Monthly Archives: November 2015

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game Thirty-one

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MINNESOTA 3, CALIFORNIA 1 IN CALIFORNIA (12 INNINGS)

Date:  Wednesday, May 19 (Game 1 of doubleheader)

Batting stars:  Sandy Valdespino was 3-for-6 with a double and a run.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 with two walks and two RBIs.  Earl Battey was 1-for-4 with a walk and a run.

Pitching stars:  Dave Boswell pitched six innings, giving up one run on two hits and no walks with four strikeouts.  Jerry Fosnow pitched three perfect innings.  Al Worthington pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Dean Chance pitched nine innings, allowing one run on seven hits and three walks with four strikeouts.  Albie Pearson was 1-for-4 with a home run (his second) and a hit-by-pitch.  Bob Lee struck out two in two shutout innings, allowing two hits and a walk.

The game:  Pearson led off the fourth with a home run to give the Angels a 1-0 lead.  In the eighth, Harmon Killebrew delivered a pinch-hit RBI double to tie it 1-1.  The Angels loaded the bases in the eleventh but left them loaded.  In the twelfth, singles by Zoilo Versalles and Valdespino put men on first and second with one out.  They were still there with two down, but Oliva delivered a two-run single (with Valdespino scoring from first base) to give the Twins a 3-1 lead.  Dick Stigman came in to throw a perfect twelfth to preserve the victory.

Of note:  Versalles was 1-for-6 with a run.  Rich Rollins was 1-for-6.

Record:  The win snapped a four-game losing streak and left the Twins in second place, four games behind Chicago.

Notes:  Killebrew and Bob Allison were both rested in this game, though both were used as pinch-hitters.  At this point, Pearson had two home runs, both against the Twins.  He would end the season with four.

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game Thirty

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CALIFORNIA 3, MINNESOTA 1 IN CALIFORNIA

Date:  Tuesday, May 18.

Batting stars:  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-5 with two doubles.  Earl Battey was 2-for-4 with a double.  Jerry Kindall was 1-for-3 with an RBI and a stolen base.

Pitching star:  Jim Kaat pitched 7.2 innings, giving up three unearned runs on seven hits and no walks with three strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Marcelino Lopez pitched 8.1 innings, allowing an unearned run on six hits and four walks with six strikeouts.  Joe Adcock was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Jimmy Piersall was 2-for-4 with an RBI.

The game:  In the fourth, an error and two singles loaded the bases with one out and Kindall delivered a sacrifice fly to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  The Angels put men on first and third with one out in the bottom of the fourth and the Twins had men on second and third with none out in the seventh, but it stayed 1-0 until the eighth.  In the bottom of the eighth, Piersall tied it with an RBI single and Adcock delivered a two-out two-run double to put the Angels in front 3-1.  The Twins put men on second and third with one out in the ninth, but pinch-hitter Don Mincher flied out to left and Tony Oliva lined to center to end the game.

Of note:  Joe Nossek was 0-for-4.  Oliva was 0-for-3 with two walks.  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-3 with a walk and a run.  Bob Allison was 0-for-4.

Record:  The loss was the Twins' fourth straight and dropped them to 18-12, still in second place, but four and a half games behind Chicago.

Notes:  Kaat stole a base in the game on the back end of a double steal with Kindall.  All the runs scored in the game were unearned.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 4

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Bobby Wallace (1873)
Tommy Leach (1877)
Skeeter Webb (1909)
Carl Sawatski (1927)
Dick Groat (1930)
Tito Francona (1933)
Dick Selma (1943)
Doug Corbett (1952)
Jon Shave (1967)
Eric Karros (1967)
Carlos Baerga (1968)
Kevin Frederick (1976)
Carmen Cali (1978)

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to davidwatts, yickit, and kalarson.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–November 4 →

Keeping Track

1965 Rewind: Game Twenty-nine

CALIFORNIA 5, MINNESOTA 4 IN CALIFORNIA (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Monday, May 17.

Batting stars:  Earl Battey was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-4 with a double and a walk, scoring once.  Don Mincher hit a pinch-hit home run in his only at-bat.

Pitching star:  Camilo Pascual pitched seven innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on six hits and two walks with two strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Albie Pearson was 2-for-4 with two doubles and a walk, scoring twice.  Paul Schall was 2-for-3 with a home run (his seventh) and a walk.  Jim Fregosi was 1-for-2 with a triple and a walk, scoring once.

The game:  RBI singles by Battey and Jerry Kindall in the second inning gave the Twins a 2-0 lead.  Schall homered in the third and Fregosi tripled and scored in the fourth to tie it at two.  The Twins took the lead back in the sixth when Bob Allison scored from first on a Battey single.  In the eighth, however, the Angels loaded the bases and Vic Power delivered a two-run single to put them up 4-3.  Mincher hit a pinch-hit home run leading off the ninth to tie it 4-4 and send the game to extra inning.  In the tenth, Pearson led off with a double, went to third on a bunt, and scored on a single by Buck Rodgers to end the game.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-5.  Rich Rollins was 1-for-4 with a walk.  Tony Oliva was 0-for-5.  Allison was 0-for-3 with two walks and two runs.

Record:  The loss was the third straight for the Twins and dropped them to 18-11.  They remained in second place but were now three and a half games behind Chicago.

Notes:  Paul Schall was twenty-two in 1965.  This was his thirty-first game of the season, and he had seven home runs.  Angels fans must have thought they were seeing the beginning of a power hitter.  Schall would go on to play in one hundred twenty-four more games that season and hit two more home runs.  He hit a total of fifty-seven in an eleven-year career, with a high of eleven in 1971.