June 9, 1966: Twins come from behind to defeat A’s 9-4 behind 5 home runs in the 7th

The Minnesota Twins belted five home runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to erase a 4-3 deficit and take the rubber game of a three-game series with the Kansas City Athletics, 9-4, before a crowd of 9,621at Metropolitan Stadium. It was the first time an American League team hit five home runs in one inning, although the feat had been matched three times in the National League before this game and twice more since (as of 2020).

Camilo Pascual took the mound for the Twins on this 67-degree Thursday evening, but he did not last long. To the delight of the official scorer, who always liked the game to start out with a clean base hit, Bert Campaneris singled to left to lead off the game. Joe Nossek singled to right and Campaneris advanced to third. Mike Hershberger tapped one back to Pascual and Campaneris, caught off third, realizing he was not going to beat Pascual’s throw to third, broke for the plate and was gunned down, pitcher-to-third-to-catcher. Danny Cater walked to load the bases. Ken Harrelson struck out looking for the second out of the inning but Larry Stahl tripled to left, clearing the bases. That was it for Pascual, who was replaced by Dwight Siebler. Dick Green singled in Stahl to make the score 4-0 before Siebler got Phil Roof to fly out to left for the third out.

Harrelson was not happy with the third strike called by home-plate umpire Red Flaherty. Harrelson kept barking at Flaherty from the dugout long enough that he became the first Athletics player to be thrown out of a game in the season. “That was the worst pitch I ever saw,” Harrelson said. “That is the first time I’ve ever been thrown out of a game. I had my say – from the dugout. He didn’t like it.”1

Through the first four innings, Athletics’ starting pitcher, Catfish Hunter, held the Twins scoreless on three singles and two walks, being helped by three double plays. In the bottom of the fifth, the Twins got a run against Hunter. After Jimmie Hall and Earl Battey grounded out, Bernie Allen singled to center. Bob Allison pinch-hit for Siebler and doubled Allen home to make the score 4-1. Zoilo Versalles fouled out to the catcher, ending the inning and stranding Allison on second base.

The Twins cut the lead to 4-3 in the sixth when Don Mincher singled to center with two out and Harmon Killebrew drove a fly into the left-field seats off Hunter, for his 10th home run of the season.

Twins reliever Pete Cimino retired the A’s in the top half of the seventh and that’s when the fun began.

Battey walked to lead off the Twins’ seventh. One out later, Rich Rollins, pinch-hitting for Cimino, homered to deep left, scoring Battey in front of him to give the Twins a 5-4 lead. Versalles followed with a homer to left to make the score 6-4. A’s manager Al Dark took the ball from Hunter and brought in Paul Lindblad. Sandy Valdespino grounded out to short for Lindblad’s first and only out. The next batter, Tony Oliva, hit the Twins’ third homer of the inning, over the right-field fence. Mincher followed with a blast to right field for the fourth home run of the inning. Pitcher John Wyatt replaced Lindblad, and Killebrew sent one over the left-field fence for back-to-back-to-back homers and his second home run in two innings. It was the fifth home run of the inning for the Twins and gave them a 9-4 lead.

The next batter, Jimmie Hall, hit one high off the right-field wall for a double, just missing a home run by a few feet. Battey followed with a groundball to A’s first baseman Ron Stone, who booted it for an error. Allen grounded out to end the inning. The five homers added up to 1,895 feet in total distance. Rollins’s blast was measured at 368 feet by the Metropolitan Stadium equipment, followed by Versalles’s at 370 feet, Oliva’s at 401 feet, Mincher’s at 376 and Killebrew’s at 380 feet. If you add Hall’s 380-foot double, the six blasted the ball 2,275 feet that inning.2

Hall thought he might have helped set a record of six home runs in an inning if it weren’t for the public-address announcer, Bob Casey. “Yes, I knew about the record,” Hall said. “The announcer told everyone that we had tied the record when I was standing in the batter’s box. Sure it upset me a little. I know if I was the pitcher and I knew it was close to a record, I’d be bearing down that much more.”3

“I think it’s bush,” said Hall. “When a pitcher hears that announcement, you know he’s going to make sure you don’t set a major-league record off him.”4

Al Worthington came in to pitch the eighth and ninth innings, walking Hershberger to lead off the eighth and then retiring the next six batters to pick up the save.

The Twins are the only American League team as of 2020 to hit five home runs in an inning.  Until 2017 the A’s and the Cincinnati Reds were the only teams to give up five home runs in an inning. The Reds gave up five homers to the New York Giants in the fourth inning of their game on June 6, 1939. The Philadelphia Phillies hit five homers against the Reds in the fourth inning on June 2, 1949. On August 23, 1961, the San Francisco Giants hit five home runs against the Reds in the ninth inning. On April 22, 2006, It was the Milwaukee Brewers’ turn to hit five home runs against the Reds, in the fourth inning.

Finally a different team was victimized when the Brewers gave up five home runs to the Washington Nationals in the third inning on July 27, 2017.

For the Twins pitchers, Pascual was chased after giving up four runs, all earned, on three hits in two-thirds of an inning. Siebler held the A’s bats silent for 4⅓ innings, surrendering no runs on three hits. Cimino pitched the sixth and seventh innings, giving up one hit, while striking out two to earn the victory and even his record for the season at 1-1. Worthington pitched the final two innings and picked up his second save of the season.5

For the Athletics, Hunter lasted 6⅓ innings, giving up six runs on nine hits, three of which were home runs, and took the loss to drop to 4-5 for the season. Lindblad faced three batters – one groundout and two home runs – before giving the ball to John Wyatt. Wyatt gave up a homer, but in 1⅓ innings struck out three Twins batters.

Twins manager Sam Mele had a nice problem to deal with as the squad hit the road after this game to take on the White Sox in Chicago. Mincher had been on quite a streak of late. Including this game, in which he singled and hit one of the seventh-inning home runs, he had nine hits, including three home runs and three doubles, in 23 at-bats in six games. For four years, Mincher had been on the bench waiting for the opportunity to play regularly. He started the streak hitting just .194 but raised his batting average to .229.

Killebrew had also been hot. In his last 10 games he connected for seven homers and had 12 runs batted in. With Mincher at first, Killebrew played mostly at third, leaving Rollins with limited playing time and being relegated to pinch-hitting. Rollins was making the most of those opportunities, producing a two-run single and a sacrifice fly in his previous two pinch-hits, before hitting the two-run homer against the Athletics.

Mele wanted all three batters in the lineup, so he decided to start playing Mincher at first, Rollins at third, and Killebrew in left, to the dismay of Twins President Calvin Griffith, who contended that Killebrew didn’t belong in left field.6

With the win, the Twins improved their record to 23-26, in sixth place in the single-division, 10-team league, nine games behind the first-place Orioles (34-19), while the Athletics fell to 19-30, in ninth place 13 games out.

Sources

Retrosheet.org

Baseball-reference.com

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1961/B04210MIN1961.htm

baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN196606090.shtml

Notes

1 Sid Boardman, “Harmon Leads in Silent Way,” Kansas City Times, June 10, 1966: 18.

2 “Hall Felt He Was on Spot,” Minneapolis Star: June 10, 1966: 27.

3 Boardman.

4 “Hall Felt He Was on Spot.”

5 Retroactively awarded.  Saves were not an official statistic until 1969.

6 Max Nichols, “Mincher’s Bat Exploding for Twins,” Minneapolis Star, June 10, 1966: 27.