KANSAS CITY 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN KANSAS CITY (17 INNINGS)

Batting stars:  Rod Carew was 3-for-7 with a double and a stolen base, his second.  Ted Uhlaender was 2-for-7 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat pitched eleven innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on eight hits and five walks and striking out four.  Ron Perranoski pitched 2.1 perfect innings, striking out two.  Joe Grzenda struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Joe Foy was 2-for-5 with two walks and a stolen base.  Chuck Harrison was 0-for-7.  Bill Butler struck out six in five shutout innings of relief, giving up one hit and one walk.  Moe Drabowsky pitched 4.1 scoreless innings of relief, giving up three hits and a walk and striking out one.

The game:  There was no score until the third, when George Mitterwald walked and Uhlaender and Carew followed with singles to make it 1-0.  With two out, an error charged to Royals shortstop Jackie Hernandez made it 2-0.  Kansas City tied it in the fourth.  Consecutive singles by Ed Kirkpatrick, Foy, and Harrison brought home the first run and a Jim Campanis sacrifice fly tied it.

The Twins took the lead in the fifth.  Carew doubled, went to third on a sacrifice fly, and scored on a straight steal of home.  It looked like the 3-2 lead might hold up, but in the bottom of the eighth Jerry Adair got to second on a single-plus-error and scored on Foy's single.

The game nearly ended in the twelfth, but a double play allowed the Twins to get out of the inning unscathed despite walking four batters (one intentional) in the inning.  Kaat allowed the first walk, then came out of the game.  Dave Boswell got a double play but went on to walk three more batters in the inning.  Perranoski came on to get the last out.

The game finally ended in the seventeenth.  With Bob Miller pitching, Hernandez drew a one out walk, went to second on a ground out, and scored on a Lou Piniella single to end the game.

WP:  Tom Burgmeier (1-0).  LP:  Miller (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Carew's steal of home came with one out and Harmon Killebrew up to bat.  In the first two games, Billy Martin seems to have been trying to establish that he would have anyone try to steal any base at any time.  Cesar Tovar was caught trying to steal second, as was Mitterwald.  It would be Mitterwald's only stolen base attempt of the season.

Kaat threw eleven innings and faced one batter in the twelfth before coming out of the game.  b-r.com does not give pitch counts, at least not going back to 1969, but I'm pretty sure it was over a hundred.  Not only that, Perranoski pitched 2.1 innings after pitching 5.1 innings the day before.  In both games he did not give up a run.  Martin's reputation for giving pitchers a heavy workload was cemented in Oakland, but it clearly started from his first managerial job.

Graig Nettles was again in left, with Killebrew at third and Rich Reese at first.  In the seventh, with the Twins leading 3-2, Frank Quilici entered the game at third base for defensive purposes.  Killebrew moved to first, with Reese coming out of the game.  In both of the first two games, Cesar Tovar came in to replace Nettles, yesterday as a pinch-hitter and today as a pinch-runner.  In both cases, he remained in the game to play left field.

Nettles was batting .400 (2-for-5).  Carew was batting .417 (5-for-12).  Killebrew, on the other hand, was batting .091 (1-for-11).

Roger Nelson was the Kansas City starter.  He pitched five innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on four hits and five walks and striking out four.

The Royals used one former Twin (Hernandez) and two future Twins (Butler and Burgmeier).

The Twins had now played two games and twenty-nine innings against an expansion team and had nothing to show for it.  I don't know what the expectations were for the 1969 Twins (they had nearly made the World Series in 1967, but had finished seventh in 1968), but I have to think the fans were not terribly pleased.

Record:  The Twins were 0-2, in sixth and last place in the AL West, two games behind Kansas City.

KANSAS CITY 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN KANSAS CITY (12 INNINGS)

Date:  Tuesday, April 8.

Batting stars:  Rod Carew was 2-for-5 with a stolen base.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-5.  Johnny Roseboro was 2-for-5.  Graig Nettles was 1-for-2 with a home run.

Pitching stars:  Tom Hall pitched 5.2 innings, giving up three runs (one earned) on nine hits and no walks and striking out two.  Ron Perranoski pitched 5.1 scoreless innings of relief, giving up one hit and one walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Lou Piniella was 4-for-5 with a double and a walk.  Jerry Adair was 2-for-5.  Dave Wickersham pitched five shutout innings of relief, giving up four hits and no walks and striking out three.

The game:  Piniella opened the game with a double and Adair followed with a single, putting the Royals up 1-0.  Nettles homered in the second to tie it 1-1.

It stayed 1-1 until the sixth.  Carew and Oliva opened the top of the inning with singles and Killebrew had an RBI ground out to put the Twins up 2-1.  Oliva was caught stealing, but Cesar Tovar singled and Rich Reese doubled him home to make it 3-1.  The Royals got the runs back in the bottom of the sixth.  Their first two batters went out, but Ellie Rodriguez singled, Killebrew (playing third) made an error to put men on first and third, and RBI singles by Jim Campanis and Piniella tied the score 3-3.

And there it stayed until the bottom of the twelfth, with neither team even mounting a threat.  With one out in the bottom of the twelfth, Joe Foy singled and went to second on a passed ball.  Chuck Harrison was intentionally walked, but a wild pitch moved men to second and third and led to an intentional walk to Bob Oliver.  Joe Keough then singled home the winning run.

WP:  Moe Drabowsky (1-0).  LP:  Joe Grzenda (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Hall seems a strange choice for opening day starter.  He had only made four major league starts before this game.  Other starting pitchers on the Twins roster included Jim Kaat, Jim Perry, Dave Boswell, and Dean Chance.  I'm sure there was a reason Billy Martin went with Hall, but I didn't have time to research what it was.

Perranoski was to be the Twins' closer, and yet he pitched 5.1 innings.  You would never, ever, ever see that today.  A team would use a position player and allow the game to be lost rather than use their closer that long.  I'm not saying this is good, bad, or indifferent.  It simply shows how the game has changed.

The Twins have always seemed to have a thing about playing young third basemen in the outfield.  They did it with Corey Koskie.  They did it with Trevor Plouffe.  They did it with Miguel Sano.  And here, we see that they did it with Graig Nettles.  Nettles started this game in left field, with Killebrew at third and Reese at first.

The Twins were 1-for-3 in stolen bases in this game.  Carew stole second in the fourth inning, but Reese was thrown out trying to steal second in the fifth and Oliva was thrown out trying to steal third in the sixth.  Both caught stealings hurt.  You can't say for sure how the inning would've played out, but the Reese CS was the first out of the inning and was followed by a walk and a single, while the Oliva CS (the second out of the inning) was followed by a single and a double.

Roseboro, who I remember as having a reputation as a good defensive catcher, was charged with two passed balls in this game.  He would have eleven on the season.

This was the first-ever game for the expansion Kansas City Royals.  Wally Bunker was their starting pitcher, which may help you win a trivia contest someday.

Record:  The Twins were 0-1, tied for fourth in the American League West, a game behind Kansas City, Oakland, and Seattle.