CALIFORNIA 9, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Tuesday, July 20.
Batting stars: Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a walk. Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 with an RBI. Frank Quilici was 0-for-3 with a walk and a run.
Pitching stars: Mel Nelson pitched 2.2 innings, giving up one run on four hits and one walk with one strikeout. Bill Pleis pitched two shutout innings, giving up one walk with one strikeout.
Opposition stars: Marcelino Lopez pitched a complete game, allowing one run on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts. Bobby Knoop was 4-for-5 with a double and three RBIs. Willie Smith was 3-for-5 with a home run (his eleventh) and three runs.
The game: An RBI groundout by Oliva gave the Twins a 1-0 lead in the first, but Knoop's run-scoring single tied it in the second. The Angles took control of the game with four runs in the third. A single, a lineout, and five consecutive singles gave them a 5-1 lead. The Twins never threatened to get back into the game--they never had more than one runner on base at a time after the first and did not even get one on after Oliva's single leading off the sixth.
Of note: Rich Rollins was 1-for-4. Jimmie Hall was 0-for-4. Camilo Pascual pitched 2.1 innings, giving up five runs on seven hits and no walks with no strikeouts.
Record: The loss dropped the Twins to 56-34, still in first place by 3.5 games, but Baltimore defeated Cleveland to tie the Indians for second place.
Notes: This was Pascual's first start since July 4. He was obviously still hurting. He would struggle through two more starts, then miss the entire month of August...Hall's average dropped to .316...Earl Battey did not start but was used as a pinch-hitter. He went 0-for-1 and dropped his average to .304. Jerry Zimmerman started in his place...Marcelino Lopez had a fine year, going 14-13, 2.93 and finishing second in the rookie of the year voting at age 21. It was the only good year he had as a starter. His ERA was a full run higher, 3.93, in 1966, which doesn't sound so bad now but was not very good in 1966. He was traded to Baltimore in June of 1967 and struggled through a couple of injury-plagued years before resurfacing as a reliever. He had a solid season for the Orioles in 1970, but it was the last good year he would have. He made four appearances for Cleveland in 1972, his last major league appearances. He had started having elbow problems as early as 1962, when he was eighteen, and one assumes that throwing 215.1 innings in 1965 at age twenty-one was probably not the best thing for him.