John bracket: 1961 Minnesota Twins defeat 1969 New York Yankees in seven games

The '61 Twins spotted the '69 Yankees the first two games of the series, then won four of the next five even though Harmon Killebrew failed to get any extra-base hits.

Game One: Yankees 6, Twins 1: Mel Stottlemyre not only held the Twins to one run and four hits in eight innings, he homered in the seventh inning. Jerry Kenney drove in three runs with a double and single.

Game Two. Yankees 5, Twins 3: The visiting Yankees plated four runs in the fourth on a triple, three doubles and a single. That was enough for Fritz Peterson, who went seven innings for the win.

Game Three: Twins 4, Yankees 2: Bob Allison's two-run homer in the eighth broke a 2-2 deadlock. Danny McDevitt, who allowed an inherited runner to score in the seventh to tie the game, vultured the win from Pedro Ramos.

Game Four: Twins 7, Yankees 6 (10 innings): A wild contest in which the Twins used five pinch-hitters and six pitchers, who occupied four different slots in the batting order, one of them twice. Jim Kaat lasted just two innings for the Twins. Shorty Pleis worked the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, allowing one unearned run, for the win.

Game Five: Yankees 3, Twins 0: Al Downing and Jack Aker combined for a six-hit shutout. Loser Camilo Pascual might have had a shutout himself had the Twins fielded better behind him; all three New York runs were unearned. There were no RBIs in the game.

Game Six: Twins 7, Yankees 1: Zoilo Versalles went 4-for-4 with two doubles and three runs scored.  Lenny Green homered and scored three runs himself despite having only the one hit. Jack Kralick went the distance, scattering nine hits, one of them a homer by Joe Pepitone. It was the only non-pitcher homer for the Yankees in the series.

Game Seven: Twins 6, Yankees 3: New York took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh, but Stottlemyre fell apart in the bottom of the inning. The Twins scored four runs as Stottlemyre walked four, Green hit a two-run homer and Bill Tuttle plated a pair with a single. Ramos got the win and McDevitt worked the eighth and ninth without allowing a hit for the series-clinching save.

Projected rotation: Pascual-Kaat-Kralick-Ramos-(Pascual)-(Kaat)-(Kralick). The bullpen is fully available for the start of round two.