LOS ANGELES 4, MINNESOTA 0 IN LOS ANGELES
Date: Saturday, October 9.
Batting star: Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-3 with a walk and a double.
Pitching star: Johnny Klippstein pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk with one strikeout.
Opposition stars: Claude Osteen pitched a complete game shutout, allowing five hits and two walks with two strikeouts.
The game: Versalles led off the game with a double, but was ultimately thrown out at the plate when he and Harmon Killebrew tried a second-and-home double steal with two out. The Dodgers opened the scoring in the fourth on a two-run single by Johnny Roseboro. Lou Johnson doubled home a run in the fifth and Maury Wills did the same in the sixth. The Twins put men on first and third with one out in the sixth, but Tony Oliva grounded into a double play. The only other Twins threat came in the eighth, when an error and a walk put men on first and second with two out. Eighteen of the Twins' outs came on infield grounders.
Of note: Joe Nossek was 0-for-4. Tony Oliva was 0-for-4. Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-3 with a walk. Camilo Pascual started and pitched five innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and a walk with no strikeouts.
Record: The Twins led the series two games to one.
Notes: Sam Mele once again used Joe Nossek in center rather than Jimmie Hall to try to get a platoon advantage. On the one hand, while Hall had a fine season, he had slumped badly down the stretch and did not have a good record against left-handed pitchers. On the other hand, Nossek had shown no particular ability to hit either left or right-handed pitching...I'm not one hundred percent sure about that first-inning double steal, but the Twins had men on first and third with two out and the play-by-play reads "Versalles Caught Stealing Hm (C-SS-C-3B)". My assumption is that, while it may not have been a straight steal, Killebrew at least went far enough toward second to draw a throw and Versalles was trying to catch the Dodgers by surprise...Claude Osteen is kind of "the other guy" on those 1960s Dodgers teams, after Koufax and Drysdale, but he was a fine pitcher in his own right. He posted an ERA under four every year from 1962-74. In four of those years his ERA was under three and all but three of them in was under 3.50. His WHIP was under 1.3 in all but two of those seasons. He also pitched over two hundred innings every year from 1963-73, pitching over two hundred fifty in all but three of those years. His won-lost record was usually around .500, partly because of the poor offense the Dodgers had. He did win twenty games in 1969 and 1974, though. For his career, which went from 1957-75, he was 196-195, 3.30 ERA, 1.28 WHIP. His average season as a Dodger (1965-73) was 16-14, 3.09, 1.22 WHIP, 37 starts, 266 innings...The time of game was 2:06. I wonder when the last time was a World Series game came that close to two hours.
Particularly relevant image for this game.
Wow. That's quite a picture. The caption says it was the Twins' dugout, which makes me wonder why the bench guys weren't trying to help him. I'd seen that Battey came out of the game late, but I did not know why.
From the NY Times archives of Joseph Durso's game recap:
So, it looks like Mele couldn't get out of his own way again, and those were fans rather than Twins who didn't help Battey.
Good lord, it's amazing Battey didn't have his capa detated from his body.
Still played in every game. But 1965 was his last good year. Wikipedia says he retired in '67 because of thyroid issues. That's in the neck and I wonder if it was affected by the collision.