MINNESOTA 4, NEW YORK 0 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Tuesday, June 3.
Batting stars: Tony Oliva was 2-for-3 with a home run (his seventh), a triple, and two RBIs. Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his tenth) and a walk, scoring twice.
Pitching stars: Dave Boswell pitched seven shutout innings, giving up three hits and a walk and striking out five. Ron Perranoski pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: John Ellis was 2-for-3 with a double. Jerry Kenney was 2-for-4.
The game: With one out in the bottom of the first, Leo Cardenas singled and Killebrew hit a two-run homer to give the Twins a 2-0 lead. In the fourth, Killebrew walked and Tony Oliva followed with an RBI triple to make the score 3-0.
The Yankees did not get a baserunner until two out in the fifth, when Ellis singled. They did not mount a threat, however. Oliva homered in the sixth to increase the Twins' lead to 4-0. Kenney got the second Yankees hit with a leadoff single in the seventh, but did not advance past first base.
The Yankees' only threat came in the eighth. Ellis led off the inning with a double and Jim Lyttle walked. That led to Boswell being replaced by Perranoski. He immediately got Gene Michael to hit into a double play and retired Bobby Murcer on a ground out to get out of the inning. Kenney had a harmless single in the ninth.
WP: Boswell (6-6). LP: Fritz Peterson (7-6). S: Perranoski (11).
Notes: Cesar Tovar replaced Rod Carew at second base. Carew would be back in the lineup in the next game. Rick Renick was at third base, with Bob Allison in left field.
Killebrew was at first base, but Rich Reese came in as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning. Nothing odd about that, except that up to this point, when Reese had started games at first base and Killebrew started at third, Billy Martin would put Frank Quilici at third as a defensive replacement and move Killebrew to first, taking Reese out of the game. Perhaps Martin just wanted to give Killebrew an inning off or something.
The Yankees had just four hits, two by Ellis and two by Kenney.
For some reason I remember Jerry Kenney, even though his career was not particularly memorable. He got a September call-up in 1967, but did not reach the majors to stay until 1969. He got the most playing time of his career that season, playing both infield and outfield, and wasn't terrible but wasn't all that good, either, batting .257 with an OPS of .639. He slumped to .193 in 1970, but bounced back to bat .262 with an OPS of .679 in 1971. That was as good as it would get for him. He batted .210 in 1972 and the Yankees had seen enough. He probably made his biggest contribution to the Yankees when he got traded, because he was a part of the trade that sent Graig Nettles from Cleveland to New York. The Indians kept Kinney for all of a month, releasing him on May 4, 1973. He signed back with the Yankees and was in AAA for them through 1975, but never got back to the big leagues. His career numbers are .237/.326/.299 in 1369 at-bats. Still, he appeared in 465 major league games, which is more than I'll ever play in.
Record: The Twins were 27-20, in first place in the American League West, 2.5 games ahead of Oakland.