MINNESOTA 6, CALIFORNIA 0 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Friday, April 18.
Batting stars: Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-3 with a walk and scored twice. Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a stolen base and scored twice. Cesar Tovar was 2-for-4 with a stolen base.
Pitching stars: Tom Hall pitched a complete game shutout, giving up two hits and four walks and striking out six.
Opposition stars: Jim Fregosi was 1-for-3 with a triple and a walk. Rudy May pitched five innings, giving up two runs on four hits and two walks and striking out three.
The game: Fregosi tripled with one out in the top of the first, but a strikeout and a popup stranded him. In the fourth, walks to Killebrew and Bob Allison put men on first and second with two out and RBI singles by Leo Cardenas and Frank Quilici put the Twins up 2-0. The Angels opened the sixth with a pair of walks, but a force out and a double play ended the inning. The Twins scored twice more in the sixth, starting the inning with consecutive singles by Killebrew, Oliva, Allison, and George Mitterwald.
Lou Johnson opened the seventh with a single and reached third with none out on a pair of wild pitches. No problem for Hall, as he struck out Rick Reichardt and retired Aurelio Rodriguez and Tom Egan on fly outs.
The Twins got the game's final two runs in the eighth. Killebrew led off with a single-plus-error and was replaced by Rich Reese. Reese scored on an Oliva single, with Oliva reaching second on the throw home. He advanced to third on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-0. The Angels went down in order in the ninth.
WP: Hall (1-0). LP: May (1-1). S: None.
Notes: Tovar started in center field, replacing Ted Uhlaender. Uhlaender pinch-hit for Allison in the eighth and stayed in to play defense, with Tovar moving to left.
Quilici started at third base, with Killebrew at first.
Carew went 0-for-4, dropping his average to .385. That made him second on the team to Oliva, who raised his average to .395.
Uhlaender was batting just .161 on the young season.
The Twins were 2-for-2 in stolen bases, making them 4-for-11 on the season. They did, however, get two runners thrown out on the bases, both at third base. With two out in the fourth, Cardenas was thrown out trying to advance from first to third on Quilici's RBI single. With none out in the sixth, Allison was thrown out trying to advance from first to third on MItterwald's RBI single. Billy Martin apparently did not believe in the old saying that you should never make the first or third out at third base.
Hall was the opening day starter on April 8 (going 5.2 innings), pitched two innings of relief on April 11, pitched five innings of relief on April 13, and pitched a complete game on April 18.
Having pitched in four games in a row and six of the team's first seven, Ron Perranoski was given the day off. He would pitch again in their next game, however.
This was the Twins' first game of the season to be decided by more than two runs.
Record: The Twins' four-game winning streak got them out of the division cellar. They were now 4-4, tied for third with Oakland, one game behind Kansas City.