Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game Fifty-six

CHICAGO 3, MINNESOTA 1 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Wednesday, June 16.

Batting stars:  Zoilo Versalles was 3-for-4 with an RBI.  Frank Kostro was 1-for-4 with a run.

Pitching stars:  Dick Stigman pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits with one strikeout.  Johnny Klippstein struck out two in two perfect innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  John Buzhardt pitched 7.2 innings, giving up one run on six hits and no walks with two strikeouts.  Pete Ward was 2-for-4 with a double and a run.  J. C. Martin was 2-for-3 with an RBI.

The game:  Versalles got a two-out RBI single in the second to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Camilo Pascual had sailed through the first three innings, giving up only one hit, but four of the first five White Sox batters got hits to start the fourth, and the other batter reached on a fielder's choice on which no out was recorded.  RBI singles by Martin and Ron Hansen gave the White Sox a 2-1 lead and a bases-loaded walk to Smoky Burgess made it 3-1 and led to Pascual's exit from the game.  Jerry Fosnow got the Twins out of the inning with no further damage, but they could not catch up.  In fact, they did not threaten again until the ninth, when a single and a walk put men on first and second with none out.  Three consecutive fly outs ended the game.

Of note:  Rich Rollins was 0-for-2 and was hit by a pitch.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-4.  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-4.  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-4, dropping his average to .325.  Pascual pitched 3.1 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks with two strikeouts.

Record:  The loss made the Twins 35-21, still in first place, but only by a half game over Chicago.

Notes:  Kostro replaced Jerry Kindall at second base.  The Twins were looking for a second baseman all season.  Kindall got the majority of starts there, but other who played second in 1965 were Kostro, Bernie Allen, Frank Quilici, Rollins, and Cesar Tovar.  Burgess was nominally a catcher, but at this point in his career was almost exclusively a pinch-hitter.  He would appear in eighty games in 1965 but catch in only five of them.