MINNESOTA 3, NEW YORK 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Monday, June 2.
Batting star: Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer, his eleventh, and a walk.
Pitching star: Jim Kaat pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on six hits and three walks and striking out three.
Opposition stars: Gene Michael was 3-for-4 with a double. Horace Clarke was 2-for-4. Bobby Cox was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer and two walks. Lindy McDaniel struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.
The game: Clarke singled and Cox walked to start the game, but they did not advance past first and second. The Twins put men on first and second with two out in the second, but also couldn't score. Clarke led off the third with a single and this time Cox followed with a two-run homer, putting the Yankees up 2-0.
The Twins opened the fourth with walks to Killebrew and Tony Oliva, but could do nothing with them. In the fifth, however, Ted Uhlaender walked and Kaat singled. That brought in Stan Bahnsen to replace starter Mike Kekich. Bahnsen retired the first two Twins he faced, but Killebrew then hit a three-run homer to put the Twins ahead 3-2.
And that was pretty much it. The Twins missed a chance to add to their lead in the seventh when they put two men on base with one out. The only other Yankee threat was in the eighth, when Cox led off with a walk and Joe Pepitone was hit by a pitch with one out. The next two batters went out, however, and the threat went by the boards. I'm not sure where the boards were, but the threat definitely went by them.
WP: Kaat (5-3). LP: Bahnsen (1-8). S: None.
Notes: Rod Carew started the game at second base, but was replaced by Frank Quilici after the first inning. He had batted and tried to beat out a bunt--one assumes he may have been injured running to first. He would miss the next game but then be back in the lineup. Charlie Manuel would later pinch-hit for Quilici, at which point Cesar Tovar, who had started at third, moved over to second, with Graig Nettles coming into the game to play third.
Carew went 0-for-1 to drop his average to .389. Kaat's ERA came own to 2.62. This was Kaat's third consecutive complete game. The game prior to that three-game streak was the one in which he pitched twelve innings, so it could very easily have been four consecutive complete games.
Stan Bahnsen was normally a starter, but he had some periods of struggle in 1969 and so was sent to the bullpen a couple of times. He had been Rookie of the Year in 1968, when he went 17-12, 2.05, 1.06 WHIP. He would get things turned around in 1969, finishing 9-16, 3.83. He had a couple more solid years with the Yankees, then was traded to the White Sox before the 1972 season. He won twenty games in 1972 for the only time in his career, going 21-16, 3.60. He lost twenty-one the next year, going 18-21 (thirty-nine decisions--that's pretty amazing, too), 3.57. He was with the White Sox into 1975, then played for Oakland, Montreal, California, and Philadelphia before hanging it up after the 1982 season. His won-lost record is skewed by playing for a lot of bad teams: 146-149, 3.60, 1.33 WHIP. I'm sure it's not what people hoped for when he won Rookie of the Year, but he was a solid rotation starter for seven seasons, pitching over two hundred innings every season and posting an ERA under four, usually well under four. That's a pretty valuable pitcher.
Record: The Twins were 26-20, in first place in the American League West, 1.5 games ahead of Oakland.