MINNESOTA 8, BALTIMORE 5 IN BALTIMORE

Date:  Sunday, July 25.

Batting stars:  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-4 with a triple and a walk, scoring twice and driving in three.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fifteenth) and a walk, driving in four.  Jimmie Hall was 3-for-5 with a home run, his seventeenth.

Pitching stars:  Dick Stigman struck out four in three innings, giving up one run on one hit.  Mel Nelson struck out three in 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.  Johnny Klippstein pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  John Miller struck out seven in seven innings, allowing three runs on four hits and three walks.  Norm Siebern was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI.  Brooks Robinson was 1-for-4 with a home run, his seventh.

The game:  Miller struck out the side in the top of the first.  Curt Blefary singled in a run in the first and the Orioles got three more in the second, two scoring on a Bob Johnson triple, to take a 4-0 lead.  Hall homered in the fourth to get the Twins on the board at 4-1, but Baltimore got the run back in the fifth when Robinson homered.  It was still 5-1 going to the eighth.  The Twins led off the eighth with singles by Frank Quilici, Sandy Valdespino, and Versalles, with Zoilo knocking in a run to make it 5-1, and the Oliva hit a three-run homer to tie it 5-5.  In the ninth, a single by Earl Battey, a bunt, and an intentional walk to Rich Rollins put two on with one out.  Versalles then hit a two-run triple and Oliva followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Twins an 8-5 advantage.  The Orioles did not get the tying run up to bat in the bottom of the ninth.

Of note:  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-5.  Battey was 1-for-4.  Jim Kaat pitched only 1.2 innings, giving up four unearned runs on five hits and no walks with no strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins salvaged one of the three-game series against the second-place Orioles.  The win made their record 60-36 and increased their lead to 3.5 games.

Notes:  The first three batters in the Twins' lineup (Versalles, Oliva, and Hall) went 6-for-12 with two home runs, a triple, and two walks, scoring four runs and driving in all eight...Hall raised his average to .310...Battey fell below .300 for the first time since July 3 as his average dropped to .299...Kaat had his shortest start of the season and had gone six innings only once in the month of July.  In fairness to him, it was his fourth start in eleven days, as he had started on the 15th, the 18th, and the 21st.  He would start again on the 27th.  As you might have guessed, he led all of baseball in games started in 1965 with 42, meaning he started 26% of all Twins games in 1965...John Miller got cups of coffee with the Orioles in 1962 and 1963.  He came up in late June of 1965 and was a spot starter for them the rest of the season, making 16 starts.  He had a good season, going 6-4, 3.18 (although with a WHIP of 1.43.  It was the only good major league season he would have.  He was with the Orioles for all of 1966, spent most of 1967 in the minors, and was out of baseball after the 1968 season at age 27.