MINNESOTA 10, CLEVELAND 3 IN CLEVELAND
Date: Wednesday, May 7.
Batting stars: Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his sixth and seventh) and a walk, driving in three. Jim Kaat was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs. Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs. Rod Carew was 2-for-5.
Pitching star: Kaat pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out three.
Opposition star: Jose Cardenal was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, his third.
The game: The Twins went down in order in the first, but Killebrew led off the second with a home run. Charlie Manuel walked, but the next two batters went out and when Johnny Roseboro hit a ground ball to second it looked like the inning would be over. Vern Fuller booted it, putting men on first and second. No worries, it just brought up the pitcher's spot. The pitcher, however, was Kaat, and he delivered a two-run double to left, with Roseboro scoring from first to give the Twins a 3-0 lead.
In the fourth, the Indians got on the board. Richie Scheinblum led off with a single, but a forceout put Ray Fosse on first instead. A single and another forceout put men on first and third, and a wild pitch brought Fosse home to make it 3-1.
The Twins got the run back with interest in the fifth. Kaat again was involved, leading off the inning with a single. A forceout made Ted Uhlaender the baserunner. He stole second and scored on a Tony Oliva single. Killebrew followed with a two-run homer to put the Twins up 6-1.
Cleveland didn't give up, as Cap Peterson hit a one-out single and scored on Cardenal's two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth, cutting the margin to 6-3. In the sixth, however, Rich Reese led off with a double and two walks filled the bases. The Twins then got consecutive singles from Uhlaender, Carew, and Oliva to go ahead 10-3 and put the game out of reach.
WP: Kaat (2-0). LP: Luis Tiant (0-6). S: None.
Notes: Carew was batting .395. Manuel was 1-for-3 with a walk and was batting .391. Roseboro was 0-for-4 with a walk and was batting .320. Oliva was batting .314. Killebrew was batting .313. Cardenas was 0-for-4 and was batting .305. Uhlaender was 1-for-5 and was batting .304.
Manuel obviously did not stay at .391. He was mostly used as a pinch-hitter in 1969, playing in 83 games but starting just 31 and getting only 164 at-bats. Pinch-hitting is a tough way to make your living, especially for a young player (he was twenty-five and in his rookie season), and Manuel wasn't up to it, batting just 0.83 with six walks and no extra base hits. That didn't stop Billy Martin from using him in that role forty-three times in 1969. In games that he started, Manuel hit a fairly respectable .250/.369/.352. He hit .320/.411/.597 in AAA--one wonders what he might have done if he'd been with a team that would put him in the lineup and let him play.
Kaat has a reputation of having been a good hitter. It would be more accurate to say that he was a good hitter for a pitcher. His lifetime batting numbers are .185/.227/.267. He had two good years at the plate: 1981, when he went 3-for-8, and 1972, when he batting .289/.304/.489 in 45 at-bats. There were only two other seasons when he had an OPS of over. 600. In 1969, he went .207/.247/.368 in 87 at-bats. Again, good for a pitcher, but not actually good.
Jose Cardenal had more power than I remember. He wasn't a power hitter, but he hit double digit home runs in eight seasons. His high was seventeen, with the Cubs in 1972. He would hit eleven in 1969. He was a good batter, batting .275/.333/.395 in 18 major league seasons. He never put up eye-popping numbers--he hit over .300 only twice--but he was a consistently good ballplayer for a long time.
Zoilo Versalles was used as a pinch-hitter by Cleveland, getting a single to center. He was near the end of his major league career, although he would continue to play in Mexico through 1974.
Record: The Twins were 17-8, in first place, leading Oakland by 1.5 games.