May 14, 1960: Score vs. Latman duel is short-lived

The Chicago White Sox won the 1959 American League pennant by a margin of five games over the second-place Cleveland Indians. The day before the 1960 season opened, Chicago traded 24-year-old right-handed pitcher Barry Latman for Cleveland’s Herb Score.

The 1955 AL Rookie of the Year, Score led the league in strikeouts in each of his first two seasons and won 20 games in 1956. After being hit in the eye by a line drive and missing most of the 1957 campaign, the 27-year-old southpaw struggled with various injuries. Score posted a record of 9-5 in the first half of 1959, but was 0-6 for the rest of the year. “He showed us nothing during spring training to make us feel optimistic,” said Cleveland general manager Frank Lane after the trade.1

The deal reunited Score with Al Lopez, his manager in Cleveland during 1955 and 1956. Lopez admitted he wanted Score on his team ever since he had left the Indians to manage the White Sox in 1957. “I think he still is a fine pitcher,” said Lopez, “and we plan to work with him in the hope that he will return to the form he had when I was his manager in Cleveland.”2

Latman was 8-5 with a 3.75 ERA in 1959, his first full season in the big leagues. “I said last winter that the White Sox could win the pennant again only if Latman and Bob Shaw came through,” observed Lane. “I felt their pitching was too questionable otherwise. Now we’ve got Latman and maybe he’ll help us win it.”3

When the White Sox visited Cleveland in mid-May for a four-game weekend series, Score was scheduled to pitch against his former team on Saturday. “It may seem a bit strange for a few minutes but then it will be just another ballgame,” he said about his first appearance at Cleveland Stadium since the trade.4

Indians manager Joe Gordon had originally planned to start Dick Stigman on Saturday, but changed his mind before Friday’s series opener and picked Latman instead. “I’ll pitch Stigman Sunday and keep him in the bullpen tonight,” explained Gordon. “If he started Saturday, I couldn’t use him to relieve in this series. Besides, it’ll be fun to see how Latman does against Score.”5

After retiring the first Chicago batter he faced, Latman hit Nellie Fox with a pitch. Minnie Miñoso singled to center, but Fox was thrown out trying to reach third. Ted Kluszewski’s two-out double to right field put runners at second and third. Billy Goodman walked to load the bases. Al Smith’s single to left scored two runs. Jim Landis flied to left for the final out, with the score 2-0 in Chicago’s favor.

Score retired Cleveland’s leadoff batter on a flyball to right. Jim Piersall bunted toward first for a single. He stole second on Score’s ball-three pitch to Harvey Kuenn. Piersall stole third on the next pitch, ball four, scoring when the catcher’s bad throw bounced past the third baseman.6 With Kuenn on first, Score walked Tito Francona. Landis made a diving attempt at Vic Power’s fly to center, but the ball got past him for a double.7 Kuenn scored on the play, with Francona advancing to third. Woodie Held fouled out to second baseman Fox along the right-field line. Francona scored after the catch and Power took third. John Romano ended the inning with a fly out to center.

Cleveland’s 3-2 advantage did not last long. Latman retired the first batter he faced in the second inning, but walked Score and Luis Aparicio. Fox singled to right, driving in Score and advancing Aparicio to third. Latman hit Miñoso in the back of the neck to load the bases.8 Carl Thomas, a right-hander in his first major-league season, relieved and retired the next two batters on fly balls to end the threat with the score tied, 3-3. It was Thomas’s fourth appearance. He had 5⅓ innings under his belt.

Score walked Bubba Phillips to start the bottom half of the inning. A sacrifice by Thomas moved Phillips to second. Johnny Temple grounded to shortstop Aparicio. Phillips tried to advance to third, but Aparicio’s throw beat him for the inning’s second out. Temple, on first after the fielder’s choice, stole second. With the count 3-and-1, Piersall hit a drive to deep center. Landis attempted a leaping catch, but crashed into the center-field fence. The ball bounced off his glove and dropped over the fence for a two-run homer.9 Landis suffered a mild concussion and was replaced by Joe Hicks. Don Ferrarese relieved Score and, after Kuenn singled, the inning ended on a groundout, as Cleveland took the lead, 5-3.

Thomas held Chicago scoreless in the third, allowing only a one-out walk. Power walked to start Cleveland’s half of the inning. One out later, Romano hit a two-run homer to deep left. Phillips fouled out, but after Thomas singled and Temple walked, Ferrarese was replaced by Ray Moore. Piersall grounded into a force out to end the inning.

With Cleveland ahead 7-3, the White Sox failed to score in the fourth after a walk and a bunt single put runners at first and second with no outs. Miñoso flied out to left and Kluszewski hit into a double play. In the bottom of the inning consecutive singles by Kuenn, Francona, and Power loaded the bases with no outs. Moore retired Held on a pop foul, but Romano’s sacrifice fly scored Kuenn, making the score 8-3.

Thomas walked Goodman and Smith to start the top of the fifth. A sacrifice by Hicks moved the runners to second and third. Dick Brown fouled out to first. Earl Torgeson, batting for Moore, walked, but Aparicio popped out to Thomas for the third out.

Mike Garcia walked Thomas to start the Indians’ fifth. Thomas took second on Temple’s sacrifice and scored on Piersall’s double to center. Kuenn’s single scored Piersall. Cleveland now led by a score of 10-3.

Fox, leading off the sixth for Chicago, walked. One out later, Kluszewski walked. Goodman bunted for a single. Phillips’s throw was late and wild,10 scoring Fox and putting runners on second and third. Smith’s groundout to short scored Kluszewski, and Goodman scored on Hicks’s single. Thomas threw a high curve on his first pitch to Brown,11 who hit a two-run homer to deep left. With the score 10-8, Johnny Klippstein relieved Thomas. Jim Rivera, batting for Garcia, struck out.

Turk Lown pitched the bottom of the sixth for Chicago. After a leadoff single by Romano, he retired the next three Tribe batters. Lown held Cleveland without a hit in the seventh and eighth innings, allowing only a two-out walk in the seventh.

Miñoso hit a two-out solo homer in the top of the seventh to cut the Indians’ lead to one run. Klippstein walked Goodman to start the top of the eighth, but retired the next six White Sox batters to secure the Tribe’s 10-9 victory.

Thomas was the winning pitcher despite allowing five runs and walking seven over 4⅓ innings. His performance in what turned out to be his only big-league victory did not impress his manager, who was upset with the rookie pitcher’s wildness. Commenting on Klippstein’s relief work, Gordon said, “Johnny may be the stopper I’ve been looking for … he gets the ball over.”12

The matchup of traded pitchers was brief. Latman lasted 1⅓ innings, allowing three runs on four hits, three walks and two hit-batsmen, with no strikeouts. He faced 12 batters and only 24 of his 46 pitches were strikes. Score, who gave up five runs on three hits and three walks in 1⅔ innings of work, was the losing pitcher. He did not strike out any of the 11 batters he faced, with just 23 of his 45 pitches thrown for strikes.13 “I was simply too wild,” said Score after the game. “Most of the time I wasn’t even coming close. I seemed fast enough when I could get the ball over.”14

Postscript

Latman posted a 7-7 record (4.03 ERA) for Cleveland in 1960 as the Indians dropped to fourth place, 21 games behind the pennant-winning Yankees. He compiled a 35-37 record (4.27 ERA) for the Indians before being traded to the Angels after the 1963 season.

Chicago placed third, 10 games behind New York. Score finished 1960 at 5-10 (3.72 ERA). He pitched parts of the following two seasons for Chicago and retired in 1963. He never pitched again in Cleveland Stadium after his matchup with Latman. His only victory during his final two years with the White Sox came against his former team in Chicago on May 6, 1961, when he pitched a complete game to beat the Indians 4-2.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources 

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. for box scores/play-by-play information, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other data.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE196005140.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1960/B05140CLE1960.htm

Notes

1 Harry Jones, “Indians Trade Score for Latman of Chisox,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 19, 1960: 31.

2 “Indians Trade Score for Latman of Chisox.”

3 “Indians Trade Score for Latman of Chisox.”

4 Chuck Heaton, “‘Just Another Game,’ but Score Would Like to Beat Tribe Today,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 14, 1960: 23.

5 Harry Jones, “Batting Around,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 14, 1960: 23.

6 Edward Prell, “Sox, Score Lose, 10-9,” Chicago Tribune, May 15, 1960: A1.

7 “Sox, Score Lose, 10-9.”

8 “Sox, Score Lose, 10-9.”

9 “Sox, Score Lose, 10-9.”

10 “Sox, Score Lose, 10-9.”

11 Chuck Heaton, “Gordon Finds a Stopper,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 15, 1960: 1-C.

12 “Gordon Finds a Stopper.” This game was Thomas’s last game in the major leagues. The next day, he was optioned to the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians.

13 Harry Jones, “Batting Around,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 15, 1960: 3-C.

14 “Gordon Finds a Stopper.”