KANSAS CITY 10, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, July 16.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk, scoring once.  Jimmie Hall was 2-for-4 with an RBI.  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Bill Pleis pitched two perfect innings with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Diego Segui pitched a complete game, allowing two runs on nine hits and one walk with five strikeouts.  Johnny Blanchard was 2-for-3 with a walk, scoring twice and driving in one.  Tommie Reynolds was 1-for-3 with two walks, scoring twice and driving in one.

The game:  The Athletics jumped on Mudcat Grant early.  There was no one big hit--in fact, the first two batters went out--but then came a walk, four singles, another walk, and another single.  Seven consecutive batters reached, resulting in four runs and an early exit for Grant.  Jerry Fosnow got the last out of the first and got through the second, but in the third a walk, an error, and three more singles led to three more runs and a 7-0 Kansas City lead.  It was never close after that.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-5.  Earl Battey was 0-for-2.  Grant pitched only two-thirds of an inning, giving up four runs on five hits and two walks with no strikeouts.

Record:  The loss made the Twins 54-31.  Their lead over Cleveland dropped to four games, as the Indians beat Boston 4-3 in ten innings.

Notes:  Hall raised his average to .320...Battey's average dropped to .310...The Athletics had eleven hits, ten of them singles.  The lone exception was a seventh-inning triple by Nelson Mathews...Kansas City certainly bunched their hits, getting five in the first (when they scored four), three in the third (when they scored three), and two in the seventh (when they scored three).  They had only one hit in the other six innings.  The Twins had nine hits, but only twice had more than one in an inning.