MINNESOTA 11, BOSTON 8 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Wednesday, July 21 (Game 2 of doubleheader).
Batting stars: Harmon Killebrew was 3-for-3 with a home run (his eighteenth) and a walk, scoring three times and driving in three. Bob Allison was 2-for-5 with a triple, scoring twice and driving in three. Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 with a walk, scoring three times and driving in one.
Pitching star: Al Worthington struck out two in 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and a walk.
Opposition stars: Rico Petrocelli was 3-for-4 with a three-run homer (his fourth) and a walk, scoring twice. Tony Conigliaro was 2-for-5 with a home run (his seventeenth) and two runs. Eddie Bressoud was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer (his sixth) and a walk.
The game: The Twins scored two in the first, but Petrocelli's three-run homer capped a four-run second that put the Red Sox up 4-2. The Twins got the four runs back in the third on only two hits, both singles, as they were aided by a walk, a hit batsman, a wild pitch, and a balk. Conigliaro homered in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead to 6-5, but Killebrew hit a two-run homer in the fifth to increase the margin to 8-5. The lead held until the sixth, when Bressoud hit a three-run homer to tie it 8-8. With two on in the ninth, Allison circled the bases on a triple-plus-error to give the Twins an 11-8 advantage. This time it held up, as the Red Sox managed only a single in the bottom of the ninth.
Of note: Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-4 with a walk and a run. Rich Rollins was 3-for-5 with two runs. Jimmie Hall was 0-for-4 with an RBI. Starter Dick Stigman pitched only 2.2 innings, giving up five runs on seven hits and no walks with one strikeout.
Record: The doubleheader sweep improved the Twins to 58-34, still in first place. Baltimore, who swept a doubleheader from Kansas City, moved into sole possession of second place, 3.5 games back.
Notes: Hall saw his average drop to .312...Earl Battey sat out the second game of the doubleheader, with Jerry Zimmerman catching...Stigman would make only one more start this season, again as part of a doubleheader. He was much more effective as a reliever than as a starter...Petrocelli was in his rookie year. I don't really remember him as a power hitter, but he had a few years when he was, hitting forty in 1969, twenty-nine in 1970, and twenty-eight in 1971. He attributed his power surge in those years to a diet and exercise program begun after the 1968 season. Doubtless lowering the mound and shrinking the strike zone helped, too, as well as the fact that these were his age 26-28 seasons. He would hit thirteen homers in 1965.