MINNESOTA 7, BALTIMORE 6 IN BALTIMORE
Date: Thursday, September 30.
Batting stars: Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-3 with a grand slam (his ninteenth homer) and a double. Sandy Valdespino was 2-for-4 with a walk and a run. Jim Kaat was 1-for-3 with a home run.
Pitching stars: Kaat struck out eight in 6.1 innings, giving up five runs (one earned) on eight hits and one walk. Al Worthington struck out two in 2.2 innings, giving up an unearned run on three hits and no walks.
Opposition stars: Curt Blefary was 2-for-3 with two doubles and a walk, scoring twice. Boog Powell was 3-for-5 with three RBIs. Paul Blair was 2-for-4 with a double and a run,.
The game: Versalles broke a 1-1 tie with a grand slam in the fifth, putting the Twins ahead 5-1. Jimmie Hall delivered a two-run single in the seventh to make it 7-1. The Orioles came back in the seventh, as an error was followed by a double and three singles to cut the lead to 7-5. An error led to another run in the eighth and put the tying run on second with two out, but Blair popped up and Baltimore did not get a man into scoring position again.
Of note: Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-5. Hall was 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.
Record: The win made the Twins 101-59. Baltimore remained second, eight games back.
Notes: Most of the regulars played in this game, with only Tony Oliva sitting in favor of Valdespino...Curt Blefary was the Rookie of the Year in 1965 at age twenty-one, beating out California's Marcelino Lopez. He hit .260/.381/.470 with twenty-two homers. He pretty much matched those numbers in 1966, but never did so again. His OPS for those first two seasons was .846; he never topped .750 after that (with the exception of 1972, when he had eleven big league at-bats). Biographies indicate that alcohol and anger-management issues may have contributed to his decline. His last year as a regular was 1969 with Houston. His last year in the majors was 1972 with Oakland, and he was out of baseball after spending 1973 in AAA with Atlanta. Life after baseball did not go easily for him. He wanted to get back into baseball somehow, but could not find a team that would hire him. His health gradually declined and he passed away in 2001 at the young age of fifty-seven.