MINNESOTA 7, KANSAS CITY 5 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, September 15.

Batting stars:  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-5 with a double, scoring twice.  Bob Allison was 1-for-2 with two RBIs.  Don Mincher was 0-for-2 with two walks and a run.

Pitching star:  Bill Pleis pitched a scoreless inning with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Billy Bryan was 2-for-4 with a home run (his thirteenth) and a double.  Ken Harrelson was 1-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-first) and a walk.  Larry Stahl was 1-for-4 with a home run, his third.

The game:  Each team scored once in the first.  It stayed 1-1 until the fourth, when Earl Battey had an RBI single to put the Twins in the lead.  In the fifth, Versalles had a run-scoring single-plus-error and Allison had a two-run single to make it 5-1 Twins.  Homers by Harrelson and Stahl cut the lead to 5-3 in the sixth, and the Athletics scored twice in the eighth on Bryan's homer and a run-scoring single by Mike Hershberger to tie it at five.  In the ninth the Twins took the lead back on RBI singles by Ted Uhlaender and Joe Nossek.  Kansas City got a man on by error with two out in the bottom of the ninth, but that was as close as they would come.

Of note:  Sandy Valdespino was 0-for-4.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-1 with an RBI.  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-4 with a run.  Jim Perry pitched 5.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and four walks with two strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins made it seven in a row with the win and improved their record to 94-54.  Baltimore won and Chicago split a doubleheader, so the Orioles moved into sole possession of second place, ten games back.

Notes:  Oliva raised his average back to .318.  He was removed for a pinch-runner in the fourth inning following a single.  He perhaps suffered a minor injury, because he would not start again for nearly a week.  He was replaced by Allison, whose place in the starting lineup had been taken by Valdespino...Larry Stahl is another guy who played for quite a while without doing a whole lot.  An outfielder, he played in all or part of ten major league seasons, from 1964-73.  His high in games played was 119 and his high in at-bats was 312, both in 1966.  Other than 1964, when he had only 46 at-bats, he only once hit over .250 (.253), only three times had an OBP over .300 (the high was .315), and only once had an OPS over .660 (.709 in 1971).  It's interesting to see how some guys tear up AAA and can't get a chance in the majors, and other guys play in the majors for years without really doing much of anything.  As has been observed before, no one ever promised that life or baseball would be fair.