1965 Round 1: ’65 Twins dispatch ’65 Senators in three straight.

Game 1: Minnesota 10; Washington 2. Ortega vs Grant

The Senators jumped out to a 1 – 0 lead in the second inning on a home run by Willie Kirkland, but the Twins tied in their half of the second on a single, error and RBI single by
Versalles. The Twins put the game away in the 4th with a 5 run outburst as they were the beneficiary of three walks and an error. A bases- loaded double from Jerry Kindall was the key blow. Jim “Mudcat” Grant was the winner who went 7 innings to get the win. Pleis and Boswell threw an inning each in relief.

Bob Allison with two hits and three RBIs was voted the game’s MVP.

As an aside Grant was always a nemesis for the Senators winning 10 in a row against them as a member of the Cleveland Indians causing the Senators to throw a “black cat night” when a bag full of black cats were released on the pitching mound as Grant came out to throw the first pitch of the game. It worked as for the first time the Senators beat Grant.

Game 2: Minnesota 1, Washington 0.

Bob Allison led off the bottom of the first with a blast (his second homer of the series) and that was all she wrote as Jim Kaat held the Senators scoreless through seven innings. He tired in the eighth and Bob Chance led off the inning with a double, but Al Worthington came on in relief and shut down the Senators for the final two innings yielding only a harmless single in the ninth. Pete Richert was the hard luck loser for the Senators as he yielded just six hits in eight innings of work.

 

Game 3: Minnesota 4, Washington 3. (10 innings)

Jerry Kindall known much more for his glove than his bat smacked a two out home run in the top of the 10th to give the Twins a hard earned win and the series victory. Pascual went 7 innings yielding 3 runs and Stigman, Klippstein W, (1- 0) and Worthington, S (2) shut down the Senators for the final three innings. Willie Kirkland homered (2) in the second inning to give the Senators a 2 – 0 lead but Zoillo Versalles tripled to knock in one run and scored on Jimmy Hall’s sac fly to tie the game. Versalles homered in the sixth to give the Twins the lead, but lock doubled in the bottom of the sixth and scored on Ken McMullen’s single.

The game remained tied until Kindall homered in the 10th.

Versalles and Kindall were named the series co-MVPs. Minnesota’s fearsome hitters (Killebrew, Olivo,Hall and Battey were held in check by the Senators as Allison, Versalles, and Kindall did most of the damage for the Twins

--submitted by James Clouser--.