MINNESOTA 8, BOSTON 5 IN BOSTON

Date:  Friday, September 10.

Batting stars:  Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-4 with a double, a walk, and a stolen base (his twenty-first), scoring once and driving in three.  Jerry Kindall was 1-for-2 with a double and a walk, scoring once and driving in two.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-5 with two doubles and a stolen base, his eighteenth.

Pitching star:  Jim Merritt struck out eight in 3.2 scoreless innings of relief, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Tony Conigliaro was 1-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-eighth) and three RBIs.  Lee Thomas was 2-for-2 with a walk and two runs.  Jay Ritchie struck out three in three shutout innings, giving up one hit and two walks.

The game:  Versalles hit a two-out three-run double in the second to give the Twins a 3-0 lead.  The Red Sox got an unearned run in the bottom of the second, but doubles by Oliva and Don Mincher produced a two-run Minnesota third that made it 5-1.  It was 5-2 going to the sixth, when Kindall had an RBI double and Jimmie Hall came up with a two-run single to make it 8-2.  Conigliaro hit a two-run homer and Frank Malzone had an RBI double in the bottom of the sixth to cut the lead to 8-5.  That was as good as it got, however, as the last nine Red Sox batters went out.

Of note:  Hall was 1-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs.  Bob Allison was back in the lineup, going 1-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base, his tenth.  Jim Perry pitched 5.1 innings, giving up five runs on seven hits and three walks with four strikeouts.

Record:  The win made the Twins 90-54.  Chicago lost to New York, dropping them into a tie for second with Baltimore, eight games back.

Notes:  Oliva raised his average to .316...Jay Ritchie pitched for the Red Sox from 1964-65, for Atlanta from 1966-67, and for Cincinnati in 1968.  He made only two starts in his career, both for the Reds.  He was a decent reliever, going 8-13, 8 saves, 3.49, 1.36 WHIP in 291.1 innings (167 appearances).  He later became a scout for the Braves.  He passed away in January of 2016.  Of interest to no one but myself, he has the same name as my nephew.

MINNESOTA 3, CHICAGO 2 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Wednesday, September 8.

Batting stars:  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his nineteenth.  Earl Battey was 2-for-4 with a run.  Rich Rollins was 1-for-2 with a walk and a run.

Pitching star:  Mudcat Grant pitched a complete game, giving up two runs (one earned) on four hits and four walks with four strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  John Buzhardt pitched seven innings, allowing three runs on six hits and one walk with three strikeouts.  Hoyt Wilhelm struck out two in two shutout innings, allowing one hit.  John Romano was 1-for-2 with a double and a walk, driving in one.

The game:  A pair of Twins errors and an RBI single by Pete Ward put the White Sox up 2-0 in the first inning.  The Twins got a run back in the third on two singles and a sacrifice fly by Zoilo Versalles.  The score stayed 2-1, with neither team getting much going on offense, until the seventh, when Battey got a one-out single and Hall followed with a two-run homer to give the Twins a 3-2 advantage.  The White Sox did not get a hit after that.

Of note:  Versalles was 0-for-3 with an RBI.  Sandy Valdespino was 1-for-4.  Tony Oliva was 0-for-4.  Don Mincher was 1-for-4.

Record:  The Twins improved to 88-54 and took a six game lead over the White Sox.

Notes:  The game was a big one in the pennant race.  The White Sox entered the two-game home series trailing by five games.  A sweep would have brought them within three with nineteen games remaining.  After this game, the best Chicago could hope for was a split, leaving them five games back...Oliva's average fell to .315...Valdespino was again in left field in place of Bob Allison.

KANSAS CITY 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Monday, September 6 (Game 2 of doubleheader).

Batting stars:  Jim Merritt was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-4 with a stolen base (his ninth) and a run.  Jerry Zimmerman was 1-for-3 with an RBI.

Pitching star:  Merritt pitched 7.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and four walks with four strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Rollie Sheldon pitched eight innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and two walks with five strikeouts.  Jim Landis was 0-for-1 with three walks and a run.  Rene Lachemann was 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

The game:  In the second, Merritt had an RBI single as part of a two-run inning that put the Twins ahead 2-0.  Lachemann singled in a run in the third to cut the lead to 2-1, but Merritt delivered another run-scoring single in the fourth to make it 3-1.  It looked like that would be enough, but in the eighth the Athletics turned three doubles into two runs and tied the score 3-3.  In the ninth, a walk, an error, and a walk loaded the bases with none out for Kansas City.  Al Worthington struck out MIke Hershberger, but pinch-hitter Santiago Rosario hit a sacrifice fly to right field to end the game.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-4 with a double.  Sandy Valdespino was 1-for-4.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 with a double.  Don Mincher was 0-for-4.

Record:  The Twins were now 87-54.  Chicago swept a doubleheader from California, so the Twins lead dropped to 4.5 games.

Notes:  Oliva was now hitting .318...Valdespino again played left in place of Bob Allison.  Zimmerman was catching in place of Earl Battey...Coming in to pitch the ninth and get the win for Kansas City was Catfish Hunter.  He was in his rookie season and was mostly used as a starter.  In fact, he had pitched 6.1 innings just two days earlier...This would be the only major league season for Santiago Rosario.  A first baseman from Puerto Rico, he had been in the low minors for St. Louis from 1960-63, then came to the Athletics.  The Royals brought him up in late June of 1965 but used him mostly as a pinch-hitter, which one would think was not the best thing for the twenty-five-year-old's development.  He played in eighty-one games but started only nine of them.  He had eighty-five at-bats and hit .235/.287/.341.  He stayed in the Kansas City organization through 1967, was with Altanta from 1968-71, then played in the Mexican League through 1976.  Even granting that he played mostly in the 1960s, there's nothing that impressive about his minor league numbers:  .268/.357/.391 in AA, .239/.298/.304 in AAA.  He got a little over half a season in the majors and got to play ball for a living for sixteen years.  A fella could do a lot worse.  Santiago Rosario passed away in 2013 in his native Puerto Rico.

MINNESOTA 8, KANSAS CITY 6 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Monday, September 6 (Game 1 of doubleheader).

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 1-for-2 with three walks and a stolen base (his seventeenth), scoring twice and driving in one.  Don Mincher was 3-for-4 with a walk, scoring once and driving in one.  Jerry Kindall was 2-for-4, scoring twice and driving in one.

Pitching stars:  Dave Boswell pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and three walks with one strikeout.  Dick Stigman struck out three in 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and four walks.  Johnny Klippstein struck out three in 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and two walks.

Opposition stars:  Mike Hershberger was 2-for-3 with a double and two walks, scoring twice and driving in one.  Jose Tartabull was 2-for-6 with a double, scoring once and driving in three.  Wayne Causey was 0-for-1 with five walks.

The game:  With two out and a man on first in the second inning, the Athletics went double, single, single, double, walk, single to score five times.  The Twins got a couple of two-out hits of their own in the third, an RBI single by Oliva and a run-scoring double by Bob Allison, to cut the lead to 5-2.  They opened the fourth with a single, a walk, and two more singles, ultimately scoring three runs to tie it at five.  Rich Rollins had an RBI single in the sixth to give the Twins their first lead of the game at 6-5 and a pair of leadoff walks in the ninth led to two insurance runs.  Kansas City scored once in the ninth and put the tying run on base with one out, but Causey hit into a double play to end the game.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-5.  Cesar Tovar, making his first start in the outfield, was 0-for-3.  Allison was 1-for-5 with a double and an RBI.  Camilo Pascual, making his first start since late July, did not get much accomplished, pitching 1.2 innings and giving up five runs on four hits and two walks with no strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins improved their record to 87-53.  The White Sox won the first game of a doubleheader against California 2-1 in ten innings, so the Twins lead remained 5.5 games.

Notes:  Oliva raised his average to .318.  Kindall raised his average over .200 for the first time since the end of June, at .201...Tovar played center in place of Jimmie Hall, who entered the game in the fourth inning and went 1-for-3 with an RBI...I'd forgotten that Tony Oliva actually stole a fair number of bases every year.  1965 was his high, at nineteen, but he had double-digit steals every year from 1964-69.  He was not a great percentage base-stealer, however.  His best year was 1967, when he was 11-for-14; his worst was 1969, when he was 10-for-23.  Overall in that period, he was 75-122, which is 61.5 percent.  1965 was his highest number of attempts, at 28.  One suspects he may have had more attempts that year because he was not batting directly in front of Harmon Killebrew for much of the season.