MINNESOTA 12, CHICAGO 1 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Saturday, April 26.

Batting stars:  Rod Carew was 4-for-5 with a double.  Charlie Manuel was 3-for-3 with a three-run homer a double, and a walk, scoring twice and driving in four.  Ted Uhlaender was 3-for-5 with a home run, scoring twice and driving in two.  Leo Cardenas was 2-for-5 with a home run and a double, driving in three.  Rich Reese was 2-for-5 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Dean Chance pitched six shutout innings, giving up three hits and no walks and striking out two.  Joe Grzenda pitched three innings, giving up one run on four hits and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Buddy Bradford was 3-for-4 with a double.  Luis Aparicio was 1-for-2 with a double and two walks.

The game:  The Twins got on the board in the second inning as Manuel walked, took third on a single, and scored on a Cardenas ground out.  They made it 3-0 in the fourth, as Tony Oliva walked and scored from first on a Harmon Killebrew double.  Manuel then singled to score Killebrew.

The Twins took control of the game in the fifth.  Johnny Roseboro singled, stole second, and went to third on a wild pitch.  Uhlaender scored him on a bunt single and scored from first on Carew's double.  With two out, Killebrew was intentionally walked, but Manuel hit a three-run homer, making the score 8-0.

The Twins didn't stop there.  Cardenas led off the sixth with a home run.  In the seventh, consecutive doubles by Manuel, Reese, and Cardenas made it 11-0.  Uhlaender homered leading off the eighth.

The lone White Sox run came in the bottom of the eighth.  Aparicio drew a two-out walk and scored from first on a Pete Ward double.

WP:  Chance (2-0).  LP: Joel Horlen (2-2).  S:  Grzenda (1).

Notes:  Carew took over the team batting lead, raising his average to .424.  Oliva was 0-for-3 with two walks and was batting .371.  Manuel raised his average to .353.  Cardenas was up to .349.  Uhlaender went up to .339.

I said earlier that Billy Martin's pitching philosophy seemed to be to leave a pitcher in the game as long as he was getting people out, regardless of innings, pitch counts, or anything else.  Chance seems to have been the exception.  He came out of his previous start after seven innings, having given up just an unearned run.  Here he came out after six shutout innings.  It appears that he was battling an injury--he would not pitch again until May 9, made only four appearances in May (two in relief), and then did not pitch again until August.  He was very effective when he did pitch, though.

The stolen base by Roseboro wasn't as rare a thing as I had thought.  He twice had double-digit stolen bases, swiping eleven in 1958 and twelve in 1962.  1962 was the only year he had a good percentage, however, going 12-for-15.   He stole 67 bases in his career, but was caught 56 times.  He would go 5-for-10 in 1969.

The Twins remained a little under .500 in base-stealing, as Reese was caught stealing second in the fourth inning.

This was the first save of Grzenda's career.  He would get three in 1969.  He had fourteen in his career, with the remaining eleven coming for Washington in 1970-1971.  He might have had a fifteenth--he was on the mound for the last Senators game in Washington with two out in the ninth, trying to protect a 7-5 lead, when the crowd stormed the field, causing the game to be forfeited.  He kept the baseball and presented it to the Washington Nationals on their first opening day.

The White Sox starter, Horlen, pitched just 4.1 innings, allowing six runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out two.

Record:  The Twins were 9-7, tied for first with the White Sox.