CALIFORNIA 5, MINNESOTA 4 IN CALIFORNIA (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Monday, May 17.

Batting stars:  Earl Battey was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-4 with a double and a walk, scoring once.  Don Mincher hit a pinch-hit home run in his only at-bat.

Pitching star:  Camilo Pascual pitched seven innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on six hits and two walks with two strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Albie Pearson was 2-for-4 with two doubles and a walk, scoring twice.  Paul Schall was 2-for-3 with a home run (his seventh) and a walk.  Jim Fregosi was 1-for-2 with a triple and a walk, scoring once.

The game:  RBI singles by Battey and Jerry Kindall in the second inning gave the Twins a 2-0 lead.  Schall homered in the third and Fregosi tripled and scored in the fourth to tie it at two.  The Twins took the lead back in the sixth when Bob Allison scored from first on a Battey single.  In the eighth, however, the Angels loaded the bases and Vic Power delivered a two-run single to put them up 4-3.  Mincher hit a pinch-hit home run leading off the ninth to tie it 4-4 and send the game to extra inning.  In the tenth, Pearson led off with a double, went to third on a bunt, and scored on a single by Buck Rodgers to end the game.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-5.  Rich Rollins was 1-for-4 with a walk.  Tony Oliva was 0-for-5.  Allison was 0-for-3 with two walks and two runs.

Record:  The loss was the third straight for the Twins and dropped them to 18-11.  They remained in second place but were now three and a half games behind Chicago.

Notes:  Paul Schall was twenty-two in 1965.  This was his thirty-first game of the season, and he had seven home runs.  Angels fans must have thought they were seeing the beginning of a power hitter.  Schall would go on to play in one hundred twenty-four more games that season and hit two more home runs.  He hit a total of fifty-seven in an eleven-year career, with a high of eleven in 1971.

KANSAS CITY 4, MINNESOTA 2 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Sunday, May 16 (Game 2 of doubleheader)

Batting stars:  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk, driving in one.  Rich Rollins was 2-for-4 with a run.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-4 with a run.

Pitching star:  Dick Stigman struck out seven in six innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and three walks.

Opposition stars:  Rene Lachemann was 3-for-4 with a home run, his second.  Jim Landis was 3-for-4 with a double and a stolen base, scoring once.  Bert Campaneris was 3-for-4 with a stolen base (his ninth) and a run.

The game:  Hall's double with none out in the second scored Killebrew from first base to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Kansas City tied it in the fifth on Ken Harrelson's RBI single and took a 2-1 lead in the sixth on a squeeze bunt.  The Twins loaded the bases with one out in the seventh but could only score once (and that one came in on an error) to tie the score.  The Athletics got the lead back in the eighth on Johnny Klippstein's errant pickoff throw with men on first and third.  Lachemann homered leading off the ninth for an insurance run.  The Twins put men on first and second with one out in the ninth but could do nothing with them.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-5.  Jerry Kindall was 0-for-5 with a walk.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-4.  Bob Allison was 0-for-2 with two walks.

Record:  The loss dropped the Twins to 18-10, still second in the American League, two and a half games behind Chicago.

KANSAS CITY 7, MINNESOTA 4 IN KANSAS CITY (10 INNINGS--GAME 1 OF DOUBLEHEADER)

Date:  Sunday, May 16.

Batting stars:  Jimmie Hall was 3-for-5 with a home run (his seventh) and two runs.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his sixth.  Earl Battey was 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI.

Pitching stars:  Mudcat Grant struck out five in 5.2 innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and no walks.  Johnny Klippstein pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Dick Green was 4-for-5 with two home runs (his third and fourth) and three RBIs.  Ed Charles was 2-for-5 with a three-run homer (his third) and a triple, scoring twice.  Jim Gentile was 2-for-5 with a home run (his eighth) and a double.

The game:  Green homered in the second to put the Athletics on the board 1-0.  Hall homered in the fourth to tie it and Oliva hit a two-run homer in the fifth to put the Twins ahead 3-1.  Gentile homered in the sixth to cut the lead to 3-2, but the Twins got the run back on Battey's RBI double.  It was still 4-2 Twins in the ninth, but Green led off the ninth with his second home run and Charles tripled and scored on a single by Rene Lachemann to tie it 4-4 and send the game to extra innings.  With one out in the tenth, Johnny Blanchard and Green singled and Charles hit a three-run homer off Mel Nelson to end the game.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-5 with a triple.  Rich Rollins was 0-for-3 with a walk, a hit-by-pitch, a run, and a stolen base.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-5.  Bob Allison was 0-for-5.

Record:  The loss dropped the Twins to 18-9, still in second place, a game and a half behind Chicago.

MINNESOTA 2, KANSAS CITY 0 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Saturday, May 15.

Batting stars:  Jerry Kindall was 2-for-3 with a home run (his third) and two RBIs.  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-4 with a double.  Bob Allison was 1-for-4 with a run.

Pitching stars:  Dave Boswell pitched 7.1 scoreless innings, giving up four hits and four walks with six strikeouts.  Mel Nelson pitched 1.2 perfect innings.

Opposition stars:  Don Buschhorn pitched five innings, allowing two runs on four hits and no walks with four strikeouts.  Wes Stock struck out three in three shutout innings, allowing a hit and a walk.  Dick Green was 2-for-4 with a double.

The game:  Kindall homered in the third to put the Twins up 1-0.  In the fifth, consecutive one-out singles by Allison, Earl Battey, and Kindall produced a second run.  That was all the Twins would get, but it was all they would need.  The Athletics did not get two men on base until the eighth, when a walk and a one-out single put men on first and second.  Nelson came in to get a double play and then retired the side in order in the ninth.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-4.  Rich Rollins was 0-for-4.  Tony Oliva was 0-for-4.  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-3 with a walk.

Record:  The win gave the Twins a record of 18-8, but they remained in second place, a half game behind Chicago.

Notes:  The loss was the seventh straight for the Athletics, dropping their record to 5-21.  They were, of course, in last place, four and a half games behind ninth-place Washington.

MINNESOTA 5, KANSAS CITY 3 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Friday, May 14.

Batting stars:  Bob Allison was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his fourth.  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with a run.  Jerry Kindall was 2-for-4 with a run.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat pitched six innings, giving up one run on four hits and three walks with five strikeouts.  Jerry Fosnow pitched a perfect inning with one strikeout.  Bill Pleis pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Dick Green was 1-for-5 with a triple, scoring once and driving in one.  Bert Campaneris was 1-for-3 with a run, an RBI, and a stolen base.  John O'Donoghue pitched eight innings, allowing four runs on nine hits and three walks with three strikeouts.

The game:  Jim Landis singled in a run in the fourth to give the Athletics a 1-0 lead.  In the sixth, O'Donoghue got an infield single, Green hit an RBI triple, and Campaneris delivered a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.  In the seventh, Killebrew and Jimmie Hall got two-out singles followed by Allison's three-run homer to tie it 3-3.  In the ninth, Kindall singled, Jerry Zimmerman reached on catcher's interference, Zoilo Versalles singled in the go-ahead run, and a wild pitch gave the Twins some insurance.

Of note:  Versalles was 2-for-5 with an RBI.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 with a walk.  Earl Battey returned to the lineup, going 0-for-3 with a walk.

Record:  The win made the Twins 17-8 and kept them in second place, a half game behind Chicago.

Of note:  Rich Rollins apparently was shaken up on a play in the second inning on which he committed an error, as he was removed from the game.  He was replaced by Frank Kostro, but would be back in the starting lineup the next day.  The insurance run was scored by Dave Boswell, who was used as a pinch-runner (it was not uncommon to use pitchers as pinch-runners back then).  Kansas City's loss was their sixth in a row and dropped them to a record of 5-20.