MINNESOTA 3, CHICAGO 1 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Thursday, June 17.

Batting stars:  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-4 with a home run, his seventh.  Don Mincher was 1-for-3 with a home run (his second) and a walk.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with two stolen bases, his third and fourth.

Pitching star:  Jim Kaat pitched a complete game, giving up one run on four hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Joel Horlen pitched eight innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits and no walks with two strikeouts.  Danny Cater was 1-for-3 with a home run (his ninth) and a walk.  Ron Hansen was 1-for-4 with a double.

The game:  It was scoreless until the fifth, when Mincher hit a one-out homer.  Versalles homered with one out in the sixth to make it 2-0.  Kaat doubled and scored on a Versalles single in the eighth to give the Twins a 3-0 lead.  Cater homered in the eighth and Floyd Robinson followed with a one-out single, but a double play ended the inning and the White Sox went down in order in the ninth.

Of note:  Sandy Valdespino was 0-for-4.  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-4.  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-4, dropping his average to .318.

Record:  The win boosted the Twins' record to 36-21 and increased their lead over Chicago to 1.5 games.

Notes:  Mincher played first base, with Killebrew moving to third and Rich Rollins to second.  Earl Battey was removed from the game in the fourth inning, but would play the next day.  Hoyt Wilhelm pitched the ninth for the White Sox.  In his age forty-two season, he would appear in sixty-six games, seven fewer than the previous year and six fewer than he would appear in three years later.  Wilhelm would pitch until 1972, when he was forty-nine.