MINNESOTA 6, BOSTON 4 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Monday, August 20.
Batting stars: Rich Rollins was 3-for-4. Vic Power was 2-for-3 with two doubles, a walk, and two runs. Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his thirty-third) and two runs.
Pitching star: Frank Sullivan pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Carl Yastrzemski was 2-for-4 with a walk. Pete Runnels was 2-for-3 with a walk. Lou Clinton was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer.
The game: The Twins took a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Power walked and Rollins reached on an error. With two out, Bob Allison hit a run-scoring double and Earl Battey delivered a two-run single.
The Twins put men on first and third with none out in the third but failed to add to their lead. It cost them, because the Red Sox came back. In the fourth Eddie Bressoud doubled and Yastrzemski singled to make it 3-1. In the fifth, two singles and a double play grounder made it 3-2. In the sixth, Yastrzemski led off with a walk and Clinton followed with a two-run homer, putting Boston in front for the first time at 4-3.
Not to worry. In the bottom of the sixth Rollins singled and Killebrew followed with a two-run homer, putting the Twins back in front 5-4. With two out in the seventh Power doubled and Rollins singled him home to make it 6-4.
And there it stayed. The Red Sox threatened in the eighth, putting men on first and second with one out, but Sullivan came in to retire the side on a couple of fly balls. They got a two-out single in the ninth from Gary Geiger, bringing the tying run to the plate, but Bressoud popped up to end the game.
WP: Dick Stigman (8-3). LP: Don Schwall (6-14). S: Sullivan (5).
Notes: The Twins used their standard lineup for 1962. The only substitution, other than a pitching change, came in the eighth, when Johnny Goryl pinch-ran for Killebrew. Bill Tuttle replaced Goryl and went to center field, with Lenny Green moving to left.
The only Twins .300 hitter in this game was Rollins, who was batting .313. He would finish at .298. The Twins did not end up with a .300 in 1962 unless you count Tony Oliva, who went 4-for-9 in a September call-up, or reliever Ted Sadowski, who was 2-for-4.
The Twins starter was Dick Stigman. He pitched 7.1 innings, allowing four runs on eight hits and five walks and striking out five. The Twins had three fine starters in Jim Kaat, Camilo Pascual, and Jack Kralick, but struggled to find a fourth. Others to make more than five starts were Stigman (15), Joe Bonikowski (13), Don Lee (9), and Lee Stange (6). Stigman took over the fourth starter role in mid-July and did well, going 9-3, 3.82 in fifteen starts. If he had been the fourth starter all season, the Twins might have won the pennant.
This was the third game of a four-game winning streak for the Twins.
Record: The Twins were 71-56, in third place in the American League, five games behind New York. They would finish 91-71, in second place, five games behind New York.
The Red Sox were 58-67, in eighth place in the American League, 17 games behind New York. They would finish 76-84, in eighth place, 19 games behind New York.