Tuesday September 19, 1967
Municipal Stadium
Kansas City, MO
Minnesota Twins (85-66) @ Kansas City A’s (59-90)
The American League pennant race in 1967 was about as exciting as baseball gets down the stretch, and the Twins were right in the thick of things. Before play on Tuesday September 19, the AL standings looked like this:
AL W L GB WP RS RA MIN 85 66 - .563 617 546 DET 85 66 - .563 632 552 BOS 85 66 - .563 667 557 CHW 85 67 0.5 .559 505 466 CAL 78 71 6.0 .523 520 540 WSA 70 79 14.0 .470 517 599 CLE 71 81 14.5 .467 531 578 BAL 68 81 16.0 .456 598 548 NYY 66 85 19.0 .437 493 578 KCA 59 90 25.0 .396 504 620
Just a half game separated the top four teams. Tuesday’s games included a battle between two of those four team with Boston in Detroit, while the White Sox were in California.
The Twins were fortunate to have a rare, four-game home-and-home series against the worst team in the league. Minnesota had won the first game on Monday 2-0 in Kansas City. After Tuesday’s game, the teams would head to the Met for two more games to complete the season series, a series that the A’s led 7-8.
Minnesota Twins Kansas City Athletics 1. Z Versalles SS 1. B Campaneris SS 2. C Tovar 3B 2. J Donaldson 2B 3. H Killebrew 1B 3. R Jackson RF 4. T Oliva RF 4. R Webster 1B 5. B Allison LF 5. M Hershberger LF 6. R Carew 2B 6. S Bando 3B 7. T Uhlaender CF 7. J Gosger CF 8. J Zimmerman C 8. D Duncan C 9. D Boswell P 9. J Nash P
Though Twins’ starter Dave Boswell was 13-11 on the season with a 3.07 ERA, he was coming off one of his worst starts of the season, a September 15th game against the White Sox in which he left in the second inning after allowing four hits and two walks in that frame.
The Twins’ offense gave Boswell some help right away, scoring a run in each of the first three innings. In this first, a Tony Oliva double knocked in the run. Rod Carew’s lead off triple was the biggest hit of the second inning, while Harmon Killebrew’s double helped create the run in the third.
The A’s stayed with the Twins for the first few innings my manufacturing a couple of runs of their own. In fact, the team scored a run in the first without the benefit of a base hit. Bert Campaneris’ lead off walk eventually led to him scoring on a wild pitch. In the third, Campaneris did his thing again, turning a lead off single into another run that scored without the benefit of an RBI hit, this time scoring on a ground out.
Despite the runs, Boswell was pitching pretty well save a couple of walks and a pair of wild pitches. Through three innings, he had allowed just two hits. The Twins, on the other hand, had six hits through three innings, four of which were of the extra-base variety. Still, the Twins only led by a single run.
That changed in the fifth when another extra-base hit, this time a Bob Allison double, scored the Twins’ fourth run of the game. Four runs in the top of the seventh, three of which were unearned, all but put the game away for the Twins. Boswell didn’t allow a hit after the third, and held the A’s to just two runs on two hits over his complete game victory.
Stars of the Game
1. Dave Boswell MIN 9 IP 2 H 2 R
2. Bob Allison MIN 3-for-5, R, 2 RBI
3. Bert Campaneris KC 1-for-2, 2 BB, 2R, SB
Boston scored three in the top of the ninth inning to come from behind to defeat the Tigers, 4-2. The loss dropped the Tigers from a tied for first place into fourth in the AL thanks to a 3-0 White Sox win over the Angels. The standings after Tuesday’s games:
AL W L GB WP RS RA MIN 86 66 - .566 625 548 BOS 86 66 - .566 671 559 CHW 86 67 0.5 .562 508 466 DET 85 67 1.0 .559 634 556 CAL 78 72 7.0 .520 520 543 CLE 72 81 14.5 .471 533 578 WSA 70 80 15.0 .467 517 601 BAL 69 81 16.0 .460 601 548 NYY 66 86 20.0 .434 493 581 KCA 59 91 26.0 .393 506 628
The race continued down the wire until, of course, the Red Sox defeated the Twins on the last day of the season to take the pennant.
Born 9/19
Scott Baker (1981)
Javier Valentin (1975)
Pedro Munoz (1968)
Larry Schlafly (1878)
A few days late seeing this post Scot, but have you read, “Down to the Wire”? A great look at the 1967 pennant race.
I have not read it, sounds interesting though. I’ll put it on my list.
A definite must. If you want, I can send it to you….but you have to send it back. We’ll make it a trans-continental book trade. I send you one…you send me one!