BOSTON 5, MINNESOTA 2 IN BOSTON
Date: Sunday, June 1.
Batting star: Leo Cardenas was 3-for-3 with a home run (his third) and a double.
Pitching star: Jerry Crider struck out two in a scoreless inning.
Opposition stars: Tony Conigliaro was 4-for-4 with a home run (his tenth) and two doubles, driving in two. Dalton Jones was 2-for-4 with two doubles. Rico Petrocelli was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fifteenth) and a walk. Ray Culp struck out seven in seven innings, giving up two runs on five hits and a walk. Sparky Lyle pitched two shutout innings, giving up two walks and striking out one.
The game: The Red Sox threatened in the second, when with one out Petrocelli walked, Conigliaro doubled, and George Scott was intentionally walked. Russ Gibson popped to the catcher and Culp struck out to end the threat. Boston again loaded the bases with one out in the third, but this time it paid off. Dick Schofield was hit by a pitch, Jones doubled, and Reggie Smith drew a walk. Petrocelli's force out started the scoring and Conigliaro doubled in a run, putting the Red Sox up 2-0.
There was no more scoring until the fifth, when Conigliaro homered to make the score 3-0. Cardenas answered with a home run of his own in the sixth to cut the margin to 3-1. With two out in the seventh, Smith singled and Petrocelli homered to boost the Boston lead to 5-1.
The Twins made on last attempt to get back into it in the eighth. Graig Nettles led off with a walk, and singles by Cardenas and Johnny Roseboro made the score 5-2 with men on first and third and brought Lyle in to pitch. A wild pitch moved Roseboro to second. Rich Reese pinch-hit and struck out, but Bob Allison drew a pinch-hit walk, loading the bases and bringing the go-ahead run to the plate in Rod Carew. Unfortunately, Carew hit into a double play to end the inning. The Twins got nothing more than a one-out walk in the ninth.
WP: Culp (9-2). LP: Jim Perry (4-2). S: Lyle (5).
Notes: Manuel was again in left and Nettles at third. As the Twins trailed, there were no defensive substitutions made, but Quilici was used as a pinch-hitter for Nettles in the ninth inning. I understand that Nettles wasn't a star then, and that it gained a platoon advantage, but Quilici was never a strong batter. That seems at best a questionable move.
Carew was 0-for-4, dropping his average to .392. Oliva was 0-for-4 and went down to .305. Roseboro was 1-for-3 and was batting .303.
Perry started and pitched five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and four walks and striking out three. His ERA went up to 2.95. Crider still had not given up a run in three major league appearances (four innings).
I don't really remember Petrocelli as a home run hitter, but he hit 210 of them in a thirteen-year career. He had three big home run seasons: 1969 (40), 1970 (29), and 1971 (28). He never topped twenty in any other season.
Ray Culp was another pretty good pitcher for a while. He was a rookie for Philadelphia in 1963 and had one of the best two seasons of his career at age twenty-one, going 14-11, 2.97, making the all-star team and finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting (behind Pete Rose and Ron Hunt). He was up and down with the Phillies, having good season in 1963 and 1965 but poor ones in 1964 and 1966. He was with the Cubs in 1967, then was traded to Boston for Bill Schlesinger, Al Montreuil, and cash. I hope the Cubs got a lot of cash, because Boston definitely got the best of that deal. Culp was a solid rotation starter for the Red Sox from 1968-1971, going 64-44, 3.35, never missing a start and pitching between 216 and 252 innings every season. He made one all-star team, in 1969. He was with Boston through 1973, but his last two seasons were not good ones. After baseball, he had a successful career in real estate. His career numbers were 122-101, 3.58 in eleven seasons (1898.1 innings).
Record: The Twins were 25-20, in first place in the American League West, one game ahead of Oakland.