NEW YORK 2, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, August 24.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a stolen base (his fourteenth) and an RBI.  Sandy Valdespino was 1-for-3 with a triple and a run.

Pitching stars:  Jim Perry pitched 7.2 innings, giving up two runs on eight hits and two walks with six strikeouts.  Dick Stigman retired all four batters he faced, striking out two.

Opposition stars:  Mel Stottlemyre pitched a complete game, allowing one run on five hits and one walk with two strikeouts.  Elston Howard was 3-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Tom Tresh was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his twentieth.

The game:  The Twins got a man to third base in the first and fourth and the Yankees put a man on third in the third, but there was no score until the sixth.  Valdespino led off the sixth with a triple and scored on an Oliva single to put the Twins on the board with a 1-0 lead.  It looked like the lead might hold up, but in the eighth Mickey Mantle got a two-out single and Tresh followed with a two-run homer.  The Twins put their first two men on in the ninth, but Don Mincher hit into a double play and Rich Rollins popped up to end the game.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-4.  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-3 with a walk.  Earl Battey was 0-for-3.

Record:  The Twins dropped to 80-47.  The White Sox beat Baltimore 6-5, so the lead fell to 6.5 games.

Notes:  Oliva raised his average to .312.  Battey fell to .305...Bob Allison was again out of the lineup, with Valdespino taking his place...I don't remember Tom Tresh as a very good hitter, but he was for about five years.  He was Rookie of the Year in 1962 at age twenty-three, was on the all-star team that year and again in 1963, and received all-star votes in both those years and again from 1965-66.  He also won a Gold Glove in 1965.  From 1962-66 he hit .264/.341/.442 with 114 home runs, numbers which are even better when you put them in the context of the 1960s.  In spring training of 1967, however, he suffered a knee injury.  The Yankees told him to play through it, an order that basically destroyed his career.  He fell off rapidly, hitting just .219 in 1967 and .195 in 1968  He was traded to Detroit in 1969 and was out of baseball after that season.