning to try and close things out with Wight at 94 pitches and looking worn out after the pressure of his perfect game collapsing. Blaylock got three quick outs and we held on to win this one 2-0, finally snapping our losing streak after seven straight. Wight got the win allowing one hit, one walk and one strikeout in his eight innings of work, giving him a 1-1 record and improving his ERA to 4.76, while Blaylock got his fourth save and improved his ERA to 8.44. We outhit them 6-1, both of our runs being unearned ... Banks hit three times, and Diering had a hit and a run scored.

May 11, 1958: Tom Poholsky (0-2, 6.60 ERA, 15.0 IP, 6 K’s, 1.73 WHIP) pitched against Billy Hoeft (4-1, 3.12 ERA, 34.2 IP, 23 K’s, 1.15 WHIP) in our final game of this road trip, and we found ourselves in another nailbiter. This time Detroit broke the stalemate with a solo homer by Bob Schmidt in the bottom of the sixth, and Dan Osinski came out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh trailing by a run. Bob Miller took over in the bottom of the eighth, but we couldn’t make anything happen -- they shut us out 1-0, as we fell to 8-17 on the season. Poholsky deserved a win tonight, lasting six innings with two hits, four strikeouts and one earned run. But we were outhit 4-2 and had absolutely no luck on the basepaths even with three walks to their one. We’ve got three weeks of home games coming up, and if we can’t right this ship by the end of May we may be on track to simply fight for the top draft pick ... while I’ll be hoping to even keep my job.

[rburgh]

He caught 450-something games over a 12 season career and never played in the infield. What am I missing?

[jksander]

Originally Posted by rburgh

He caught 450-something games over a 12 season career and never played in the infield. What am I missing?

I started the game in challenge mode in 1955, and set it to be based on the development engine from there. We're now in 1958, so I fully expect the game to have gone well beyond "real life" ... the idea was an "alternate fifties," where you get a mix of real life players but they're not performing like they did in the actual era. And with it being "Challenge Mode" -- and the game having patched the ability to leave that mode, ever -- I have zero access to commissioner mode or to look at players "under the hood."

In the case of Sawatski, he's not a great infielder by any stretch, but he's better than what we had. Shortstop has been a difficult position to get the AI to trade (note that I set trading mode on 8 out of 10 for difficulty, so when I do trade for a stud, I have to give up a TON to do it.) I'm including screen grabs for you to show what he looks like right now at age 30. Quality power and Eye, which he's been showcasing this season so far, and his high adaptability has likely helped him in the development lab. He's rated 19/36 at catcher and 51 (maxed out) at shortstop, which is why I have him at short. He's only slightly worse at short than George Wilson, and Wilson at 33 has lost more than a step with his bat.

So far in 31 games and 115 at-bats, Sawatski has hit .252/.353/.452 with five doubles and six homers, putting up 0.6 WAR. That's by far his best start in the majors, and I'm sure it's not sustainable. Defensively he's played 704 career games at catcher with a dead even zone rating, 2,397 putouts, 187 assists, 58 dropped pitches and 25 errors. At short, he's played 345 games with a -9.1 ZR, 620 putouts, 978 assists, 203 dropped pitches and 71 errors. But I don't need him at catcher, so in the end he's a better value at short than what I have ... but I end up always on the look for a better defensive player at the position.

Hope that helps

EDIT: It looks like in real life he didn't play at all 1955-57, between his stint with the White Sox and signing with Milwaukee in 1957. In this universe he wound up getting picked up by the New York Giants in 1955, and they started transitioning him primarily from catcher to shortstop. The OOTP folks may have also overrated his SS and underrated his C on game creation because of a stat line from the minors in 1946, where it looks like he played 88 games at short ... the game is notorious for overcompensating for historical performances in the minors. Makes it interesting IMO because I get guys who had one real life performance timeline and then they perform completely differently for me in my universe

[jksander]

May 13, 1958: We have twenty games in the next twenty days, starting with a doubleheader today against Chicago (8-17). We’ve lowered our ticket prices to $1.25 to hopefully keep some butts in the seats as we fight to keep this season from completely spiraling out of control. It was raining, barely sixty degrees and windy as hell when we came out for game one, and only 8,600 fans showed up ... I can’t blame them. Milt Pappas (1-2, 4.76 ERA, 34.0 IP, 23 K’s, 1.59 WHIP) pitched in game one as he tried to snap out of his cold streak, pitching against Bernie Daniels (0-1, 9.20 ERA, 14.2 IP, 8 K’s, 1.91 WHIP). Ernie Banks got us a lead in the bottom of the third with a sac-fly that scored Ron Fairly from third, and we unleashed the bats in the bottom of the sixth ... Chuck Diering hit a two-run single, Fairly and O’Connell hit back to back RBI singles, and then Ernie Banks walked in a run to make it a 6-0 lead! Bob Miller came out to pitch in the top of the seventh, Ernie Banks added a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth (his ninth!) and Miller closed out the remainder of the game as we shut the White Sox out 9-0! Milt Pappas improved to 2-2 with a 4.05 ERA, allowing just three hits, a walk and two strikeouts in his six innings, while Miller earned a three-inning save, his second of the year ... he now has a 3.94 ERA through 16 innings and 11 appearances. We outhit Chicago 14-6, led by Banks with a hit, a walk, a run and five RBIs, while Fairly added three hits, two runs and an RBI and O’Connell hit three times with an RBI.

In game two, Carl Erskine (1-2, 4.97 ERA, 29.0 IP, 15 K’s, 1.62 WHIP) pitched against Billy Pierce (3-3, 5.83 ERA, 41.2 IP, 26 K’s, 1.34 WHIP), under cloudy skies with temps now in the low fifties. We drew a bigger crowd for the evening game now that the rain had cleared, bringing about 10,500 fans through the gates, and we picked up where we left off with a sac-fly by Sievers scoring O’Connell, followed by an RBI single for Sawatski that gave us a 2-0 lead heading into the top of the second. Sawatski hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the third, his fifth of the season, and Erskine got us into the stretch leading 4-1. Dan Osinski came out to pitch in the top of the eighth, and Blaylock closed things out in the ninth, shutting them down as we held tough to keep that 4-1 win. Erskine improved to 2-2 with a 4.25 ERA, allowing just two hits, two walks and a run with six strikeouts in his seven innings. Oskinski got his second hold and improved his ERA to 3.12 with no hits, no walks and a strikeout, and Blaylock saved his fifth game with a hit and a strikeout, improving his to 7.11. Since his debut for us on April 18th when he gave up five earned runs, he hasn’t given up a single run, six consecutive appearances during which he’s allowed just three hits and two walks. We outhit them 9-3, led by Banks who hit three times and scored a run. He is hitting .336/.395/.626 with 1.3 WAR through his first 27 games and is on pace to potentially hit 50 homers for the first time in his career, showing remarkable consistency ... he already has 160 career homers through his first 651 games.

May 14, 1958: Richard Sovde (1-2, 4.50 ERA, 22.0 IP, 12 K’s, 1.45 WHIP) pitched today against Jim O’Toole (1-4, 4.21 ERA, 36.1 IP, 21 K’s, 1.32 WHIP). Chicago scored quickly in the top of the first, but we answered with a Sawatski homer in the bottom of the second to tie it up at 1-1. The White Sox added a pair in the top of the third, but Steve Boros drove in a run in the bottom of the fourth with a single to cut their lead to one, and we picked up a two-run homer from Sievers to make it a 4-3 lead heading into the sixth! Bob Miller came out to pitch in the top of the sixth, and Boros batted in another run with a double in the bottom of the sixth. Art Ditmar came out to pitch in the top of the seventh, and we took firm control in the bottom of the inning with RBI singles by Sawatski and Boros, along with a sac-fly by Crandall that scored our eighth run of the game. Ditmar held tough the rest of the way and we won the game 8-3! Sovde improved to 2-2 with a 4.67 ERA, allowing six hits, two walks and three earned runs with five strikeouts in his five innings of work. Miller got his second hold of the season, and Ditmar pitched a three-inning save, allowing just three hits as he improved his ERA to 3.18 through 11.1 innings. We outhit Chicago 15-10, led by Sievers with four hits, two runs and two RBIs. Sawatski hit twice with two runs and two RBIs as well, another great game from our shortstop, which makes up for his spotty defensive play at shortstop.

May 15, 1958: Bill Wight (1-1, 4.76 ERA, 22.2 IP, 8 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) pitched in our final game of the series against Chicago, facing Stan Williams (2-2, 4.81 ERA, 33.2 IP, 22 K’s, 1.22 WHIP). Roy Sievers hit an RBI single to draw first blood, and Carl Sawatski hit into a fielder’s choice that scored Banks from third, giving us a 2-0 lead after the first inning. Wight gave them four runs in the top of the fourth, however, and I tried to keep him out in the fifth because he’s a starter and needs to be able to f---ing deal, but he gave up five more while getting just two outs. Ditmar pitched 3.1 innings with three hits and a strikeout, but Miller came out and gave up two more runs in the ninth as we lost this one badly 11-2. Wight took the loss, falling to 1-2 with a 6.91 ERA, allowing 11 hits and nine earned runs, an absolutely disgusting performance. They outhit us 16-5, with Sievers leading the way with two hits and an RBI.

May 16, 1958: Detroit (18-12) is in town for three games this weekend, and while we’re no longer in last place, we’re still 11-18 and just half a game ahead of the bottom-dwelling White Sox. Tom Poholsky (0-3, 5.14 ERA, 21.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) pitched against Billy Hoeft (5-1, 2.51 ERA, 43.0 IP, 33 K’s, 1.05 WHIP), and he was out of the game with two outs and a man on third in the top of the fourth, with our A’s trailing 7-0. Miller gave up a run before getting out of the inning, and Osinski pitched the final three innings, giving up a run as we lost 9-0. They outhit us 12-6, and Poholsky gave up eight hits and eight runs while taking the loss in 3.2 innings of work. Fairly and Crandall had two hits each, but that was the bulk of our “offense.”

May 17, 1958: Milt Pappas (2-2, 4.05 ERA, 40.0 IP, 25 K’s, 1.45 WHIP) started against Bob Kuzawa (3-1, 1.80 ERA, 30.0 IP, 18 K’s, 1.17 WHIP). They scored a pair in the top of the first, but we got them back with a two-run homer by Banks. In the bottom of the third, Roy Sievers reached on an E6 error to let O’Connell score the go-ahead run, Sawatski hit a two-run single and Steve Boros added an RBI single to put us in control 7-2! O’Connell hit an RBI double to add a run in the bottom of the fourth, and we brought Art Ditmar out to pitch in the top of the sixth leading by six runs. He pitched the remainder of the way as we held on to win 8-2. Pappas got the win, allowing four hits, three walks and two earned runs with four strikeouts in his five innings, while Ditmar saved his second game with a four-inning effort, allowing four hits, a walk and a strikeout without a run scoring ... that improves his ERA to 1.93 through 18.2 innings in seven appearances. We matched them with eight hits, but Banks hit twice with two runs and two RBIs, including his 10th homer of the year, and Sawatski had a hit, two walks, a run and two RBIs.
 
May 18, 1958: Carl Erskine (2-2, 4.25 ERA, 36.0 IP, 21 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) pitched against Bob Shaw (4-2, 3.10 ERA, 49.1 IP, 21 K’s, 1.40 WHIP). Detroit took the lead in the top of the third with an RBI single by Bill Tuttle, but Erskine was locked in from there, and he kept the margin at one run until the bottom of the eighth when Roy Sievers hit a two-run double to flip us into the lead! Tom Gorman came out in the ninth with no outs and a man on first, getting two outs but loading the bases in the process. Whitey Lockman came up to hit, and he hit an RBI single, driving in a run via Johnny Callison, and just like that we’re tied up again ... damn it! But Solly Hemus got greedy, tried for home and we tagged him out at the plate, so we still had a chance to win this in regulation. Ron Fairly took a walk with one out in the bottom of the ninth, and then Danny O’Connell had himself a hero moment, hitting an RBI double to walk this off as a 3-2 victory as we stole two out of three from a very good Tigers team. Erskine gave us eight innings with just five hits, two runs and five RBIs, and though Gorman blew the save, his second, he improved to 3-0 with three hits and no runs in his inning of work (the one run was applied to Erskine). We outhit the Tigers 9-8, led by O’Connell with three hits, a run and an RBI, and by Banks who hit three times.

We’ve got an off day tomorrow and then will play two against Washington (15-18), three against Boston (15-17), two against Baltimore (15-18) and two against New York (18-15). We then get a Thursday off, followed by a four game set in three days against Cleveland (26-10) to complete this home series and get us into June. The Guardians currently hold a 5.5 game lead on the Tigers, who fell to 19-14 after our series.

May 20, 1958: Richard Sovde (2-2, 4.67 ERA, 27.0 IP, 17 K’s, 1.48 WHIP) pitched against Camilo Pascual (6-2, 1.80 ERA, 70.0 IP, 44 K’s, 0.99 WHIP). Willie McCovey hit an RBI triple in the top of the first to put Washingon on top, but Banks batted Sovde home with a single to tie it up in the bottom of the third, Fairly scored off a wild pitch, and Sawatski hit a single that scored Danny O’Connell, putting us up 3-1 heading into the fourth. But Sovde got beat up in the fifth, giving up four runs and forcing us to go to Ditmar with two outs and no one on after a Fred Valentine two-run homer that made it 5-3 Senators. Banks hit a solo bomb in the bottom of the fifth, his 11th of the year already, and Bob Miller took over in the top of the seventh, still trailing by a run. He gave up two more in that inning, and Gorman came out in the eighth, and we wound up getting crushed in the end 9-4. Good start, poor finish. Sovde took the loss, falling to 2-3 with a 5.40 ERA thanks to 4.2 innings with five hits, two walks five earned runs and a pair of strikeouts. They outhit us 13-10, with Banks leading the way for us with three hits, a run and two RBIs.

May 21, 1958: Milt Pappas (3-2, 4.00 ERA, 45.0 IP, 29 K’s, 1.44 WHIP) pitched against Harold Larned (1-2, 3.14 ERA, 51.2 IP, 38 K’s, 1.51 WHIP). Banks hit his 12th homer of the season in the bottom of the first to put us up 1-0, and Pappas hit a sac-fly in the bottom of the second to drive home Chuck Diering for another run. Diering batted in Sievers in the bottom of the third with another sac-fly to make it 3-1, and Bob Miller came out to pitch in the top of the seventh still leading by a pair. Banks hit another solo bomb in the bottom of the seventh to make it a three-run lead, and we brought out Jim Duckworth in the top of the eighth. He was a bit wild, loading the bases, but he got through the inning without a run scoring, and we brought Blaylock out in the top of the ninth. He shut them down efficiently and we would win this game 4-1. Pappas won the game, improving to 4-2 with a 3.71 ERA, allowing five hits, a walk and a run while striking out four in six innings. Miller got his third hold and Duckworth his first, and Blaylock remained as sharp as ever with his sixth save ... he got all three outs on six pitches and improved his ERA to 6.14 through 7.1 innings in eight appearances. We outhit Washington 10-6, led by Banks, who hit three times with three runs and two more batted in.

So far this season Banks is hitting .356 and slugging .674 with two doubles, a triple, 13 homers, 35 RBIs and two games worth of WAR already in the season, by far the best start of his career. Right now he’s tied for second in the homerun race with Eddie Mathews, one dinger better than Colavito who has 12. Mickey Mantle leads the way with 14 homers, slightly ahead of Ruth’s pace, so you can bet the New York Media are all over him -- he’s won the MVP back to back in ’56 and ’57, and he was #2 in the voting in ’55 ... so far he’s hitting just .315 though, and he’s only got 30 RBIs, so Banks is legitimately in the conversation to take him down this season. I’m bettting the Mickster wishes ol’ Ernie had stayed in the National League.

Daryl Spencer is coming off the IL, so Steve Boros is heading back down to AAA ... the 21-year-old hit .191 with a double, a homer and five RBIs while playing as our backup at third base, but he’s definitely not ready to be at the major league level on a daily basis.

May 22, 1958: Carl Erskine (2-2, 3.89 ERA, 44.0 IP, 26 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) pitched against Boston’s Bob Purkey (1-4, 4.72 ERA, 47.2 IP, 18 K’s, 1.64 WHIP). Daryl Spencer hit a homer in the bottom of the second to put us on the board, and the fans welcomed him back openly. Billy Martin had to come in to replace O’Connell in the bottom of the third, as Danny injured an abdominal muscle sliding into second ... right now he looks to be day to day, but we’ll update as needed. Banks thought he had a homer on two outs, but the wind blew it back in and we went into the top of the fourth still leading 1-0. Sawatski hit a solo homer in the bottom of the fourth, but immediately thereafter Spencer smashed his knee up ... again, on a slide into second ... and we had to bring Jantze in. Spencer may be out another two or three weeks, can’t we teach these kids how to properly slide? Crandall hit an RBI single to bring Jantze home and we went into the top of the fifth leading 3-0 but down two starters. Bob Miller came out to pitch in the top of the eighth with the lead still at three runs, and Banks hit a solo homer, number 14, to add on in the bottom of the eighth. Miller completed the shutout and we won this one 4-0. Erskine improved to 3-2 with a three hit, two walk, five strikeout game through seven innings, improving his ERA to 3.35, while Miller got his third save with three hits and a strikeout in two innings. We outhit Boston 8-6, led by Sawatski and Spencer who each had two hits, a run and an RBI.
 
May 23, 1958: O’Connell and Spencer are both back on the IL now for at least the next 15 days, and Chris Cannizzaro is still on the IL down in AAA with a strained elbow, or we’d be bringing him up in a heartbeat. Boros got the call to come right back as soon as he got to Buffalo, and Bob Lillis will be joining him, though Billy Martin will be starting for the next couple weeks. As for tonight, Bill Wight (1-2, 6.91 ERA, 27.1 IP, 8 K’s, 1.50 WHIP) pitched against Boston’s Frank Baumann (3-3, 4.93 ERA, 45.2 IP, 24 K’s, 1.55 WHIP), and it started out as a hitting bonanza ... Boston picked up three right away in the top of the first, but Banks hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning, and Ron Fairly hit an RBI double to tie it up. Chuck Diering hit an RBI single in the bottom of the second to give us back the lead, but a Dick Gennert single tied it up in the top of the fifth. Tom Gorman came out to pitch in the top of the sixth, and in the bottom of the inning Banks hit a two-run single to put us back in the lead. Dan Osinski took over in the top of the eighth, and Diering added a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to keep us firmly in control. Osinski was going to stay out and handle it in the ninth, but Jackie Jansen hit a solo homer to lead off and we didn’t want Osinski facing Ted Williams twice. Blaylock came in for the save opportunity, getting Williams to ground out harmlessly, striking out Willie Jones looking, and getting pinch-hitter Marty Keough to pop out to second as we won this one 8-5! Gorman improved to 4-0 with a 5.71 ERA, pitching two innings with just a hit and a walk, while Osinski got his third hold and Blaylock saved his seventh, improving his ERA to 5.40. We outhit Boston 13-11, led by Banks with three hits, a run and four RBIs, and by Diering who hit three times with two runs and three RBIs.

Banks has now jumped over Mantle and holds the lead in the home run race, with Mantle and Mathews tied for second at 14 each. He’s now fourth overall in batting average at .361, second behind Mathews in slug, and he leads in RBIs with 40, two more than Mathews.

May 24, 1958: Richard Sovde (2-3, 5.40 ERA, 31.2 IP, 19 K’s, 1.48 WHIP) pitched against Boston’s Steve Ridzik (1-1, 6.88 ERA, 17.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.47 WHIP). Bob Lillis hit an RBI single in the bottom of the third to put us in the lead, and Art Ditmar came out to pitch in the top of the sixth with the lead still 1-0. Bob Miller came out in the seventh and Dan Osinski in the eighth, and with the lead still at one heading into the ninth Osinski held them off nicely as we shut out the Red Sox 1-0! Sovde picked up the win, improving to 3-3 with a three hit three strikeout effort through five, improving his ERA to 4.66. Ditmar and Miller each held the lead, and Osinski pitched a two-inning save, with three hits and a walk as he brought his ERA down to 3.07. Boston outhit us 9-8, Lillis leading the way with a hit and an RBI while Chuck Diering had two hits and Steve Boros had a hit and a run scored.

[jksander]

May 25, 1958: Milt Pappas (4-2, 3.71 ERA, 51.0 IP, 33 K’s, 1.39 WHIP) started against Baltimore’s Ted Wills (2-4, 5.23 ERA, 43.0 IP, 23 K’s, 1.58 WHIP) in front of nearly 16,000 fans, as the locals seem to be realizing our team may have started off poorly but that we’re still finding ways to win. Steve Boros hit a solo homer to put us up in the bottom of the third, the 21-year-old rookie’s first major league homer, and we held that lead until the seventh, when Bob Miller took over on the mound. Art Ditmar took over in the top of the eighth, and Baltimore struck, with an RBI single by Caroll Hardy and a passed ball allowing two runs to score as the lead flipped to them. Tom Gorman came out in the ninth still trailing by a run, and he kept us in the game, as Ron Fairly hit a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth to send us into extra innings! Gorman stayed out in the 10th inning and was solid, keeping the score tied up, and Blaylock came out to pitch in the 11th. With one out in the bottom of the 13th, Ron Fairly hit a solid double into right field, but we couldn’t get him around to score. Blaylock was an absolute beast, getting us through the 14th without any trouble at all, and we led off in the bottom of the inning with Astroth taking a pitch to the shoulder to get on base, though again we left the runner stranded. With Blaylock at 50 pitches, we brought out Dan Osinski in the top of the 15th inning with the game past its four hour mark, and Marv Breeding reached on an error and then stole second, advancing to third on a groundout by Brooks Robinson. A run scored off a fielder’s choice as Lenny Green took first, but we got out of the inning trailing just by the one run. Diering led off with a single in the bottom of the inning, but Sievers hit into a double play and this one ended as a 3-2 loss after 15 innings.

Osinski took the loss, falling to 0-3 with a 2.87 ERA after a walk, a strikeout and an unearned run. Pappas had lasted six with four hits, a walk and six strikeouts, with Gorman getting us into extras with a two inning no-hit effort, and Blaylock had his best relief appearance yet ... four innings, four strikeouts, no hits, walks or runs. We even outhit the Orioles 12-6, but couldn’t get it done. Boros led the way with two hits, a walk, a run and an RBI, while Fairly added two hits, a run and an RBI. What a bummer of a way to snap a four-game winning streak.

May 26, 1958: Carl Erskine (3-2, 3.35 ERA, 51.0 IP, 31 K’s, 1.20 WHIP) has been red hot after a slow start, and he pitched our second game against Baltimore, facing Roger Craig (2-3, 4.33 ERA, 35.1 IP, 21 K’s, 1.75 WHIP). Fairly got us on the board with an RBI double in the bottom of the second, came around to score on a triple by Walt Bond, and then Bond scored off a sac-fly by Crandall to give us a quick 3-0 lead. But we gave it all back in the top of the third, as Larry Green hit a three-run triple to tie the game, and Baltimore got a two-run homer off Hardy in the top of the fourth to take the lead. Sievers walked in a run to cut the lead to one in the bottom of the fifth, and then Sawatski and Bond hit back to back solo homers in the bottom of the sixth to give us a 6-5 lead! Tom Gorman came out to pitch in the seventh, and in the bottom of the seventh Sawatski hit a three-run homer to make it a four-run lead! He’s been on fire, that’s his ninth homer of the season, tying his career high set last year for the Mets! Gorman stayed out to complete the rest of the game with our bullpen still worn out from last night, and we won this one 10-6. Erskine improved to 4-2 with a 3.79 ERA, allowing eight hits, a walk, a strikeout and five earned runs in his sixth inning, and Gorman completed a three-inning save, his first of the year, with three hits, a walk and a single earned run as his ERA improved to 4.84. Baltimore outhit us 11-9, but Carl Sawatski hit twice with two runs and four RBIs, both hits being homers.
 
May 27, 1958: Bill Wight (1-2, 6.96 ERA, 32.1 IP, 8 K’s, 1.61 WHIP) went up against the Yankees’ Vinegar Bend Mizell (3-3, 3.76 ERA, 55.0 IP, 35 K’s, 1.58 WHIP). New York went up in the top of the first off a two-run homer by Mantle, but Crandall hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to get us on the board and to within a run of the Bronx Bombers. Bob Miller came out to pitch in the top of the sixth, and in the bottom of the eighth, with us trailing 3-1, George Wilson hit a two-run single and Bob Miller hit an RBI double, slingshotting us into the lead! Art Ditmar came out to pitch with a man on first, no outs, in the top of the ninth, loading the bases but getting Gil McDougald to hit into a 5-2-3 double play that got us out of there with a 4-3 win! Miller got the win after three innings in relief, two hits, a strikeout and an earned run giving him his 1-0 record and a 3.68 ERA. And Ditmar, though he got into a real jam late, got three outs with two hits and a strikeout to keep his ERA under 2.00. We outhit New York 9-6, led by Crandall, who had a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI.

May 28, 1958: Richard Sovde (3-3, 4.66 ERA, 36.2 IP, 22 K’s, 1.36 WHIP) pitched against Mike McCormick (5-1, 3.82 ERA, 68.1 IP, 40 K’s, 1.17 WHIP). Steve Boros hit a solo homer in the bottom of the fourth to give us a slim lead, and we brought Art Ditmar out to pitch in the top of the sixth. New York tied it up in the top of the inning with a sac-fly by Yogi Berra, but Carl Sawatski answered with his 10th homer of the season to put us back up 2-1! Dan Osinski came out to pitch in the top of the eighth with no outs and a man on first, and with the bases loaded Bobby Richardson hit into what should have been a surefire out on a fielder’s choice to get us out of the inning, but Sawatski botched a throw to second rather than make the out unassisted, and we were suddenly tied back up at 2-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth. Bob Blaylock came out in the top of the ninth still tied, and he got us into extra innings, but got shelled in the top of the 11th with the bullpen still worn down ... the Yankees scored four before Gorman came out to get the last out, and we lost this one in 11 innings by a 6-2 margin. They outhit us 14-6 and Blaylock wound up with the loss, allowing four hits, two walks and four earned runs in 2.2 innings of work, blowing his stellar ERA all the way back up to 5.40 from 3.65. Sawatski led the way with a hit, two walks, a run and an RBI thanks to his homer, and Soros’ homer gave him a .324 average through his first 68 career at-bats.

May 30, 1958: After a much needed off day, we play two games today as part of a four-day weekend series against the league-leading Cleveland Guardians (31-14), with our team hovering in the middle of the pack wth a 19-22 record. Since we start June with a two-week stretch on the road, it’s important that we do well in this series to give ourselves plenty of momentum. Good thing we had Milt Pappas (4-2, 3.32 ERA, 57.0 IP, 39 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) ready to go at the top of the rotation. He pitched today against Cleveland’s Tom Cheney (6-2, 3.95 ERA, 73.0 IP, 49 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) in the early afternoon game. Roger Maris batted in a run with a single to get them a lead in the top of the first, but Sievers hit a two-run homer to get us back into the lead in the bottom of the inning and Steve Boros walked in a run minutes later to make it 3-1 heading into the second. Ron Fairly hit a solo homer in the bottom of the third, and he drove in another in the bottom of the fourth with an E2 error that let Banks score from third to put us up by four runs. Tom Gorman took over in the top of the eighth still leading by four runs, and he stayed out the rest of the way as we completed the 5-1 victory. Pappas improved to 5-2 with a 3.09 ERA, allowing four hits, two walks and an earned run with four strikeouts in his seven innings pitched. Gorman then lasted two innings with two hits, a walk and a pair of strikeouts as we finished them off. They narrowly outhit us 6-5, but our team was led by Sievers with a hit, a walk, a run and two RBIs while Fairly added a hit, a walk, two runs and an RBI.

Carl Erskine (4-2, 3.79 ERA, 57.0 IP, 32 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) pitched against Dave Sisler (2-4, 3.28 ERA, 46.2 IP, 24 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) in game two of the afternoon. Cleveland took the lead in the top of the fourth with a solo homer by Maris, but Banks came up huge for us in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run homer, which was followed by solo homers by Sievers and Fairly as we hammered them to take a 4-1 lead. Bob Blaylock came out to close in the top of the ninth still leading by three, and he shut them down completely as we held tough to win 4-1. Erskine allowed seven hits, three walks and an earned run with four strikeouts through eight innings, and Blaylock saved his eighth game of the year with just a walk and a strikeout, giving him a 5.06 ERA. They again outhit us 7-6, but our power was unstoppable, with three homers. Banks hit twice with a run and two RBIs to lead the way, and his 16th homer of the year puts him into a three-way tie for first place in the homerun race with Mantle and Mathews. Ron Fairly, meanwhile, continues to have a breakout rookie season just six weeks shy of his 20th birthday. So far through 43 games he’s hit .262/.362/.381 with nine doubles, a triple and three homers with 15 RBIs and a stolen base, giving him 1.2 WAR ... I’d say he’s already paid back his $25,000 signing bonus easily.

May 31, 1958: Bill Wight (1-2, 6.51 ERA, 37.1 IP, 9 K’s, 1.58 WHIP) pitched in today’s game against the Guardians, facing famed knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm (2-3, 2.78 ERA, 55.0 IP, 28 K’s, 1.02 WHIP). And this definitely was not our day ... the Guardians went up by the top of the second and kept piling on all afternoon, leading 6-0 by the time Bob Miller came out in the eighth inning. We picked up a pair of garbage time runs in the bottom of the ninth that weren’t nearly enough, losing this one 6-2. Wight took the loss, falling to 1-3 with a 6.29 ERA, allowing seven hits, three walks and six runs (four earned) with four strikeouts through seven innings. We matched them 8-8 for hits, led by Chuck Diering with three hits, a walk and a run, while Sievers added two hits and an RBI.

June 1, 1958: In our final home game before hitting the road for the next two weeks, Richard Sovde (3-3, 4.10 ERA, 41.2 IP, 24 K’s, 1.39 WHIP) pitched against Cleveland’s Ruben Gomez (4-0, 2.80 ERA, 64.1 IP, 19 K’s, 1.13 WHIP). Cleveland went up 2-1 after the first inning, and would tack on runs in the third and fourth, but in the bottom of the fourth we scored off a sac-fly by Crandall, added another off a wild pitch, and then sparkplug Billy Martin hit a two-run double up the middle to shoot us into the lead 5-4! Sovde got us though the fifth, and Banks hit homer #17 in the bottom of the inning, giving us a two-run cushion as Art Ditmar came out to pitch in the top of the sixth. Bob Miller took over in the seventh and Osinski in the eighth, with Blaylock coming out in the top of the ninth to close it out. We kept our cool and won this one 6-4, completing a 3-1 series win over the top team (for now) in the American League! Sovde took the win and improved to 4-3, lasting five innings despite five hits, five walks and four earned runs. Ditmar (2), Miller (6) and Osinski (4) all came out of the game with holds, with one hit, one walk and two strikeouts between them, while Blaylock picked up his ninth save with a walk and a strikeout. We outhit the Guardians 9-6, led by Ron Fairly with three hits, a walk and a run scored, while Billy Martin had a hit and two RBIs.
 
We’ve gotten ourselves back to within a game of .500, with a 22-23 record. We’re eight games behind the 32-17 Guardians, but just 4.5 behind the second-place Tigers (27-19), with Washington (25-22) and the Yankees (24-22) just a hair’s length ahead of our fifth place team. We have a tough road trip ahead: three games at Washington and four at Baltimore (19-28) this week, followed by three each against the Yankees and Red Sox (20-25) the following week, but we’re back in contention. If our bats can stay hot, we’ve got as much a chance as anyone.

[jksander]

June 3, 1958: Tom Poholsky (0-4, 7.30 ERA, 24.2 IP, 10 K’s, 1.58 WHIP) started today against Washington’s Mickey McDermott (5-4, 3.12 ERA, 75.0 IP, 39 K’s, 1.36 WHIP). We traded runs early, with Roy Sievers hitting a two-run homer in the top of the third to put us ahead 3-2. Chuck Diering scored off a Ron Fairly walk in the top of the fifth to add on, and with a 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth we brought out Bob Miller to try and hold it. Tom Gorman came out in the bottom of the eighth, still leading by a pair, and Blaylock took over in the bottom of the ninth, but with two outs he blew the save when Fred Valentine hit an RBI single to tie the game up and force extra innings. Steve Boros hit a solo homer to put us back on top in the top of the 10th, and Osinski came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning, but his luck was no better than Blaylock’s ... he blew the save for the second time in the game thanks to an Ed Fitz Gerald RBI single, and with two outs Eddie Haas hit a walk-off single to win the game for Washington 6-5. Osinski took the loss, falling to 0-4, with four hits and two runs against him as his ERA increased to 3.44 on the season. But we never should have been in this one at all, since the Senators outhit us 17-9, staying in the game thanks to seven walks. Roy Sievers led the way for us with a hit, two walks, a run and two RBIs.

June 4, 1958: Milt Pappas (5-2, 3.09 ERA, 64.0 IP, 43 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) pitched against Art Houtteman (1-3, 1 SV, 7.92 ERA, 30.2 IP, 5 K’s, 1.63 WHIP), taking control quickly in the top of the first with four runs thanks to a Banks RBI single, a Fairly RBI single, a Sawatski RBI single and a run scored when Crandall reached first on an E5 error. But Washington game into the bottom of the fourth trailing by five and got everything back when Pappas had an uncharacteristic meltdown ... Art Ditmar came in after the go-ahead scored on a two-run double by Bobby Wine, with one out and the score suddenly 6-5 Senators, and we trailed 7-5 by the time we got into the top of the fifth. Roy Sievers hit a two-run homer in the top of the fifth to tie it back up, and Bob Miller took over pitching in the bottom of the inning, In the bottom of the sixth Bobby Wine drove in the go-ahead with a sac-fly, and Dan Osinski came in to pitch in the bottom of the seventh still trailing by a run. He stayed out the remainder of the way as we lost this one 10-7 after leading 5-0 in the second inning. Pappas should have taken the loss, allowing seven hits and seven earned runs through just 3.1 innings, but we’d had a chance against all odds ... Miller wound up taking the loss instead, falling to 1-1 with a 3.22 ERA, despite pitching two innings with just a hit, a walk and the earned run. They outhit us 12-10, our team led by Banks (three hits, two runs two RBIs) and Sievers (two hits, two runs, two RBIs).

June 5, 1958: Carl Erskine (5-2, 3.46 ERA, 65.0 IP, 36 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) pitched against Harold Larned (2-3, 2.92 ERA, 74.0 IP, 53 K’s, 1.53 WHIP). Ron Fairly walked in a run in the top of the first to give us a lead, and in the top of the second we added a run off a passed ball and another off a groundout by Bob Lillis. Bob Allison singled in a run for the Senators in the bottom of the second to get them on the board, but we got it back in the top of the third off another wild pitch, and an RBI single combined with an E8 error allowed us to add on a run in the top of the fourth to go up 5-1. Art Ditmar took over in the bottom of the seventh, leading 5-2, and Gorman came out in the eighth with the margin unchanged. In the top of the ninth we blew them out of the water, thanks to an RBI single by Sievers and a three-run double by Del Crandall, so we brought out Jim Duckworth and his 100+ fastball to close things out with the game out of reach. He pitched around a pair of baserunners to get us out of there with the 9-2 win. Erskine took the win, improving to 6-2 with a 3.42 ERA, allowing 10 hits with three walks, six strikeouts and two earned runs through six innings. Ditmar and Gorman each picked up their third hold of the season, and Duckworth allowed two hits with two strikeouts as he improved his era to 3.00 through his third bullpen appearance. Each team had 13 hits tonight, ours led by Crandall with three hits, a run and three RBIs, while Fairly added two hits, two walks, two runs and an RBI, bringing his average up to .276!

June 6, 1958: Milt Pappas (5-2, 3.88 ERA, 67.1 IP, 45 K’s, 1.34 WHIP) was pulled after only 60 pitches on Wednesday, so he was rested and wanted a chance to redeem himself in today’s game against Baltimore’s Dave Wickersham (3-5, 5.47 ERA, 51.0 IP, 17 K’s, 1.71 WHIP). Ron Fairly reached first on a fielder’s choice that allowed Billy Martin to score the go-ahead in the top of the first, and Ernie Banks hit an RBI single in the top of the fourth to make it a 2-0 lead. Ernie Banks hit a two-run blast in the top of the sixth to make it a four-run lead. Bob Miller took over in the bottom of the seventh, but he quickly got in trouble, giving up an RBI single to Billy Williams and loading the bases ... Gorman came out to pitch with two outs, getting the final one without any of the three baserunners scoring. Marv Breeding hit an RBI single for the Senators in the bottom of the eighth to cut our lead to two, and Blaylock came out in the bottom of the ninth to close it out as we won 4-2. Pappas improved to 6-2 with the win, allowing four hits with two walks and two strikeouts through six shutout innings, and after Gorman picked up his fourth hold, Blaylock saved his 10th game of the season without a baserunner. We outhit Baltimore 11-8, led by Banks with two hits, a run and three RBIs, and by Billy Martin who hit three times, walked once and scored twice.
 
June 7, 1958: Danny O’Connell and Daryl Spencer were both eligible to come off the IL today, so Steve Boros and Bob Lillis went back down to the minors to make room for them. Richard Sovde (4-3, 4.44 ERA, 46.2 IP, 27 K’s, 1.46 WHIP) got the start against Jim Owens (2-6, 6.25 ERA, 56.2 IP, 24 K’s, 1.89 WHIP). Baltimore took the lead with an RBI single by Ray Katt in the bottom of the second, but Fairly hit his fourth homer of the year to tie it up in the top of the third. Joe Astroth hit an RBI single in the top of the fourth to put us into the lead 2-1, but they tied us up again in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI single by Wayne Causey. Art Ditmar took over in the bottom of the sixth, and Baltimore took control with solo homers by Billy Williams and Jerry Lumpe to take a two-run lead ... but we got it tied up again in the seventh with a two-run single by Sievers that was aided by an E8 error, and Bobby Miller took over on the mound after the stretch. Tom Gorman came out to pitch in the eighth, pitching two solid innings but this one was destined for extras. Dan Osinski came out in the bottom of the 10th with one out and nobody on, but Billy Williams hit a solo bomb off his third pitch and walked this one off 5-4. Osinski took the loss, falling to 0-5 with a 4.43 ERA, and they outhit us 9-8 thanks to that homer as well ... Fairly led the way with two hits, two walks, two runs and an RBI.

June 8, 1958: Bill Wight (1-3, 6.29 ERA, 44.1 IP, 13 K’s, 1.56 WHIP) pitched against Roger Craig (2-5, 4.09 ERA, 55.0 IP, 33 K’s, 1.62 WHIP) in the first game of today’s doubleheader. Roy Sievers got us into the lead with an RBI single in the top of the first, but the Orioles scored four unanswered split across the second and fourth innings, and we went into the top of the eighth trailing 5-1. Fairly hit a solo homer to lead off the top of the eighth, and a Sievers RBI single and a sac-fly by Spencer got us back to within a run. Art Ditmar took over for Wight in the bottom of the inning, but though he did his job, our bats couldn’t get us over the hump in the top of the ninth, losing this one 5-4. Wight took the loss, falling to 1-4 with a 6.31 ERA, allowing nine hits, a walk, a strikeout and five earned runs in his seven innings, while we somehow managed to outhit the Orioles 10-9. Sievers led the way with two hits and two RBIs, while banks added three hits and two runs scored.

Tom Poholsky (0-4, 6.98 ERA, 29.2 IP, 13 K’s, 1.48 WHIP) started against Ted Wills (2-6, 4.95 ERA, 60.0 IP, 33 K’s, 1.70 WHIP) in the second game, and it was a tight battle until we finally got the first run to score in the top of the fifth, thanks to a Danny O’Connell RBI double. Chuck Diering hit an RBI single in the top of the sixth to add a run, and Dan Osinski took over in the sixth. Willy Miranda got the Orioles on the board, grounding out to first in the bottom of the seventh but allowing Carroll Hardy to score, so Bob Blaylock took over with a runner on second and one out, getting us into the eighth inning with a one run lead still safe. Blaylock got us through the eighth as well, and when we still weren’t able to add any insurance, he finished the game out and held on to the 2-1 win pretty much singlehandedly. Poholsky got to keep his win, improving to 1-4 with a 5.97 ERA as he allowed just three hits with a walk and a strikeout through five innings, and after Osinski held the lead through 1.1 innings, Blaylock picked up his 11th save with a 2.2 inning effort, allowing just one hit as his ERA improved to 4.15 through 21.2 innings. We outhit Baltimore 8-7, led by O’Connell with a hit, a walk and an RBI, while Ernie Banks had two hits.

We have a much-needed day off tomorrow, and then six games split between the New York Yankees (27-25) and the Boston Red Sox (25-29).

June 10, 1958: Milt Pappas (6-2, 3.56 ERA, 73.1 IP, 47 K’s, 1.31 WHIP) pitched against the Yankees’ Billy O’Dell (3-3, 3.08 ERA, 79.0 IP, 45 K’s, 1.05 WHIP) in our first of three games in New York. The game wound up being a real pitcher’s duel early on, with just six hits combined between our teams in the first six innings, and no runs scored. New York led off with a triple in the bottom of the eighth thanks to Hank Bauer, scoring with a sac-fly by Bobby Richardson to put the Yanks up 1-0, and that was all they’d need ... we went down quietly in the top of the ninth, spoiling an incredible game for Pappas who only allowed five hits, a walk and a run through eight innings with four strikeouts. We were outhit 5-3, Diering leading the way with a hit and a walk.

June 11, 1958: Carl Erskine (6-2, 3.42 ERA, 71.0 IP, 42 K’s, 1.31 WHIP) pitched against Vinegar Bend Mizell (5-3, 2.87 ERA, 78.1 IP, 55 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). This time around we took the lead in the top of the third thanks to a wild pitch, and Erskine was on fire most of the night, until the bottom of the seventh when New York scored three quick runs off a homer by Woodie Held. Gorman took over in the eighth inning, but it didn’t matter ... our offense didn’t score all night, just the one run off what was basically a Yankee unforced error, and we lost 3-1. That’s back to back losses for our best pitchers after great games on their part ... what is it about our offense that just completely stops clicking at the worst times? Erskine lasted seven innings with three hits, a walk, five strikeouts and the three earned runs. We even outhit them 6-3, but couldn’t do anything with our baserunners. Banks led the way with two hits, but no one looked good.

June 12, 1958: Richard Sovde (4-3, 4.35 ERA, 51.2 IP, 31 K’s, 1.45 WHIP) pitched in our final game against the Yankees, going up against Saul Rogovin (2-4, 4.30 ERA, 69.0 IP, 31 K’s, 1.32 WHIP). Ernie Banks hit an RBI double to put us up 1-0 in the top of the third, and Del Crandall hit a solo homer in the top of the fourth to make it a two-run lead. Sovde got into trouble in the bottom of the fifth, and with runners on the corners and just one out we brought out Bob Miller ... but he loaded the bases and then gave up a run (while the bases stayed loaded) thanks to a slow throw off a fielder’s choice ... Mantle hit it right to him, and he should have been able to at least get the out at first, but failed miserably. Woodie Held popped out to left field shallow enough to hold the runners, and Yogi Berra popped out to Miller, so we went into the sixth still leading 2-1. Ron Fairly hit a two-run blast in the top of the seventh to put us up by three, and Tom Gorman took over in the bottom of the eighth. Banks batted in two runs with a triple in the top of the ninth, and Jim Duckworth came out to finish things off ... but his night did not go smoothly. Bobby Richardson hit a two-run homer off him to cut our lead to three, so Blaylock came out with clear bases and no outs, to do the job himself. McDougald hit a solo shot to cut the lead to two, but his next three batters faced were all quick outs off soft contact and we held on to win 6-4. Bob Miller took the win, improving to 2-1 with a 3.10 ERA, allowing just one hit with three walks in his 2.2 innings. Gorman earned his fifth hold, and Duckworth proved he’s too wild to maintain a spot on the major league roster ... he’ll go back down to the minors for seasoning. Blaylock remained tough as nails, however, and got his 12th save, with a hit, a run and a strikeout in his inning. Each team had nine hits, ours led by Banks who had two hits and three RBIs.

We’ve recalled Don Bessent from AAA Buffalo, where he’s gone 2-0 with a 1.39 ERA, 27 K’s and six saves through 24 appearances.
 
June 13, 1958: We’re at Fenway today for the first of three against the 27-30 Red Sox, with whom we are currently tied for fourth place in the AL with a 26-29 record of our own. Bill Wight (1-4, 6.31 ERA, 51.1 IP, 14 K’s, 1.54 WHIP) pitched against Mike Fornieles (3-3, 4.62 ERA, 64.1 IP, 34 K’s, 1.56 WHIP). Roy Sievers got us going quickly with a three-run homer in the top of the first, but Wight gave it all back in the bottom of the inning thanks to a Piersall RBI single and a two-run double by Willie Jones. We kept it reasonably close, and Bob Miller came out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh trailing just 6-5 ... but we gave up a pair in the bottom of the seventh, Gorman gave up a run in the eighth, and we lost this one badly 9-5. Wight fell to 1-5 after a six inning effort, allowing eight hits, two walks, two strikeouts and six earned runs, and though we outhit them 14-12, we just gave up way too many runs. Sievers was solid as usual, hitting three times with two runs and four RBIs, including his 10th homer, but we squandered his efforts.

June 14, 1958: Milt Pappas (6-3, 3.32 ERA, 81.1 IP, 51 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) pitched against Bob Purkey (2-6, 4.01 ERA, 89.2 IP, 30 K’s, 1.49 WHIP). Ernie Banks hit his 19th homer of the year in the top of the third, scoring two runs to put us on the board, and a Chuck Diering sac-fly added a run in the top of the fourth. But Pappas gave it all back in the bottom of the fourth, Samy White driving in a run by reaching first on an E9 error, Purkey batting in a run with a single, and Nellie Fox with an RBI single of his own to tie it up. Pappas got through five innings but threw 105 pitches, so with the score still tied at 3-3, Osinski came out to pitch in the bottom of the sixth. Bessent took over in the seventh, getting three outs off five pitches, and Sievers hit his 11th homer in the top of the eighth, scoring two to put us ahead 5-3. Ron Fairly hit a two-run blast of his own in the top of the ninth to make it a four-run lead, and Bessent stayed out to finish it, loading the bases but conceding nothing as we won 7-3. He got the win, improving to 1-1 with a 9.31 ERA, allowing four hits, a walk and a strikeout through three innings in his seventh major league appearance of the season. We outhit the Red Sox 11-10, led by Fairly (three hits, two runs, two RBIs), Banks (three hits, two runs, two RBIs) and Sievers (three hits, one run, two RBIs).

June 15, 1958: Carl Erskine (6-3, 3.46 ERA, 78.0 IP, 47 K’s, 1.24 WHIP) pitched against Frank Baumann (5-5, 4.14 ERA, 78.1 IP, 43 K’s, 1.46 WHIP) in the final game of this series and road trip. Erskine gave up three runs in the bottom of the first and spent the rest of the game trying to get them back ... Sievers got us an RBI single in the top of the third and Daryl Spencer scored off a wild pitch in the top of the sixth, but Boston added a run off a sac-fly in the bottom of the eighth, sending us into the top of the ninth needing two runs to keep the game alive. It didn’t happen, and we lost this one 4-2. Erskine fell to 6-4 with a complete game six hitter, walking two with seven strikeouts and letting them score four runs, all earned. We outhit them 9-6, which makes it even more frustrating that we couldn’t finish the job. Spencer led the way with two hits and a run scored, but we’ll head back to Kansas City with a 27-31 record, eight games out of first place and just 4.5 games out of last place.

We have an off day for travel, and then will play on twenty consecutive days leading up to the All Star break, a stretch that will include 21 games thanks to a July 4th doubleheader on the road in Chicago. We’ll start with two weeks of games at home: three against Baltimore, three against Boston, four against Washington and three against New York. We then hit the road for three against Detroit (), three in two days against Chicago () and two games against Cleveland (). We then come back from the All Star break and spend another two weeks on the road, facing Baltimore, Washington, Boston and New York ... we won’t have a home game in July until the 22nd.

Considering we’re 16-10 at home and 11-21 on the road, this schedule does not bode well for our ability to string consistent wins together with our current pitching rotation. For now, however, ownership has said to stay the course ... we’re not willing to give up any of our veteran bats to get players from the few teams willing to sell, and the cost of fighting too hard to compete quickly might end up hurting us when it comes to building through the draft. When it comes to pitching, our biggest need, nobody who’s in a position to sell is also in a position to give up the kind of starter we’d need to really make a move forward anyway.

[jksander]

June 17, 1958: Richard Sovde (4-3, 4.18 ERA, 56.0 IP, 33 K’s, 1.45 WHIP) pitched against Baltimore’s Ted Wills (2-7, 4.01 ERA, 73.0 IP, 43 K’s, 1.70 WHIP) in our first game back at Muncipal Stadium, and we felt lucky to have a crowd of nearly 11,000 considering how inconsistent we’ve been all year (and with the Orioles in last place in the league). Ron Fairly hit a solo homer in the bottom of the first to give us a lead, his eighth homer of the season as a rookie, and Roy Sievers hit a two-run blast in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 3-0 lead. Ted Wills hit an RBI single in the top of the fifth to get Baltimore on the board, and Art Ditmar took over in the top of the sixth ... at which point the Orioles struck hard. Carroll Hardy hit a solo homer and then two batters later Ted Wills hit a two-run homer, their pitcher singlehandedly putting them ahead 4-3. Danny O’Connell tied it up with a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth, and Ditmar stayed out there to keep fighting. But with the score still tied 4-4, Dan Osinski came out to pitch in the top of the eighth, and this game went into extra innings from there. Osinski was phenomenal, getting us through the top of the 10th unscathed, and Daryl Spencer led off in the bottom of the inning with a walk-off homer to win it for us 5-4! Ditmar came in with a chance to win in the sixth and instead got his third blown save of the season, but Osinski was brilliant in three innings, striking out three against just one hit as he won his first game of the year ... he’s now 1-5 with a 3.86 ERA. We outhit Baltimore 11-7, led by Fairly, O’Connell and Spencer, who each had two hits, a run and an RBI.
 
June 18, 1958: Tom Poholsky (1-4, 5.97 ERA, 24.2 IP, 14 K’s, 1.38 WHIP) got the start against Jim Owens (2-6, 5.88 ERA, 64.1 IP, 32 K’s, 1.83 WHIP). Gus Triandos batted in a run for the Orioles with a double in the top of the first, but Ernie Banks hit his 20th homer in the bottom of the inning to tie it up. Sievers hit an RBI double to push us into the lead in the bottom of the fourth ... but with two outs in the top of the fifth Triandos hit an RBI double that tied it up again. Danny O’Connell got the lead back with a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning, and Ditmar took over in the sixth ... he did well in that inning, but got completely destroyed in the seventh, giving up five hits and a walk to give Baltimore a five-run power drive before we could get Bob Miller warmed up ... he took over with two outs and a man on second, trailing by three, getting the out we needed though knowing we probably should have brought him in for the seventh entirely. Ron Fairly hit a two-run blast to get us back within one heading into the top of the eighth, and Miller pitched the rest of the game but our bats had nothing left ... we’d lose this one 7-6. Ditmar, now at 0-1 with four blown saves, has proven to be incredibly hit or miss. Today he had 1.2 innings with six hits, a walk and five earned runs, almost all of that coming in the seventh inning. He’s supposed to be our best long relief option, and right now I can’t trust him. Miller pitched 2.1 innings with one hit, one walk and one strikeout, but Baltimore wound up outhitting us 12-11. Spencer had three hits, and Sievers hit twice with an RBI, while Fairly and O’Connell each batted in two runs.

June 19, 1958: Bill Wight (1-5, 6.59 ERA, 57.1 IP, 16 K’s, 1.55 WHIP) pitched against Dave Wickersham (4-7, 5.93 ERA, 68.1 IP, 24 K”s, 1.77 WHIP) in our final game of the series against Baltimore. Spencer hit an RBI single to put us into the lead in the bottom of the second, and Crandall followed him with a two-run homer to make it 3-0 heading into the top of the third. Don Bessent took over in the top of the fifth, with Wight already at 80 pitches. In the bottom of the fifth Fairly and Banks hit RBI singles and Sievers batted in a run with a sac-fly to make it a 6-0 lead. Diering hit a sac-fly to score our seventh run in the bottom of the sixth, and Spencer hit a two-run homer in the seventh to make it a nine run shutout lead. Bob Miller came out to pitch with one out and no one on in the top of the eighth, and he got us the rest of the way as we shut the Orioles down 9-0. Bessent got the win, improving to 2-1 with a 6.92 ERA, allowing three hits, a walk and four strikeouts through 3.1 innings. We outhit Baltimore 10-8, led by Spencer, who had three hits, three runs and three RBIs.

Ahead of the Boston series, we’ve decided to call up Dean Stone (4-4, 3.06 ERA, 97.0 IP, 66 K’s, 1.32 WHIP, 2.1 WAR) from AAA Buffalo as extra pitching depth, since we have no days off until the All Star break. To make room, we’ve had to waive and DFA Andy Pafko, who at 37 has been stuck behind Ron Fairly and Roy Sievers and has yet to make a major league appearance this season. Stone will replace Wight, who will become our long relief / spot starter, in the back of the rotation.

June 20, 1958: Milt Pappas (6-3, 3.13 ERA, 86.1 IP, 52 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) got the start against Frank Baumann (6-5, 4.06 ERA, 84.1 IP, 46 K’s, 1.47 WHIP) in our first of three against Boston. We got him a good lead in the bottom of the first, thanks to an RBI triple by Banks, an RBI double by Sievers and an RBI single by Spencer. Banks scored off a groundout by Sievers in the bottom of the third, and Banks hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth (his 21st!) to give us a 7-0 lead! Pappas batted in a run to add on in the fifth, and in the bottom of the seventh Crandall hit an RBI triple and Pappas got a second RBI single to turn this into a rout. Pappas pitched a complete game three-hit shutout as we crushed the Red Sox 10-0! Pappas improved to 7-3, allowing three hits, three walks and striking out six, throwing 125 pitches, easily a season high. We had 15 hits ourselves, led by Banks with three hits, three runs and four RBIs. Roy Sievers added three hits, a run and an RBI, and Pappas had three hits, a run and two RBIs. Banks remains right there in the home run race, just one behind Mantle’s 22.

June 21, 1958: Carl Erskine (6-4, 3.56 ERA, 86.0 IP, 54 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) pitched against Ray Sadecki (0-2, 3.97 ERA, 34.0 IP, 25 K’s, 1.65 WHIP), Boston’s 17-year-old rookie who they drafted 16th overall this past November. Jackie Jensen hit a solo homer for Boston in the top of the first, and Sammy White hit an RBI single in the fourth to make it a 2-0 lead. But in the bottom of the fifth Del Crandall hit an RBI single to get us on the board, and Ron Fairly hit a two-run homer to put us into the lead! Dan Osinski took over in the top of the seventh, and Bob Miller came out in the eighth ... Blaylock was ready to come out in the ninth, but he didn’t need to -- we’d added RBI singles from Sawatski and Crandall, the latter driving in two runs to give us a four-run lead. Miller stayed out there and got us through the top of the ninth, and we won this one 6-2! Erskine improved to 7-4 with a six inning five hit, one walk, two run effort, striking out four. Osinski picked up his sixth hold, and Miller saved his fourth game with two innings and just a hit and two strikeouts. We outhit Boston 10-7, led by O’Connell, who had three hits and a run scored, and by Crandall who hit twice with a run and three batted in.

June 22, 1958: Dean Stone made his MLB debut for the season, going up against Frank Sullivan (8-5, 4.22 ERA, 100.1 IP, 49 K’s, 1.29 WHIP). Boston went up 1-0 with a Nellie Fox homer in the top of the first, but Ernie Banks answered with a two-run blast, his 22nd of the year, to put us into the lead in the bottom of the inning. Bill Wight came out of the pen in the top of the sixth, still leading 2-1, and Dan Osinski took over in the top of the eighth. With the lead still at one run in the top of the ninth, Bob Blaylock came out to close, but Ted Williams hit an RBI single to score Nellie Fox and tie the game at 2-2. Blaylock stayed out to pitch us through the top of the 11th, but in that inning Jackie Jenson hit a two-out double that drove in the go-ahead (again by Fox). We had no answer in the bottom of the inning and lost this one 3-2. Blaylock fell to 0-3 with his third blown save of the year, allowing five hits, a walk and two earned runs in his three innings. Wight had his first hold, and Osinski his seventh, while Stone debuted with five innings and just five hits, two walks, a strikeout and an earned run. Boston outhit us 11-7, Banks leading the way for us with two hits, two walks, a run and two RBIs.
 
June 23, 1958: Richard Sovde (4-3, 3.98 ERA, 61.0 IP, 38 K’s, 1.44 WHIP) pitched against Harold Larned (3-5, 3.62 ERA, 99.1 IP, 76 K’s, 1.57 WHIP) in our first of four games against the Washington Senators. Ernie Banks hit an RBI double in the bottom of the first to get us on the board, and Richard Sovde hit an RBI single in the bottom of the second that scored two more. O’Connell added an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, and we brought out Art Ditmar in the top of the sixth leading 4-0. Bill Wight took over in the seventh, and in the top of the eighth Fred Valentine got Washington on the board with an RBI single. Tom Gorman came out to close in the top of the ninth, leading by three, and he shut the Senators down as we won 4-1. Sovde improved to 5-3 with a 3.68 ERA, allowing just three hits though he walked five against two strikeouts, or he would have stayed out longer than five innings. Gorman wound up with his second save, with a hit and two strikeouts in the ninth inning, and though we were outhit 8-6, Chuck Diering led the way with a hit, a walk and two runs scored.

June 24, 1958: The Senators are now 34-34, and we’re 32-33, so this series has a chance to really define how we want our season to go. Milt Pappas (7-3, 2.83 ERA, 95.1 IP, 58 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) started against Walt Masterson (3-6, 5.14 ERA, 75.1 IP, 16 K’s, 1.66 WHIP). Fred Valentine hit an RBI triple in the top of the third to give Washington the lead, but Ron Fairly hit a sac-fly that scored Walt Bond from third, tying it up in the bottom of the inning. Roy Sievers hit a two-run blast in the bottom of the sixth to put us into the lead, and Don Bessent came out to close it in the top of the ninth, shutting them down nicely as we won 3-1! Pappas improved to 8-3, allowing just three hits, two walks and a run with five strikeouts through eight innings, and Bessent came out for his first save to prevent a late-innings collapse. It was a duel all the way, with four hits for each team, ours led by Sievers who had a hit, a run and two RBIs thanks to his 13th homer of the year. Even better, we improved to .500 for the season, passing the Senators as we moved into fourth place in the AL ... just seven games out of first as crazy as that sounds!

June 25, 1958: Carl Erskine (7-4, 3.52 ERA, 92.0 IP, 58 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) pitched against Camilo Pascual (10-5, 2.28 ERA, 138.0 IP, 78 K’s, 1.13 WHIP), who this year has finally figured out how to keep his walks down, and it’s been paying off in wins. That didn’t help him early in this game, as Ernie Banks hit an RBI single to get us into the lead and Chuck Diering batted Banks home with a groundout to first, putting us up 2-0 after one inning. But Erskine gave up three runs in the top of the second to bail him out, scoring off a pair of RBI singles and a groundout of their own. George Wilson tied it up with a solo homer in the bottom of the second, but Pascual himself hit a homer in the top of the fourth, and this one seemed destined to be a shootout. Bill Wight came out to pitch in the top of the seventh still trailing 4-3, and Bob Miller came out in the top of the ninth to keep that margin unchanged. Unfortunately our bats were done for the night and might as well have stayed in the dugout ... we’d lose this one 4-3, Pascual’s homer remaining the deciding factor as he pitched a complete game seven hitter. Erskine fell to 7-5, allowing seven hits in six innings with three walks, four strikeouts and four runs (three earned), while Wight and Miller combined for three innings with one hit, one walk and three strikeouts. They outhit us 8-7, led by Banks who had a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI.

June 26, 1958: We’ve got our fourth game against Washington today, and it would be great to get the win in the series so we can go back in front of them in the playoff chase and return to .500 on the year. Dean Stone (0-0, 1.80 ERA, 5.0 IP, 1 K, 1.40 WHIP) pitched his second start of the season, facing Art Houtteman (1-5, 1 SV, 7.47 ERA, 53.0 IP, 20 K’s, 1.75 WHIP). Houtteman hit an RBI single to put them up 1-0 in the top of the third, but we tied it in the bottom of the inning with an O’Connell RBI double. But Stone struggled in the fourth, giving up two runs off a double by Tommy Davis and a third off a single by Houtteman, their pitcher again stepping up big ... that’s been a big factor in this series, pitching offense. Bill Wight came out in the sixth still trailing by three, and he pitched three innings before being replaced by Ditmar, in a game we lost badly 8-2. Stone took the loss, falling to 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA, lasting five innings with seven hits, three walks, two strikeouts and four earned runs, and we were outhit 13-8. Ron Fairly led the way with two hits and two runs scored. We settled for a split series after four, with three left against the Yankees here in Kansas City before we hit the road for three weeks around the All Star break.

June 27, 1958: Richard Sovde (5-3, 3.68 ERA, 66.0 IP, 40 K’s, 1.45 WHIP) pitched against Saul Rogovin (3-6, 4.61 ERA, 91.2 IP, 43 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) in game one against the Yankees, and Roy Sievers batted in a run with a single to put us up 1-0 after the first inning. But Mickey Mantle hit a solo homer to tie it up in the top of the sixth, his 23rd of the year, and Bob Miller took over on the mound in the top of the seventh. Tom Gorman came out in the top of the ninth still knotted up at one run each, and in the bottom of the inning Ernie Banks led off with a solo blast of his own (also #23) to win the game for us 2-1! Gorman took the win, improving to 5-0 with a 3.57 ERA, allowing two hits with two strikeouts as he kept us in the game. Sovde lasted six innings with just three hits, four walks, a run and six strikeouts, and Miller had two innings with a walk and four K’s. We outhit New York 7-5, led by Banks who hit twice with two runs and an RBI as he kept pace with Mantle in the homerun chase.

June 28, 1958: Tom Poholsky (1-4, 5.97 ERA, 39.2 IP, 17 K’s, 1.39 WHIP) pitched in game two, facing Mike McDaniels (7-4, 3.77 ERA, 117.0 IP, 73 K’s, 1.19 WHIP), and he got shelled immediately, giving up five runs in the top of the first. Ron Fairly scored off a groundout by Sievers to get us on the board in the bottom of the first, and we kept Poholsky out for the second but he gave up two more runs, and his night was pretty much over. His time as a member of our rotation may be as well. Art Ditmar took over in the third, trailing 7-1, and Wight took over in the top of the seventh trailing 9-5. We gave up another run in the top of the eighth and went on to lose 10-5 in a game we never competed in once Poholsky had his meltdown. He gave up nine hits and seven earned runs along with a pair of walks in the first two innings, and that was enough we could never recover. They outhit us 14-7, our team led by Fairly who had two hits, two runs and an RBI.

Andy Pafko has refused to be demoted after clearing waivers, and has been released at a cost of $3,187. Meanwhile, we’ve made a deal with the Philadelphia Phillies that will send Poholsky, back-up second baseman Danny O’Connell, and AA closer Dean Skidgel to the Phillies in exchange for two starters -- 28-year-old Ron Negray, who has a four pitch mix and great control of a plus-plus curveball, and 24-year-old Johnny Kucks, who has solid movement and control and a five pitch mix (and questionable stuff). He holds runners well, and has the leadership traits we need to help secure the back end of our rotation. Kucks has gone 4-7 at the MLB level with a 2.98 ERA, a 1.15 WHIP and 48 K’s through 96.2 innings, putting up 2.0 WAR for a Phillies team that is off to a miserable 23-45 start this year, worst in the majors. Negray has a 2-9 record for the Phillies with a 5.38 ERA, but has a 1.41 WHIP and does not walk people -- he has the stamina to do well for us in the back end of the rotation as well.
 
June 29, 1958: With O’Connell now headed for Philadelphia, Billy Martin has the job of second baseman sewn up for us the remainder of the season, with Spencer and Bond backing him up when needed. Kucks is stepping into our third spot in the rotation between Erskine and Sovde, with Ron Negray as our fifth starter ... Wight will remain our spot starter / long reliever along with Ditmar, and Dean Stone will step into a middle relief role with Bob Miller. This afternoon Milt Pappas (8-3, 2.70 ERA, 103.1 IP, 63 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) pitched against New York’s Sal Maglie (3-1, 4.08 ERA, 53.0 IP, 22 K’s, 1.43 WHIP). Daryl Spencer walked in a run in the bottom of the first to give us an early lead, and Del Crandall hit a solo homer to extend it in the bottom of the second. Gil McDougald got the Yankees on the board with an RBI double in the top of the third, but Banks hit an RBI single to get the run back in the bottom of the fourth, extending our lead to two runs. Bob Blaylock took over in the top of the ninth, and Woodie Held led off with a solo homer to cut our lead to one, but Berra and Kubeck had flyouts surrounding a strikeout by Lee Thomas and we got out of here with a 3-2 win. Pappas earned the win, allowing five hits with a run and two strikeouts in his eight innings, improving to 9-3 with a 2.59 ERA, while Blaylock saved his 13th game with a hit, a strikeout and an earned run. He’s now got a 4.72 ERA through 26.2 innings over 19 appearances. We matched them for hits with six each, led by Banks who had a hit, a walk and an RBI.

We’ll head into the road trip with a 35-36 record ... we’ll play three against Detroit (44-29), three against Chicago (31-43) and two against Cleveland (45-31) this week before getting some much needed days off for the All Star break. We’ll then face Baltimore (29-46) for three, Washington (39-36) for a doubleheader on July 13, Boston (31-39) for three and New York (38-34) for four before finally returning to KC for two and a half weeks in late July.

June 30, 1958: Carl Erskine (7-5, 3.58 ERA, 98.0 IP, 62 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) got the start against Detroit’s Jim Bunning (6-4, 4.38 ERA, 100.2 IP, 71 K’s, 1.32 WHIP). The Tigers lead the AL currently, but only 14,000 fans showed up, perhaps a sign that the fans view us as an inferior opponent. Ernie Banks drove in a run with a sac-fly in the top of the first to put us in the lead, but Erskine got reamed in the bottom of the inning, allowing five runs off a pair of homers by Bill Virdon and Fred Hatfield. Erskine grounded out to first and drove in a run in the top of the second to cut their lead to three runs, and we trailed 6-3 when Dean Stone came out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh. Bob Miller took over with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but he gave up three hits in a row (the last one being a three-run homer for Johnny Callison), and we lost this one 9-3. Erskine took the loss, falling to 7-6 with a 3.89 ERA after an eight hit, six run game, and we were outhit 10-8. Banks led the way with a hit, a walk and an RBI.

July 1, 1958: Johnny Kucks (4-7, 2.98 ERA, 96.2 IP, 48 K’s, 1.15 WHIP) made his first start of the year for us, facing Bob Kuzawa (6-5, 3.88 ERA, 67.1 IP, 36 K’s, 1.43 WHIP). It didn’t go particularly well against the heavy-hitting Detroit lineup, and when Bill Wight took over in the bottom of the fifth with one out we trailed 4-0. Wight pitched the remainder of the game and gave up a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth as we lost this one 6-0, our offense completely failing to show up. Kucks allowed five hits, three walks and four runs (three earned) with two strikeouts in his 4.1 innings, and Wight only gave up four hits and two runs with three K’s, but Detroit outhit us 9-2 and didn’t walk us once. It’s hard as hell to win a game with only two baserunners in a nine inning stretch,so we never stood a chance against a team that looks worthy of being the first AL team not named Yankees or Guardians to go to the World Series since 1946 ... though the Guardians only trail them by a game and a half.

July 2, 1958: Richard Sovde (5-3, 3.50 ERA, 72.0 IP, 46 K’s, 1.43 WHIP) took on Tom Brewer (6-6, 4.06 ERA, 99.2 IP, 47 K’s, 1.39 WHIP) as we tried to get out of Detroit with at least one good game under our belts. But they took a two-run lead in the bottom of the first and rolled with it. Dean Stone came out in the bottom of the sixth trailing 4-2, a Fairly homer in the second and a Sievers RBI single in the fifth our only offense. Bob Miller took over in the eighth with the same margin, and we traded runs down the stretch as we lost 5-3 to complete the loser’s sweep. Sovde allowed eight hits and four runs with three walks and a strikeout in his five innings, and we were outhit 11-6. Sievers led the way with two hits, a run and two RBIs, while Fairly added two hits, a run and an RBI with his 11th homer of the season.

July 3, 1958: Milt Pappas (9-3, 2.59 ERA, 111.1 IP, 65 K’s, 1.13 WHIP) pitched against Chicago’s Jack Kralick (4-8, 3.78 ERA, 116.2 IP, 68 K’s, 1.23 WHIP), and in the top of the fifth we got the lead thanks to a three-run double by Del Crandall! George Wilson hit a sac-fly that drove in a fourth run in the top of the eighth, and Pappas tried to close it out but got into a jam in the bottom of the ninth ... an RBI single by Larry Doby scored the White Sox’s first run, and with bases loaded and just one out, Bob Blaylock came out to try and finish it. David Smith popped out harmlessly to the catcher, holding all three runners, and Don Bacon popped out to Bond in left field, allowing us to escape safely with a 4-1 win. Pappas improved to 10-3 with a 2.48 ERA, throwing 114 pitches and allowing nine hits with a walk, a run and six strikeouts. Blaylock came in for the high leverage save, his 14th of the season, and on three pitches he put us on his shoulders. Chicago outhit us 9-6 but we still gutted out the win, led by Crandall who hit four times with a run and three batted in.
 
July 4, 1958: It’s America’s birthday, and we’re celebrating with a south side doubleheader in Chicago. Ron Negray (2-9, 5.30 ERA, 91.2 IP, 43 K’s, 1.41 WHIP) started the first game, facing Billy Pierce (9-6, 3.45 ERA, 146.0 IP, 87 K’s, 1.14 WHIP). Negray pitched five innings but dug us a six-run hole, Ditmar taking over in the top of the sixth. It turned into a rout from there as Ditmar gave up four runs with just one out. Wight came out to finish the game and we were humiliated 11-0. Negray allowed seven hits and six earned runs with a walk and no strikeouts in his five innings, but we were outhit 11-3 and out-walked 6-5. Banks “led” the way with two hits and a walk but got nothing to happen for him on the basepaths.

Carl Erskine (7-6, 3.89 ERA, 104.0 IP, 62 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) pitched in game two, facing Stan Williams (4-10, 4.49 ERA, 104.1 IP, 77 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) in a battle of old guard versus new guard on the mound. Carl Sawatski hit a two-run single to get us on the board in the top of the fourth, and a Joe Astroth single coupled with an E8 error allowed us to head into the bottom of the inning leading 4-0. But Chicago scored two in the bottom of the inning and three more in the bottom of the sixth before we retook the lead 6-5 off an RBI single by Diering and a groundout by Banks in the top of the sixth. Dan Osinski came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning, and Ray Sievers hit an RBI single that, coupled with another E8 error, allowed Astroth and Martin to both score, giving us a three-run lead. Jim Rivera hit a solo homer to get them back within two, and with one out and men on first and second we brought out Gorman to finish the job. He shut them down the remainder of the game and we got out of Chicago with an 8-6 win. Erskine improved to 8-6, allowing seven hits, four walks and five earned runs but getting bailed out by our offense. Osinski got through 2.1 innings with three hits, two walks and a run, earning his eighth hold, while Gorman picked up his third save of the year with two hits through 1.2 innings. Chicago outhit us 12-9, but we made our baserunners count -- Sievers led the way with two hits, a walk, a run and two RBIs, while Astroth added two hits, a walk, two runs and two RBIs. We’ll take our 37-40 record into Cleveland, where we’ll play two against the 47-33 Guardians before the All Star break.

July 5, 1958: Richard Sovde (5-4, 3.74 ERA, 77.0 IP, 47 K’s, 1.48 WHIP) pitched against Hoyt Wilhelm (3-4, 3.44 ERA, 89.0 IP, 48 K’s, 1.19 WHIP). Ernie Banks hit a solo homer, his 24th of the year, to put us up 1-0 in the top of the first, and we brought Bob Miller out in the fifth with the same lead. Tom Gorman came out in the bottom of the seventh with one out and a man on first, and he blew the save when George Crowe hit a single that drove in both Stan Lopata and George Strickland to give Cleveland a 2-1 lead. Don Bessent gave up a run in the eighth, and though Roy Sievers hit a solo bomb in the ninth, it wasn’t enough ... we lost this one 3-2. Gorman fell to 5-1 with his third blown save of the season, allowing a hit, a walk and an unearned run, but Cleveland outhit us 9-4 so it was impressive that our pitchers kept us in the game as long as they did. Banks and Sievers each hit homers, giving us our only offense.

July 6, 1958: As usual we’re limping into the All Star break on fumes, and our schedule after the break looks as tough as any we’ve seen since I took over as GM and manager in 1955. We’re sending Milt Pappas, Ernie Banks and rookie Ron Fairly to the All Star game, Roy Sievers finished second behind Ted Williams in the fan vote, and Roger Maris took the second spot based off his .284 average and 23 homers. Johnny Kucks (4-8, 3.12 ERA, 101.0 IP, 50 K’s, 1.18 WHIP) started today’s game in Cleveland, facing Tom Cheney (10-4, 4.24 ERA, 129.1 IP, 83 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). Cleveland went up 2-0 in the bottom of the second thanks to an RBI single by Lopata and a walk by Rocky Colavito, but Banks hit his 25th homer in the top of the fourth, followed soon thereafter by a two-run homer by Daryl Spencer that put us into the lead 3-2. Dean Stone took over with one out and a man on first in the bottom of the fifth, getting us out of the inning on a solid double play, and Don Bessent came out with an out and men on first and second in the bottom of the seventh, getting us out of that jam as well. Bob Blaylock came out in the bottom of the ninth still holding a one run lead, but with one out he gave up a solo homer to Vic Power and this one was headed for extras. Tom Gorman came out in the bottom of the 10th, and with the score still tied at three Osinski came out in the 12th. Bill Wight came out with a runner on first and no outs in the bottom of the 14th, and a pair of back to back errors loaded the bases with one out. They walked it off with a sac-fly to left and we lost 4-3 in the 14th inning. We outhit Cleveland 9-8, led by Banks with three hits, a run and an RBI, while Spencer added two hits, a run and two RBIs. We had to burn through seven pitchers, and while Bessent got his first hold, Blaylock blew his fourth save and Osinski got yet another loss, falling to 1-6 despite a 3.38 ERA through 32 innings and 23 appearances.

We’ll head into the All Star break with a 37-42 record, 12.5 games out of first place and tied for fifth with the Red Sox. We’re only five games out of last place in the AL, so there’s nowhere to hide ... keep skidding on this road trip and we could wind up crashing and burning.We’re 24-15 in home games but 13-27 on the road, and we’re 2-6 in extras and 9-15 in one-run games ... that’s not a recipe for doing well in as tough a league as this is.

July 8, 1958: The AL beat the NL in the All Star game by a 4-2 margin this season. Milt Pappas got the win with three quick outs in the bottom of the third, but neither Banks nor Fairly got a hit in their appearance. Minnie Minoso was named All Star MVP, with a hit, a run and two RBIs thanks to a sixth-inning homer.

[jksander]

July 10, 1958: Milt Pappas (10-3, 2.48 ERA, 119.2 IP, 71 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) pitched against Orioles ace Dave Wickersham (7-9, 5.22 ERA, 98.1 IP, 36 K’s, 1.62 WHIP). The Orioles took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to a two-run homer by Billy Williams, and in the top of the second Daryl Spencer was again injured sliding into second base ... can we teach this guy how to get extra bases without sacrificing himself? It looks like knee soreness only, so he should just be day to day for a few days, but it’s a frustrating start to the second half of the season. Del Crandall hit an RBI single to get us on the board in the top of the seventh, but they got it back in the bottom of the inning with a Triandos homer. But Banks hit a two-run double to tie it up in the top of the eighth, and Sawatski hit a solo homer to put us into the lead in the top of the ninth! Bob Blaylock came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning and held them off nicely as we won this one 4-3. Pappas pitched eight innings with six hits, five strikeouts and three earned runs, improving to 11-3 with a 2.54 ERA while Blaylock saved his 15th game and only allowed one hit while throwing six pitches. We outhit the Orioles 10-7, led by Banks with two hits and two RBIs.
 
July 11, 1958: Carl Erskine (8-6, 4.13 ERA, 109.0 IP, 63 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) went cold as we headed into the break, so he was looking for a solid start against Jim Owens (3-7, 6.95 ERA, 80.1 IP, 39 K’s, 1.97 WHIP). Chuck Diering batted in a run with a sac-fly in the top of the first, but we gave Baltimore three runs back in the bottom of the inning for a poor start to the game. Billy Martin tied it up with a two-run homer in the top of the second, but Lenny Green hit an RBI double to put them back on top in the bottom of the frame, and Erskine let them have two more in the third as we dug a 6-3 hole. Art Ditmar took over for him in the fourth inning, but it didn’t matter ... he got blown up in the sixth and by the time Bob Miller took over in the bottom of the seventh we were down 10-3. We would get four runs back in the eighth and ninth but lost this one 10-7. Erskine took the loss, falling to 8-7 thanks to a three inning start with nine hits, a strikeout and six earned runs, and Ditmar didn’t do any better in his three innings, with six hits, two walks, four runs (three earned) and a strikeout. We were outhit 17-15 in the end, led by Spencer who hit three times for two runs.

July 12, 1958: Richard Sovde (5-4, 3.56 ERA, 81.0 IP, 49 K’s, 1.47 WHIP) pitched against Ted Wills (3-8, 4.20 ERA, 109.1 IP, 65 K’s, 1.54 WHIP). Daryl Spencer was injured in the top of the first after we’d built a 3-0 lead (scoring off a wild pitch and a two-RBI double by Spencer). It appears he reaggrivated that knee injury, but we’ll know more after the game -- but as good as he’s been for us, the overall fragility of the third-baseman has me wondering if we can count on him through long MLB seasons. Billy Martin hit a solo homer to add on in the top of the second, and Phil Jantze, who took over for Spencer at third, hit a two-run homer to put us up 6-0 in the top of the third! Martin hit a two-run single in the top of the fifth, and Carl Sawatski added a two-run single in the sixth as this one became a blowout. Bill Wight took over in the bottom of the seventh, and Jantze hit a two-run triple in the top of the eighth that was followed by an RBI single by Sawatski. Wight stayed out the remainder of the game as we shut the Orioles out 13-0! Sovde improved to 6-4 with a six inning effort, allowing just three hits and two walks with five strikeouts, while Wight saved his first game of the year with a three-inning one hit, one walk, one strikeout effort. We outhit the Orioles 15-4, led by Jantze who had three hits, three runs and four RBIs, more than he’d batted in all season combined.

Turns out it wasn’t his knee -- Spencer strained a rib muscle and will need at least two weeks on the IL. This is the 29-year-old’s fourth injury of the season, but he’s hitting .296 with nine doubles and four homers, batting in 14 runs during the time he’s been healthy.

July 13, 1958: Today we head to Washington for a doubleheader, which will be followed by a day off and then seven games against the Red Sox and Yankees over a six day stretch. Milt Pappas (11-3, 2.54 ERA, 127.2 IP, 76 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) pitched in the first game, facing Camilo Pascual (12-6, 2.35 ERA, 164.1 IP, 87 K’s, 1.14 WHIP). Ernie Banks had a solo homer in the top of the first, his 26th of the season, but Gene Freese hit a two-run single in the bottom of the third to flip Washington into the lead. Willie McCovey hit a two-run single in the bottom of the seventh to add on, and though Pappas batted in a run with a single in the top of the eighth, we were in a two-run hole when Don Bessent took over in the bottom of the inning. We’d go on to lose this one 4-2, with Pappas taking the loss with 10 hits, four walks, four runs (three earned) and four strikeouts in his seven innings. The Senators outhit us 10-7, our offense led by Sawatski who hit twice for a run scored.

In game two, Johnny Kucks (4-8, 2.99 ERA, 105.1 IP, 50 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) got the start against Cal McLish (3-1, 2 SV, 5.06 ERA, 26.2 IP, 7 K’s, 1.80 WHIP). Ernie Banks hit a two-run homer in the top of the first, but we gave them three runs in the bottom of the inning along with the lead. Johnny Kucks was injured in the bottom of the fourth with two outs as we trailed 4-3, and Dean Stone promptly gave up three hits in a row including an RBI single by Eddie Yost to dig our hole deeper. A fourth straight hit, an RBI double by Gene Freese, drove in two more, and by the time we went into the top of the fifth we trailed 7-3 and looked completely lost out there. Banks drove in a run with a sac-fly in the top of the fifth to cut the lead to three, at which point lefty Bill Wight took over on the mound. Bill Miller pitched in the eighth inning, but by then it was a lost cause and we blew this one big time, losing 10-4. Kucks took the loss, and has gone 0-2 with a 3.65 ERA since the trade ... tonight he had six hits, two strikeouts and four runs (two earned) in his 3.2 innings before the injury, and we were outhit 13-7 which kept us from clawing back. Joe Astroth led the way with two hits and a run, while Banks had his three-run homer as well, giving him 27 for the season and two today alone. That puts him one up on Pittsburgh’s Frank Thomas, but behind Mantle by one, with Cleveland’s Roger Maris (25) and Cincy’s Frank Robinson (25) right there in the mix as well.

July 15, 1958: Ron Negray (2-10, 5.59 ERA, 96.2 IP, 43 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) started against Boston’s Frank Baumann (7-8, 4.94 ERA, 109.1 IP, 57 K’s, 1.55 WHIP). Del Crandall hit a two-run double in the top of the second to put us on the board, and Carl Sawatski hit an RBI single to give us a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. Billy Martin hit a sac-fly to put us up 4-2 in the top of the sixth, and Dan Osinski came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning. Sawatski hit a sac-fly to make it a three-run lead as we went into the stretch, and Bessent took over in the bottom of the seventh, completing the remainder of the game as we won 5-2. Negray pitched five innings with seven hits, two runs (one earned) and two strikeouts, getting the win, while Osinski held his ninth game and Bessent pitched a three-inning save (his second) with two hits, two walks and two strikeouts. We outhit them 13-11, led by Sawatski who hit twice with a walk, a run and two RBIs.
 
July 16, 1958: Milt Pappas (11-4, 2.61 ERA, 134.2 IP, 80 K’s, 1.16 WHIP) pitched against Boston’s Frank Sullivan (8-8, 4.64 ERA, 132.0 IP, 68 K’s, 1.31 WHIP). Ernie Banks homered in the top of the first to put us up 1-0, and Sawatski scored off a wild pitch in the top of the second. Banks and Jantze each had RBI singles in the third, and Billy Martin scored off a groundout by Fairly in the top of the fourth. Milt Pappas reached on an error to drive in our sixth run in the top of the fifth, but Boston did finally get on the board in the bottom of the inning with a two-run double by Jim Piersall. Leading by four we left Pappas out in the sixth, and that proved to be costly. Billy Goodman hit a two-run single, and Jackie Jensen tied the game with a two-run double, bringing Tom Gorman out to relieve Pappas with two outs and Jensen sitting on third. Jenson took the lead on an RBI single by Marty Keough, and though we got out of the inning with a strikeout, we’d given up seven unanswered runs in the fifth and sixth combined. Chuck Diering tied us up with a solo homer in the top of the seventh, and Dan Osinski came out in the bottom of the ninth to get us into extra innings. Bob Miller took over in the bottom of the 10th, and Bob Blaylock came out in the bottom of the 12th. In the bottom of the 14th, Billy Klaus struck out swinging and Floyd Robinson was caught stealing second, sending us into the 15th still knotted up. Dean Stone came out to take the ball from Blaylock in the bottom of the 15th, and finally Billy Martin put us on top with a solo homer in the top of the 16th! But our luck has been completely nonexistant in these extra innings games this year, and tonight proved no different ... Stone walked Jackie Jensen, who then advanced to third on a single by Keough. Willie Jones walked to load the bags, and with one out Billy Klaus hit a single that scored Jensen and Keough, walking this one off as a 9-8 loss for us. The game took five hours and 16 innings, and we still couldn’t pull a rabbit out of our hats.

Pappas had a rough night, allowing nine hits, two walks and seven runs (five earned) to go with eight strikeouts, but he still left us in a position to win. Gorman, Osinski, Miller and Blaylock combined for 8.1 innings with four hits, three walks and five strikeouts, but Stone stumbled in the final 1.1 innings, allowing three hits, two walks and two earned runs, giving him the loss as he falls to 0-2 with a 5.19 ERA. Boston outhit us 16-14, our offense led by Banks, who hit three times and walked twice, scoring three runs and batting in two more.

July 17, 1958: Carl Erskine (8-7, 4.50 ERA, 112.0 IP, 64 K’s, 1.34 WHIP) pitched in our third game of the series, facing Boston’s Willard Nixon (1-, 20.65 ERA, 5.2 IP, 1 K, 3.00 WHIP), who has just recently returned from having bone chips removed from his elbow. Erskine struggled, giving up three runs in the first five innings, and we replaced him with Bob Miller in the bottom of the sixth still trailing 3-0. Miller pitched wonderfully the remainder of the way, but our offense again chose a rough night to just scratch themselves in the dugout ... we lost 3-0, getting outhit 9-5. Erskine fell to 8-8 with eight hits, a strikeout and three earned runs in his five innings, and since he went 5-0 during a stretch of six games from May 13th through June 5th, he’s been ice cold ... his ERA has fallen from 3.42 to 4.54, and he’s lost six of eight starts since then. Miller went three innings with a hit and a strikeout, improving his ERA to 2.84 through 63.1 innings, making him a real bright spot in our bullpen. Banks was the only runner to get on base more than once with a hit and a walk.

July 18, 1958: Richard Sovde (6-4, 3.31 ERA, 87.0 IP, 54 K’s, 1.43 WHIP) pitched against New York’s Mike McCormick (9-5, 3.70 ERA, 143.1 IP, 87 K’s, 1.16 WHIP). The Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single by Bob Cerv, and Lee Thomas added another RBI single in the bottom of the fifth. Ernie Banks tagged up and scored off a sac-fly by Sawatski to put us on the board in the top of the sixth, and Dean Stone took over in the bottom of the inning. Sievers batted in the tying run with a single in the top of the seventh, Bessent taking over for Stone after the seventh inning stretch. Sawatski hit a solo homer to give us a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth, but Earl Torgeson hit into a fielder’s choice that allowed Lee Thomas to score when we couldn’t make the out at home plate ... tie game once again. Dan Osinski came out in the bottom of the ninth still tied up, and he got us into extras once again. But in the bottom of the 10th, Earl Battey hit a walk-off single with two outs that won it for the Yanks 4-3 -- once again we got to extra innings and couldn’t find a way to score our way to victory. Osinski had two hits, two walks and a run scored in his 1.2 innings, but because of our lack of scoring he took the loss again, falling to 1-7 despite a stellar 3.28 ERA ... he has pretty much the worst luck of anyone on this team. We each had nine hits, our team led by Sievers with two hits and an RBI and by Martin with two hits, a walk and a run scored.

July 19, 1958: Johnny Kucks (4-9, 3.06 ERA, 109.0 IP, 52 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) pitched against Vinegar Bend Mizell (7-7, 3.87 ERA, 132.2 IP, 84 K’s, 1.41 WHIP). Again the Yankees went up 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth, this time off an RBI triple by Bill Skowron, but Ron Fairly hit an RBI double to tie it up in the top of the fifth. Don Bessent took over for Kucks on the mound in the bottom of the seventh, and the Yankees retook the lead 2-1 thanks to a solo homer by Woodie Held in the bottom of the eighth -- that was all they needed, as we lost another one run game. Bessent took the loss, falling to 2-2 with a 4.74 ERA, allowing just one hit, one walk and one run with two strikeouts in his two innings of work. The Yankees outhit us 7-6, Diering leading the way with two hits and a run.
 
July 20, 1958: Oh glory be, here comes another doubleheader right when our team is about as beat up as one can get. We’ve lost four in a row including seven of our ten games since the All Star break, and 13 of our 18 games during this never-ending road trip. Milt Pappas (11-4, 2.82 ERA, 140.1 IP, 88 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) pitched for us in game one, facing Saul Rogovin (4-8, 4.72 ERA, 122.0 IP, 59 K’s, 1.42 WHIP). This time, just for fun, the Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the THIRD inning, Mantle batting in the run with a line drive single. They added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth thanks to an error that scored Tony Kubek and a two-run single by Bob Cerv. Del Crandall got us on the board with an RBI single, and Martin got us within two thanks to an RBI single later in the inning, sending us into the stretch trailing 4-2. Pappas got us through the seventh, and added two strikeouts and a pop-out to left to get us through the eighth as well. But our bats failed him once again and we lost this one in a 4-2 heartbreaker despite his complete game with nine hits, four walks, four runs (only one of them earned) and eight strikeouts through 131 pitches. We were only outhit 9-8, but only Martin (two hits and an RBI) and Crandall (a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI) did anything of note.

In game two, Ron Negray (3-10, 5.40 ERA, 101.2 IP, 45 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) pitched against Billy O’Dell (8-5, 2.48 ERA, 141.2 IP, 88 K’s, 0.97 WHIP), and the Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the fifth with a sac-fly by Billy O’Dell. Bob Cerv batted in a run with a single in the bottom of the sixth, and Bob Miller took over fur us in the bottom of the seventh still trailing 2-0. He gave up three more in the eighth and we got stomped 5-0 as the losing streak continues. Negray had his best start since joining our team, allowing seven hits, two walks and two runs with four strikeouts through six innings, but it still meant another loss -- he’s now 1-2 with a 5.06 ERA since the trade. We were outhit 10-7, with Sievers leading the way with two hits and a walk, nothing else.

We’ll return to Kansas City with a 40-51 record, having gone 5-15 on this road trip that surrounded the All Star activities. We’ve lost six in a row and have fallen to seventh in the AL, just four games up on the White Sox. In the next two and a half weeks we’ll face Boston (45-45) for three, Baltimore (42-51) for three, the Yankees (49-43) for four, Washington (50-43) for three and the White Sox (37-56) for two. At least we can say there are no doubleheaders in this stretch, and owner Richard Doyle is happy with how many homegrown players we have in the mix right now (six draftees currently putting up 8.2 combined WAR) ... but the fans are bailing, and the goodwill we gained from the creation of the team charity in the offseason has now almost completely eroded.

July 22, 1958: Carl Erskine (8-8, 4.54 ERA, 117.0 IP, 65 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) pitched against Frank Sullivan (8-8, 4.70 ERA, 138.0 IP, 74 K’s, 1.35 WHIP). Boston went up 2-0 in the first inning thanks to an RBI single by Jim Piersall and an RBI single by Willie Jones. But Ron Fairly hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second and Billy Martin tied it up with an RBI single in the bottom of the third. Bob Miller took over in the top of the fifth, and Ted Williams hit a two-run homer to push them back on top almost immediately, though Banks hit an RBI single that combined with an E9 throwing error to allow Billy Martin to score a run and keep us in the fight. Tom Gorman came out to pitch in the top of the sixth and Ron Fairly tied us up in the bottom of the sixth thanks to a passed ball. But Gorman gave up an RBI single to Billy Klaus in the top of the eighth, and we brought in Don Bessent with one out and a man on first to try and keep us in it. He got the outs we needed, sending us into the bottom of the eighth trailing 5-4. He gave up a pair of runs in the top of the ninth, and we put our hands up in surrender, losing yet another game, this time by a 7-4 margin. Gorman took the loss, falling to 5-2 with a 3.05 ERA, and we were outhit 11-10. Ernie Banks had two hits, two walks and an RBI, while Ron Fairly hit twice, walked once, scored twice and had an RBI.

July 23, 1958: Richard Sovde (6-4, 3.33 ERA, 92.0 IP, 60 K’s, 1.41 WHIP) got the start against Willard Nixon (2-1, 7.98 ERA, 14.2 IP, 3 K’s, 1.77 WHIP), who dominated us the last time we faced him. This time was no different ... Boston got a lead in the top of the first and by the time Art Ditmar took over in the top of the seventh we trailed 4-1, Jantze having scored our only run with a homer in the bottom of the fifth. Ditmar got shelled, giving up four runs with just two outs, and Dean Stone finished the game out as we lost 9-1. Sovde fell to 6-5 with five hits, five walks, four earned runs and two strikeouts in his six innings, and we were outhit 10-6, Jantze’s homer our only offense of the evening.

July 24, 1958: Johnny Kucks (4-9, 2.97 ERA, 115.0 IP, 57 K’s, 1.24 WHIP) pitched against Mike Fornieles (7-4, 5.12 ERA, 103.2 IP, 52 K’s, 1.55 WHIP). We took the lead in the bottom of the first off a sac-fly by Sievers, but Boston took control from there, building a 5-1 lead by the time we brought out Bill Wight to pitch in the top of the sixth. Del Crandall hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth, but that was all we had in us. Wight pitched well the rest of the way but we still lost 5-3. Kucks had seven hits, a walk, three strikeouts and five earned runs in his five innings, and though Wight pitched four innings with three hits, two walks, three strikeouts and no runs, we were outhit 10-5 and only Crandall came out looking good with two hits, a run and two RBIs.

July 25, 1958: We’ve now lost nine in a row, so we head into this series against the Orioles with a 40-54 record to their 43-53, with the O’s having won seven of their last ten. Milt Pappas (11-5, 2.73 ERA, 148.1 IP, 96 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) pitched against Dave Wickersham (9-9, 4.48 ERA, 120.2 IP, 57 K’s, 1.52 WHIP). Baltimore took the lead off a passed ball in the top of the first, but Billy Martin tied it up with a solo homer in the bottom of the third, his fourth of the year. Billy Williams answered with a solo homer of his own in the top of the fourth, and they added on three runs in the top of the fifth as they took firm control. Dan Osinski took over in the top of the seventh trailing by four, and he pitched the rest of the way as we’d go on to lose our 10th straight by a 7-1 margin ... this is officially the worst losing streak we’ve had in my tenure. Pappas took the loss, falling to 11-6 with a 2.92 ERA, allowing six hits and five earned runs with three walks and two strikeouts in his six innings, while we got outhit 8-5. Ernie Banks hit twice, keeping his average over .340, but he hasn’t had a homer since July 16th. He and Mantle remain tied at the top, with Maris at 28 and closing in on the lead.
 
July 26, 1958: Carl Erskine (8-8, 4.39 ERA, 121.0 IP, 67 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) pitched against Don Johnson (1-1, 1 SV, 4.50 ERA, 64.0 IP, 32 K’s, 1.47 WHIP). Ernie Banks had a groundout to first but scored Billy Martin from third, giving us a 1-0 lead heading into the second inning. Banks hit his 30th homer of the year in the bottom of the fifth to make it a two-run lead, and Bob Blaylock came out in the top of the eighth to try and hold it all together. He did just that, pitching two solid innings to hold the shutout as we won 2-0, FINALLY snapping the losing streak in double digits. Erskine got the win in the pitching duel, going seven innings with two hits, a walk and four strikeouts, while Blaylock earned his 16th save, his first in more than two weeks, allowing just a hit, a walk and two strikeouts. We hit three times and walked five, led by Banks who hit once, walked once, scored once and drove in two runs.

July 27, 1958: Richard Sovde (6-5, 3.49 ERA, 98.0 IP, 62 K’s, 1.43 WHIP) pitched against Ted Wills (3-9, 4.52 ERA, 123.1 IP, 72 K’s, 1.57 WHIP). Baltimore went up 7-0 in the second inning, Sovde getting absolutely destroyed through 1.2 innings of work. Dean Stone took over with a man on third and two outs, getting us safely out of the inning at long last, but this one became a complete and total rout ... Ditmar came out with two outs and a man on first in the top of the third, trailing 11-0, and we were down 14-1 when Bill Wight took over to start the top of the sixth. Wight took one for the team from there and remained out the rest of the way as we got destroyed 17-3. Nobody came out looking like roses, but at least Wight made it through four innings before giving up his three runs. We were outhit 20-10, Sawatski leading the way with three hits and an RBI, while Banks had a hit, a walk and a run scored.

Daryl Spencer came off the IL this evening, and will be available starting with tomorrow’s game against the Yankees.

July 28, 1958: Johnny Kucks (4-10, 3.23 ERA, 120.0 IP, 60 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) started against Billy O’Dell (10-5, 2.38 ERA, 158.2 IP, 95 K’s, 0.95 WHIP). Ernie Banks hit an RBI single to drive in Martin, giving us the lead in the bottom of the third, and Ray Sievers followed with an RBI single of his own, Fairly then driving in two more with a flyball double to put us up 4-0. Don Bessent came out in the top of the seventh and pitched the rest of the way as we held tough to win 4-0. Kucks got his first win in Kansas City, allowing three hits, a walk and four strikeouts in his six innings, while Bessent picked up his third save with three innings of two hit, one walk three strikeout baseball. We outhit them 11-5, led by Fairly with two hits and two RBIs.

July 29, 1958: Tonight’s game got postponed due to severe weather in the area, and will be played as part of a split doubleheader tomorrow, which will allow us to go back to the top of our pitching rotation.

July 30, 1958: With an extra day’s rest, Milt Pappas (11-6, 2.92 ERA, 154.1 IP, 98 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) was good to go in game one of today’s doubleheader, facing Whitey Ford (5-2, 1.64 ERA, 49.1 IP, 32 K’s, 1.14 WHIP), who has spent most of his season so far pitching from the bullpen. Woodie Held got the Yankees on the board first with an RBI single in the top of the first, but Sievers tied it up with an RBI double and Fairly hit a single that drove the go-ahead in as we went up 2-1 heading into the second inning. Held hit a two-run blast in the top of the third to put the Yanks back in the lead, but we tied it in the bottom of the inning with a sac-fly by Daryl Spencer. We continued to trade runs -- Yogi Berra reached on an E5 error and allowed Andy Caray in for the go-ahead in the top of the fifth, and we brought Bob Miller out to pitch in the top of the sixth still trailing 4-3. Dan Osinski took over in the eighth, and Del Crandall hit a solo homer in the bottom of the inning to tie it up at four each. The game went into extra innings, with Blaylock coming out to pitch in the top of the 10th, with Gorman taking over in the 12th with us still tied up. Unfortunately Gorman choked, giving up three runs in the top of the inning as our extra-innings woes continued. We’d go on to lose 7-4, a frustrating finish to what had been a hard-fought game. Gorman took the loss, falling to 5-3 with a 3.57 ERA, allowing three hits, a walk and three earned runs with just one strikeout. We outhit the Yankees 11-10, led by Fairly (two hits, two walks and an RBI) and by Sievers (a hit, three walks, a run and an RBI) but couldn’t get a hit when it counted. At this point we’re a team that hits well but has zero clutch ability.

Carl Erskine (9-8, 4.15 ERA, 128.0 IP, 71 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) pitched in the second game of the afternoon, going up against Vinegar Bend Mizell (7-8, 3.77 ERA, 155.0 IP, 100 K’s, 1.37 WHIP). The Yankees took the lead in the top of the sixth with a solo homer by Mantle (his 30th) and Bill Wight came out to pitch in the top of the eighth trailing by a run. He pitched two solid innings but our bats were completely ineffective and we lost this one 1-0, barely looking like we even wanted to be playing anymore. Erskine, who had just four hits, with three walks, a run and five strikeouts in his seven innings, deserved better than that -- he now is 9-9 with a 4.00 ERA. Wight had two innings with just two hits, his ERA improving to 5.10. We outhit them 7-6 with Diering hitting twice, but nobody could make anything happen on the bases.

July 31, 1958: Looks like a quiet deadline day, as we face New York for the last of four games this series. Richard Sovde (6-6, 4.06 ERA, 99.2 IP, 63 K’s, 1.52 WHIP) pitched against Saul Rogovin (5-9, 4.50 ERA, 138.0 IP, 68 K’s, 1.37 WHIP). Ernie Banks hit his 31st homer of the year to put us up 2-1 in the bottom of the first, but McDougald tied it up with an RBI single in the top of the second, so Sovde himself had to put us back on top with an RBI single of his own in the bottom of the second. Ron Fairly hit a flyball double to drive in another in the bottom of the third, but in the top of the sixth Sovde gave up an RBI single by Berra and the tying run scored off a sac-fly by Hank Bauer, tying us at 4-4 mid-inning. Art Ditmar took over in the top of the seventh, and he remains an enigma on the mound ... New York took full advantage, adding three runs, and we would go on to lose the game 7-4. Ditmar, who pitched two innings with four hits, a walk and three earned runs, took the loss and fell to 0-2 with a 6.61 ERA., but New York outhit us 14-7 so it was never really close at all. Banks led the way with a hit, a walk, two runs and two RBIs, and his home run put him ahead of Mantle and Maris, and tied him with Cincinnati’s Frank Robinson at the top of the statistical standings.

The loss puts us in a tie for dead last with the Chicago White Sox, as the trade deadline passed without any real fireworks.

[jksander]

August 1, 1958: With two months left in the season and our team off to a 5-17 start since returning from the All Star break, any semblance of us competing for a .500 record are out the window. At this point we’ll be lucky to finish with a .500 record at home. I’ve decided to trim down our bullpen roster, demoting Art Ditmar, Bill Wight and Dean Stone, promoting Steve Boros, Bob Lillis and Chris Cannizzaro for extra bench depth. We’ve kept a spot open on the 25-man for an exciting waiver-wire bullpen pickup, which should become official tomorrow, and from there we’re going to ride the roster we have for what we can get in the next eight weeks as the chips fall where they will.

OOC: From here on out, I’m going to only report stats for players that they’ve put up for our team, which would include guys we’ve traded for like Johnny Kucks and Ron Negray.

Tonight we started a three-game series against Washington (54-49) here at home, and the Senators remain within eight games of first, so they’ve got plenty to fight for in these last two months. Johnny Kucks (1-3, 3.38 ERA, 29.1 IP, 16 K’s, 1.50 WHIP) pitched against Walt Masterson (5-8, 5.18 ERA, 114.2 IP, 37 K’s, 1.53 WHIP). Washington scored first, off an RBI single by Bob Allison in the top of the third, but Del Crandall hit a two-run single in the bottom of the inning to put us up 2-1. Bob Miller took over in the top of the seventh still leading by a run, and Osinski took over in the eighth at which point the wheels fell off. Tom Gorman came out with two outs and men on second and third, trailing the Senators 5-2, and we wound up losing this one badly 6-2 in the end. Osinski fell to 1-8 with a 3.27 ERA, blowing his third save with three hits, three walks, a strikeout and FIVE UNEARNED RUNS ... the poor guy has no luck at all. They outhit us 14-7, our bats continuing to lie completely dormant. Crandall led the way with two hits and two RBIs, but the rest of the team did little to impress.

August 2, 1958: Ron Negray (1-2, 5.06 ERA, 16.0 IP, 6 K’s, 1.50 WHIP) pitched against Cal McLish (6-1, 4.44 ERA, 48.2 IP, 15 K’s, 1.44 WHIP). After trading runs in the second and third, Del Crandall scored off a wild pitch in the bottom of the fifth to put us in the lead 2-1. Daryl Spencer hit a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh that was soon followed by a two-run single for Banks, giving us a 5-1 lead when Bob Miller took over in the top of the eighth. We held on from there to win the game 5-2, snapping yet another losing streak ... a solid win against a much better Senators team than we’ve been used to. Negray improved to 2-2 with a 3.91 ERA since joining our team, allowing five hits, a walk and a run with six strikeouts. They outhit us 7-4, but Banks had two hits and two RBIs, and Spencer’s homer helped us put things out of reach in the seventh.

August 3, 1958: Our waiver claim on Baltimore’s Vern Law has been completed! The 28-year-old reliever has excellent control and a reasonable four pitch arsenal, excellent stamina and incredible ability to hold runners ... his defensive abilities are through the roof, and he’ll take over in the bullpen as our long reliever effective immediately. Law has not played in the majors this year, after being cut by Detroit back in early April ... Baltimore had him playing for their AAA affiliate in Louisville, Kentucky, where he’s gone 7-6 with a 3.16 ERA through 21 starts, striking out 66 batters through 159.1 innings with a 1.31 WHIP. I don’t think he has the stuff to be a full-time starter, but he’ll get plenty of innings for us out of the bullpen in these coming months.

Milt Pappas (11-6, 2.99 ERA, 159.1 IP, 105 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) pitched today against the Senators’ Art Houtteman (4-6, 1 SV, 5.45 ERA, 102.1 IP, 34 K’s, 1.57 WHIP). Pappas struggled tonight, but he’s got to be able to pitch through this kind of game if he’s going to be a true ace ... but Vern Law got his debut more quickly than we’d anticipated, coming in with no outs and runners on first and second in the top of the seventh, trailing by a 5-2 margin. Amazingly, Law got three outs on three pitches ... Bob Allison hit a sac-fly on pitch one, Mickey Mantle took a called strike on pitch two, and then grounded into a 4-6-3 double play on pitch three! He got shelled in the eighth, however, giving up a pair of runs with just one out, and we went into the bottom of the eighth trailing by seven. That’s when the game went completely wild in our favor ... with two outs and the bases loaded, Billy Martin walked in a run to cut their lead to six. Chuck Diering then hit a two-run single, Ernie Banks hit a two-run triple, Roy Sievers hit an RBI single and Ron Fairly propelled us into the lead with a two-run homer! Osinski, who had taken over for Law in the top of the eighth, stayed out and shut them down in the ninth and we won this one 10-9! That was INCREDIBLE ... Osinski finally had a night with some GOOD luck, and he improved to 2-8 with a walk and two strikeouts in 1.2 innings, improving his ERA to 3.14. We outhit Washington 19-11, led by Banks who was insanely good tonight -- five hits, three runs and three RBIs, hitting for the cycle! Fairly was solid as well with three hits, a run and three RBIs, including the two-run bomb that won the game.

Baltimore claimed Bill Wight off waivers, so I guess we basically made a late-season trade. Ditmar and Stone both accepted their demotion to AAA Buffalo after both clearing waivers.

August 5, 1958: Carl Erskine (9-9, 4.00 ERA, 105.0 IP, 76 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) pitched against Chicago’s Jack Kralick (6-12, 3.47 ERA, 166.0 IP, 101 K’s, 1.19 WHIP). He got blown up in the fourth inning, giving up five runs as we dug a 6-0 hole for ourselves, and Vern Law took over in the botom of the fourth with two outs and nobody on. Tom Gorman took over in the top of the eighth, still trailing by six, and we lost by the same margin, dropping the game 6-0 to the White Sox as we continue to backslide. Chicago outhit us 10-4, and Erskine took the loss, allowing eight hits, two walks and six earned runs with two strikeouts in 3.2 innings. Law put in 3.1 innings of work with two hits, a walk and three strikeouts, improving his ERA to 5.79 in his second appearance, and Gorman went two innings with a walk and two strikeouts. Diering and Sievers each had a hit and a walk, but none of our hitters were able to do anything of consequence.
 
August 6, 1958: Richard Sovde (6-6, 4.17 ERA, 105.2 IP, 65 K’s, 1.54 WHIP) pitched against Chicago’s Billy Pierce (11-8, 3.57 ERA, 191.2 IP, 116 K’s, 1.18 WHIP). We spotted them a 3-0 lead and then scored eight runs ourselves in the second and third innings, including a three-run homer for Crandall in the second and a three-run homer for Carl Sawatski in the third! But Sovde couldn’t get out of the fourth inning ... Chicago got four runs back, and Bob Miller took over with one out and runners on the corners, managing to protect our 8-7 lead. Osinski came out to pitch in the top of the sixth, blowing the save when Felipe Alou hit a solo homer to tie it up. Don Bessent took over in the eighth inning, and we walked it off thanks to a passed ball that scored Billy Martin, winning the game for us 9-8! Talk about a wild ride ... Bessent got the win, his two innings without a baserunner improving his record to 3-2 with a 4.31 ERA, making up, in the end, for Sovde’s miserable 3.1 innings with nine hits, two walks and seven earned runs. They outhit us 11-9 and we still prevailed, thanks to Sawatski (a hit, two runs, three RBIs) and Crandall (a hit, a run, three RBIs).

We’ll hit the road now for four against Cleveland (63-46) and then two each at Detroit (58-48) and Chicago (46-62), before returning to Kansas City next weekend for a three-game set against Detroit. The Guardians currently lead the Tigers in the pennant chase by just 3.5 games, with the Yankees (58-50, 4.5 GB) and Senators (58-51, 5 GB) right on their tails. All the excitement this year is focused on the AL, as the NL race is all but decided ... Milwaukee (70-37) once again has an 11-game lead on the now LA-based Dodgers (59-48), with the St. Louis Cardinals (57-48) a game behind them. The Braves have gone 265-150 over the last three seasons, winning back to back championships, and they’ve become the team everyone in the league wants to bring down. But the real pressure is on the Yankees ... since 1954 they’ve gone 475-249 and they’ve been to the World Series three years in a row ... but they haven’t won the thing since 1955. With seven titles in the last twelve years but now looking at maybe not even making it to the Fall Classic at all, the pressure is on Casey Stengel to prove he still has the magic touch, as Charlie Grimm of Milwaukee looks to overtake him in reputation.

August 8, 1958: Milt Pappas (11-6, 3.16 ERA, 165.1 IP, 109 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) pitched against Cleveland’s Mike Garcia (13-6, 3.92 ERA, 167.2 IP, 88 K’s, 1.26 WHIP). This game was an absolute shootout, with the Guardians leading 9-8 when Bobby Miller took over for Pappas with an out and a man on first in the bottom of the seventh. But we found ourslelves constantly chasing and never quite getting over the top ... Cleveland wound up beating us 13-11, outhitting us 19-13 in the process. Pappas took the loss, lasting 6.1 innings with 15 hits, three walks and ten earned runs against him ... Ernie Banks hit two homers, hitting three times and adding a walk for good measure, finishing with three runs and eight batted in, eclipsing a three hit, two run, three RBI night for Chuck Diering in the process. But it wasn’t enough as our pitching and defense left a lot to be desired.

August 9, 1958: Carl Erskine (9-10, 4.28 ERA, 138.2 IP, 78 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) pitched against Ruben Gomez (10-5, 3.70 ERA, 151.0 IP, 59 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) in game two against the Guardians. Roy Sievers grounded out to first but drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the fourth inning for us, but Cleveland got the lead back in the bottom frame with singles by Al Rosen and Ruben Gomez. Vern Law took over in the bottom of the seventh, still trailing by a run, and Billy Martin tied it up in the top of the eighth with a solo homer, his fifth of the season. But the Guardians got a two-run homer off the bat of Al Rosen in the bottom of the eighth, Osinski came in and got shellacked, and we lost this one 8-2 after coming so close. Law took the loss, falling to 0-1 with a 7.50 ERA, allowing two hits, a walk and two runs while securing just four outs. But we were outhit 11-4, led by Martin with two hits, a run and an RBI.

August 10, 1958: Doubleheader day today, Richard Sovde (6-6, 4.62 ERA, 109.0 IP, 67 K’s, 1.60 WHIP) pitching against Hoyt Wilhelm (7-6, 2.95 ERA, 128.0 IP, 66 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) in game one of the day. Bob Miller took over in the top of the seventh trailing 2-0. Gorman took over in the bottom of the eighth with two outs and runners on first and second, but it didn’t matter ... we never got anything going on offense and were shut out by that same 2-0 margin in the end. Sovde fell to 6-7 with a 4.54 ERA< allowing five hits and two earned runs with three walks and four strikeouts. They outhit us 6-2, with Martin and Sievers notching a hit and a walk each but not managing to rally the rest of the team.

Johnny Kucks (1-3, 3.06 ERA, 35.1 IP, 16 K’s, 1.56 WHIP) pitched in game two against Dave Sisler (5-7, 4.13 ERA, 113.1 IP, 65 K’s, 1.37 WHIP). Walt Bond hit a solo homer to put us up quickly in the top of the first, and Ron Fairly batted in a second run with a single to give us a 2-0 lead after half an inning. But Cleveland answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning, and it stayed locked up from there. Don Bessent took over in the bottom of the sixth still knotted at two runs each, and Les Moss knocked in a two-run homer almost instantly to give the Guardians control again. Vern Law came out in the bottom of the eighth trailing by three runs, and we lost 5-2 without putting up any real fight down the stretch. Bessent took the loss, falling to 3-3 with a 4.86 ERA, allowing three runs off three hits and a walk. They outhit us 10-6, our team led by Fairly who had a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI.

August 11, 1958: No time to rest on our laurels, as we head into Detroit ... they’ve opened the door to the Senators and Yankees, who both leapfrogged them after getting swept by Chicago in three brutal losses. So they’re vulnerable, and we need a win of our own after dropping four in a row to Cleveland. Ron Negray (2-2, 3.91 ERA, 23.0 IP, 12 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) pitched against Tom Brewer (8-8, 4.21 ERA, 151.2 IP, 66 K’s, 1.32 WHIP). Ron Fairly got us a lead with an RBI single in the top of the first, and Sawatski hit a solo homer to make it a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth. But Negray got crushed in the fifth inning, handing four runs to the Tigers. Law and Osinski got us through the rest without incident, but we weren’t able to launch enough of a comeback, losing this one 5-3. Negray took the loss, falling to 2-3 with a 4.2 inning five hit three strikeout effort ... only one of his five runs was earned, and his ERA remains at 3.58 since joining the A’s. We outhit the Tigers 9-8, led by Crandall with three hits and Fairly with two hits, a walk and an RBI.
 
August 12, 1958: Chuck Diering is out the rest of the season with a severe oblique strain ... he went down a couple games ago and took this long to diagnose. Walt Bond will start at center field the remainder of the season, and we’ve made an offer to free agent outfielder Bill Bruton to play for us the remainder of this year and for next season as well to give us some depth at the position.

Milt Pappas (11-7, 3.57 ERA, 171.2 IP, 110 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) pitched today against the Tigers’ Jim Bunning (8-7, 5.45 ERA, 135.1 IP, 99 K’s, 1.47 WHIP). Carl Sawatski and Daryl Spencer hit back to back solo homers in the top of the second to put us up 2-0, and after an RBI single by Sievers, Walt Bond hit a grand slam to make it a 7-0 lead heading into the bottom of the third! We decimated them from there -- Pappas pitched a complete game and we won the game 12-1, outhitting the Tigers 13-4. Sawatski finished with three hits (two of them homers) plus a walk, with three runs and three RBIs, while Walt Bond hit twice and batted in four runs. Ron Fairly had a great night as well, hitting once with two walks, scoring two runs and batting in three. Pappas improved to 12-7 with the win, allowing four hits, four walks and a run with two strikeouts.

August 13, 1958: We’re 1-5 on this road trip so far, and the only team in baseball with a worse record than us right now is Philadelphia, the Phillies sitting at the bottom of the NL with a 42-67 record. And while it’s frustrating as hell that we’re this bad after having posted an 80-win season last year, at least we will know there’s going to be a very good draft pick playing for us next year. Tonight, however, we just wanted to find a way to beat the White Sox, with Carl Erskine (9-10, 4.23 ERA, 144.2 IP, 80 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) pitching against Jim O’Toole (9-12, 3.99 ERA, 180.2 IP, 103 K’s, 1.39 WHIP). Chicago took a two-run lead with a homer by Willie Kirkland in the bottom of the fourth, and they ran with it from there, scoring three more in the fifth to drive Erskine out of the game. Vern Law took over in the top of the sixth trailing 5-0, and he pitched the remainder of the game ... Billy Martin hit an RBI single to finally get us on the board in the top of the ninth, and Fairly batted in another with a single as well, but the rally was too little, too late. We lost his one 5-2 and continued our downward slide as the fans at home continue to express their general disinterest. Erskine fell to 9-11, allowing seven hits, a walk and five earned runs in his five innings, but Vern Law has continued to pitch well -- he had two hits and a strikeout in three innings tonight, giving him a 3.65 ERA through 12.1 innings over six appearances since we picked him up off waivers. We outhit Chicago 11-9, led by Billy Martin with a hit, a walk and an RBI. Spencer, Sawatski and Law each had two hits, but none of them were able to produce runs.

August 14, 1958: Bill Bruton signed his contract, which will pay him $11,800 per season for this year and next. He was released by the Cardinals in May, and has only had one at-bat this year ... but we mostly signed him for depth in the outfield anyway. Walt Bond, Roy Sievers and Ron Fairly will continue to start, but Bruton will be a solid backup defensively at left and center, something we greatly needed. This afternoon Richard Sovde (6-7, 4.54 ERA, 115.0 IP, 71 K’s, 1.58 WHIP) pitched against Chicago’s Stan Williams (6-14, 4.35 ERA, 153.0 IP, 112 K’s, 1.33 WHIP). It was never close ... the White Sox outscored us 6-1 through the first four innings, and though our bullpen held them off from there, we still lost badly 6-3. Sovde fell to 6-8, allowing five hits, two walks and six runs (five earned) in his five innings ... we outhit them 9-5 and still got our asses handed to us, Banks leading the way with a fourth inning homer that gives him 35 on the season.

August 15, 1958: Johnny Kucks (1-3, 2.98 ERA, 40.1 IP, 20 K’s, 1.59 WHIP) pitched against Detroit’s Bob Kuzawa (10-7, 3.84 ERA, 117.1 IP, 57 K’s, 1.37 WHIP) as we returned home to play in front of barely 8,100 jaded, frustrated A’s fans. We took the lead 5-3 in the bottom of the fourth inning thanks to a two-run double by Sievers, but the game remained tight ... Al Kaline got an RBI single in the top of the fifth to cut the lead to a run, and Vern Law took over for us in the top of the sixth. Ron Fairly hit a two-run homer to make it a 7-4 lead heading into the seventh inning, and in the top of the ninth we brought out Bob Blaylock with a man on second, no outs, and he completely shut them down as we won this one 7-4! Kucks got the win, improving to 2-3 with a 3.38 ERA, allowing five hits, three walks and four earned runs in his five innings. Law got his first hold since coming to Kansas City, and Blaylock saved his 17th game (and first since July 26th ... there haven’t been a lot of save opportunities since the All Star break for us. We outhit Detroit 11-8, led by rookie Ron Fairly who had three hits, a walk, three runs and two RBIs including his 15th homer of the season.

August 16, 1958: Ron Negray (2-3, 3.58 ERA, 27.2 IP, 15 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) pitched against Tom Brewer (9-8, 4.15 ERA, 160.2 IP, 75 K’s, 1.32 WHIP). Bill Bruton hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second to give us a 1-0 lead, but the Tigers got it back in the top of the fifth with a solo homer by Lee Walls, so Ernie Banks answered with his 36th of the season, a solo blast to left in the bottom of the third, to give us back a 2-1 lead. With the score knotted at 3-3 in the top of the ninth, Bob Miller took over for Negray, and Jim Greengrass walked in a run to take the lead back for the Tigers, and that knocked the wind right out of our sails. We went down quietly, losing 4-3. Miller took the loss, falling to 2-2 with a 3.36 ERA, allowing a hit, three walks and a run. We outhit Detroit 9-7, led by Ernie Banks with two hits, a walk, a run and an RBI. He and Roger Maris are now leading the home run race at 36 dingers apiece.

August 17, 1958: Milt Pappas (12-7, 3.44 ERA, 180.2 IP, 112 K’s, 1.31 WHIP) started the final game against the Tigers, facing Jim Bunning (8-8, 5.79 ERA, 138.1 IP, 100 K’s, 1.50 WHIP). We went into the bottom of the second trailing 3-0, but a two-run homer by Spencer got us on the board in the bottom of the second, and in the bottom of the third Roy Sievers tied it up with an RBI single and Bill Bruton hit a two-run single to give us a 5-3 lead! Pappas thought he blew it when Bill Virdon hit a two-run blast in the top of the seventh to put them up 6-5, but Ernie Banks hit a three-run blast in the bottom of the inning and we were right back on top by two. Al Kaline cut into that with a solo homer in the top of the eighth, and Tom Gorman took over with one out and empty bases, getting us out of the inning without giving up the lead. Bob Blaylock came out to close it in the ninth, and we held on to win 8-7. Pappas improved to 13-7 with a 7.1 inning effort (eight hits, two walks, seven runs), while Gorman got his eighth hold and Blaylock his 18th save. They outhit us 8-7, but Banks led the way with two hits, two runs and three RBIs as he seems to be heating back up at the right time.

We have an off day tomorrow and then hit the road for a week and a half, with two games against Baltimore (51-65), three against Washington (63-55), a Sunday doubleheader in Boston (59-58) and a pair in New York (64-54). We’ll then return to Kansas City for three against Cleveland (73-47) and three against Detroit (60-56) including a Labor Day doubleheader. The Guardians currently hold an eight game lead on the rest of the AL, and though New York has improved to second place, their run looks like it may be coming as Cleveland hits their real stride.

[jksander]

August 19, 1958: Carl Erskine (9-11, 4.39 ERA, 149.2 IP, 81 K’s, 1.34 WHIP) pitched against Baltimore’s Dave Wickersham (10-12, 4.69 ERA, 149.2 IP, 72 K’s, 1.52 WHIP), and I’ve seen bigger crowds at minor league games ... they say 5,600 fans showed up, but that has to include some season ticket folks who didn’t bother showing. Baltimore dominated anyway, taking the lead in the bottom of the first and building a 4-0 lead before we got back in the game in the top of the sixth -- Ernie Banks hit a two-run homer, and then Sawatski and Crandall hit back to back RBI singles to tie the score! Don Bessent came out in the bottom of the seventh still knotted up at four, and Osinski came out to pitch in the bottom of the ninth, at which point they walked it off with one out when Hal Smith singled in the winning run, Baltimore beating us 5-4. Osinski, our sacrificial lamb, took the loss and fell to 2-9, allowng just one hit, one walk and one run as his ERA remained 3.56 through 48 innings. We outhit them 12-7, and should have been able to win this one ... Banks led the way with two hits, a run and two RBIs thanks to his 38th homer of the year.

August 20, 1958: Richard Sovde (6-8, 4.72 ERA, 120.0 IP, 77 K’s, 1.57 WHIP) started against Bill Wight, who has gone 1-2 with a 4.35 ERA since Baltimore claimed him off waivers from us. We banged him up early, with a Walt Bond RBI single, a Daryl Spencer RBI single and Sawatski hitting into a fielder’s choice to drive in Sievers giving us a 3-0 lead after half an inning. But Baltimore got the lead back in the bottom of the inning thanks to a two-run single by Larry Green and a two-run homer by Bobby Thompson, and we went into the second inning trailing 4-3. Sievers hit a two-run double in the top of the second to put us back into the lead, but they tied it up in the bottom of the inning as we kept trading runs. Ernie Banks hit a two-run single in the top of the third, and Walt Bond walked in a run to give us a three-run lead, and in the bottom of the fourth, with rain starting to fall, Sovde seemed to settle in and we were able to hold the lead. Banks hit an RBI triple in the top of the fifth and Walt Bond got him home with a single to make it a 10-5 lead, which gave Sovde a lot more rope as he got himself through the bottom of the fifth unscathed. The game became a rout from there ... in the top of the sixth Banks walked in a run, Sievers hit into a fielder’s choice to drive in another, and Walt Bond batted in a run with a single to make it an eight run lead! The rain stopped in the bottom of the sixth, at which point Baltimore woke up with an RBI single by Gus Triandos, bringing out Vern Law with no outs and a man on second. They picked up another pair thanks to a Billy Williams homer, but Del Crandall hit a three-run homer in the top of the ninth and Law closed things out as we won in a 16-8 blowout! Sovde improved to 7-8, settling in after giving up five runs in the first two innings to finish with five innings and eight hits, a walk, a strikeout and seven earned runs. Law then earned the four inning save, allowing just two hits, two strikeouts and one earned run, as we outhit the Orioles 15-10. Walt Bond led the team with two hits, two walks and four RBIs, while Ernie Banks put up three hits, two walks, three runs and three RBIs. He has 108 runs batted in this season so far, and is on track to break his career high of 132 (set just last season) by a good margin.

August 21, 1958: We’re in Washington today for the first of three games, and Milt Pappas (13-7, 3.64 ERA, 188.0 IP, 113 K’s, 1.31 WHIP) got the start against Mickey McDermott (14-8, 3.19 ERA, 186.0 IP, 86 K’s, 1.40 WHIP). Roy Sievers got us into the lead with a two-run homer in the top of the first, and he was hit by a pitch in the top of the third to drive in a third run. Milt Pappas hit a solo homer in the top of the fourth, his first homer of the season and just his fourth in 170 career plate appearances, and we turned it into a total blowout in the top of the fifth as we batted around the order to lead 9-0 heading into the bottom of the inning. Pappas pitched the rest of the way as we put up dominating numbers, beating Washington 13-0 and outhitting them 11-2! That was just his third complete game shutout, and his first two-hitter ever, giving him a 14-7 record and a 3.47 ERA through 30 starts this year. Carl Sawatski hit twice for two runs and five RBIs, while Sievers added two hits, a walk, three runs and four RBIs. Banks didn’t get much to hit, and yet even he had a hit, two walks and a run scored as we completely unleashed on the Senators.

August 22, 1958: Johnny Kucks (2-3, 3.38 ERA, 45.1 IP, 21 K’s, 1.59 WHIP) started against Walt Masterson (6-10, 5.13 ERA, 138.2 IP, 44 K’s, 1.51 WHIP). We’ve scored 29 runs in the last two games, so a letdown was to be expected. But Sievers got us going with a solo homer in the top of the second, and trailing by a run heading into the top of the fifth we had another big inning -- Banks batted in a run with a single, Billy Martin scored off a wild pitch and Ron Fairly hit a two-run single to make it a 5-2 A’s lead! Bob Miller took over with a runner on first, no outs, in the bottom of the fifth, and he got roughed up ... Willie McCovey hit an RBI double and then Elston Howard added a two-run double to tie it up 5-5. Vern Law came out in the sixth, and a Pete Runnels triple put the Senators up 6-5 ... but Banks hit an RBI double to tie it back up heading into the stretch, and Law held firm from the mound to keep it that way. In the top of the ninth we took the lead off a three-run homer by Sievers, and Law dominated the final frame as we beat the Senators 9-6! Law pitched four innings with three hits, three walks and an earned run, winning the game and improving to 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA in his 23.1 innings this month through just nine appearances. We outhit the Senators 10-8, continuing our torrid scoring stretch thanks to Banks (three hits, two runs, two RBIs) and Sievers (two hits, two runs, four RBIs). We’ve outscored our opponents 38-14 in this three-game winning streak, and since August 12, over a 10-game stretch, we’ve outscored opponents 77-46, making a signifiant impact on what had been a miserable run differential.

August 23, 1958: Ron Negray (2-3, 3.53 ERA, 35.2 IP, 19 K’s, 1.15 WHIP) pitched against Cal McLish (6-2, 4.91 ERA, 58.2 IP, 17 K’s, 1.43 WHIP) in the final game against the Senators in this road trip. Del Crandall hit a solo homer to put us into the lead in the top of the second, and in the top of the fourth Sievers scored off a sac-fly by Crandall, followed by an E5 error that put Negray on base and drove home Ron Fairly. An RBI single by Martin coupled with an E7 error scored another run and we led 4-0 heading into the bottom of the inning. Ernie Banks added a solo homer (#39) in the top of the fifth, and though they got a run to spoil the shutout in the bottom of the ninth, Negray pitched a complete game as we won 5-1 to keep our unexpected winning streak alive! Negray improved to 3-3 with a 3.02 ERA, allowing just six hits, three walks and an earned run with three strikeouts, and we outhit Washington 8-6 to complete the sweep. Del Crandall had two hits, a run and two RBIs to lead the way while Banks’ homer gave him sole posession of the lead in the home run chase, leading Frank Robinson by one and Roger Maris by two ... Mickey Mantle and Eddie Mathews round out the top five with 35 each. Banks is on pace for 49, which if he can make it would give him 200 for his career.
 
August 24, 1958: Get yourself some beers and a couple Fenway Franks, because we’ve got a doubleheader this afternoon in Boston. Carl Erskine (9-11, 4.45 ERA, 155.2 IP, 83 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) pitched in the first game, facing Frank Baumann (9-10, 4.59 ERA, 160.2 IP, 78 K’s, 1.52 WHIP). Boston scored three runs in the bottom of the first, but we got an RBI double from Crandall in the top of the second and then went wild in the third, a three-run homer by Banks (#40) and solo homers by Sievers (#20) and Spencer (#7) giving us a 6-3 lead. Banks scored a run off a wild pitch in the top of the fifth to make it a 7-4 lead. Boston got a homer off the bat of Willie Jones with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, but Erskine got the final out to keep us in the lead. Billy Martin got a bad cut on his hand in the top of the sixth while sliding into second and driving in another run, so Bob Lillis took over, with Martin looking like he may miss at least a week with the injury. Don Osinski took over leading 8-5 in the bottom of the sixth, and with the lead cut to one run in the bottom of the ninth we brought out Bob Blaylock, who shut them down nicely as we won our fifth game in a row, this time by an 8-7 margin! Erskine improved to 10-11 with nine hits, a walk and five earned runs in his five innings of work, giving him a 4.59 ERA. Osinski got his 10th hold of the year with a three inning effort (five hits, two walks, a strikeout and two earned runs) and Blaylock saved his 19th game, not allowing a baserunner. They outhit us 14-11, but Banks again was solid with two hits, two runs and three RBIs, while Crandall hit three times with a hit and an RBI.

We’ve called up 21-year-old second baseman William Cottrell, who was a 21st rounder in 1955’s amateur draft, to start in the infield while Billy Martin recovers from his injury. Cottrell has hit .239 with 12 doubles, seven triples and five homers while playing in Buffalo this season, and he has never made it up to the majors ... he’s an excellent defensive second baseman with good skills at shorstop as well, so I’m hoping that translates as he makes his debut. He’ll start at second base for now, with Bob Lillis backing him up as his defense leaves a lot to be desired. But he won’t be available to play in today’s game, as he’ll have to meet us in New York Tuesday, so Lillis will get the start in game two today.

Milt Pappas (14-7, 3.47 ERA, 197.0 IP, 119 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) started game two of the afternoon, facing Frank Sullivan (10-13, 5.28 ERA, 180.2 IP, 103 K’s, 1.47 WHIP). Boston took a three-run lead in the bottom of the second but Banks grounded out to first and drove a run in for us in the top of the sixth, and a Walt Bond RBI single cut their lead to one run. Pappas pitched a complete game, but we weren’t able to get the tying run across and we wound up snapping the streak with a 3-2 loss. Pappas fell to 14-8 with a 3.38 ERA, allowing just four hits with four walks, three strikeouts and three runs, only one of which was earned. We actually outhit Boston 8-4, but they kept us off balance on the basepaths ... Bond led with two hits, a walk and an RBI, while Banks had two hits and an RBI.

August 26, 1958: Richard Sovde (7-8, 5.04 ERA, 125.0 IP, 78 K’s, 1.58 WHIP) pitched in game one against the Yankees, facing Vinegar Bend Mizell (10-8, 3.47 ERA, 194.1 IP, 124 K’s, 1.32 WHIP). Carl Sawatski hit a solo homer to put us up 1-0 in the top of the fifth, but Tony Kubek put the Yankees back on top with a two-run single in the bottom of the seventh. We weren’t able to get another run across, and we lost this one 2-1, another tough one-run loss. Sovde pitched 7.2 innings with three hits, five walks, two earned runs and five strikeouts, falling to 7-9 with a 4.88 ERA. We each had three hits, but they had five walks while we only had the three baserunners all night ... hard to win in that situation. Sawatski led the way with the homer, our only offense of the evening.

August 27, 1958: Johnny Kucks (2-3, 3.65 ERA, 49.1 IP, 24 K’s, 1.60 WHIP) pitched against the Yankees in our second game (and final game of this road trip), facing Mike McCormick (12-9, 3.60 ERA, 207.2 IP, 115 K’s, 1.17 WHIP). Mickey Mantle scored off an RBI single by Woodie Held to give the Yanks a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third, and when Bob Miller took over in the bottom of the seventh we still trailed by the one run. Miller was great in his two innings, but again our bats failed to find contact and we lost this one 1-0, our third one run loss in a row. Kucks took the loss, allowing just four hits with four walks and an earned run in his six innings, while Miller allowed just one hit, one walk and four strikeouts in his two innings. But New York outhit us 5-4, and we only had five baserunners all day, nobody getting on base twice.

We’ll be back in Kansas City for a three-game set against Cleveland (79-50) to end the month, followed by three games against Detroit (61-64) in the first two days of September. We’ll then hit the road to play two against Cleveland and three against Detroit ... we’ll then play 14 of our last 17 games at home, finishing with a three-game road trip to Chicago to end the season. Right now we hold a 53-73 record, in last place by 2.5 games behind Baltimore. Cleveland still leads the AL by eight games over the 70-57 Yankees. Over in the NL, the Dodgers (71-55) have closed the gap somewhat against Milwaukee (79-47), but the Braves still lead by eight games, controlling their destiny as they fight to make the World Series so they can defend their two titles. The Philllies, the only team with a worse record than us, are now 45-78 and are the only team in the majors who are mathematically eliminated from the pennant race.

[jksander]

August 29, 1958: Milt Pappas (14-8, 3.38 ERA, 205.0 IP, 122 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) pitched against Cleveland’s Tom Cheney (17-7, 4.15 ERA, 210.1 IP, 140 K’s, 1.34 WHIP). We traded runs early, with both teams scoring in the first. Cleveland took the lead in the top of the second with a Stan Lopata solo homer, but we answered in the bottom of the third with a solo homer by Spencer, and in the bottom of the seventh Del Crandall hit a solo homer to put us up 3-2. Tom Gorman took over for Pappas with one out and a man on third in the top of the eighth, but kept them from scoring thanks to a pair of flyouts. He held them off nicely from there and we actually WON a one run game, this time by a 3-2 margin! Pappas improved to 15-8 with a 7.1 inning effort, allowing nine hits, four walks and two runs while striking out five. Gorman then picked up his fourth save, with a strikeout and no baserunners through 1.2 innings, improving his ERA to 3.16 through 51.1 innings. They outhit us 9-8, but we were led by Crandall with two hits, a run and an RBI, and Spencer had a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI thanks to his homer.
 
August 30, 1958: Carl Erskine (10-11, 4.59 ERA, 160.2 IP, 85 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) pitched against Ruben Gomez (11-7, 4.04 ERA, 176.0 IP, 68 K’s, 1.29 WHIP). Erskine got blown up in the top of the first, allowing four runs, and in a disasterous second inning he gave up five more with just one out ... Vern Law came out with one out and empty bases after a Lopata grand slam, and it got ugly enough from there I’m not even going to bother detailing it. Let’s just say we got reamed in the end, losing 14-3. Erskine fell to 10-12 with eight hits, a walk and nine earned runs while only getting four outs, and we were outhit 15-5. Bond hit a seventh inning homer and Banks had his 41st in the bottom of the ninth, but there was very little about today’s game worth remembering.

August 31, 1958: Richard Sovde (7-9, 4.88 ERA, 122.2 IP, 83 K’s, 1.55 WHIP) got the start against Hoyt Wilhelm (10-6, 2.67 ERA, 158.1 IP, 84 K’s, 1.17 WHIP). Roy Sievers hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first to give us a lead, and an RBI single by Sovde in the ssecond and a solo homer by Banks (#42) gave us a 4-0 lead heading into the fourth inning. George Crowe hit a two-run blast in the top of the fourth to get Cleveland on the board, and Norm Cash hit one in the fifth that tied us up 4-4. But a sac-fly by Walt Bond put us back into the lead, Bobby Miller taking over on the mound as we went into the sixth inning. Don Bessent came out in the top of the eighth still leading by a run, and Bob Blaylock came out to close in the ninth, shutting them down as we beat the AL leading Guardians in a 5-4 victory. Sovde improved to 6-9 with a five inning six hit four run game, striking out five batters against two walks. Miller (9) and Bessent (2) got holds, while Blaylock saved his 20th game and got his ERA down to 3.25 through 40.1 innings. We outhit them 9-6, led by Sievers with two hits, a run and two RBIs, while Banks’ homer gives him a three-homer lead over Robinson! Heading into the month of September he’s hitting .327/.393/.645 with 25 doubles, six triples, 42 homers and 117 RBIs, with 6.8 WAR for the season. If it weren’t for Al Kaline hitting .383 this season and Robinson right behind him at .372, he’d be in line for a triple crown ... but that race is long out of reach.

Rosters are expanding, and we’re promoting pitchers Dean Stone and Sam Jones, alongside shortstop Donald Prohovich and third baseman Phil Jantze to the majors for the final month. Jones will come in as a sixth starter, while Stone will be an extra long relief option out of the bullpen.

September 1, 1958: Johnny Kucks (2-4, 3.42 ERA, 55.1 IP, 24 K’s, 1.57 WHIP) started against Detroit’s Bob Kuzawa (10-9, 4.15 ERA, 132.1 IP, 65 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) in our first game of the day. Dean Stone came out in the top of the sixth and the game was still scoreless, but in the bottom of the inning Ernie Banks hit his 43rd homer of the season, a two-run blast, to give us a 2-0 lead! Tom Gorman pitched in the eighth inning and completely blew it, letting the Tigers get four runs back with just one out, with Irv Noren hitting a solo bomb to get them on the board and Al Kaline knocking in three more with a homer of his own. Bessent came out to put out the fire, and Sawatski hit a sac-fly to drive in a run in the bottom of the eighth. But we couldn’t get that final run we needed, and we lost this one 4-3. Gorman blew his fourth save and fell to 5-4 with three hits and four earned runs while getting just one out, and Detroit outhit us 8-7. Banks again led the way with three hits, two runs and an RBI, as he continues to have his best season ever. If only we could build a full team around him!

Milt Pappas (15-8, 3.35 ERA, 212.1 IP, 127 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) got the start against Bob Shaw (10-12, 3.86 ERA, 196.0 IP, 93 K’s, 1.48 WHIP) in the second game of the afternoon, and Ernie Banks hit a two-run homer in the top of the first, his 44th. Johnny Callison hit a two-run blast of his own in the top of the fourth to tie us up, and they added on three runs in the top of the sixth to take control, wearing Pappas out in the process. Bob Miller took over in the top of the seventh, staying out the rest of the way as we lost 5-3. Pappas took the loss and fell to 15-9, lasting six innings with eight hits, a walk, five earned runs and six strikeouts, while Bob Miller lasted three innings with three hits, two walks and three strikeouts, giving him a 3.15 ERA through 88.2 innings over 57 relief appearances. He has put up 1.5 WAR as a reliever and could reach 100+ innings before the end of the season at his current pace. They outhit us 11-8, with Bond hitting three times and scoring a run while Banks added two hits, a run and three RBIs.

September 2, 1958: Carl Erskine (10-12, 5.06 ERA, 162.0 IP, 85 K’s, 1.40 WHIP) got the start in today’s game, facing Detroit’s Billy Hoeft (11-12, 3.93 ERA, 185.2 IP, 97 K’s, 1.34 WHIP). And we were never in this one ... Detroit outscored us 7-0 in the first four innings and, at 109 pitches already, we pulled Erskine for Dean Stone in the top of the fifth. Ron Fairly batted in two runs for us in the bottom of the sixth but that just snapped their ten run shutout. Bessent took over in the top of the eighth still trailing by eight, and that’s where it ended, Detroit creaming us 10-2. Erskine fell to 10-13 with nine hits, two walks and seven earned runs in his four innings, while the Tigers outhit us 15-4. Banks had two hits and a run, while Fairly had a hit, a walk and two RBIs.

September 3, 1958: Richard Sovde (8-9, 4.97 ERA, 137.2 IP, 88 K’s, 1.55 WHIP) started tonight against Cleveland’s Tom Cheney (17-8, 4.14 ERA, 217.1 IP, 144 K’s, 1.34 WHIP). Ernie Banks hit a two run homer in the top of the third and Sievers followed him with a solo blast that put us up 3-1 midway through the inning. Osinski took over in the bottom of the seventh with us still leading by a run, and he closed out the remainder of the game as we held on to win 3-2! Sovde improved to 9-9 with a six inning four hit, six walk, two run effort ... and Osinski got his second save, striking out one batter through three innings without a baserunner! We outhit Cleveland 9-4, led by Banks with a hit, a walk, a run and two RBIs as he reached 45 homers for the season ... he now has a six-homer lead over Robinson, now easily on pace to break 50 and shatter his career high in back to back seasons.
 
September 4, 1958: Big news in the world of baseball finances, as the Supreme Court has decided to take up a case the so-called “MLB Player’s Association” has pushed through the courts challenging the legality of the reserve clause. We’ll have to follow this closely ... the challenge has been led by Yankees reliever Sal “The Butcher” Maglie, age 41, and Cleveland right fielder Roger Maris, 23, and if they win their case the groundwork will be set for free agency to potentially rock the baseball establishment. The court is expected to hear arguments and accept amicus briefs from interested parties on October 15, and a ruling may not happen before winter meetings, so any such free agency wouldn’t be an issue before the 1959-60 offseason. But still, it’s giving us plenty to think about. You never can tell how a court led by Earl Warren will rule in something like this.

Johnny Kucks (2-4, 3.13 ERA, 60.1 IP, 27 K’s, 1.51 WHIP) got the start against Ruben Gomez (12-7, 3.99 ERA, 185.0 IP, 73 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) and this time there was no question of us staying in this game ... Cleveland scored three in the first inning and led 7-0 after four, William Cottrell getting us on the board with a solo homer in the top of the fifth, the first of his career. Vern Law took over in the bottom of the fifth, and we lost Daryl Spencer in the top of the sixth to an undisclosed injury, Chris Cannizzaro replacing him. We tried to make a frantic comeback in the top of the ninth, but would go on to lose this one 8-4 despite doubles by Sawatski and Cottrell that drove in three runs in the final frame. Kucks fell to 2-5 with a four inning start, allowing seven hits with three walks and seven runs. Law then pitched the last four innings, with five hits, two strikeouts and an earned run, improving his ERA to 3.72 through 29 innings. They outhit us 12-6, but Cottrell had a good night, hitting three times with a run and three RBIs, improving his average to .233 through his first nine games.

September 5, 1958: We’re almost done with this road trip, with three games against the 64-69 Tigers in Detroit before we can get back to Kansas City. Daryl Spencer’s knee is the culprit that led to his early exit, and we’ve decided to call it for his season ... that’s his fifth injury of the season, and he’s now completely wrecked ... we’ve decided to release him from his contract, paying out the remaining $623 still owed and giving him a chance to see if he can find a new home in free agency. Chris Cannizzaro will take over at third base for the remainder of the season.

Ron Negray (3-3, 3.02 ERA, 44.2 IP, 22 K’s, 1.12 WHIP) started against Detroit’s Bob Shaw (11-12, 3.84 ERA, 203.2 IP, 97 K’s, 1.47 WHIP), and William Cottrell hit a solo homer in the top of the fifth to put us in the lead 1-0. Ron Fairly hit an RBI double to add on in the top of the sixth, and Bob Miller took over from there, pitching the remainder of the way ... we added a run in the top of the ninth thanks to an RBI single by Cottrell, and we held tough to win 3-0. Negray got the win, improving to 4-3 with a two hit, one strikeout effort in five innings, while Miller saved his fifth game and pitched four innings, allowing three hits and a walk to complete the shutout. We outhit Detroit 8-5, led by Cottrell who had two hits, a run and an RBI, while Banks added two hits and an RBI.

September 6, 1958: Sam Jones got his first start of the season this afternoon, facing Bob Kuzawa (10-9, 4.11 ERA, 138.0 IP, 71 K’s, 1.42 WHIP). And he had a hell of a start, keeping the game scoreless through seven innings, setting us up to take the lead in the top of the eighth with an RBI single by Sawatski! Crandall then hit an RBI single that, aided by an E7 error, allowed Banks and Sawatski to score, giving us a 3-0 lead! Ernie Banks then hit a three-run blast in the top of the ninth, his 46th, and Jones completed the game as we won 6-1! He allowed eight hits and walked three with no strikeouts, allowing one earned run in the bottom of the ninth to give him a 1.00 ERA and a 1-0 record. We outhit the Tigers 9-8, led by Banks who hit once and walked once with two runs scored and three batted in.

September 7, 1958: Milt Pappas (15-9, 3.46 ERA, 218.1 IP, 133 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) pitched against Detroit’s Billy Hoeft (12-12, 3.84 ERA, 194.2 IP, 104 K’s, 1.31 WHIP). Detroit took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second thanks to a two-run single by Red Wilson, but a sac-fly by Cannizzaro gut us on the board in the top of the fourth, and he hit a two-run blast in the top of the fifth to push us into the lead 3-2 midway through the inning. With the score tied 4-4 midway through the eighth inning, Bob Miller came out to pitch, and Bob Blaylock came out in the bottom of the ninth. Unfortunately the Tigers walked it off with a homer by Harvey Kuenn on two outs, and we lost this one 3-2. Blaylock took the loss, falling to 0-4 with a 3.51 ERA, allowing just a hit and a run with one strikeout, and we were outhit 10-7 by the Tigers. Cannizzaro hit once and had a run and three RBIs, and Banks added three hits, a run and an RBI, including his 47th homer which he hit off Hoeft in the eighth inning. He now has a seven homer lead in the power challenge, and has 14 more RBIs than his nearest competitor, Roger Maris. His .333 average is now in the top five in that category as well, though he’s too far behind to get much higher than that.

It’s crazy to think how much better our season could have been if we hadn’t struggled all year in extra innings games (2-9) and one-run games (17-26), because this seems like a team that has been way better than a 58-79 record would indicate.

We’re ready for the homestretch in this long season. After an off day for travel, we’ll be back in Kansas City for our final series against Baltimore (60-76), Washington (74-64), New York (78-60) and Boston (67-70), with home and away series against Chicago (62-75) sandwiching our final one against Cleveland (85-54). And while the season hasn’t gone as expected, we can still finish strong and set a solid stage for a recovery next season. Cleveland leads the Yankees now by 6.5 games, while Milwaukee (86-52) leads the Dodgers (76-61) by 9.5 games.

[jksander]

September 9, 1958: Carl Erskine (10-13, 5.31 ERA, 166.0 IP, 89 K’s, 1.43 WHIP) started against Baltimore’s Ted Wills (6-11, 4.13 ERA, 100.2 IP, 114 K’s, 1.52 WHIP) in front of about 8,000 A’s fans at Municipal Stadium. Baltimore led from the second inning onward, and when Osinski came out to pitch in the top of the seventh we were in a 5-3 hole. Ernie Banks hit an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to cut their lead down to a single run, but we weren’t able to get over the hump, losing this one 5-4. Erskine took the loss and fell to 10-14, allowing five hits, three walks and five runs (three earned), and we matched them on hits with seven, led by Fairly and Crandall with a hit, a run and an RBI each.

September 10, 1958: Billy Martin came off the IL today and will take over as our starting second baseman. Richard Sovde (9-9, 4.89 ERA, 143.2 IP, 92 K’s, 1.56 WHIP) pitched against Dave Wickersham (12-12, 4.13 ERA, 185.1 IP, 90 K’s, 1.44 WHIP). Ernie Banks hit a solo homer in the bottom of the first to tie the score at 1-1, his 48th homer of the season, and in the bottom of the third he hit #49, though by that point we were in a 6-2 hole. We were down 10-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth but picked up five quick runs, including a two-run homer by Cannizzaro, but that was our last gasp. Vern Law got us through the remainder of the game but we lost 10-7. Sovde fell to 9-10, pitching 4.2 innings with 11 hits, three walks and 10 earned runs, but Law pitched 4.1 innings with three hits a walk and two strikeouts to keep us feeling like we could make a game of it. They outhit us 14-12, led by Banks who had two homers and has now tied his career high for homeruns. His two RBIs got him to 130 on the season, just two off his total from last year which is also a career high. He should have the home run race locked up, as nobody else is on pace to come anywhere close. The homer he hit in the third inning is also his 200th career dinger, accomplished in just his 762nd career game.

September 11, 1958: Johnny Kucks (2-5, 3.92 ERA, 64.1 IP, 31 K’s, 1.57 WHIP) pitched against Bill Wight (2-3, 4.63 ERA, 46.2 IP, 18 K’s, 1.39 WHIP). With the score still tied at zero in the top of the sixth we brought out Bob Miller, and in the bottom of the inning Ernie Banks batted in Miller with a double to get us on the board ... moments later Sievers hit a two-run blast, his 23rd of the year, to make it a 3-0 lead. Miller got in trouble in the top of the seventh, with Jerry Lumpe pushing in two runs with a single to cut our lead to one. Don Bessent came out with two outs and Lumpe on second to get us out of the jam, and we brought out Blaylock with the lead still at one run heading into the top of the ninth. But he struggled and let them take the lead on a two-run double by Hal Smith. Cannizzaro bailed him out with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning that sent us into extras, but that’s still his fifth blown save of the year. He stayed out and got us through the top of the 10th, and Tom Gorman took over in the 11th. Still knotted up with a runner on second and one out in the top of the 12th we went to Osinski, who got two critical strikeouts to keep it that way. Finally, in the bottom of the 12th inning, Ernie Banks had his hero moment, walking this one off with a two-run homer to beat the Orioles 6-4 with his 50th of the season! Osinski got the win, improving to 3-9 with a pair of K’s, improving his ERA to 3.19 through 62 innings. They outhit us 11-10, but we were led by Banks with three hits, two runs and three RBIs ... he may not wind up being the MVP this year, but he’s definitely OUR most valuable player.

September 12, 1958: Ron Negray (4-3, 2.72 ERA, 49.2 IP, 23 K’s, 1.05 WHIP) started against Camilo Pascual (19-10, 271.0 IP, 148 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) as we started our final series against the Senators. Banks hit an RBI triple in the bottom of the first to tie the game at 1-1, and Crandall hit an RBI single in the fourth to push us into the lead 2-1. Dean Stone took over in the sixth, and Sievers hit a two-run blast in the bottom of the seventh to buy us some insurance. In the bottom of the eighth Billy Martin hit an RBI single and Cannizzaro scored off a groundout by Ron Fairly, and with a solid five-run lead Bob Miller came out in the ninth to shut them down, winning this game 6-1. Negray had six hits, a walk, two strikeouts and one earned run in his five innings, and Stone got his first hold of the year by pitching three innings with one hit and a strikeout. We outhit the Senators 13-7 as we notched our 60th win of the year, led by Banks who hit four times for a run and an RBI, his average now at .340!

September 13, 1958: Sam Jones (1-0, 1.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 0 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) started today against Cal McLish (6-3, 2 SV, 5.35 ERA, 23 K’s, 1.50 WHIP). Ron Fairly hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first to put us up 2-1, and in the bottom of the second Cannizzaro scored off a wild pitch and then Jones batted in Jantze from third to make it a 4-1 lead. But Washington came roaring back with four unanswered runs, capping the comeback with an RBI double in the top of the seventh off the bat of Gene Freese. That took the wind out of our sails and we lost this one 5-4. Osinski took the loss, falling to 3-10 with a 3.29 ERA, allowing a hit, three walks and an earned run in his inning. Each team had seven hits, ours led by Fairly with a hit, a run and two RBIs.

September 14, 1958: We have a doubleheader against the Yankees today, Milt Pappas (15-9, 3.47 ERA, 225.1 IP, 137 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) pitching against Whitey Ford (8-2, 2.59 ERA, 92.2 IP, 56 K’s, 1.40 WHIP) in game one. Mantle hit an RBI double in the top of the first, but Sawatski reached on an error in the bottom of the inning and drove in a run in the process to tie it up. Pappas struggled in the sixth and seventh, giving up five runs as the Yankees expanded their lead to 7-1, and Vern Law took over in the top of the eighth to mop it up. We wound up losing 9-2, taking a real beating from the Yanks who still hope they can catch Cleveland napping and get into the World Series. Pappas fell to 15-10 with the loss, allowing eight hits and seven runs (six earned) with seven strikeouts in his seven innings, and we were outhit 13-7. Bill Bruton had two hits and a run, and Crandall added a hit and an RBI.

Carl Erskine (10-14, 5.28 ERA, 172.0 IP, 92 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) pitched against Saul Rogovin (7-13, 4.44 ERA, 106.1 IP, 91 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) in game two. Billy Martin stole second and then came around to score off a triple by Banks in the bottom of the first to give us a 1-0 lead, but Andy Carey hit a solo homer in the top of the third and this one became a real battle. Bob Cerv hit a two-run homer in the top of the sixth to give the Yanks a 3-1 lead, but Banks tied it with a two-run blast, his 51st, and Osinski took over on the mound heading into the top of the seventh. Martin hit an RBI single to give us the lead back, and Bessent came out with men on first and second, no outs, in the top of the eighth. Woodie Held batted in the tying run with a double, and this one went into extra innings. Bobby Miller took over in the top of the 10th and promptly gave up four runs, getting completely destroyed. Gorman came out with men on first, two outs, giving up two more runs and we just threw our hands up at that point. The Yankees beat us 10-4 and we looked like complete ass down the stretch. Bessent blew the save, his first, and Miller took the loss, falling to 2-3 with a 3.09 ERA after giving up six runs (three earned) off four hits and a walk. They outhit us 19-10, Banks leading our team with two hits, a run and three RBIs.

The two wins got the Yanks back to within 5.5 games of the Guardians, as the only team not eliminated from the chase in the AL.
 
September 16, 1958: Richard Sovde (9-10, 5.34 ERA< 148.1 IP, 95 K’s, 1.60 WHIP) got the start against Boston’s Mike Fornieles (11-7, 5.00 ERA, 162.0 IP, 73 K’s, 1.52 WHIP). Dean Stone took over in the sixth trailing 3-0, and Osinski came out in the eighth ... but our offense was nonexistant and we lost this one by the same 3-0 margin. Sovde fell to 9-11, allowing two hits and three earned runs through five innings. We outhit them 5-4, but only Bond, with two hits, made it on base more than once.

September 17, 1958: Johnny Kucks (2-5, 3.63 ERA, 69.1 IP, 33 K’s, 1.54 WHIP) pitched against Frank Baumann (11-12, 4.62 ERA, 189.0 IP, 90 K’s, 1.52 WHIP) in our final game against the Red Sox of the season. They burst out to a 6-1 lead after three innings, and by the time Dean Stone came out to relieve Kucks with two outs and men on the corners in the top of the fourth we were down 7-1. Bob Miller took over in the eighth inning trailing by six runs, and we lost quietly 8-2. Kucks fell to 2-6 with a miserable 3.2 innings with 14 hits, two walks, two strikeouts and eight earned runs, and the Sox out hit us 17-11. Banks led the way with two hits and a run.

September 19, 1958: We’re down to eight games remaining this season, and six of them are against the 66-79 White Sox. Tonight they came to Kansas City for the first of three games, and Milt Pappas (15-10, 3.60 ERA, 232.1 IP, 144 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) made his 35th and what may be his final start of the season, facing Jim O’Toole (14-13, 3.76 ERA, 232.1 IP, 134 K’s, 1.40 WHIP). We took the lead in the bottom of the fifth, Ron Fairly batting in two runs with a line drive single, and Bob Miller took over with the score 2-1 A’s, coming in to pitch starting with the seventh inning. Billy Martin scored off a passed ball in the bottom of the eighth and Carl Sawatski hit a sac-fly that drove in another, and Miller tried to stay out to finish the game. But with two outs and the bases loaded, Bob Blaylock came out to try and prevent a collapse. Felipe Alou hit an RBI single that drove in a pair of runs, but Larry Doby grounded out to first as we held on to win 4-3. Pappas got to keep the win, improving to 16-10 with a 3.55 ERA, allowing seven hits, two walks and an earned run through six innings.

September 20, 1958: Carl Erskine (10-14, 5.26 ERA, 178.0 IP, 95 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) pitched against Stan Williams (8-17, 4.44 ERA, 188.2 IP, 143 K’s, 1.34 WHIP). Chicago jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, but Banks hit a solo shot in the bottom of the third to get us on the board and Bond and Crandall singled in runs to make it a tied game heading into the fourth inning. Cannizzaro hit an RBI single to push us into the lead in the bottom of the fifth, and Vern Law took over in the top of the sixth, but let them back into the lead thanks to an RBI double by Jerry Coleman and an E4 error that let Coleman score. Don Bessent came out in the eighth, still trailing by a run, and he got us through the rest of it as we lost the game 5-4. Law blew his first save and took the loss, falling to 1-2 with a 3.62 ERA, allowing a hit, two walks and two runs (one earned) in his two innings pitched. We outscored them 8-6, led by Sievers with two hits and two runs, and by Banks with his 52nd homer.

September 21, 1958: The Yankees are giving Cleveland all they can handle, and have now climbed back to within three games of the league leaders. Milwaukee has clinched their spot, so they are happy to watch our AL teams slugging it out against each other. Ron Negray (5-3, 2.63 ERA, 54.2 IP, 25 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) started against Chicago’s Billy Pierce (13-12, 3.56 ERA, 260.1 IP, 159 K’s, 1.22 WHIP). Negray got shelled in the top of the first, giving up four runs, but Banks got us on the board in the bottom of the inning with his 53rd homer, a solo shot out of left. Vern Law came out in the top of the second, and HE got reamed for four runs. Dean Stone came out to get us out of the second, and then got a two-run homer from Del Crandall in the bottom of the second and a two-run double from William Cottrell in the bottom of the fourth as we did our best to claw our way back in. Dan Osinski came out in the top of the fifth trailing by three, but we never were able to get back into it. Chicago crushed us down the stretch and we lost in the end 11-6, getting outhit 16-8. Our pitchers were all over the place all afternoon, Negray taking the loss with five hits, a walk and four earned runs in his one inning, and our offense was led by Banks who hit twice with a run and an RBI.

September 23, 1958: Sam Jones (1-0, 1.80 ERA, 15.0 IP, 2 K’s, 1.47 WHIP) pitched against Cleveland’s Hoyt Wilhelm (10-7, 3.05 ERA, 174.0 IP, 91 K’s, 1.20 WHIP), and Roy Sievers hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first to put us into the lead. But Cleveland scored five unanswered in the next two innings, taking full control, Vern Law taking over with a man on first and two outs in the top of the third. We’d go on to lose in the end by a 9-5 margin, as Cleveland fought to control their destiny in the race for a pennant. Jones fell to 1-1 with 2.2 innings and three hits, with five walks and six runs (five earned). We outhit them 11-9, led by Sievers with a hit, a run and two RBIs.

September 24, 1958: It’s our final game against the Guardians for the season, and with the Yankees now within two games of them and a magic number of three, they’re so close to clinching they can taste it. Richard Sovde (9-11, 5.34 ERA, 153.1 IP, 99 K’s, 1.57 WHIP) pitched against Tom Cheney (18-9, 3.98 ERA, 246.1 IP, 164 K’s, 1.33 WHIP), and Cleveland took a 3-0 lead in the top of the third, adding on another pair in the fifth and never looking back. Sievers hit a two-run homer for us in the bottom of the seventh, coming around to score himself off a Crandall triple, but they got two runs back in the eighth and we lost 7-3, putting the Guardians within a game of clinching. Sovde fell to 9-12 with 11 hits and five earned runs in his five innings, and we were outslugged 15-8. Sievers hit twice with a run and two RBIs to lead our offense.

This was our last home game of the season ... we’ll finish the year out with three games in Chicago, guaranteed to finish last in the AL. We’re only three games up on the NL’s last place team, the Phillies, but even if we lose out and they win all their final games, I’m pretty sure they have the top pick in the draft sewn up. With nothing left to really fight for, we will not play Pappas again this season ... it’s just not worth risking his arm.
 
September 26, 1958: Johnny Kucks (2-6, 4.44 ERA, 73.0 IP, 35 K’s, 1.68 WHIP) pitched against Billy Pierce (14-12, 3.66 ERA, 268.1 IP, 162 K’s, 1.22 WHIP). Roy Sievers got us on the board in the top of the first with a walk that scored Billy Martin, and Walt Bond hit a two-run double to score Fairly and Banks, giving us a quick 3-0 lead. Sievers hit a two-run homer in the top of the third, his 27th this year, but Kucks gave it all back in the bottom of the fourth, the White Sox tying it up with a three-run homer by Willie Kirkland, all five runs scoring WITH NO OUTS! Ron Negray came out to relieve him and got us out of the inning without further bleeding, but they took the lead in the bottom of the fourth off an Alou RBI single. Bob Miller came out in the bottom of the seventh trailing 6-5, and Sawatski tied it up with a homer in the top of the eighth. Roy Sievers batted in two runs in the top of the ninth to put us into the driver’s seat, and Don Bessent came out to close, giving up a run but getting us out of there with an 8-7 win, giving us our 62nd win of the year. Miller improved to 3-3 with just a hit in his two innings, giving him a 3.04 ERA through 106.2 innings this season, and Bessent earned his fourth save, allowing four hits and a walk, striking out one batter with one earned run. They outhit us 12-11, Sievers leading the way for us with two hits, a run and four RBIs.

September 27, 1958: Vern Law (1-2, 1 SV, 4.24 ERA, 40.1 IP, 14 K’s, 1.44 WHIP) started today against Bernie Daniels (6-8, 5.11 ERA, 105.2 IP, 49 K’s, 1.65 WHIP). Law gave up four runs in the bottom of the third, and that was all Chicago needed, as they’d go on to win easily 4-1. Law took the loss with five hits and four earned runs in his 2.2 innings, with Dean Stone and Dan Osinski pitching through the remaining 5.1 frames with three hits, three walks and two strikeouts combined. We were outhit 8-2 and only had five baserunners the entire game, a ninth inning solo homer by Sievers our only offense.

September 28, 1958: Carl Erskine (10-14, 5.26 ERA, 183.0 IP, 99 K’s, 1.43 WHIP) got his 32nd and final start of the year in this last game of the season, facing Jack Kralick (10-16, 3.55 ERA, 245.2 IP, 135 K’s, 1.26 WHIP). Chicago built a 5-0 lead in the first three innings, but a Cannizzaro RBI single and a two-run single by Ron Fairly put us on the board trailing 5-3 midway through the fifth. We traded runs from there, Osinski coming out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh trailing 6-4, and Miller took over in the eighth with the score unchanged. We couldn’t get any more runs to score, however, and Chicago stumped us 6-4, ending our season with a 62-92 record that ties us for our worst record with the 1955 season. Erskine finished his season with a 10-15 record and a 5.38 ERA, allowing 12 hits and six earned runs with a walk and four strikeouts. They outhit us 14-6, Fairly leading the way with two hits, a walk and three RBIs. He finished his rookie campaign with a .246 average, 26 doubles, 17 homers and 70 RBIs, giving him 3.5 WAR and at least a shot at nabbing Rookie of the Year honors.

Ernie Banks finished with 53 homers and was named the home run champion! He finished with a .337 average and led both leagues in RBIs with 139. His 28 doubles and nine triples coupled with all the dingers led him to put up 8.4 WAR, and he had a +4.4 zone rating with only eight errors all season, which should help him win his third consecutive Gold Glove at first base.

Cleveland finished with a 91-63 record, beating the Yankees by two games and securing their return to the World Series for the first time since 1954. They haven’t won a title since 1948, and this is just their fourth ever pennant win. They’ll face off against the 95-59 Milwaukee Braves to see if they’re the team that can finally break their championship streak.