MINNESOTA 5, CALIFORNIA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Monday, July 19, 2015

Batting stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his seventeenth) and a walk.  Frank Quilici was 2-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base, scoring once.  Bob Allison was 1-for-2 with two walks and a run.

Pitching star:  Jim Perry pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on four hits and two walks with six strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Jim Fregosi was 1-for-4 with a home run, his eighth.  Joe Adcock was 1-for-4 with a home run, his ninth.  Dean Chance pitched a complete game, allowing five runs (three earned) on nine hits and six walks with five strikeouts.

The game:  Killebrew hit a two-run homer in the first to put the Twins up 2-0.  Adcock got one of the runs back with a home run to start the second and Fregosi led off the fourth with a home run to tie it 2-2.  A doubleplay put the Twins in the lead 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth and Jimmie Hall brought two home in the seventh on a single-plus-error.  The Angels did not get a hit after the fourth and their last baserunner came on a two-out walk in the fifth.

Of note:  Tony Oliva was 0-for-3 with a walk and a run.  Hall was 1-for-4 with a run and two RBIs.

Record:  The win made the Twins 56-33 and kept them in first place, 3.5 games ahead of Cleveland.  Baltimore and Chicago dropped into a tie for third, 4.5 games back.

Notes:  Quilici batted leadoff for the second consecutive game and played shortstop, giving Zoilo Versalles a rest.  Earl Battey was also rested, with Jerry Zimmerman catching...Hall's average dropped to .321.

CALIFORNIA 5, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, July 18 (Game 1 of doubleheader).

Batting stars:  Don Mincher was 2-for-3 with a home run (his tenth) and two RBIs.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-3 with a walk and a run.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat pitched 5.2 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on eight hits and one walk with two strikeouts.  Mel Nelson struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Jose Cardenal was 2-for-4 with a triple, a walk, and two stolen bases (his twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth), scoring once and driving in one.  Jim Fregosi was 2-for-4 with a home run, his seventh.  Bobby Knoop was 3-for-4 with a run.

The game:  Fregosi homered leading off the top of the fourth, but Mincher homered in the bottom of the fourth to tie it 1-1.  In the fifth, three singles and a sacrifice fly produced two Angels runs and gave them a 3-1 lead.  In the seventh, two walks and a two-run double by Joe Adcock made it 5-1.  Killebrew's RBI single in the eighth made it 5-2 and put men on first and third, bringing the tying run to the plate with none out.  Mincher hit a sacrifice fly to make it 5-3, but the next five batters went out with no further runs.

Of note:  Rich Rollins was 1-for-4.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 with a run.  Earl Battey was 0-for-4.

Record:  The Twins dropped their fourth straight and saw their record fall to 54-33.  Their lead dropped to 2.5 games over Chicago, who moved back into second place with a win over Kansas City.

Notes:  Oddly, the Twins ended their series with Kansas City on a Saturday and started a new series with California on a Sunday...The starting pitcher for California was Fred Newman, who we discussed the last time he pitched against the Twins, in game seventy-one.  He went 0-for-2 in this game to drop his batting average to .024, although for his career he hit .153...Hall raised his average to .322...Battey dropped his average to .309.

KANSAS CITY 5, MINNESOTA 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, July 17.

Batting stars:  Rich Rollins was 3-for-5 with a double and a run.  Earl Battey was 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs.  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-1 with three walks and two runs.

Pitching star:  Dick Stigman pitched 6.2 innings, giving up two runs on three hits and three walks with five strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Dick Green was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his eighth and ninth) and three RBIs.  Ken Harrelson was 1-for-3 with a walk and a home run, his eleventh.  Bert Campaneris was 1-for-4 with a walk and a run.

The game:  The Twins opened the second with two walks and a Battey single to take a 1-0 lead.  In the fifth, consecutive RBI singles by Bob Allison, Battey, and Jimmie Hall put them up 4-0 and the game seemed to be well in hand.  Green and Harrelson led off the seventh with back-to-back homers to cut the lead to 4-2.  With two out in the eighth, Green hit a two-run homer to tie it 4-4.  Al Worthington came in to pitch the ninth and gave up a single and two one-out walks to load the bases.  Bill Pleis then came in but gave up a sacrifice fly to Ed Charles to bring in the go-ahead run.  The Twins, who had not threatened since the fifth, did not threaten in the bottom of the ninth either, going down in order.

Of note:  Joe Nossek was 0-for-4.  Tony Oliva was 0-for-5.  Jimmie Hall was 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Record:  The loss dropped the Twins to 54-32.  They were still in first place, but only by three games, as Cleveland again defeated Boston.

Notes:  One assumes there was some consternation at the Twins dropping three in a row at home to the last-place Athletics...Sam Mele shuffled his lineup for this game, with Zoilo Versalles dropping to eighth and Rollins leading off.  Rollins played second base, with Nossek batting second and playing third...Allison returned to the lineup, this time to stay...Green was not exactly a power hitter, but 1965 would be his best home run season, with fifteen.  He would reach double digits four times in his career and hit a total of eighty homers in twelve seasons...Hall raised his average to .322...Battey raised his average to .316.

KANSAS CITY 10, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, July 16.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk, scoring once.  Jimmie Hall was 2-for-4 with an RBI.  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Bill Pleis pitched two perfect innings with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Diego Segui pitched a complete game, allowing two runs on nine hits and one walk with five strikeouts.  Johnny Blanchard was 2-for-3 with a walk, scoring twice and driving in one.  Tommie Reynolds was 1-for-3 with two walks, scoring twice and driving in one.

The game:  The Athletics jumped on Mudcat Grant early.  There was no one big hit--in fact, the first two batters went out--but then came a walk, four singles, another walk, and another single.  Seven consecutive batters reached, resulting in four runs and an early exit for Grant.  Jerry Fosnow got the last out of the first and got through the second, but in the third a walk, an error, and three more singles led to three more runs and a 7-0 Kansas City lead.  It was never close after that.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-5.  Earl Battey was 0-for-2.  Grant pitched only two-thirds of an inning, giving up four runs on five hits and two walks with no strikeouts.

Record:  The loss made the Twins 54-31.  Their lead over Cleveland dropped to four games, as the Indians beat Boston 4-3 in ten innings.

Notes:  Hall raised his average to .320...Battey's average dropped to .310...The Athletics had eleven hits, ten of them singles.  The lone exception was a seventh-inning triple by Nelson Mathews...Kansas City certainly bunched their hits, getting five in the first (when they scored four), three in the third (when they scored three), and two in the seventh (when they scored three).  They had only one hit in the other six innings.  The Twins had nine hits, but only twice had more than one in an inning.

MINNESOTA 11, KANSAS CITY 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, July 15 (Game 1 of doubleheader).

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his thirteenth and fourteenth) and a walk, scoring three times.  Sandy Valdespino was 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs.  Earl Battey was 2-for-2 with two walks, scoring twice and driving in one.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat pitched six innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and a walk with one strikeout.  Johnny Klippstein struck out six in three shutout innings, giving up one hit and three walks.

Opposition stars:  Ken Harrelson was 2-for-4 with a home run, his ninth.  Dick Green was 2-for-4 with a home run, his seventh.  Rene Lachemann was 1-for-3 with a home run (his sixth) and a walk.

The game:  Oliva homered in the first to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  In the second, two singles and a hit batsman filled the bases with one out, a wild pitch scored one run, and Kaat delivered a sacrifice fly to make the score 3-0.  The Twins then scored seven in the fourth to put the game out of reach.  Two singles and a walk filled the bases with none out.  Kaat hit his second sacrifice fly of the game to bring home one run.  Zoilo Versalles struck out, but with two out and two on the next five batters walked, forcing in four runs.  Three different pitchers issued the five walks, which must have been extremely frustrating to Athletics manager Heywood Sullivan.  Valdespino then delivered a two-run single to put the Twins up 10-0.  Kaat gave up three solo homers in the next two innings but was never really in trouble.

Of note:  Versalles was 0-for-5.  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-4 with a walk, scoring once and driving in one.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with two walks, scoring once and driving in one.

Record:  The win made the Twins 54-29 and kept them in first place by four and a half games over Cleveland.

Notes:  One of Bud Selig's many "contributions" to the game is the four-day all-star break.  In 1965, when Men were Men, you not only got by with three days, you played a doubleheader when you got back.  In fact, not every team even got three days.  There were three major league games played on Wednesday, the day after the all-star game...Kaat, as stated above, had two sacrifice flies in the game.  Only twelve players have hit three sacrifice flies in a game, with the most recent being Jose Lopez in 2008, and none of them were pitchers, so it appears that Kaat tied a record...I could not quickly find out what the record is for most consecutive walks, but I did see that Bill "Dolly" Gray walked seven consecutive batters in 1909.

NATIONAL LEAGUE 6, AMERICAN LEAGUE 5 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, July 13.

National League stars:  Willie Stargell was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and scored twice.  Willie Mays was 1-for-3 with a home run and two walks, scoring twice.  Juan Marichal started and pitched three innings, allowing only one hit.

American League stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer and two walks.  Dick McAuliffe was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and two runs.  Pete Richert struck out two in two innings, giving up one hit.

The game:  Mays led off the game with a home run and Joe Torre hit a two-run homer later in the first inning, both off Milt Pappas, to give the NL a 3-0 lead.  In the second, Stargell hit a two-run homer off Mudcat Grant to make it 5-0.  The Americans got on the board in the fourth on Rocky Colavito's RBI single.  In the fifth, McAuliffe and Killebrew each hit a two-run homer off Jim Maloney to tie it 5-5.  In the sixth, Ron Santo delivered an RBI single to put the Nationals up 6-5.  The AL got a man to third with two out in the eighth and Tony Oliva led off the ninth with a double, but they could not tie the score.

Twins:  Jimmie Hall was 0-for-2 with a walk and a run.  Oliva was 1-for-2 with a double.  Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-1 with a walk.  Grant struck out three in two innings but gave up two runs on two hits and a walk.

MINNESOTA 6, NEW YORK 5 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, July 11.

Batting stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his sixteenth) and a walk, scoring twice.  Zoilo Versalles was 1-for-4 with a home run (his tenth) and two walks, scoring twice.  Rich Rollins was 1-for-4 with a double and a walk, scoring once and driving in one.

Pitching stars:  Bill Pleis pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two walks with one strikeout.  Johnny Klippstein struck out both batters he faced.

Opposition stars:  Elston Howard was 3-for-4 with a double and a walk, scoring twice and driving in two.  Mickey Mantle was 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs.  Hector Lopez was 2-for-4 with a walk.

The game:  It was close all the way.  The Yankees got an RBI single from Lopez in the first to go up 1-0, but Versalles homered in the third to tie it 1-1.  In the fourth, two singles, a sacrifice fly, and an Earl Battey run-scoring single put the Twins up 3-1, but the Yankees got the two runs right back in the fifth when Howard came through with a two-run double.  Rollins doubled in a run in the bottom of the fifth to put the Twins ahead again at 4-3, but a walk, a single, a walk, and a wild pitch tied it for the Yankees in the seventh.  In the ninth, a single and two errors gave the Yankees a 5-4 advantage but with two out in the bottom of the ninth, Killebrew delivered a walk-off two-run homer to give the Twins the victory.

Of note:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a run.  Jimmie Hall was 1-for-3 with an RBI.  Battey was 2-for-4 with an RBI.  Jim Kaat pitched 4.1 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on seven hits and three walks with one strikeout.

Record:  The win made the Twins 53-29 and gave them a five-game lead heading into the all-star break.  Baltimore and Cleveland were now tied for second.

Notes:  Hall now had an average of .325...Battey raised his average to .313...I don't remember Joe Nossek as having a reputation as a great defender, but he was in center field in this game, with Hall moving to left in place of Allison, who remained out of the lineup.  Don Mincher pitch-hit for Nossek in the seventh and stayed in to play first, with Killebrew moving to left and Hall to center.  It was one of only two games in which Killebrew would play in the outfield that season.  He had been the Twins' regular left fielder from 1962-64, with Vic Power manning first base from 1962-63 and Allison as the primary starter there in 1964...Mantle was obviously back in the starting lineup but played left field.  I hadn't realized this, but probably as a concession to age and/or injury, Mantle was no longer in center in 1965 but was the regular in left.

NEW YORK 8, MINNESOTA 6 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, July 10 (Game 2 of doubleheader)

Batting stars:  Don Mincher was 2-for-5 with a triple, scoring once and driving in three.  Tony Oliva was 4-for-5 with a stolen base (his eighth) and a run.  Sandy Valdespino was 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs.

Pitching star:  Mel Nelson pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Roger Repoz was 4-for-5 with a home run (his fifth) and a triple, scoring three times.  Hector Lopez was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fifth) and two walks, scoring twice.  Clete Boyer was 1-for-4 with a grand slam, his ninth homer.

The game:  Jimmie Hall's RBI double got the Twins on the board in the first, but Repoz and Lopez led off the second with back-to-back homers to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.  Ray Barker doubled in a run in the fourth to make it 3-1.  The Twins came back in the fifth, getting a three-run double by Mincher and a run-scoring single by Valdespino to go ahead 5-3.  Phil Linz singled in a run in the sixth to make it 5-4.  In the seventh, a single, a walk, and a bunt single, all off Dick Stigman, loaded the bases with none out.  Johnny Klippstein then came in to face Boyer, who hit a grand slam to give the Yankees an 8-5 edge.  The Twins got three singles in the ninth, cutting the lead to 8-6 and putting the tying run on base with two out, but Steve Hamilton struck out Bernie Allen to end the game.

Of note:  Zoilo Versalles was 2-for-5 with a double and two runs.  Hall was 1-for-5 with a double, scoring once and driving in one.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-5 with a run.  Mudcat Grant struck out six in 6.1 innings, giving up four runs on nine hits and no walks.

Record:  The loss snapped the Twins' nine-game winning streak and made their record 52-29.  They remained in first place, four games ahead of Cleveland, which lost to California 1-0.

Notes:  Hall's average dropped to .325...Bob Allison and Earl Battey did not play, with Valdespino and Jerry Zimmerman taking their spots in the lineup...Mickey Mantle was out again as well, with Repoz playing center...Tom Tresh was also out of the lineup, with Joe Pepitone taking his spot in the outfield and Ray Barker coming into the lineup to play first base...It seems somehow fitting that we've reached the half-way point of the season on Christmas Day.