MINNESOTA 5, CALIFORNIA 4 IN CALIFORNIA
Date: Sunday, April 13.
Batting stars: Tony Oliva was 3-for-5. Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with a home run. Graig Nettles was 1-for-3 with a walk.
Pitching stars: Tom Hall pitched five innings of relief, giving up two hits and no walks and striking out four. Ron Perranoski pitched 2.2 innings, giving up an unearned run on three hits and two walks and striking out two.
Opposition stars: Rick Reichardt was 1-for-3 with a walk. Tom Murphy pitched six innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on seven hits and no walks and struck out three.
The game: With one out in the bottom of the first, the Angels put together a walk and two singles to take a 1-0 lead. They weren't done, as with two out a walk and a two-run single by Tom Satriano made it 3-0 after one inning.
It stayed there until the third, when a pair of singles and a productive ground out put Twins on second and third with two down. Jim Fregosi then made an error on a Leo Cardenas ground ball to make it 3-1. In the seventh, singles by Cardenas and Cesar Tovar and a walk to Bob Allison loaded the bases with none out. A pair of fielder's choices brought home two runs to tie it 3-3.
The Twins finally took the lead in the eighth. Killebrew led off the inning with his first home run of the season to make it 4-3. Nettles walked and went to third on a George Mitterwald single. Cardenas then hit a sacrifice fly to give the Twins a 5-4 lead.
The Angels didn't go away quietly. With one out in the eighth, Bill Voss walked and Fregosi doubled to put men on second and third. Perranoski then struck out Jay Johnstone, intentionally walked Reichardt, and got Bubba Morton on a fly out to end the inning. Aurelio Rodriguez led off the ninth by reaching on catcher's interference. With one out, Bobby Knoop and Ruben Amaro singled to cut the Twins lead to 5-4 and put men on first and second. Voss hit into a forceout, putting men on first and third. Bob Miller then came in to replace Perranoski and got Fregosi to ground out to end the game.
WP: Perranoski (1-0). LP: Pedro Borbon (1-1). S: Miller (1).
Notes: It was a somewhat more conventional lineup, although batting Rich Reese second when Tovar was in the lineup seems a little unusual. Tovar was at second, with Rod Carew still out of the lineup. Nettles was again in left field, with Killebrew at third. Killebrew came out of the game for defense in the eighth, but rather than move Nettles to third base the Twins used Frank Quilici there.
Mitterwald seems to have been the mostly regular catcher early on, with Johnny Roseboro in a reserve role.
Dick Woodson started for the Twins and pitched one inning. It's tempting to try to claim he was an opener, but in fact I'm sure he was removed because he gave up three runs on three hits and two walks. Hall made his second relief appearance in four games after his opening day start. Perranoski had now pitched 11.1 innings of relief and appeared in four of the five Twins games.
I have no memory at all of Bill Voss, but he played in parts of eight major league seasons. An outfielder, 1969 would be the year he got the most playing time, 133 games. He hit .261, but had an OPS of .660 because he had no power. He played from 1965-1972, playing for the White Sox, California, Milwaukee, Oakland, and St. Louis.
Record: Finally in the win column, the Twins were 1-4, still in sixth place in the AL West, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.