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

[jksander]

April 10, 1961: Jack Kralick made his first appearance of the season this afternoon in front of 27,000 fans in Washington excited to see their expansion Senators get going in the league, with George Brunet, formerly of Boston’s Red Sox, helming the mound. It’s a new team in the same stadium, so there has to be a lot of whiplash felt among Senators fans, as their team that was on the rise now plays in Minnesota and they’re stuck starting with scraps. We took the lead in the top of the third with a solo homer by Minnie Minoso, adding on with a two-run homer by Ernie Banks in the fourth ... but they got on the board in the bottom of the sixth with a solo homer by Gus Bell, adding a run off a single by Ken Aspromonte and tying the score off a wild pitch. Freddie Burdette took over in the bottom of the eighth, still tied up at 3-3, and he got absolutely DESTROYED. Merrill Silver took over with two outs, a man on third and the Senators leading by five, with their fans coming close to blowing the roof off the bleachers. We would go on to lose 8-4, an inauspicious beginning, Burdette giving up five unearned runs off a hit and four walks in that terrible eighth inning, giving him the loss, while Kralick was solid with seven innings and five hits, four walks and three runs (one earned). We outhit them 7-6, but two critical errors flipped the script. Minoso led the way offensively with two hits and a walk including his homer, while Banks batted in a pair with his.
 
April 12, 1961: Billy Pierce got his first start of the year against Senators pitcher Carl Willey, who went 7-8 with a 3.96 ERA last year in St. Louis. Ernie Banks hit an RBI single in the top of the first to put us on the board, but Washington took control in the bottom of the third thanks to a two-run single by Frank Malzone and an RBI single by Gus Bell. Willie Davis hit an RBI single in the top of the eighth to get us within a run, and we took the lead off a three-run powerbomb by Banks, but in the bottom of the inning we let them tie it up with a two run blast by Bell to send us into the ninth inning knotted up 5-5. Raul Puig came out in the bottom of the inning still tied up, and this one went into extra innings. Dick Drott took over in the bottom of the 12th inning, and he got two outs but placed runners on the corners, and that was enough to set up Gus Bell to walk it off with a single, as the expansion Senators beat us 6-5. This is far from the start we anticipated, even being that we’re starting on the road. Pierce lasted eight innings but allowed 10 hits with four walks and five earned runs, and though Puig went three innings with a hit and two strikeouts, Drott wound up taking the loss with two outs, two hits, a walk and a run scored. They outhit us 13-12, Minoso leading the way with four hits and two runs while Willie Davis hit three times with a run and an RBI.

April 13, 1961: Jim O’Toole started in our third game in Washington, facing Bob Kuzawa, who went 8-15 last year in Boston with a 4.24 ERA. Wally Post hit a two-run homer in the top of the second to get us started, but again they tied it up in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run single by Kuzawa. Freddie Burdette took over in the bottom of the eighth, still tied up, and he got us safely through the inning. With two outs in the top of the ninth we took the lead with a walk by Jim Piersall, scoring another with a wild pitch to go into the bottom of the inning up by a pair. Burdette held his own from there, and we got out of Washington with a 4-2 win, avoiding the opening series sweep. Burdette improved to 1-1 with a 0.00 ERA, allowing a single hit with 18 pitches thrown in two innings, and we outhit Washington 9-5. Ernie Banks had three hits and a run, while Wally Post added two hits, two runs and two RBIs thanks to his first homer of the season.

April 14, 1961: Next up is a three game series in Detroit against the Tigers, who went 1-1 against the Cleveland Guardians in an opening series in Detroit. Stan Williams got his first start of the season, facing Don Rowe, their 25-year-old who went 4-7 last year with a 5.28 ERA in about a dozen starts. Willie Davis hit a homer in the first inning, driving in two runs as we took another quick lead. But Stan Williams was injured in the bottom of the inning ... with two outs and a man on first, he had to be pulled with an abdominal strain, and we had to had to bring out emergency starter Warren Hacker. He got us out of the inning while stranding the runner, but that got our night off to a rough start. In the bottom of the fourth Hacker gave up a two-run homer to Tom Haller, and Johnny Callison grounded out to first but let Russ Snyder score from third to push the Tigers into the lead. Bob Porterfield took over in the bottom of the fifth, and in the bottom of the seventh they added on three runs to turn this into a beatdown. Raul Puig took over with two outs and clear bases, getting us out of the inning, but the damage was done. Willie Davis hit a homer in the top of the eighth, his second of the game and of the season, and Bobby Morgan hit a solo shot in the ninth to get us back within two, but it didn’t matter ... we lost 4-2 as our bullpen unexpectedly had to carry the entire load. Hacker took the loss, pitching 3.1 innings with three hits, a walk and three earned runs, and Porterfield got rung up with 2.2 innings and four hits with three earned runs. We matched them with eight hits, led by Davis who had three hits, two runs and three RBIs.

We’ve moved Fred Green back down to AAA to make room for Bob Rush, who will be making his return from the shoulder inflamation that kept him from playing all of last year. The 35-year-old. He’ll either still have something left in his arm, or we’ll have to eat the remainder of his $22,000 contract, as he’s refused to go to the minors. Williams’ injury shouldn’t keep him out of the rotation, he’s expected to be at full strength by the time we head back to Kansas City, and will likely start in our Boston series that takes place next weekend after our opening home games against Kansas City.

April 15, 1961: Chuck Stobbs made his first start of the season this afternoon in Detroit, facing Howie Reed, who went from bullpen to starter last year while putting together a 5-5 record with three saves and a 3.77 ERA through 129 innings over 37 appearances. Once again we started strong, scoring two runs off a single by Wally Post in the top of the first, and though they got a run each in the first and second to tie it up, we scored six in the top of the fourth including a three-run homer by Ernie Banks, his third already this season! They got a run back in the bottom of the sixth, but Gene Freese hit his first homer of the year in the seventh as a quick reply and we were up 9-3 heading into the stretch. Bob Rush came out in a mop up role in the bottom of the seventh, and he got through the inning though he gave them two runs back to make the game closer than we’d have liked. He got an out in the eighth but when Willie Sturgell hit one out of the park in right to cut the lead to three, we brought out Merrill Silver to keep this from getting any worse. He was effective, getting us out of the inning without sacrifing further runs, and in the bottom of the ninth Freddie Burdette came out to pitch, and yet again this game got out of our control ... Burdette gave up a two-run double to Tom Tresh and just like that we were tied up 9-9 again and looking down the barrel of yet another collapse. Tresh scored off a walk-off double by Tom Haller, and we lost 10-9. Burdette blew his save attempt and lost his second game in three tries, allowing four hits, a walk and four runs as his ERA exploded to 12.00. Worse, we squandered a 12 hit game from our offense by letting them have 14, Willie Davis hitting two times for two runs and two RBIs, while Banks added two hits, a run and three RBIs. 

April 16, 1961: Josh Kralick (0-0, 1.29 ERA, 7.0 IP, 4 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) pitched against Bob Shaw (1-0, 2.25 ERA, 8.0 IP, 2 K’s, 1.00 WHIP) in our final game of the series in Detroit, and the Tigers drew first blood in the bottom of the first with an RBI double by Haller. We answered with an RBI double by Sherm Lollar to tie it up in the top of the second, and Jim Piersall hit an RBI single to push us into the lead in the top of the fifth. Back to back RBI singles for Piersall and Freese added nicely to our lead in the top of the seventh, but they threatened in the bottom of the inning, Puig taking over for Kralick with two outs and men on the corners, our lead cut to 4-2. Willie Davis made a great catch at the wall in right to prevent a hard-hit Tresh ball from turning this game completely around, and Puig safely got us through the eighth without even breaking a sweat. They got a run back in the bottom of the ninth when Don Blasingame hit a sac-fly that let Johnny Callison tag up and score from third, and once again we dropped the ball ... Bill Virdon hit a triple to drive in the tying run, and with a groundout to first we found ourselves heading into extra innings in yet another game we had in the f---ing bag. Dick Drott came out in the bottom of the 10th, and in the top of the 11th Wally Post hit a solo homer out of left to put us back into the lead, and Jim Pagliaroni scored off an RBI double by Bobby Morgan. Drott held his ground in the bottom of the inning and we got out of there with a 6-4 win, improving to 2-4 in our first road trip of the season. Puig blew his first save of the year, allowing three hits, a walk and a pair of runs with one strikeout in his 2.1 innings. Lucky for us, Drott was solid in his two innings, improving to 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA, walking two players but nothing else. Detroit outhit us 12-9, but we escaped thanks to our power hitting, with Wally Post hitting twice with his homer giving him a run and an RBI, while Jim Piersall added two hits, a walk, a run and two RBIs.

It’s a small sample size and all on the road, but we have not looked great in this pair of three-game series. Our starters have a 3.31 ERA, but our bullpen has been pushed to the max, a 6.91 ERA as a group through their first 20.2 innings combined. We’ve already lost two one-run games and we’re 1-1 so far in extra innings. Hopefully a stretch of games in our home stadium will get us going back in the right direction.

April 18, 1961: Nobody thought we’d be 3.5 games out of first already this year when coming home to play the expansion Senators who had the same record as us, both teams just half a game out of last place. Plenty of time to right the ship, but it was sobering for sure. Billy Pierce (0-0, 5.62 ERA, 8.0 IP, 3 K’s, 1.75 WHIP) definitely wants tonight to be a mulligan for what happened in his first game, and he faced Carl Willey (0-0, 5.14 ERA, 7.0 IP, 5 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) in front of just over 40,000 hometown fans. We took the lead in the bottom of the second with a two-run homer by Wally Post, and moments later Bobby Morgan hit one to make it a 3-0 lead. They got on the board in the top of the third with Willie Kirkland reaching on an error and allowing Luis Aparicio to score. But Ed Bailey then hit a two-run blast for us in the bottom of the inning, becoming our seventh player this year to pick up a home run. Pierce had a rough start to his eighth inning and got pulled, no outs, loaded bases, for Freddie Burdette while we led by a mere three runs. With one out, Albie Person hit a sac-fly that scored Frank Malzone from third, but Burdette got us out of the inning with a two run lead still safe. Burdette hit an RBI single in the top of the ninth to drive in a run, and a single from Jim Piersall extended our lead to four ... Burdette shut them down effectively from there and we won this one 7-3 while outhitting the Senators 10-9. Pierce became our first starter of the year to pick up a win, pitching seven innings with seven hits, five walks, three strikeouts and three earned runs as he improved to 1-0 with a 4.80 ERA. Burdette got his first save of the year with two innings and just two hits, and his ERA improved to 7.20 through five innings. Wally Post led the way with two this, a run and two RBIs, while Ed Bailey added a hit, two walks, two runs and two RBIs.

April 20, 1961: Stan Williams (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.2 IP, 1 K, 1.50 WHIP) got a shot at a clean slate after picking up two outs in his first game before leaving injured. He went up against George Brunet (0-1, 7.50 ERA, 12.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.58 WHIP). We took the lead in the bottom of the first when Ernie Banks grounded into a double play that let Minoso score, and Piersall scored moments later off a walk by Gene Freese. Raul Puig took over in the top of the seventh leading 4-2, but we lost Ernie Banks to an undisclosed injury in the top of the eighth, which cast a pall on the stadium. Freddie Burdette came out in the top of the ninth leading still by the two runs, and he got shelled, giving up four runs as we loaded the bases on two outs. Dick Drott came out and got our last out, but we were up to bat in the bottom of the inning now TRAILING by two, and the crowd was letting us hear it. We lost this one 6-4, another loss stolen from the jaws of victory, and Burdette is now 1-3 with two blown saves and a 7.94 ERA after his first five appearances, our bullpen issues continuing to be the one thing I can’t find a solution for. They outhit us 9-6, with Banks leading the way with a hit, a run and two RBIs before his injury. Luckily it turned out to be a bruised shoulder and not a fracture, as had been the fear ... Banks should be day to day for our Boston series, but will not miss extended innings.

Our 3-5 White Sox will play the 5-2 Boston Red Sox for four games here in Chicago, followed by a pair against the 2-6 Los Angeles Angels. We’ll then spend a week on the road, facing Kansas City (2-5) for three and Minnesota (3-5) and Cleveland (5-2) for two to get us into June. And the gap is widening between us and the AL’s leaders in New York, the undefeated Yankees, who are currently 8-0 and showing no signs of slowing down.

April 21, 1961: Jim O’Toole (0-0, 2.57 ERA, 7.0 IP, 1 K, 0.86 WHIP) pitched against Frank Baumann (1-1, 4.72 ERA, 13.1 IP, 8 K’s, 1.20 WHIP) in our first game of the year against the Red Sox in front of 27,000 of our most ardent fans here at Comiskey. Willie Davis scored off an Ed Bailey RBI single to put us into the lead in the bottom of the first, and after half a dozen gruelling innings of intense dueling, we opened things up in the bottom of the seventh with back to back RBI singles from Piersall and Davis, and we added two more before the inning was done to give us a five run lead heading into the top of the eighth. O’Toole pitched our first complete game of the season and we held tough to win this one 5-0, allowing just five hits and two walks while striking out five. We only outhit them 8-5, but we made our hits count ... Bailey led the way with two hits and two RBIs, while Jim Piersall had a hit, two walks, a run and an RBI.
 
April 22, 1961: Chuck Stobbs (0-0, 4.50 ERA, 6.0 IP, 2 K’s, 1.00 WHIP) made his second start of the season, facing Harvey Haddix (0-1, 9.00 ERA, 5.0 IP, 4 K’s 1.80 WHIP). We matched each other with a run each in the first inning, but back to back doubles, including an RBI double from Piersall, gave us the lead in the bottom of the third, and Banks hit a two-run homer to add on, already giving him five just ten games into the season! But the Red Sox tied it up in the top of the fifth with a three-run homer by Granny Hamner, and with a runner on first and one out in the top of the seventh we brought out Freddie Burdette who kept us tied heading into the stretch. Bob Allison hit a solo homer in the top of the eighth to put the Red Sox into the lead, but Puig kept them from adding on in the top of the ninth. Ed Bailey led off in the bottom of the inning and hit a solo bomb out of right to tie the score at five all, and Wally Post came up next to walk it off with a homer out of left as we gutted the Red Sox with a 6-5 victory! Back to back homers to start the bottom of the final inning, that’s the wildest way to win a game I’ve seen as a manager. Puig took the victory, with a hit and two strikeouts in his inning as he improved to 1-0 with a 1.86 ERA through five bullpen appearances and 9.2 innings. We outhit the Red Sox 9-8 strictly off the successful ninth inning and our three homers of the game via Banks, Bailey and Post. Banks led the team with two hits, a run and two RBIs.

April 23, 1961: Time for our first of TWENTY doubleheaders this season, a significant increase brought on by this year’s expansion and the addition of eight games to the regular season ... that’s definitely going to impact pitcher rotations around the league, but we’re definitely up for the challenge! Dick Drott (1-1, 3.00 ERA, 3.0 IP, 0 K’s, 1.67 WHIP) got the start in game one, with Kralick set to pitch in the second game. Drott faced Eddie Davenport, age 23, who is off to a 2-0 start with an 0.69 ERA, 13.0 IP, 8 K’s, and a 1.15 WHIP, a breakout start after playing in just ten games last year over 34 innings. We took the lead in the bottom of the first with an RBI single by Ed Bailey, but in the top of the fourth they tied it up with an RBI single by Joe Adcock and took the lead with a sac-fly by Marty Keough that allowed Floyd Robinson to tag up and score. We took the lead back in the bottom of the fifth with a pair of RBI singles from Piersall and Banks, and Drott got himself a quality start by pitching us through the sixth without anyone getting the tying run across. We added on a pair in the bottom of the sixth, and Warren Hacker came out to pitch in the top of the seventh with a three-run advantage. We kept hitting well, scoring two more in the bottom of the seventh, but they got those back in the top of the eighth, and Merrill Silver came out with Floyd Robinson on first and two outs to try and stop the bleeding. He got Joe Adcock to pop out harmlessly to left, ending the frame with us leading still 7-4, and an Ed Bailey sac-fly allowed Willie Davis to score and provide him with extra room to breathe heading into the top of the ninth. Silver, who had only thrown two pitches in the eighth, stayed out for the final frame, but with one out an error at second loaded the bases, making it a lot more tense around here ... pinch hitter Solly Hemus hit into a fielder’s choice and we got the out at home plate, but a run scored off a wild pitch and with two outs and men on second and third we brought out Raul Puig to face Horace Clark with the count 1-0. He did what needed to be done, getting Clark to bounce one straight to Banks on the hot corner, who made a great throw out to first and we got out of there with an 8-5 win. Drott got the bullpen win, improving to 2-1 with a 2.00 ERA thanks to his six innings with just two hits, a walk and three strikeouts with two runs, only one of which was earned. Hacker and Silver picked up holds, and Puig got his first save off three critical pitches. We outhit Boston 9-7, led by Bailey who hit three times with two walks, two runs and two RBIs.

Jack Kralick (0-0, 1.98 ERA, 13.2 IP, 8 K’s, 1.46 WHIP) got the start in game two of the afternoon, and with the bullpen limited (just Porterfield and Rush are fully rested, with Burdette relatively worn down after throwing 18 pitches yesterday) we’re really hoping for a strong outing from our Cy Young-winning ace. Jim Piersall hit an RBI single in the bottom of the third to push us into the lead, and we piled on in the bottom of the fifth, starting with a solo homer from Bobby Morgan and adding on a two-run single by Banks, an RBI single from Jim Pagliaroni, and a Willie Davis run scored when Wally Post reached on an error. Four more runs scored for us in the bottom of the seventh as this became a rout, and Kralick got his first complete game of the season as we swept the Red Sox with a 10-0 win! Kralick had a two-hitter tonight, with one walk and three strikeouts, improving him to 1-0 with a 1.19 ERA as we outslugged the Red Sox 13-2. Minnie Minoso led the way with three hits, two runs and an RBI, while Bobby Morgan added two hits, a walk, two runs and an RBI.

Our four game winning streak now has us at 7-5, just three games back of the 10-2 Yankees but in fourth place in the AL. But we’re finally looking like the team we were at the end of last year. We’ve got a pair of games against the expansion LA Angels (2-9) tomorrow and Tuesday, and then after a day off for travel we’ll head west to face Kansas City (3-7) for three and then Minnesota (4-7) and Cleveland (7-3) for two each before returning home for two weeks of games.

[jksander]

April 24, 1961: Tonight Billy Pierce (1-0, 4.80 ERA, 15.0 IP, 6 K’s, 1.73 WHIP) faced off against George Aitken (0-1, 11.25 ERA, 4.0 IP, 4 K’s, 2.25 WHIP) in our first game of the year against the Angels, and this one became a surprising pitcher’s duel. In the bottom of the sixth we finally broke through with a solo homer from Sherm Lollar to go up 1-0. They had a chance in the top of the ninth, with men on the corners and two outs, but Ramon Conde popped out to short and we were able to escape with the 1-0 win. Pierce pitched a six-hit shutout with a walk and five strikeouts, and we outhit Los Angeles 10-6, led by Piersall with three hits, while Lollar’s homer provided our winning run -- it was his first of the year!

April 25, 1961: Stan Williams (0-0, 2.70 ERA, 6.2 IP, 3 K’s, 0.90 WHIP) pitched against David Palmer (1-1, 6.94 ERA, 11.2 IP, 8 K’s, 1.71 WHIP) in game two against the Angels, and we struck quickly, taking the lead with an RBI single by Willie Davis and then slamming them with a three-run Ernie Banks homer to give us a 4-0 lead heading into the top of the second. That was all Williams would need to get the win, but we piled on from there, and he pitched a complete game three-hitter as we stomped the Angels 11-1. He struck out seven against one walk, improving to 1-0 with a 1.72 ERA as we outhit Los Angeles 12-3. Ernie Banks led the team with two hits, two runs and four RBIs, giving him 20 batted in already this year, while Wally Post hit twice with two runs and two RBIs, including his fifth homer of the year, sitting just one behind Banks as both remain on a torrid pace.

April 27, 1961: The A’s have their first rounder from this year, Tony Oliva, batting cleanup this year and the 22-year-old rookie hasn’t hit well yet ... but he could be positively lethal by the end of this season, he looks that good. They also have #2 prospect Pete Rose, the #3 pick from last year’s draft, batting sixth, and he is hitting well ... .250 so far with two doubles and a triple. So this is a team I definitely expect to be a pain in our ass all year. Half of their top prospects aren’t even at the MLB level yet, but by the end of the season they could have nine top 50 prospects up at this level, so that’s got us keeping a wary eye on them. But the big shock of the season was that they traded Milt Pappas to the f---ing Yankees back in November, in exchange for middling outfielders Don Buford and Ted Savage, a trade that shows their owner continues to be an absolute assbag ... Pappas was earning $132,000 and still had arbitration time left, but I remember that guy and his complete unwillingness to spend money. So their ace is now in New York with a 4-hit shutout under his belt, his record now 2-0 with a 1.44 ERA, an 0.84 WHIP and 1.2 WAR after just three starts. That may go down as one of the worst trades of the decade and we’re only just getting started!

We came into this game with a 9-5 record, in second place and 2.5 games behind the 11-2 Yankees, with Jim O’Toole (1-0, 1.12 ERA, 16.0 IP, 6 K’s, 0.81 WHIP) facing off against John Buzhardt (1-2, 5.94 ERA, 16.2 IP, 8 K’s, 1.74 WHIP). We were quick to get a lead, Willie Davis hitting an RBI double in the top of the first, with Jim Piersall scoring a second run off a sac-fly by Banks to give us a 2-0 lead midway through the first. Banks hit his seventh homer of the season in the top of the sixth to add on a run, and Freddie Burdette took over on the mound in the bottom of the eighth with a three-run lead to protect. He pitched the rest of the way and shut them down as we won 3-0. O’Toole improved to 2-0 with an 0.78 ERA, allowing two hits and two walks with four strikeouts through seven shutout innings, and Burdette saved his second game, improving his ERA to 5.79 thanks to just two hits, a walk and a strikeout in his two innings. We outhit Kansas City 7-4, led by Banks with two hits, a walk, a run and two RBIs as he moved into a three-way tie with Norm Cash (Cleveland) and Eddie Mathews (Milwaukee) for second place in the home run race ... Pittsburgh’s Willie Mays has nine to lead both leagues, putting him on pace to shatter Babe Ruth’s record at this early point in the season. The 29-year old is just five homers away from his 300th career dinger, while Ernie Banks, at age 30, is now within eight of that mark.

April 28, 1961: Chuck Stobbs (0-0, 5.11 ERA, 12.1 IP, 5 K’s, 1.05 WHIP) pitched against Kansas City’s Eddie Fisher (0-2, 4.34 ERA, 18.2 IP, 6 K’s, 1.60 WHIP), and again we wasted no time, putting up five runs on them without batting an eye, and none of them came off more than a single as everybody in our lineup took a turn in the batter’s box. But Stobbs took a beating from there, giving up two runs in the second, two in the third and FOUR in the fourth, and with two outs we pulled him for Warren Hacker, trailing incredibly by an 8-5 margin. What the absolute hell, Stobbs? We got two of the runs back off a homer by Gene Freese in the top of the sixth, and Raul Puig took over in the bottom of the inning with one out and a man on first. He got us out of the inning off a double play that kept them from adding on, and handled things perfectly in the bottom of the seventh as well. That’s when Freese, with two outs and Wally Post on second in the top of the eighth, hit himself a two-run blast to give him his second of the game and third of his season, putting us back into the lead! Puig pitched another gem of an inning without a baserunner to get us into the top of the ninth still up a run, and with one out and a man on first we brought out Dick Drott to finish things off in the bottom of the ninth. But he loaded the bases on two outs, and they tied the game with an RBI single by Roy Sievers, and this one went into extra innings tied up 9-9. Freddie Burdette came out in the bottom of the 10th still tied up, and with two outs Steve Boros hit a walk-off homer to beat us 10-9, snapping our win streak at seven games. Drott blew the save, and Burdette took the loss, falling to 1-4 with a 6.30 ERA, allowing just the one hit with one strikeout while getting two outs. But after Stobbs’ nine hits and eight earned runs through 3.2 innings to start this game, we had no business being in it at all beyond that. They outhit us 15-10, our team led by Gene Freese with two homers and a walk, batting in five runs while scoring a pair.

Minnie Minoso picked up a hit in this game, extending his hitting streak to 20 games ... the 35-year-old first baseman has long been a fan favorite, and he’s hitting .397 with six doubles, a triple and two homers so far this year with 16 runs scored himself and four batted in, his best start since hitting .344 back in 1958.
 
April 29, 1961: Jack Kralick (1-0, 1.19 ERA, 22.2 IP, 11 K’s, 1.01 WHIP) pitched against Ron Negray (0-2, 3.46 ERA, 13.0 IP, 7 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) in game three of the Kansas City series, and for the second day in a row we got ourselves a quick five-run inning, this time coming in the top of the second thanks to an RBI single by Kralick, a three-run double by Minoso, and an RBI single by Willie Davis. And this time we left no doubt, brutalizing them with five more runs in the top of the fifth and two more in the seventh! Kralick blew his chance at a no-hitter in the bottom of the seventh when Pete Rose hit an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh (Walt Bond had walked, advancing to second when Ron Fairly got hit by a pitch, scoring from second off the Rose single). But that run didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, as we completely reamed the A’s, winning 13-1 while outhitting them 14-3. Kralick improved to 2-0 with a 1.14 ERA, allowing just three hits with two walks and the one earned run, our team led by Gene Freese with three hits, two runs and three RBIs, while Ed Bailey added three hits, two runs and an RBI. Minoso also kept his streak going, getting a hit and a walk, scoring one and batting in three in the leadoff spot.

April 30, 1961: Time to make our first trip to the Twin Cities to face the Minnesota Twins for the first time since they left Washington. The Twins are off to a 7-9 start, so the fans out there were fairly sparse as we braved 48-degree temps under cloudy skies for a 3:05 first pitch, Billy Pierce (2-0, 3.00 ERA, 24.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.38 WHIP) facing off against Camilo Pascual (2-2, 5.28 ERA, 29.0 IP, 15 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) at Metropolitan Stadium. We took the lead in the top of the second with an RBI single by Pierce, but they tied it up with a homer from Harmon Killebrew in the bottom of the fourth. We retook the lead in the top of the seventh with another RBI single from Pierce, and our starter got us through the eighth with that lead still safe. But after getting one out quickly in the bottom of the inning, he surrendered back to back hits, and with Willie McCovey on third and Elston Howard on first, still just one out, we brought out Freddie Burdette to get us out of the jam. He got Danny Cater to pop one out to Freese at short, and a grounder to Burdette and a quick throw out at first were all we needed to escape with the 2-1 win! Pierce improved to 3-0 with a 2.51 ERA, pitching 8.1 innings with seven hits, two strikeouts and one earned run, and Burdette got his third save with two outs off 10 pitches to improve his ERA to 5.91 in as high leverage a situation as you’re likely to see in a road game with a lead to protect. We matched them with seven hits, Pierce leading the way with two hits and two RBIs. Minoso was unable to get on base today, and his hitting streak will unfortunately come to an end.

We finished the month with a 12-6 record, which I’m definitely pleased about considering how we started. We’re in third place in the AL, just one game behind the New York Yankees (14-6) and the Cleveland Guardians (13-5), with a two-game lead over Detroit (10-8) and Boston (11-9). We’re 7-1 at home and 5-5 on the road, and we’re 3-3 in one-run games which is already an improvement over last year ... and based off our Pythagorean record (and our +43 run differential) we’re essentially equally matched against both the Yankees and the Guardians ahead of our first trip to Cleveland in a couple days. It’ll be three and a half weeks before we play the Yankees for the first time, so there’ss still plenty of time to assert our dominance.

May 1, 1961: Stan Williams (1-0, 1.72 ERA, 15.2 IP, 10 K’s, 0.64 WHIP) pitched against Gerald Neal (1-2, 5.89 ERA, 18.1 IP, 8 K’s, 1.31 WHIP), and we took the lead with a walk by Williams in the top of the second. Ernie Banks hit a solo homer in the top of the third, his eighth of the year, and Willie Davis hit one in the top of the seventh to add on, his third of the year. But Williams got into trouble in the bottom of the seventh, giving back two of the runs, and we had to bring Raul Puig out with one out and a man on first to put out the fire. They tied it up with two outs on a wild pitch, but Puig got out of the inning with a pop-out to left by Pedro Gonzalez so we still had a chance to salvage things with our bats. Warren Hacker took over in the bottom of the eighth still knotted up at three each, however, and it did not go well ... Eddie Yost hit a two-run homer out of left to give them a 5-3 lead, and with two outs and men on first and second we brought out Merrill Silver, who got us out of the inning with a groundout to first by Bob Veale as they nearly batted around. We weren’t able to make anything happen in the top of the ninth and Minnesota took this one 5-3. Puig blew his second save of the year, and Hacker took his second loss, falling to 0-2 with an 8.59 ERA through 7.1 innings. We outhit them 9-8, led by Willie Davis with two hits, a run and an RBI.

May 2, 1961: We head into Cleveland for a pair of road games, our 12-7 team going up against their 13-5 team, currently trailing them by a game and a half. Jim O’Toole (2-0, 0.78 ERA, 23.0 IP, 10 K’s, 0.74 WHIP) pitched against Cleveland’s Don Nottebart (2-0, 1.56 ERA, 17.1 IP, 7 K’s, 1.04 WHIP). Minnie Minoso hit a solo homer in the top of the third to put us up 1-0, and we added on with a two-run double by Gene Freese in the top of the fourth. Ed Bailey hit a two-run homer in the top of the sixth with Wally Post scoring another off a sac-fly by Bobby Morgan as we extended our lead to six midway through the inning, and a Willie Davis two-run blast in the seventh turned this one into a complete rout. We piled on with two more runs in the eighth plus a pair of solo homers off Davis and Banks in the ninth, and Bob Rush pitched mop-up duty in the bottom of the inning with a 12-run lead with O’Toole nearing 120 pitches. Rush held the shutout, and we blew them out 12-0, outhitting them 14-6! O’Toole pitched eight innings and, along with the six hits, he only allowed one walk, striking out two, improving to 3-0 with a stunning 0.58 ERA!. Willie Davis led the way with three hits (two of htem for homers), scoring three times and batting in three more, while Gene Freese hit three times with a run and three RBIs.

O’Toole is currently on a 26-inning scoreless streak and he has the best ERA in the American League ... but Pittsburgh’s George Witt has the best ERA in the majors, as the 27-year-old is off to a 2-0 start with a 0.55 ERA through 33 innings with a 0.64 WHIP (Stan Williams and O’Toole are tied for fourth in the majors with their 0.77 WHIPs), behind Witt and LA’s Sandy Koufax who are both at 0.64.
 
May 3, 1961: One game left in Cleveland, and then we can head back to Chicago after a travel day for 14 home games in a 12-day stretch. We’ve moved Dick Drott (2-1, 1.86 ERA, 9.2 IP, 3 K’s, 1.03 WHIP) into our fifth starter spot, and he pitched this afternoon against Cleveland’s Vincent Magrino (2-1, 5.00 ERA, 27.0 IP, 15 K’s, 1.41 WHIP). Willie Davis hit an RBI double to get us the lead in the top of the first, but Norm Cash reached first on an error and drove in Rocky Colavito to tie it up in the bottom of the third. Drott continues to look good, like the pitcher we thought we were trading for years ago in the move with the Cubs, but he stayed out just a bit too long, giving up a one-out two-run homer to Rocky Colavito in the bottom of the eighth. Raul Puig took over with clean bases and one out, and he gave up one more run before we came up in the top of the ninth needing a miracle. It didn’t happen; Cleveland beat us 4-1 after breaking the game open in the eighth, so we split the series and fell to 13-8. Drott fell to 2-2 with a 7.1 inning seven hit effort, striking out three without a walk, but allowing three earned runs as his ERA increased to 2.65. They outhit us 9-6, which was out of our starter’s control ... Davis had a hit, a walk and an RBI, while Minoso hit twice with a run scored.

We’ll head into this home stretch with a 13-8 record, tied for third with the Baltimore Orioles who are 14-9. New York (15-9) sits in second place, a game behind the 14-6 Guardians.

[jksander]

OOC: I've been fighting off the worst virus I've had in years (not COVID thankfully, already had that multiple times). So I haven't been feeling entirely up to playing OOTP lately beyond my online leagues. Hoping to start feeling better soon and become more active posting in this thread again. But I promise this one's not going anywhere!

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May 5, 1961: Willie Mays has been the talk of the baseball world, having already hit 13 homers for Pittsburgh, with a .934 slugging percentage and 2.3 WAR just weeks into the season. He has Pittsburgh at 11-8 with just a half a game between them and the Cubs and Braves, and this year’s NL race seems destined to be incredibly close all year. Mays is on an absolutely ridiculous pace, but there are currently more than a handful of players on pace to break Ruth’s record, including Ernie Banks who remains on pace for nearly 70 homers as he sits tied for third place with nine.

We’re back at home and ready for a four-game set against the Detroit Tigers (), followed by a day off Monday, two games against Cleveland () midweek, and then (after another day off) a four-game weekend set against the Kansas City A’s (). The doubleheaders are going to ramp up this month ... over the next 27 days we’ll play 29 games, including SEVEN doubleheaders. Jack Kralick (2-0, 1.14 ERA, 31.2 IP, 14 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) pitched in today’s game, facing Tigers pitcher Bob Shaw (2-0, 1.28 ERA, 42.1 IP, 17 K’s, 0.97 WHIP) in a battle of aces. And the game quickly became a defensive battle of wills, an endless deadlock we finally snapped with a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth by Bobby Morgan to go up by a run. Kralick stayed out in the ninth and was in firm control of his faculties as he shut down the Tigers to win 1-0. He improved to 3-0 with a five-hit shutout, walking two and striking out five as his ERA improved to 0.89! We also narrowly outhit them 6-5, with Piersall hitting twice and Morgan giving us our only run with his fourth homer of the season.

May 6, 1961: Billy Pierce (3-0, 2.51 ERA, 32.1 IP, 13 K’s, 1.24 WHIP) pitched against Detroit’s Don Rowe (2-2, 4.88 ERA, 24.0 IP, 17 K’s, 1.46 WHIP). And in another low-scoring defensive battle we took the first lead in the bottom of the sixth with Minoso reaching first on an E6 error to drive in Bobby Morgan with an unearned run. Appropriately, they tied it up in the top of the seventh, when Vic Power hit an RBI single that, coupled with our own E9 error, allowed Tom Tresh to score the tying run. But Ed Bailey hit a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh, and Freddie Burdette came out to protect that lead in the top of the ninth still leading by the one run. He faced down the top of their lineup, with Don Mincher and Bill Virdon grounding out harmlessly before Tresh got himself a base hit into left field. But Tom Haller grounded into a fielder’s choice to second for a unassisted out ... game over, we win another tough battle 2-1! Pierce improved to 4-0 with a 2.01 ERA, allowing just three hits, two walks and an unearned run with five strikeouts in his eight innings, while Burdette saved his fourth game and improved his ERA to 5.40. Each team only had four hits, and of the three runs all night only one was earned for either team. Ed Bailey’s homer won it for us, and he led the way with two hits, a run and an RBI.
 
May 7, 1961: Time for another Sunday doubleheader! In game one Jim O’Toole (3-0, 0.58 ERA, 31.0 IP, 12 K’s, 0.77 WHIP), who hasn’t given up a run in 26 innings, went up against Ben Flowers, who was making his first appearance of the year after starting out 3-1 with a 2.60 ERA through 34.2 innings for AAA’s Denver Bears. We took the lead in the bottom of the first off a passed ball that let Minnie Minoso score, and we piled on in the bottom of the third via an RBI single by Willie Davis and a two-run homer by Ernie Banks, his 10th of the season. O’Toole was literally perfect through five innings, before Dal Maxvill got a base hit through the gap in the top of the sixth. But with two outs, Johnny Callison got a hit into right field that drove Maxvill in to score, ending the streak at 31 innings without a run scoring on him. Bill Virdon followed it with an RBI triple, but we got out of the inning still leading the Tigers 4-2. O’Toole got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning when he walked in a run, and in the top of the eighth with two outs and men on first and second we brought out Freddie Burdette to protect the four-run lead. He struck out Virdon to get us into the bottom of the inning, and we unleashed from there, batting around as we added five more runs! Burdette closed out the rout and we beat the Tigers handily 11-2. O’Toole improved to 4-0 with an 0.93 ERA, allowing six hits and two earned runs in 7.2 innings with three strikeouts. Burdette then saved his fifth game with one hit and three strikeouts in 1.1 innings, improving his ERA to 4.85 through 13 innings over 11 appearances. We outhit the Tigers 16-7, led by Willie Davis with four hits, two runs and two RBIs while Ernie Banks added two hits, a walk, a run and three RBIs.

In the day’s second game, Stan Williams (1-0, 2.45 ERA, 22.0 IP, 14 K’s, 0.77 WHIP) pitched against Don Choate (2-1, 7.04 ERA, 30.2 IP, 16 K’s, 1.57 WHIP). Williams got himself through the first five innings with a 4-2 lead ... we’d taken a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first with a two-run slam by Banks, and Piersall had one in the bottom of the third as well. But with two outs and men on first and second in the top of the sixth we brought out Warren Hacker who got Hoyt Wilhelm to pop out and get us out of the inning still up by the pair with Callison waiting on-deck for what would have been his fourth at-bat. Hacker got us through the seventh as well, pitching very efficiently, but with two outs in the eighth inning he gave up a hit into left by Willie Sturgell, who eked out a triple and cut our lead to a run. Raul Puig came out with two outs and the man on third and, unfortunately, Tom Haller knocked in the tying run with a single before we got out of the inning knotted up 4-4. Puig got us through the top of the inning, but this one was destined for extra innings.

Puig stayed out too long, and wound up giving up an RBI double to Callison in the top of the 11th, bringing us to call out Merrill Silver with men on second and third, no outs, the lead now 5-4 Tigers. And we melted down from there ... Virdon got a two-run double, and we went into the bottom of the inning trailing by three. Jim Pagliaroni loaded the bases with a single on one out in the bottom of the inning, and with two outs Ed Bailey came out to pinch hit for Merrill, and incredibly he hit himself a three-run double to tie it up! Minnie Minoso grounded out to first and we were headed for more innings, with Bob Porterfield coming out to pitch in the top of the 12th. With one out, Rod Miller hit an RBI triple to put Detroit back on top, and a wild pitch let him score from third to put them up by two. And that was all she wrote -- Banks hit a two-out double but was stranded on second as we lost this one 9-7. Puig blew his third save of the year and Porterfield took the loss, falling to 0-1 with a 12.27 ERA thanks to two hits and two earned runs. They outhit us 15-11, our team led by Banks who had two hits, a walk, two runs and two RBIs.

We were 3-1 in the series and improved to 16-9, putting us into a two-way tie for second with the 17-10 Yankees, just 2.5 games back of Cleveland with their 18-6 record. We’re off tomorrow and will then face the Guardians for a pair, followed by four games this weekend against Kansas City (7-15), who sit in eighth place, ahead only of our two expansion teams.

May 9, 1961: Dick Drott (2-2, 2.65 ERA, 17.0 IP, 6 K’s, 1.00 WHIP) got the start in game one of two against the Cleveland Guardians, facing Vincent Magrino (2-1, 4.24 ERA, 34.0 IP, 18 K’s, 1.32 WHIP). They scored off an RBI single by Dick Groat in the top of the first, but we answered with a three-run Bobby Morgan homer, his fifth, in the bottom of the second to take the lead. But they got fired up in the top of the fifth, walking in a run via Norm Cash and then taking the lead off a two-run single by Groat. Again we tied it up, this time off a single by Bailey that scored Banks from second in the bottom of the fifth, and Chuck Stobbs took over on the mound for the sixth inning. We picked up the go-ahead in the bottom of the sixth thanks to a single by Stobbs himself, but he gave up three hits in a row without an out in the top of the seventh, letting them tie it up off a single by Felipe Alou, so Puig took over, men on first and second with no outs, giving up two runs as we went into the stretch trailing now by a pair. We’d go on to lose this one 10-5, a game we never looked confident in. Stobbs took the loss and fell to 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA after four hits, a walk and two earned runs. We matched them on hits, ten for ten, Banks hitting once and walking twice, scoring a run while Bobby Morgan’s three-run homer led the team (he finished with a hit, a walk, two runs and the three RBIs).

May 10, 1961: In our second of two games against the Guardians, Jack Kralick (3-0, 0.89 ERA, 40.2 IP, 19 K’s, 0.86 WHIP) pitched against Tom Cheney (4-1, 2.23 ERA, 40.1 IP, 20 K’s, 1.12 WHIP). Willie Davis got us on the board with a solo homer in the bottom of the first, and Bobby Morgan hit an RBI double in the bottom of the second to add on. Davis hit himself his second homer of the afternoon in the bottom of the third to extend our lead to 4-0, and though the Guardians did get on the board in the top of the fifth with an RBI double by Jerry Kindall, we went into the sixth inning with a commanding 8-2 advantage. Bob Rush took over on the mound in the top of the eighth, still leading by six runs, and he got us through the rest as we beat the Guardians easily 8-2. Kralick improved to 4-0 with a seven inning seven hit effort, striking out nine with no walks and two earned runs. Rush pitched two no-hit innings, walking two and striking out one as he improved his ERA to 6.23 through his third appearance. We matched them on hits with seven each, led by Willie Davis who had two hits, two runs and three RBIs thanks to his sixth and seventh homers of the season.

We’re off tomorrow, and then host the Kansas City Athletics (8-16) for four games and the Minnesota Twins (11-16) for two to complete this home stretch.