The Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox ran off winning streaks to start the penultimate week of the 1967 season. The Red Sox won four straight games and the Twins claimed five straight with an 8-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Friday, September 22. Jim Kaat went the distance for his sixth straight win to improve to 15-13 after a dreadful start in ’67.
Friday’s win put the Twins in front by a half-game over the Red Sox, who split a doubleheader with Baltimore that night. The Detroit Tigers took a twinbill from Washington to inch within a game of the top spot, and the Chicago White Sox lost to Cleveland but stayed two games off the pace.
Minnesota’s winning streak stalled on Saturday with a 6-2 loss to the ninth-place Yankees. Boston lost as well, keeping the Twins in front, but Chicago closed to within a game behind Joe Horlen’s three-hit shutout over Cleveland.
On Sunday, September 24, first place was on the line—as it was nearly every day in September—with Dean Chance taking the hill for the Twins against Yankees lefthander Steve Barber. Chance, who had won 20 games and Cy Young honors for the Los Angeles Angels in 1964, had come over in an offseason blockbuster and assumed duties as Minnesota’s staff ace.
On this Sunday, he was pitching to win 20 games again after a disappointing ’66 season with the Angels. Four days earlier he had claimed his 19th win in dominant fashion, striking out 13 and limiting the Kansas A’s to four hits in a 6-2 complete-game victory.
The 26-year-old righthander wasn’t as overpowering against New York, but he went distance, scattered 12 hits and fanned 10 in a 9-4 victory. The game was never in doubt, as the Twins jumped on Barber for seven runs in the first two innings. Harmon Killebrew drilled his 41st home run, which gave him one fewer than Triple Crown candidate Carl Yastrzemski. Bob Allison hit his 23rd in the Twins romp.
Chance's 20th win was Minnesota’s 90th after a 25-25 start. With exactly one week remaining in the season, the Twins were a half-game up on the Red Sox. All three contenders were just a game behind them in the loss column.
American League Standings
(through games of Sunday, September 24, 1967)
W-L GB
Minnesota 90-67 ----
Boston 90-68 0.5
Detroit 89-68 1.0
Chicago 88-68 1.5
I will post about the 1967 Twins and their wild AL pennant race down to the final days of the season, culling stories from the upcoming and tentatively titled The Glory Years of the Minnesota Twins: Rock ‘n’ Roll, War and Peace, the Civil Rights Movement and Baseball in the 1960s. I also post on my author page on Facebook.
Friday’s win put the Twins in front by a half-game over the Red Sox, who split a doubleheader with Baltimore that night. The Detroit Tigers took a twinbill from Washington to inch within a game of the top spot, and the Chicago White Sox lost to Cleveland but stayed two games off the pace.
Minnesota’s winning streak stalled on Saturday with a 6-2 loss to the ninth-place Yankees. Boston lost as well, keeping the Twins in front, but Chicago closed to within a game behind Joe Horlen’s three-hit shutout over Cleveland.
On Sunday, September 24, first place was on the line—as it was nearly every day in September—with Dean Chance taking the hill for the Twins against Yankees lefthander Steve Barber. Chance, who had won 20 games and Cy Young honors for the Los Angeles Angels in 1964, had come over in an offseason blockbuster and assumed duties as Minnesota’s staff ace.
On this Sunday, he was pitching to win 20 games again after a disappointing ’66 season with the Angels. Four days earlier he had claimed his 19th win in dominant fashion, striking out 13 and limiting the Kansas A’s to four hits in a 6-2 complete-game victory.
The 26-year-old righthander wasn’t as overpowering against New York, but he went distance, scattered 12 hits and fanned 10 in a 9-4 victory. The game was never in doubt, as the Twins jumped on Barber for seven runs in the first two innings. Harmon Killebrew drilled his 41st home run, which gave him one fewer than Triple Crown candidate Carl Yastrzemski. Bob Allison hit his 23rd in the Twins romp.
Chance's 20th win was Minnesota’s 90th after a 25-25 start. With exactly one week remaining in the season, the Twins were a half-game up on the Red Sox. All three contenders were just a game behind them in the loss column.
American League Standings
(through games of Sunday, September 24, 1967)
W-L GB
Minnesota 90-67 ----
Boston 90-68 0.5
Detroit 89-68 1.0
Chicago 88-68 1.5
I will post about the 1967 Twins and their wild AL pennant race down to the final days of the season, culling stories from the upcoming and tentatively titled The Glory Years of the Minnesota Twins: Rock ‘n’ Roll, War and Peace, the Civil Rights Movement and Baseball in the 1960s. I also post on my author page on Facebook.