MINNESOTA 8, LOS ANGELES 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, October 6.

Batting stars:  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-5 with a home run and a stolen base, driving in four.  Don Mincher was 1-for-3 with a home run and a walk, scoring twice.  Frank Quilici was 2-for-4 with a double, scoring once and driving in one.

Pitching stars:  Mudcat Grant pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on ten hits and one walk with five strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Ron Fairly was 1-for-4 with a home run.  Maury Wills was 2-for-5 with an RBI.  Howie Reed retired all four batters he faced, striking out one.

The game:  Fairly homered in the top of the second to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead, but Mincher answered with a homer in the bottom of the second to make it 1-1.  The Twins broke loose in the third, scoring six runs and driving Los Angeles starter Don Drysdale from the game.  Versalles had a three-run homer,  Earl Battey drove in two with a single, and Quilici had an RBI single.  The Dodgers put two on in the fifth, sixth, and seventh, but did not score again until the ninth on Wills' two-out bunt single.

Of note:  Sandy Valdespino was 1-for-4 with a double and a run.  Tony Oliva was 0-for-4.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a walk and a run.

Record:  The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Notes:  Valdespino played left field in place of Bob Allison, presumably to gain a platoon advantage.  That seems like a rather daring move for Sam Mele to have made...Drysdale lasted only 2.2 innings and gave up seven runs, although only three were earned.  He had gone 23-12, 2.77, 1.09 WHIP during the season...Despite all the awesome pitchers the Dodgers had, their best in this game was Howie Reed.  Pretty much forgotten now, Reed was a fine reliever for the Dodgers from 1964-66 and continued to pitch well through 1967, when he was traded first to California and then to Houston.  In those years, he posted a 3.12 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP in 231 innings.  For some reason, the Astros tried to convert him to a starter in 1967, and while he pitched well in AAA in that role he did not do well in the majors.  Traded to Montreal early in 1969, he had one more good relief year in 1970, but his career came to end in 1971.  After baseball, he operated a farm in Mathis, Texas and passed away in December of 1984 at the young age of forty-seven.