July 22, 1961: Spahn, Adcock, Clemente homer as Braves nip Pirates

Forty-year-old Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves was only three victories shy of 300 for his career when he faced the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 22, 1961. Spahn pitched just three innings that day, preventing him from pushing even closer to the magical pinnacle, but he did hit a second-inning blast into Forbes Field’s right-field upper deck for his 29th career home run. Spahn’s round-tripper proved to be the game-winner as the Braves nipped the Pirates, 5-4.

The defending World Series champion Pirates began the day in fourth place in the National League, eight games behind the first-place Cincinnati Reds. The Braves were fifth, 1½ games behind Pittsburgh. They had won six of their last seven, including a 5-3 win over the Pirates in the previous night’s series opener. Braves superstar right fielder Henry Aaron had homered twice, scored three runs, and thrown out Roberto Clemente trying to stretch a single into a double.

Spahn’s mound opponent on Saturday afternoon was 13-year veteran lefty Bobby Shantz. Shantz entered the game riding a four-game winning streak.1 Nine months earlier, Shantz was a New York Yankee and faced the Pirates in the World Series. He came to Pittsburgh in a trade in December 1960.2

In the first inning, Mack Jones, appearing in his 11th major-league game after a July 13 promotion from Triple A, tripled off the wall in right-center and scored the game’s first run on Frank Bolling’s single. Eddie Mathews then lined into a double play,3 but Aaron started the rally anew with a single.

Aaron rode home on Joe Adcock’s 21st home run of the season, his seventh in his last 11 games. In addition to the long-ball spree, Adcock had driven in 11 runs while sporting a .405 batting average (17-for-42) during the Braves’ road trip, which had gone through St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia before arriving in Pittsburgh.4

Former Pirate Frank Thomas followed Adcock’s blast with a single. Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh was quick with the hook and replaced Shantz with George “Red” Witt. Rookie catcher Joe Torre, who had celebrated his 21st birthday four days earlier, greeted Witt with a run-scoring triple to the batting cage in deep center field, driving in Thomas for a 4-0 lead.

Spahn was staked to a four-run lead before ever throwing a pitch. In his most recent outing, on July 17, he had gone the distance in a 13-4 win over the Reds. He entered the Pirates game with a 9-11 record and a 3.62 ERA, including his second career no-hitter, on April 28 against the San Francisco Giants. On July 11, eleven days before facing the Pirates, he had started the first of the season’s two All-Star games and thrown three perfect innings.

Bill Virdon led off the Pirates’ first and popped out to Mathews at third. But Joe Christopher singled and Clemente, who entered the game batting an NL-best .356,5 blasted a Spahn changeup over the left-field scoreboard for a two-run home run, his 15th of the year. Spahn then retired Dick Stuart and Hal Smith on fly balls and the first inning ended with the Braves leading, 4-2.6

Witt returned to the mound in the top of the second. He had gone 9-2 with a 1.61 ERA in 1958, but elbow and ankle injuries had sidetracked his career since then.7 He was appearing in only his seventh game of the season.

The first batter Witt faced in the second was Spahn, who drove a pitch to deep right field for his third home run of the season. Milwaukee’s lead was 5-2.

After an error by usually sure-handed second baseman Bill Mazeroski, Witt retired the next three batters. Mazeroski led the NL in errors (23) for a second baseman in 1961, but he also led the NL in putouts and both leagues in assists and double plays and was rewarded with his third of eight career Gold Gloves.

In the bottom of the second, Mazeroski led off with a single. After Dick Schofield flied out, Murtaugh called on Johnny Logan to pinch-hit for Witt. Logan had spent the first 11 seasons of his career with the Braves, dating to their time in Boston, before being traded to the Pirates on June 15. Logan grounded into a 6-4-3 double play and Spahn and the Braves were out of the inning.

Twenty-three-year-old rookie Al McBean, from the Virgin Islands, replaced Witt as the Pirates’ pitcher for the visitors’ third. McBean had made his major-league debut on July 2; he was pitching in relief for the 10th time in 17 Pirates games since then. For the inning, McBean surrendered a single and a walk but struck out Adcock, Torre, and Spahn to escape the frame.8

In the home half of the third, Virdon was retired on a fine running catch by Thomas in left, but Christopher singled and scored on Clemente’s double to right. For the second day in a row, however, Aaron cut down Clemente’s attempt to take an extra base, throwing to shortstop Roy McMillan, whose relay to Mathews at third beat Clemente to the bag. Spahn fanned Stuart, and after three complete innings the score stood Braves 5, Pirates 3.9

In the visitors’ fourth, McBean retired the Braves in order, beginning with a strikeout of Jones. It was McBean’s fourth punchout.

The home half of the inning saw a pitching change for Milwaukee. Spahn’s day was done. As manager Charlie Dressen explained later, “They were hitting too many line drives off him.”10 The new pitcher was Tony Cloninger. Cloninger, a 20-year-old rookie, was born in 1940, the year Spahn broke into professional baseball.11 He was making his eighth major-league appearance since debuting on June 15, and he came into the game with a 6.62 ERA.

Cloninger worked the fourth and fifth innings, holding the Pirates to no runs and one hit. McBean put up another scoreless inning in the fifth. As the game headed to the sixth inning, the score remained Braves 5, Pirates 3.

In the top of the sixth, McBean ran into trouble. He issued three walks, one of which was intentional, to load the bases with two away. Murtaugh called on veteran left-hander Vinegar Bend Mizell. Mizell, in his eighth season, was a key cog in the Pirates’ 1960 World Series victory run.12 On this occasion Mizell did not disappoint, as he flipped a called third strike past Mathews to end the Braves’ threat.13

Mizell went on to pitch a scoreless seventh and then was removed from the game for pinch-hitter Rocky Nelson. Clem Labine blanked the Braves in the eighth and ninth innings. Milwaukee managed just three hits after Spahn’s second-inning homer.

Dressen had turned the game over to right-hander Don Nottebart in the sixth. In the previous night’s game, Nottebart had recorded the final five outs to close out Lew Burdette’s win.

Nottebart retired the Pirates in order in the sixth. Mazeroski singled to lead off the seventh, but Nelson hit into a double play.

Pittsburgh threatened against Nottebart in the eighth. Virdon led off with a walk and Christopher singled for his fourth hit of the game. The runners moved up on Clemente’s groundout, and a walk to Stuart loaded the bases. Virdon scored when Hoak hit into a force at second, but pinch-hitter Smoky Burgess flied out to end the inning.

Aided by Thomas’s catch of Mazeroski’s sinking liner, which denied the Pittsburgh second baseman a leadoff extra-base hit, Nottebart retired the Pirates in order in the ninth.14 The final score was Braves 5, Pirates 4.

Cloninger’s two innings of work earned the victory to even his record at 2-2. Nottebart was retroactively credited with a four-inning save, his third of the season. Shantz took the loss, dropping him to 5-2.

Spahn’s three-inning pitching line was five hits (including the Clemente homer and double), three earned runs, one walk, and one strikeout. It was a no-decision, but his home run in the second proved to be the winning tally.

The time of the game was 2:56, with a paid attendance of 16,417 plus 5,323 knot-hole kids.15 The Braves made it a four-game sweep by winning both ends of the next day’s doubleheader, shelling the Pirates for 16 runs on 25 hits. Milwaukee finished fourth in the NL at 83-71, 10 games behind the Reds. Pittsburgh was sixth at 75-79.

Spahn had to wait a few more weeks after his start against the Pirates to celebrate his 300th win. Three starts later, on August 11, he beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-1, to attain the milestone. Spahn won 12 of his last 13 decisions to finish the year 21-13, his sixth consecutive season with 20 or more wins.16 For the season, he hit four home runs and batted .223.

Spahn retired after the 1965 season. Even though he didn’t get his first victory until age 25 and he missed three full seasons during World War II, his 363 career wins are the major-league record for a left-handed pitcher. His 35 career home runs lead all NL pitchers.17

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Harrison Golden and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Warren Spahn, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT196107220.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1961/B07220PIT1961.htm

Notes

1 Lester J. Biederman, “Adcock on Recent Homer Spree,” Pittsburgh Press, July 23, 1961: 51.

2 Shantz ended his career after the 1964 season with 16 years of major-league service. In 1952, pitching for the Philadelphia Athletics, he led the AL with 24 victories against seven losses.

3 Lester J. Biederman, “Braves Again Top Pirates, 5-4,” Pittsburgh Press, July 23, 1961: 49.

4 Lou Chapman, “Braves Road Trip Greatest in 2 Years; Parallels ’60 Win Surge,” Milwaukee Sentinel, July 23, 1961: 15.

5 Clemente finished 1961 with a .351 average, tops in the league, and the first of his four batting titles. The game featured three players from the top 10 NL batting averages for 1961. In addition to Clemente’s .351 average, Aaron was fifth (.327) and Mathews ninth (.306).

6 Stuart’s SABR biography, written by Jan Finkle, characterized 1961 as a breakout season for the Pittsburgh first baseman. He hit a career-high .301 with a slugging average of .581 to go with 35 homers and 117 RBIs. He made the All-Star team, played in both games (there were two games in 1961), and contributed a double in the first. Stuart also led the NL in strikeouts in 1961 with 121 and the major leagues in first basemen’s errors with 21, justifying the nickname Dr. Strangeglove. Jan Finkle, “Dick Stuart,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed April 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/dick-stuart/.

7 Peter Bauck, “Red Witt,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed April 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/red-witt/; “Pirates Ask Disabled Tag for Red Witt,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 1, 1961: 33.

8 In 1964 McBean’s 21 saves and 1.91 ERA earned him The Sporting News’ Fireman of the Year Award.

9 Biederman, “Braves Again Top Pirates, 5-4.”

10 Bob Wolf, “Spahn’s Homer Is Clincher as Braves Nip Pirates, 5-4,” Milwaukee Journal, July 23, 1961: 41.

11 “Spahn’s Homer Is Clincher as Braves Nip Pirates, 5-4.” Cloninger, like Spahn, also knew how to handle a bat. On July 3, 1966,  he hit two grand slams in one game against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park. He also had an RBI single in the game. With the two grand slams, Cloninger became the first NL player and the only pitcher to do so. On the pitching front, Cloninger went the distance against the Giants, allowing just 3 runs in a 17-3 laugher. He hit 11 home runs in 12 major-league seasons, including 5 in 1966.

12 Mizell won 13 games for Pittsburgh after coming over in a trade with St. Louis during the Pirates’ glorious championship year.

13 Biederman, “Braves Again Top Pirates, 5-4.”

14 Biederman, “Braves Again Top Pirates, 5-4.”

15 Biederman, “Braves Again Top Pirates, 5-4.”

16 Spahn’s career spanned from 1942 to 1965 with three full years lost to military service. Consequently, Spahn is credited with 21 years of major-league service. Over this time, Spahn was a 20-game winner 13 times including a 23-7 season at age 42 in 1963.

17 At the major-league level, the only pitchers with more home runs than Spahn’s 35 are Wes Ferrell (38) and Bob Lemon (37). Per Baseball-Reference, they are followed in the all-time Top 10 by Red Ruffing (34); Earl Wilson (33); Don Drysdale (29); John Clarkson (24); Bob Gibson (24); Carlos Zambrano  (24); and Walter Johnson (23).