CLEVELAND 6, MINNESOTA 5 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Saturday, August 28.
Batting stars: Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-5 with a triple and a double. Bob Allison was 1-for-2 with two walks, scoring once and driving in one. Sandy Valdespino was 1-for-4 with a triple and a walk, scoring once and driving in one.
Pitching star: Jim Perry pitched seven innings, giving up five runs (four earned) on eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts. He actually pitched well for seven innings, but ran into trouble starting the eighth (see below).
Opposition stars: Rocky Colavito was 2-for-5 with a home run (his twenty-fifth) and a triple, scoring twice and driving in three. Fred Whitfield was 2-for-3 with a home run (his nineteenth), a double, and a walk. Chuck Hinton was 1-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch, scoring once and driving in one.
The game: This is another one that would've really hurt had the race been closer. Each team scored two in the first, with a triple figuring prominently in each rally. It stayed 2-2 until the fourth, when RBI singles by Allison and Jerry Kindall gave the Twins a 4-2 lead. Jimmie Hall singled in a run in the fifth to make it 5-2. As we went to the eighth, the Indians had not scored since the first and had only one threat in that time, when they put men on first and third with two out in the sixth. In the eighth, however, Perry hit Hinton with a pitch and then gave up back-to-back homers to Colavito and Whitfield, tying the score at five. In the ninth, with Al Worthington pitching, a walk, a hit batsman, a bunt, and a sacrifice fly put the Indians ahead. The Twins drew three walks in the bottom of the ninth, giving them the bases loaded with two out, but Earl Battey popped up to end the game.
Of note: Hall was 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Battey was 1-for-4 with a double, scoring once and driving in one.
Record: The loss put the Twins at 83-47. Chicago defeated Boston 5-3, reducing the Twins' lead to eight games.
Notes: Battey's average was now .304...Fred Whitfield was having easily the best year of his career. He hit .293/.316/.513 with twenty-six homers and finished 21st in MVP voting. He hit twenty-seven homers the next year, but his average fell to .241 and his OBP to .283. As you can see, he didn't walk much; his career high in walks was also twenty-seven in 1966. He fell even further in 1967, batting only .218 and losing the first base job to Tony Horton. He was traded to Cincinnati and ended his career in 1970 in Montreal. Still, for a guy who was released twice before he even reached the majors, he didn't do too badly.