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BASEBALL'S WEEK
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Danny O'Connell, Washington infielder, said, "Nobody denies the Yankees are a better club than we are. We've got to beat them with tricks." Then, with hardly a trick, Washington beat the Yankees in a double-header, using the time-honored combination of sharp pitching and solid hitting. Los Angeles, however, beat the Senators three times and climbed to eighth place in front of Minnesota, which split six games. In a game with the Indians, Bob Allison was forced out at second base and then hit on the head with the ball as Shortstop Mike De La Hoz relayed to first. Harmon Killebrew, who had been on second, saw the ball ricochet wildly and headed home. He barely made it, though, as the ball rolled right to John Romano, the Indians' catcher. Romano then threw to first to double up the batter, Hal Naragon, who had taken a wide turn around the bag. New York had less trouble scoring, although Roger Maris (.074 for the week) slumped. Mickey Mantle (.407 and six homers) kept up his pace (see page 8) despite heavily taped legs. Boston lost twice to the Yankees and seven of nine games over-all, despite five home runs and 12 RBIs by Gary Geiger. Rocky Colavito of Detroit also had five homers. In all, the Tigers hit 13 but lost three of six games by a total of four runs and dropped to second behind New York. Baltimore's Jim Gentile was another player to hit five homers. In the 10th inning of a game with Detroit, Gentile hit a foul off his foot. The home-plate umpire did not notice this and ruled him out when the ball was thrown to first base. When the ball was inspected, however, a telltale smudge of black shoe polish was found. Gentile then hit a game-winning homer. Still, the Orioles dropped five of seven and were pushed out of third place by Cleveland. The Indians got complete-game wins from Barry Latman and Mudcat Grant and heavy hitting from Tito Francona (.389). Attendance, though, did not pick up (it is now 131,000 below 1960), and there was talk of moving to Oakland, Calif. next year. Manager Hank Bauer of Kansas City drove in the winning run in his final game as a player and snapped the Athletics' six-game losing streak. Still, Kansas City looked as if it belonged exactly where it was—in last place. Chicago played tighter ball, got good pitching from Frank Baumann, Juan Pizarro and Early Wynn and seemed ready to try for fourth place.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Philadelphia had its best week of the year, winning four of seven and giving every indication of reaching 30 victories someday soon. With good relief pitching by Jack Baldschun (two wins, one save), timely hits by Lee Walls and fine all-round play by Tony Gonzalez, the Phillies took on a new look. Manager Gene Mauch almost forgot about his players' many injuries, but the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds could not forget theirs. Chicago had just seven healthy pitchers. This, coupled with the loss of Ernie Banks for eye treatments, was why the Cubs lost seven of eight. Cincinnati's injury-weakened pitching staff gave up 55 runs in six straight losses. Worse yet were the Reds' nine errors and the fact that they made just two double plays. Things were so bad that Milwaukee stole five bases in one inning against the Reds. Even Joe Adcock stole twice, equaling his total for the past four years. Frank Thomas added to Cincinnati's distress with a weird ground-rule double when his drive went right through one of the glass letters on the clock atop the scoreboard. Over-all, the Braves won seven of eight, including two from Pittsburgh, which lost four of five. ElRoy Face made the 400th relief appearance of his career, was hit hard but still led the league with a 2.57 ERA. Bill White of St. Louis was unable to sleep after getting eight hits in a double-header. The day following the sleepless night, and after only a 45-minute nap on the trainer's table. White got six more hits. His 14 hits in successive double-headers matched Ty Cobb's 1912 record. The Cardinals, who claim they are more relaxed under new Manager Johnny Keane, won six of nine. Los Angeles, though, made a bigger gain, winning five of six and picking up five games on the league-leading Reds. San Francisco, with the aid of Jack Sanford's first complete-game victory in nine weeks and four homers in five days by Willie Mays, gained two and one-half games.
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Boxed statistics through Saturday, July 22
TWO PHOTOS
HEALTHY HITTERS were Indians' Woodie Held, Cards' Julian Javier, both off the injury list. Held batted .348, Javier had 12 hits.
