MINNESOTA 8, WASHINGTON 5 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Thursday, August 5.
Batting stars: Joe Nossek was 2-for-3 with a three-run homer, his second. Bob Allison was 2-for-4 with a triple and a walk, scoring twice and driving in one. Tony Oliva was 1-for-3 with two walks and a run.
Pitching star: Johnny Klippstein struck out two in 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up only a walk.
Opposition stars: Ken Hamlin was 3-for-4 with a home run (his fourth) and two runs. Woodie Held was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer, his twelfth. Joe Cunningham was 2-for-4 with a double, scoring once and driving in one.
The game: Aided by an error, a wild pitch, and a passed ball, the Twins scored three runs in the second to take a 3-0 lead. They added three more in the third on Nossek's three-run homer to make it 6-0. Each team scored once in the fourth and Held hit a three-run homer in the sixth to cut the Twins' lead to 7-4. The Senators would never get closer than three runs and did not get the tying run up to bat.
Of note: Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-5 with a home run, his thirteenth. Rich Rollins was 2-for-5 with a double. Jimmie Hall was 1-for-4 with two runs. Jim Kaat struck out seven in 6.2 innings, giving up five runs on eight hits and no walks.
Record: The win made the Twins 69-39. Baltimore did not play, so the Twins' lead over the Orioles increased to 5.5 games.
Notes: Oliva and Hall were both now batting .304...Joe Nossek hit the second of his three career home runs in this game. His next and last homer would come in 1966...The top three batters in the Washington lineup went 6-for-12 with two home runs and a double. The rest of the lineup went 2-for-23...You don't often see a first baseman batting leadoff, but Joe Cunningham did it for the Senators in this game. He was a starter for the Cardinals from 1958-61 and for the White Sox in 1962, but missed a couple of months in 1963 due to a broken collarbone and was a part-time player after that. He was pretty good, making the all-star team in 1959 (when he hit .345 and led the league in OBP at .453) and twice finishing in the top twenty in MVP voting. His career numbers were .291/.403/.417. His career ended in 1966, after which he was hired by the Cardinals and was at various times a minor league manager and coach and also worked in the front office.