Kaat purrs in World Series debut
In a World Series matchup with perhaps the greatest pitcher of his generation, Jim Kaat was equal to the task.
On Oct. 7, 1965, Kaat got the starting assignment for the Minnesota Twins in Game 2 of the World Series. Pitching for the Dodgers that afternoon in Minneapolis was Sandy Koufax, who was coming off a 26-8 season that saw him strike out a record 382 batters.
“I tried not to think of Koufax,” Kaat told the Associated Press after the Twins’ 5-1 victory. “I tried to train all my concentration on the hitters. But watching him pitch, I realized why he is the greatest pitcher in baseball.
“I think the knowledge that I was pitching against Koufax relaxed me. I knew nobody expected me to beat him.”
Kaat was brilliant in his first-ever World Series appearance, allowing just seven hits and one walk over nine innings. The game was scoreless after five-and-a-half innings before the Twins pushed two runs across in the sixth via RBI from two future Hall of Famers: Tony Oliva and Harmon Killebrew.
The Dodgers cut the lead to 2-1 in the seventh on a single by John Roseboro, and Roseboro went to second on the throw home, leaving two on and one out with Koufax due up. Dodgers manager Walter Alston called on Don Drysdale to pinch-hit, but Kaat fanned Drysdale and then got Maury Wills to fly to center to squelch the rally.
Kaat played to his strengths all afternoon, keeping his fastballs, curves and sliders down in the zone.
“I didn’t even bother to go over the scouting reports,” Kaat told the AP. “I figured I knew all I had to know about them so why become confused with a lot of detail.
“I know the Dodgers are a low-ball hitting team. I’m a low-ball pitcher. That’s my strength. If I pitched high, I’d be going with my weakness.”
The Twins added a run in the bottom of the seventh off reliever Ron Perranoski, then scored two more in the eighth on a two-run single by Kaat that scored Bob Allison and Don Mincher.
In the ninth, Kaat fanned Ron Fairly to start the frame but allowed an infield single to Jim Lefebvre and then hit Wes Parker. But with the tying run on deck, Kaat got Roseboro to ground to first before spearing a line drive off the bat of Dick Tracewski to end the game.
In addition to his pitching prowess, Kaat demonstrated his fielding skills – an attribute that would result in his winning 16 Gold Glove Awards. Kaat tied a World Series record with five putouts in the game: four on ground balls to first base and then the liner to end the contest.
The victory gave the Twins a 2-games-to-none lead in the series – and marked the first time since Sept. 1 (in a doubleheader against Pittsburgh) and just the third time all season that Drysdale and Koufax had lost successive games.
But the Dodgers roared back with three straight victories in Los Angeles. And after the Twins won Game 6, Koufax started Game 7 on just two days rest – and shut out Minnesota in a 2-0 win to capture the title.
Kaat, however, parlayed his postseason success into what would become his best big league campaign the following year. In 1966, Kaat went 25-13, leading the American League in wins (Koufax had an MLB-best 27 victories) en route to a fifth-place finish in the AL Most Valuable Player Award voting.
“Johnny Sain, our pitching coach…has helped me more than I can tell you,” Kaat told the AP during the 1965 World Series. “He tries to make pitching not so complicated, unlike a lot of other pitching coaches. ‘Rely on your natural stuff and throw strikes,’ he preaches. ‘Do not be a defensive pitcher.’
“My first few years in the big leagues, I was a defensive pitcher.”
Kaat would pitch in 25 big league seasons, winning 283 games. He got his elusive World Series ring in 1982 while working out of the bullpen for the Cardinals at age 43.
Kaat was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022.
Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
