MINNESOTA 4, KANSAS CITY 3 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Tuesday, September 14.
Batting stars: Jimmie Hall was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and a stolen base (his thirteenth), scoring once and driving in two. Zoilo Versalles was 3-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base (his twenty-sixth), scoring once. Rich Rollins was 2-for-5 with a double and a run.
Pitching stars: Jim Kaat pitched eight innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on six hits and three walks with four strikeouts. Jim Merritt struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Ken Harrelson was 2-for-3 with a home run (his twentieth), a walk, and a stolen base (his seventh). John Wyatt struck out four in two shutout innings, allowing three hits and two walks. Mike Hershberger was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
The game: Hershberger singled in a run in the top of the second, but Earl Battey had an RBI double in the bottom of the first to tie it 1-1. Hall doubled and scored in the sixth to put the Twins up 2-1, but the Athletics tied it in the seventh on a walk, an error, and two sacrifices. Hall came through again in the seventh, delivering a two-run single to give the Twins a 4-2 lead. Harrelson led off the ninth with a homer, cutting the lead to 4-3. A walk, a single, and a bunt followed, putting men on second and third with one out. Merritt then struck out Wayne Causey and pinch-hitter Billy Bryan to end the game.
Of note: Tony Oliva was 0-for-3 with two walks. Bob Allison was 1-for-3 with a run.
Record: The Twins' sixth straight victory made them 93-54. Baltimore split a doubleheader while Chicago lost, so the Twins' margin over both teams went to ten games.
Notes: Oliva's average dropped to .317...Billy Bryan, whom I don't recall having heard of, had a fairly decent major league career. A catcher, he spent parts of 1961-63 with the Athletics before finally sticking in 1964. He appeared in 211 games for Kansas City from 1964-65, getting 545 at-bats, and actually hit pretty well: .248/.301/.459, numbers which are better than they may appear given the context of the 1960s. He pretty much fell apart after that, though, hitting only .172 in a 1966 season split between the Athletics and the Yankees and spending most of 1967-70 in the minors, although he did play in sixteen games for the Yankees in 1967 and forty for Washington in 1968. His playing career ended after the 1970 season.