[jksander]

May 2, 1957: We’ve decided to bench Harry Walker for a few days to see if his back problems abate; Walt Bond will start, with Cannizzaro as his backup. Tonight we lured nearly 12,500 fans out to see us take the Yanks on, with Juan Pizarro (1-1, 1.96 ERA, 18.1 IP, 9 K’s, 1.47 WHIP) pitching against 40-year-old Sal Maglie (1-1, 3.00 ERA, 15.0 IP, 3 K’s, 1.13 WHIP) in a battle of old guard versus vanguard. The wind was clearly going to be an issue early, though, as Gil McDougald hit a leadoff double and then a triple by Mantle pushed the Yankees into the lead just a few minutes in. Pizarro got the outs to strand him there, however, and we were ready for a fight. But that stiff wind out to left was trouble for Pizarro as the game went on ... Yogi Berra hit a double in the top of the second and Tony Klubek batted him home with one of his own as they extended their lead. Andy Carey added a solo homer out of right in the fourth inning and we went into the top of the fifth trailing 3-0. Bob Miller came out to pitch with one out and men on first and second in the top of the sixth, pulling off a 1-4-3 double play to get safely out of the inning. But the Yankees added on in the top of the seventh, five runs scoring as Miller was incapable of getting a third out. Sam Jones had to come in with a runner on third to get it, stranding a pair as we went into the stretch losing 8-0. Jones handled his mop-up duty just fine, giving up just one run in the top of the ninth, but our offense let everybody down, losing 9-0 and showing just how far we need to come to be able to legitimately contend with New York.

Pizarro took the loss, falling to 1-2 with a 2.66 ERA, allowing eight hits, two walks and three earned runs while striking out seven. But we were outhit 15-2 and only had two baserunners the entire game, so there was no way he or any of our pitchers were going to overcome that. Miller had a bad night with five hits, a walk, a strikeout and five earned runs, but it was a thankless job we put him in. What a bummer of a way to snap our winning streak.
 
May 3, 1957: Milt Pappas (1-1, 3.79 ERA, 19.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) pitched against Mike McCormick (1-0, 2.70 ERA, 23.1 IP, 17 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) in front of another large group of Kansas City fans, and they were rewarded when, in the bottom of the third with two outs, Del Crandall hit an RBI single that drove Pappas in from third! But Mantle tied it up off a single by Hank Bauer, scoring from second in the top of the fourth. Yogi Berra hit a solo homer in the top of the sixth to put them up a run, but Chuck Diering hit an RBI double to tie it back up, and Thomas Paddock hit an RBI single to push us back into the lead in the bottom of the inning! Tom Gorman came out with two outs in the top of the seventh, nobody on, getting us into the stretch with the lead still at one run in our favor, and he got us through the eighth as well ... and when we didn’t add any insurance runs, he stayed out and finished the game and held that lead, our A’s managing to hold off the mighty Yankees 3-2!

Milt Pappas got the win, improving to 2-1 with a 3.16 ERA thanks to 6.2 innings with five hits, two walks, four strikeouts and two runs (one earned). Gorman then held tough with the 2.1 inning save, allowing just a hit and two strikeouts as he improved his ERA to 1.00 through nine innings and six bullpen appearances. We outhit New York today 7-6, led by Diering’s hit, walk, run and RBI, the win maintaining our position in second place in the AL, still two games back but half a game up on Cleveland (9-6). We have five games left in this homestand -- three against Washington (8-10) and two against Baltimore (5-11) before we hit the road next weekend for four (including a doubleheader) against the Guardians as we start a two-week road trip.

May 4, 1957: Larry Jansen (1-0, 1.32 ERA, 13.2 IP, 9 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) pitched against Washington’s Art Houtteman (1-0, 3.68 ERA, 7.1 IP, 4 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) this evening in front of another robust crowd of around 11,500. Washington took the lead with an RBI double by Eddie Yost in the top of the third, and with an out and men on second and third in the top of the sixth we brought out Bob Miller to try to keep the game in reach. Ed Fitz Gerald batted in a run with a sac-fly, and a groundout to first ended the inning though we were going to need to find a way to hit SOMETHING ... Chuck Diering hit an RBI double in the bottom of the inning to cut their lead in half, and in the bottom of the seventh we found the cracks in their armor, Thomas Paddock hitting an RBI single to tie it up and Walt Bond hitting another to shoot us into the lead in the bottom of the seventh! Moe Drabowsky came out with one out and a man on first in the top of the eighth, getting Ken Aspromonte to hit into a U6-3 double play to preserve the lead. Crandall hit a solo homer in the bottom of the inning to add on, and Drabowsky shut them down in the ninth as we won 4-2.

Jansen did well enough to keep us in the game, allowing four hits, three walks and two earned runs through 5.1 innings with just one strikeout. But it was the rookie Bob Miller who got the win, improving to 1-0 with a 5.87 ERA, with just a hit, a walk and a strikeout through two innings. Drabowsky then came in for the save, his third, getting five outs with two strikeouts as his ERA improved to 0.66 through 13.2 innings. We outhit them 8-5, led by Spencer (two hits and a run) and Paddock (two hits and an RBI).

May 5, 1957: Don Mossi (2-1, 1.17 ERA, 23.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.00 WHIP) pitched against Chuck Stobbs (1-3, 7.46 ERA, 25.1 IP, 18 K’s, 1.82 WHIP) this afternoon, and we took the lead in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single by Joe DeMaestri. Chuck Diering hit an RBI single with no outs in the botom of the fifth, Crandall hit an RBI single to pile on, and Diering wound up scoring on another DeMaestri RBI single to give us a commanding 4-0 lead! But the Senators got two back in the top of the sixth with a two-out RBI double by Elston Howard. Tom Gorman came out to pitch in the top of the seventh, two outs and men on first and second, and an error at short and an inopportune walk got them another run back with the bases still loaded ... but a pop fly to center ended the inning with us still up 4-3 heading into the stretch. Gorman stayed out and immediately gave up a triple to Howard, and we had to bring out Drabowsky who got him out at home plate on a fielder’s choice that put Russ Snyder on first. With two outs, Snyder on third, Sam Dente struck out swinging ... but Crandall muffed the catch, Snyder scored and Dente wound up on first as this one turned into a tie game ... Crandall deserves the blown save on that one! But Drabowsky struck out Bob Allison to get out of there, and we simply had more work to do. Catfish Metkovich came up big with a sac-fly to deep left that drove in Paddock from third to put us up a run, and Don Bessent came out to close in the ninth, and he pitched around a pair of baserunners to get us the outs we needed to win 5-4.

Moe Drabowsky blew the save but got the win, improving to 3-0 with an 0.61 ERA, the run against him unearned. Mossi had set us up nicely with 6.2 innings and just five hits, three runs (one earned) a walk and three strikeouts, and Gorman got his third hold, though it took him two hits and a walk before he got his out. Bessent saved his fourth game, a hit and a walk helping get his ERA down to 3.86. We matched them with nine hits, led by Crandall (three hits, a walk, a run and an RBI) and DeMaestri (two hits, two RBIs).

May 6, 1957: Carl Erskine (2-1, 2.25 ERA, 20.0 IP, 7 K’s, 0.95 WHIP) went up against Walt Masterson (1-2, 12.41 ERA, 12.1 IP, 5 K’s, 2.59 WHIP) as we went for, potentially, our full-series sweep of the season. Danny O’Connell batted a run in with a single in the bottom of the third to put us in the lead, and Erskine had a perfect game going until the top of the fourth, when he walked Pete Runnels. They broke up his no-no in the top of the fifth with a hit by Elston Howard, but he got nowhere, and in the bottom of the inning we added on with an RBI single by Chuck Diering to go up 2-0. Crandall batted in a run with a single in the bottom of the seventh, but a groundout by Willie McCovey in the top of the eighth drove in a run for the Senators and spoiled the shutout. Catfish Metkovich hit an RBI double to drive in two more runs for us in the bottom of the eighth, and Chuck Diering helped pile on with an RBI single, sending us into the top of the fifth with a five run lead. Erskine held tough from the mound and we won this one 6-1, behind his three-hit complete game shutout. He improved to 3-1 with a 1.86 ERA, walking two, striking out two and allowing just the one run. We outhit them 15-3, led by Diering who hit four times with two RBIs! He has a .379 average since coming to Kansas City, and is quickly becoming a popular player for autographs after each game.
 
May 7, 1957: Juan Pizarro (1-2, 2.86 ERA, 23.2 IP, 16 K’s, 1.56 WHIP) pitched today in game one against the Orioles’ Don Johnson (1-1, 4.26 ERA, 12.2 IP, 5 K’s, 1.66 WHIP). Pizarro scored off a groundout by Danny O’Connell in the bottom of the third, giving us a 1-0 lead on the Orioles, but with two outs in the top of the sixth Don Johnson batted in a run with a single, tying it up ... two pitchers each propelling their team’s offense. Bob Miller came out to pitch in the top of the seventh, and he got three outs off just four pitches, so he stayed out and did it again in the eighth. Moe Drabowsky came out in the top of the ninth with one out and Carroll Hardy on second, intentionally walking Charlie Maxwell and then getting two quick popouts to keep it tied into the bottom of the inning. Chris Cannizzaro then walked it off with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth as we stole this one 2-1! We remain one of only four teams to not have an extra-innings game yet this year, along with Cleveland, Brooklyn and the Chicago Cubs. Drabowsky improved to 4-0 with a 0.59 ERA, walking one batter while getting his two outs. Pizarro lasted six innings with seven hits, four walks, six strikeouts and one earned run, and Miller got seven outs off two hits and 26 pitches, getting his ERA down to 4.50. They outhit us 9-8 and we didn’t blink, our rookie backup catcher Chris Cannizzaro batting in the run to win it, while Paddock hit twice and kept his average at .304 for the year.

May 8, 1957: Milt Pappas (2-1, 3.16 ERA, 25.2 IP, 15 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) started against Jim McDonald (1-1, 3.00 ERA, 24.0 IP, 8 K’s, 1.38 WHIP) in today’s final home game of our current stretch, with 11,300 fans on hand to watch with us on another five-game winning streak. Chuck Diering hit an RBI single to get us on the board in the bottom of the first, but Pappas was wild in the third and gave up a double to Lenny Green, pushing Washington up by a run. They added an RBI single by Brooks Robinson, and we trailed 3-1 heading into the top of the fourth with Pappas nearing his 70th pitch. They added on with a run scored off a wild pitch in the top of the fourth, and Pappas gave up another via an RBI single by Wes Covington and I had to give him the hook. Sam Jones came in trailing by four with a runner on first and one out, and it started to feel like we were cursed in this one ... by the time he got us the two outs we were in a 7-1 hole and fading fast. Walt Bond hit a sac-fly to get us a run back in the bottom of the fourth, and Bob Miller came out for the top of the fifth, giving us two solid innings before Tom Gorman came out in the seventh to hopefully get us through the remainder. He gave them a run back in the seventh, and an RBI triple in the eighth without an out. We brought out Don Bessent, who did get six clean outs over the final two innings to get us out of there. But the runs weren’t coming our way and we lost badly 9-3.

Pappas took the loss and fell to 2-2 with a 4.66 ERA, with six earned runs against him through just 3.1 innings. The bullpen held together alright from there, but we were outhit 15-11 and it felt like much worse. Walt Bond led with two hits and an RBI, and Metkovich and Lillis each hit twice as well. Too bad we’re about to embark on a brutal road stretch, with 13 road games over a two week stretch (including our first two doubleheaders of the season). Our 14-7 record has us in second place in the AL, two games back of the 15-4 Yankees. During this stretch we’ll face Cleveland (12-8, 3.5 GB) for four games, the Yankees and Boston (8-13, 8 GB) for a pair, Baltimore (6-15, 10 GB) for three games in two days, and then Washington (11-13, 6.5 GB) for a pair. We then come home to play three against Detroit (11-12, 6 GB) and then face the White Sox (8-13, 8 GB) for two and Detroit on the road for three in two days. We’ll then return to Kansas City for 16 games at home as we get into June.