Cubs 30-year-old rookie Cuno Barragan, sidelined since spring training when he broke his ankle, finally gets his first at bat and hits his only ML home run. His clout comes off Giants P Dick LeMay, but the Cubs lose 4–3 in 14 innings.
IN THE NEWS: Against Detroit's Frank Lary, Roger Maris doubles and takes 3B on a misplay. Mickey Mantle, hurting from a pulled muscle in his forearm, lays down a perfect drag bunt to score Roger. Maris then blasts homers his next two trips to the plate, and Elston Howard adds a three-run homer, for a 7–2 win.
Milwaukee manager Chuck Dressen (71-58) is axed and executive vice president Birdie Tebbetts becomes the new skipper.
IN THE NEWS: After taking the first two games against Detroit, New York is down 5–4 in the 9th when Mickey Mantle ties the game with his 2nd homer of the day. Elston Howard wins it with a 3-run drive into the LF stands and Detroit leaves town four 1/2 games in back of New York. Mantle is now at 50 home runs, with Roger Maris at 53, the first teammates in history to hit 50.
IN THE NEWS: Mickey Mantle misses the Labor Day doubleheader with a painful and swollen forearm, but the Yanks don't need him as they sweep a pair from the Senators, 5–3 and 3–2. The sweep moves the Yanks six games up on the slumping Tigers, who lose 6–3 to the Orioles and trail 4–1 in a game suspended. Mantle's replacement John Blanchard breaks a 3–3 tie in the opener with an 8th inning homer.
After losing, 4–3, the Royals outkick the Angels, 13–7 in game 2, using an 11-run 6th inning. KC collects seven hits, four walks, three errors and a stolen base for their big inning. Norm Siebern and winning pitcher Joe Nuxhall homer in the frame.
In Minnesota, the White Sox and Twins split a pair of 9–5 decisions in a day-nite DH. Harmon Killebrew hits his 39th homer in the opener to back Schroll's six innings of spotty pitching. Al Smith has four hits and four ribbies in the nitecap. Numberless rookie Joe Horlen makes his ML debut in relief and picks up the win. The only road uniform available has no number on it (as noted by Maxwell Kates).
At LA, Don Drysdale stops the Giants, 4–0, allowing just two hits. The Dodgers are now two games in back of the first-place Reds.
IN THE NEWS: Los Angeles's Lee Thomas ties the major-league record with nine hits in a doubleheader, five in the first game and 4, including three home runs, in the 2nd. Thomas ties the American League record with 19 total bases in a doubleheader. But Kansas City wins both games from the Angels, 7–3 and 13–12.
The Yanks top Washington, 6–1, sending the Senators to their 20th defeat in their last 21 games. Mickey Mantle's homers for his 51st. The Yanks win, coupled with a Detroit doubleheader loss, puts New York ahead by seven 1/2 games.
IN THE NEWS: Roger Maris lays down a bunt and also belts his 55th homer of the year in the 3rd inning as New York beats the Senators, 7–3. All of Washington's scores come in the 6th on an inside-the-park homer by Tito Francona, off Ralph Terry. When asked by a writer after the game why he bunted, a testy Maris replies, "Trying to win the game, you stupid cocksucker. Why do you think."
IN THE NEWS: The Yanks rout the Indians 9–1 as Mickey Mantle hits #52, off Gary Bell. The Yanks win for their 9th straight while Detroit loses their 8th in a row to drop 10 game in back. The Tigers purchase vet Vic Wertz from the Red Sox to shore up the offense.
IN THE NEWS: On Whitey Ford Day at Yankee Stadium, Roger Maris hits his 56th homer, off Cleveland's Mudcat Grant, as the Yanks come from behind to win, 8–7, New York scores four in the 9th to enable Luis Arroyo to pick up his 12th relief win in a row.
IN THE NEWS: The Yankees sweep the Indians, 7–6 and 9–3 , their 12th win in a row at home and the Indians 20th loss in a row at Yankee Stadium. Mickey Mantle gets number 53 in the nitecap, while Roger Maris, homerless, stays at 56. The official scorecard credits Mantle with two runs scored: it will be discovered in 1995 that one of the runs should go to Bill Skowron. In the 2nd game, Clete Boyer sends a Jim Perry pitch into the LF corner that hits the lower deck of the grand stand and bounces back into play. While home plate ump Joe Linsalata calls it a home run, the other two umps agree with Tribe CF Jimmy Piersall who contends the ball is in play. Boyer's home run trot is interrupted at 3B with a tag out. Piersall's contribution in Game One is fighting with a fan who climbed onto the field.
The Reds Bob Purkey allows just two hits in beating the visiting Cards, 5–2.
At Chicago, the Phillies score seven in the 7th, including Don Demeter's grand slam, and notch six more in the 8th to beat the Cubs, 14–6. There is some solace for the Cubs as introduce a pair of gems: Ken Hubbs debuts with two hits and two runs and Lou Brock has one hit, one run and a pair of errors.
IN THE NEWS: The Phillies drive Koufax from the mound in a 9-run 2nd inning and go on to defeat the Dodgers, 19–10. The loss drops LA 4 1/2 games behind the Reds. The big gun for the Phils is ex-Dodgers Don Demeter, who hits a 2-run homer in the 1st, singles in a run in the 2nd, adds a 3-run HR in the 7th and a solo in the 9th. Two other Phils homer while 4 Dodgers go deep.
At Milwaukee, the Reds Joey Jay beats his old team, 1–0, for his 20th victory of the year. He's the Reds 1st 20-game winner since Ewell Blackwell in 1947.
IN THE NEWS: The Cardinals and Cubs set a National League record by using 72 players in a doubleheader (more than 18 innings). St. Louis leads the way with 37 players and wins twice 8–7 and then 6–5 in 11 innings. Ken Boyer climaxes a 7-for-11 day by cycling in the nitecap, completing it by belting his 22nd home run of the year in the 11th inning. The Cards have won all 11 games with the Cubs at Busch this year.
At Los Angeles, Duke Snider caps a 4-run 9th inning by drilling a dramatic 3-run homer on a 2-strike count. The home run gives the Dodgers a 7–6 win and cuts the Reds lead to five games.
IN THE NEWS: With 10 strikeouts in an 11–2 win against the Braves, Sandy Koufax has 243 strikeouts, most ever for a National League lefty.
The Yankees set a new American League record for most homers in a season (222), as they split a doubleheader in Detroit, winning 11–1 and losing 4–2. Circuit blows by Bill Skowron and Yogi Berra in the opener help Whitey Ford win his 24th and increase New York's homer total to 222. This breaks the old mark set by the 1947 Giants and tied by the 1956 Reds. Norm Cash and Steve Boros homer in the nitecap to back Ron Kline's 7-hitter.
IN THE NEWS: At Detroit, Roger Maris connects for #57, off Frank Lary, to stay a game ahead of Ruth's 1927 pace. But Lary wins his 21st, 10–4, over Ralph Terry, with help from Norm Cash, who belts a homer, his 37th, and a triple. Al Kaline adds four hits and a sac fly.
IN THE NEWS: In Detroit, Roger Maris triples off Terry Fox in the 7th to put the Yanks ahead, Detroit ties it and, then in the 12th, Maris faces Fox again with Tony Kubek on 2B. Maris steps out of the box to watch a long skein of Canadian geese fly over Tiger Stadium, then steps in a belts the first pitch for his 58th homer of the year.
IN THE NEWS: The Giants clobber Warren Spahn for four home runs, one of them a grand slam by Willie Mays, and then rally in the 8th and 9th to top the Braves, 11–10. The two teams combine for eight home runs and 57 total bases, but the short ball wins it -- Harvey Kuenn's tie breaking single in the 8th, and Ed Bailey's sacks full single in the 9th.
IN THE NEWS: The Yankees' 154th game of 1961 (including a tie) is Roger Maris' last chance to beat Babe Ruth, in compliance with Commissioner Ford Frick's statement that, for the record to be broken, Maris must do it in the same number of games as Ruth. Maris' 59th home run of the year, off Milt Pappas, is short of the record, but helps New York beat Baltimore 4–2, clinching its 26th American League pennant. In 1998, Pappas will state that he told Maris the night before that, if the game's outcome is not on the line, he would throw him nothing but fastballs.
IN THE NEWS: At New York, Roger Maris is held hitless in four at bats, as the Orioles win, 5–3, behind Bill Fischer's 3-hitter. All the runs off him are unearned. Maris is the only Yankee regular to play the entire game.
IN THE NEWS: Jim Gentile's 5th grand slam of 1961 ties the ML single-season record in Baltimore's 8–6 win over Chicago: Each of his slams comes with Chuck Estrada pitching for the Orioles. Gentile will hit 46 homers this season with a total of 46 runners on base, the most in a season since Babe Ruth hit homers with 48 runners on bases in 1921. Chicago's Floyd Robinson makes the game close with a 9th inning grand slam of his own, the 7th Sox slam of the year.
The Giants Billy O'Dell stops the first-place Reds, 6–0, at Cincinnati, reducing the Reds lead to four games.
IN THE NEWS: An ailing Mickey Mantle's career-high 54th home run, his last of the regular season, helps New York beat Boston 8–3. Whitey Ford leaves the game in the 5th inning, but wins his 25th.
The Phils Wes Covington hits a solo homer in the 16th inning to top Pittsburgh's Elroy Face, 5–4. Face also gives up an extra inning homer to Felipe Alou on the 11th. Malkmus earlier homered for the Phils. Jack Baldschun pitches seven 1/3 innings of shutout relief for the win.
IN THE NEWS: At Cincinnati, the Giants stage a 9-run 4th to rip the Reds, 12–5. Orlando Cepeda hits his 45th homer of the year, a grand slam, to climax the frame. Cepeda will hit one more home run this year and finish with 39 walks, the first National League player with more than 40 homers and fewer than 40 walks. Hal Trosky has done it in the American League.
Minnesota's Joe Altobelli hits a one out 7th inning homer, the only hit off Washington's Dick Donovan, who wins, 4–1. Jim Kaat loses his 16th.
A dropped fly ball by Hunt in the 10th gives the Tigers two runs and a 7–5 win over the Angels. Hunt had tied the game in the 8th with a home run. Rookie Howie Koplitz wins his first ML game, after going 23-3 with a no hitter for Birmingham (SA). Koplitz will wins his first seven decisions in the Bigs over four years but an arm injury will limit him to a 9–7 record.
IN THE NEWS: In New York's 159th game, Roger Maris rips a Jack Fisher fastball into the RF seats at Yankee Stadium for his 60th home run. New York beats Baltimore 3–2. There are fewer than 8,000 fans on hand to view this historic event.
Cincinnati clinches its first National League pennant since 1940. Homers by Frank Robinson and pinch hitter Jerry Lynch, a tie breaker in the 8th, give the Reds a 6–3 win at Chicago.
IN THE NEWS: Sandy Koufax (18-13)fans seven Phils in the course of a 2–1 loss to set a National League record for strikeouts in a season: 269. This surpasses Christy Mathewson's 267 in 1903, which was accomplished in 367 innings pitched, as opposed to Koufax's remarkable 255. Both runs off Sandy are unearned.
IN THE NEWS: Johnny Blanchard singles and homers to drive in both runs in the Yanks, 2–1 win over the Red Sox. The Bomber handyman hits his 21st homer and singles in Roger Maris in the 9th to pin the loss on Bill Monbouquette. Whitey Ford pitches four scoreless innings for New York, and finishes the year having no stolen bases off him in 243 innings, a record.
Casey Stengel, 71, agrees to come out of retirement to manage the National League expansion New York Mets next year. Stengel mulled the offer over for two months before accepting.
IN THE NEWS: In a battle of tail-enders, the Cubs beat the Mets, 5–1, behind Bob Buhl. Willard Hunter is the loser as the two teams total 99 victories.
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