Sept. 8, 1964 - There was a gleam about the third-place Yankees today. Mel Stottlemyre had put it there. His pitching had led them to a 2-1 victory over the Twins in Minnesota. Teammates wandered up to the 22-year-old, who was called up from Richmond on August 11, and offered their congratulations.
Roommate Stan Williams was first. “Let’s see,” Williams said, extending his hand. “You’ve got our room back up to .500.” Williams is 1-4 for his season’s work, and Stottlemyre is 5-2 in four weeks with the Yankees.
There have been three complete games and one shutout by Mel. “But this one was the best,” he said. “I had to work harder for it. I think this one meant more than any of them.”
Another Yankee came up on the parade of well-wishers. “It sure did,” shrilled the normally quiet Hector Lopez. “It meant so much that we’re still in third place but only six percentage points out of first. Oh, goodness.”
Manager Yogi Berra had that smile spread over his face. “I like where we are now,” he said. “It’s still third place, but it’s a better third place than we were in five games ago.” The Yanks have won five straight, have come from four games back to one and are even in the loss column with the league-leading Orioles.
None of the victories have been laughers. Three have been by one run, two by two, and two of the five have gone into extra innings.
Today, Stottlemyre started shakily. Rich Rollins and Zoilo Versalles touched him for singles, and the Twins had men on first and second with none out in the first. “His sinker wasn’t coming down,” Elston Howard said. “When it’s low, he’s so tough. He’s so cool, he’s just like Bouton and Downing.”
Stottlemyre began finding that low level of pitching success. He got the next three batters to hit ground balls, and the Twins had to settle for one run. Mel kept getting the long-hitting Twins to top the ball into the ground. In all, the Twins hit 13 grounders, adding up to 15 outs, and eight more struck out.
Camilo Pascual was making it equally tough on the Yanks. They scored an unearned run off him in the first. Tony Kubek reached first when Bob Allison botched his grounder. A torrid Roger Maris, 11-for-22 in the win streak, singled Kubek to third. Mickey Mantle then raised a sacrifice fly to left. Maris’s double and Howard’s single got Stottlemyre his winning run in the seventh.
Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s
Comentários