WASHINGTON 1, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Friday, June 6.
Batting star: George Mitterwald was 2-for-3 with two doubles and a hit-by-pitch.
Pitching stars: Jim Kaat pitched 6.2 innings, giving up one run on nine hits and four walks and striking out six. Dick Woodson pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Frank Howard was 3-for-4. Eddie Brinkman was 2-for-5. Hank Allen was 2-for-5. Barry Moore pitched five shutout innings, giving up two hits and three walks and striking out four. Darold Knowles struck out four in four shutout innings of relief, giving up two hits and a walk.
The game: The Senators had baserunners all over the place, but only scored one run. Unfortunately, it was enough. They had a pair of one-out singles in the first and did not score. They opened the second with a walk and a single and did not score. The Twins had a chance in the third, as Mitterwald opened the inning with a double, but he was lost trying to take third on a ground ball to short. The Twins also had a pair of two-out walks in the fifth, but a fly out ended the inning.
Washington got on the board in the sixth, but it wasn't easy. Frank Howard singled, future Twin Brant Alyea walked, and Ken McMullen singled loading the bases with one out. Dick Billings then hit into a 6-4-3 double play, scoring the game's only run.
The Senators loaded the bases again in the seventh. Brinkman had a one-out single, Howard had a two-out single, and Alyea walked. Bob Miller came in to replace Kaat and strike out McMullen to end the inning. The Twins got another double from Mitterwald in the seventh, this time with one out, but it did not do them any good. In fact, it was the last hit the Twins would get. They did get a walk in the eighth and hit-by-pitch in the ninth, but neither man advanced past first base.
WP: Moore (5-1). L: Kaat (5-4). S: Knowles (1).
Notes: Cesar Tovar was at third and Bob Allison in left. Mitterwald caught in place of Johnny Roseboro.
Rod Carew was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .391. Kaat lowered his ERA to 2.53. Miller, in striking out the only man he faced, dropped his ERA to 1.62. Ron Perranoski retired both men he faced to make his ERA 1.67.
It's not easy to get eleven hits and five walks and only score one run. It's even harder when the hits are bunched in the lineup--the first three men in the Washington batting order went 7-for-14 with a walk. The Senators managed it by a) having all the hits be singles; b) hitting into two double plays, and c) going 1-for-12 with men in scoring position.
In two games against the Twins, Barry Moore pitched fourteen innings and gave up one run on eight hits and five walks. He struck out seven. He will face the Twins one more time in 1969, on August 26, and the result will be significantly different.
Darold Knowles was a fine reliever for the Senators from 1967-1971, going 20-27, 2.36 with 73 saves. He somehow managed to go 2-14 in 1970 despite posting a 2.04 ERA. He may have been brought into a lot of tie games--nine unearned runs probably didn't help, either. Washington traded him to Oakland in May of 1971 and Knowles became a valuable member of the Athletics bullpen in their 1970s championship years. He moved on to the Cubs in 1975-1976, Texas in 1977, Montreal in 1978, and finished his career with St. Louis in 1979-1980. His career totals were 66-74, 3.12, 143 saves over sixteen seasons. A pretty darn good career, really.
Record: The Twins were 28-21, first in the American League West, 2.5 games ahead of Oakland.