Today in 1958 - Kansas City A's vs Chicago White Sox - September 26, 1958

September 26, 1958 – Today in 1958, the Kansas City A’s visited Comiskey Park to take on the Chicago White Sox.

The game went scoreless until the bottom of the 6^th inning.  With runners on first and third, Johnny Callison hit a sacrifice fly to left field and John Romano scored.  Kansas City starting pitcher Bob Grim was relieved by Bob Gorman with runners on first and third again.  Gorman got out of the inning without allowing a run to score.  The White Sox led 1-0.

The score remained the same in the top of the 9^th.  White Sox starting pitcher Barry Latman was still on the mound.  He faced Roger Maris and struck him out.  Hector Lopez hit a single to right field and the tying run was on base.  Bob Cerv came to the plate.  Cerv hit the ball to shortstop Sammy Esposito, who turned a double play.  Game over.  The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City A’s 1-0.

Latman got the win.  He pitched a three-hitter and went to 3-0.  Latman struck out 9 and hit 0-1, with a sacrifice hit.  Grim was charged with the loss and fell to 7-7. He struck out 1 and hit 0-2.

The White Sox went to 81-71.  They were 2^nd in the American League, 9 games behind the New York Yankees.  The A’s dropped to 72-80.  They were 7^th in the American League, 18 games behind the Yankees.

Notables

• There were 2 Hall of Famers playing or managing in the game, both with Chicago: Nellie Fox and manager Al Lopez.
• This was Harry Craft’s second season managing the A’s.  He managed the team from 1957-59.  He later managed the Chicago Cubs and Houston Colt .45’s.
• This was Al Lopez’s second season managing the White Sox.  He managed the team from 1957-65, 1968-69, and led the team to the World Series in 1959, losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
• Craft and Lopez were opposing players between 1937-42.  Craft played for the Cincinnati Reds the whole time and Lopez played for the Boston Bees from 1937-40 and the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1940-42 during that rivalry. Lopez played from 1928, 1930-47.
• Hector Lopez got two of the three hits Latman allowed.  Harry Chiti got the third.

Game stats and other data can be found on Baseball-Reference.com at Kansas City A's vs Chicago White Sox - September 26, 1958.