MINNESOTA 9, BOSTON 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, August 6.

Batting stars:  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-5 with a three-run homer (his fourteenth) and a stolen base (his fourteenth), scoring twice.  Bob Allison was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his eighteenth) and a walk, scoring twice.  Don Mincher was 3-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Jim Merritt pitched six innings, giving up two runs on four hits and two walks with four strikeouts.  Dwight Siebler pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and two walks.

Opposition stars:  Felix Mantilla was 2-for-3 with a home run (his fourteenth) and a walk.  Lenny Green was 2-for-5 with a double and a run.  Jim Gosger was 0-for-1 with three walks and a run.

The game:  It was close most of the way.  Tony Oliva singled in a run in the third to put the Twins up 1-0, but Mantilla homered leading off the fourth to tie it 1-1.  Merritt delivered an RBI single in the fifth to make it 2-1 but the Red Sox again immediately responded, as Green doubled and later scored on an error to tie it 2-2 in the top of the sixth.  In the sixth, however, the Twins scored six times to put the game away.  Allison hit a two-run homer and later Versalles hit a two-out three-run homer to make the score 8-2.  The Red Sox never threatened to get back into the game.

Of note:  Oliva was 1-for-5 with an RBI.  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-4 with a run.

Record:  The win made the Twins 70-39.  Baltimore lost 9-4 to Kansas City, so the Twins lead increased to 6.5 games.

Notes:  Oliva was now hitting .302.  Hall remained at .304...Harmon Killebrew sat this game out, with Mincher playing first and Rich Rollins at third...This was Merritt's second major league start (his first had come August 2) and first major league win.  He made nine starts for the Twins in 1965 and pitched well in them, going 4-3, 3.55.  He then went to the bullpen and pitched even better, going 1-1 with two saves and a 1.35 ERA...Lenny Green, as you probably know, was an original Twin, coming with the team from Washington in 1961.  He became a starting outfielder in 1960 and was a fine player from 1960-62.  He slumped in 1963, however, batting only .239, and was traded the following year.  1965 was his last season as at least a semi-regular player.  He bounced back pretty well, hitting .276 with an OPS of .790, but the next year he hit .241 in only 133 at-bats and he would play only a couple more years.  His drop-off was probably due to age:  he was already twenty-seven in 1960.