TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 26, 1967
DODGERS INCREASE LEAD
Tommy John had one of his best outings of the season, tossing a complete game 2-hitter while fanning 10 to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Dodgers win, coupled with San Francisco's 2-1 loss to the Mets, allowed Los Angeles to extend it's lead atop the National League to two games on the Giants. Each club has 5 games remaining.
The win for the 24 year old John (10-12, 3.34) comes just 2 starts after he blanked the Giants 1-0 in another complete game victory. The only pitch that cost him a shutout this game was a second inning offering that Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski (.269,6,56) took out of the park. Bob Bailey's lead off single in the 7th inning was the only other hit John would allow. The Dodgers offense was led by a 2-hit performance from catcher Johnny Roseboro (.215,5,35), who had a solo homer and an rbi double.
San Francisco lost for the second straight day to the New York Mets, as Gary Gentry (3-1, 2.66) had a complete game 2-1 victory. Mike McCormick (2-2, 1.35) made his first start of the season for the Giants and pitched 8 innings of 4-hit ball, but was tagged with the loss because Ed Charles (.212,5,42) came through for the Mets with a 2-run double in the fourth inning.
Elsewhere in the National League Don Mincher(.245,14,54) had 3 hits, including a homerun, and drove in 4 runs to lead St Louis to a 9-4 win over Chicago, rookie Larry Colton (1-2, 3.08) threw his first career major league complete game to help Philadelphia beat Houston 1-0 while in Cincinnati Jim Wynn (.269,22,88) and Pete Rose (.345,9,52) each drove in 3 runs to pace the Reds past Atlanta 11-3.
AMERICAN LEAGUE - TWINS CLINCH
Despite losing 4-2 to California the Minnesota Twins clinched their first American League pennant since 1949 after the Cleveland Indians fell 8-1 in Boston. Dick Hughes (12-13, 4.40) outduelled Mickey Lolich (17-6, 2.47) to pace the Angels to their win while in Boston Tony Conigliaro's (.276,30,89) 30th homer of the season led the Red Sox past the defending World Champion Indians.
Other American League games saw Baltimore edge Boston 5-4 as Milt Pappas (15-8,2.88) got the win. Mickey Mantle's (.238,15,64) 578th career homerun helped the Yankees past Detroit 9-4 while Kansas City edged the White Sox 2-1.