MINNESOTA 7, WASHINGTON 1 IN WASHINGTON

Date:  Monday, May 26.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 3-for-5 with a double.  Johnny Roseboro was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Rod Carew was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his fourth and fifth) and a walk, driving in four.  Leo Cardenas was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Jim Perry pitched a complete game, giving up one run on nine hits and no walks and striking out three.

Opposition stars:  Ken McMullen was 3-for-3.  Frank Howard was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fifteenth.  Del Unser was 2-for-4.  Casey Cox pitched three shutout innings, giving up three hits and two walks and striking out two.

The game:  The Twins got two walks and a single in the first but did not score due to a double play.  Would this be another game of missed opportunities for the Twins?

No.  In the third, Ted Uhlaender led off with a walk and Carew followed with a two-run homer to put the Twins up 2-0.  They then put together a big inning in the fourth.  Cardenas and Roseboro led off with singles and advanced on a wild pitch, putting them on second and third.  Cesar Tovar delivered a two-run single to make it 4-0.  With one out, Tovar stole second and scored on Uhlaender's single.  Carew then hit another two-run homer, leaving the Twins up 7-0 and in control of the game.

Howard led off the bottom of the fifth with a home run to put Washington on the board.  Their only other threat was in the eighth, when singles by McMullen and Ed Stroud put men on first and second with one out.  Unser and Ed Brinkman each grounded out to end the inning.

WP:  Perry (4-1).  LP:  Joe Coleman (2-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  Charlie Manuel was again in left and Tovar at third.  The defensive switch was made in the seventh, with Frank Quilici taking over at third and Tovar moving to left.

Carew would hit only eight home runs in 1969.  He had 92 in his career, with a season high of fourteen in 1975 and 1977.  I don't have time to look up how many two-homer games he had in his career, but it can't have been very many.

This was Perry's fifth start of the season and his second complete game.  He had joined the rotation on May 22 and would remain there the rest of the season.

Carew was batting .394.  Manuel was 0-for-4 and was batting .321.  Oliva raised his average to .305.  Perry lowered his ERA to 2.70.

Washington starter Joe Coleman lasted just three innings, allowing five runs on five hits and four walks and striking out three.  Coleman, who'd had a solid year in 1968, was struggling at this point in 1969, posting a 2-5 record and an ERA of 4.67.  He would get straightened out, however.  He would post a second-half ERA of 2.84, giving him a final season record of 12-13, 3.27.  His July was particularly impressive--4-2, 1.44, 1.00 WHIP, 51 strikeouts in 50 innings.  He would remain a good rotation starter through 1973, was a rotation starter for two years after that, and pitched out of the bullpen for major league teams through 1979.  His best year was either 1971, when he went 20-9, 3.15, or 1972, when he was 19-14, 2.80.  1972 was when he made his only all-star team.  His highest wins and innings pitched totals were in 1973, when he was 23-15, 3.53 in 288 innings.  His innings pitched total was in the 280s every year from 1971-1974.

Record:  The Twins were 24-16, in first place in the American League West, two games ahead of Oakland.