Onesies.

 

For pitching like this, we gotta go back to The Year of the Pitcher, 1968, when hurlers threw grapefruit seeds from the tops of mountains.

That year, the Yankees' very good pitching staff recorded 14 shutouts—while the team, which batted a major-league-record low of .214, was blanked 15 times. The Bombers had a team ERA of 2.79—and finished fifth, at 83-79.

(Somehow, this all got blamed on Horace Clarke's fielding.)

In 1-0 games, though, NYY went 6-3, with the winning hits provided, for the most part, by a remarkable ragbag of mediocrities, has-beens, and never-would-bes.

It started with Opening Day, when Mel Stottlemyre blanked the then-California Angels, 1-0, before all of 15,743 at the Stadium, in a game that lasted 1 hour and 43 minutes (Something tells me that it was cold that afternoon.).  

Stott scattered 4 hits, struck out 6, and walked no one. The winning hit was a home run by back-up catcher Frank Fernandez. 

Stottlemyre would go on to beat Jose Santiago at the Stadium by 1-0 (game-winning homer a long shot by the estimable Roy White), and lose by the same score to Mickey Lolich of the Tigers, who were en route to a world championship.

The oft-injured Steve Barber would also lose a 1-0 game, to Joel Horlen of the White Sox, while Fritz Peterson would best Sudden Sam McDowell in Cleveland, and pick up a relief win on May 25th, in a 10-inning victory against the ChiSox. Fred Talbot had pitched 7 shutout innings in that game. Talbot would finish with a 3.36 ERA—and a 1-9 record.

That May 25th win was the second, 1-0 triumph in as many days. On the 24th—what is it about late May?—rookie Stan Bahnsen threw ten shutout innings, but the Yanks didn't win until the 13th, on a Horace Clarke single and an error (thank you very much), with Joe Verbanic getting the win.

Bahnsen, a Red Sox killer throughout his career, also shutout the BoSox, 1-0, on August 1st, striking out 12. It was only the third major-league game I ever saw and the first one at Fenway Park—an early birthday present. He beat Dave Morehead, when Tom Tresh bunted his way on in the seventh, stole second, and was singled in by Bill Robinson. 

It was a beautiful summer evening, with nearly 25,000 in the stands. I'll never forget the charcoal smell of the pretzel vendors as we walked up from the Kenmore station, or the sight of all that green, the field blending into the wall. I was not quite ten.