MINNESOTA 3, CALIFORNIA 1 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Wednesday, June 18.
Batting star: Jim Kaat was 1-for-3 with a home run.
Pitching star: Kaat pitched a complete game, giving up one run on eight hits and no walks and striking out five.
Opposition stars: Sandy Alomar was 2-for-4. Jim Fregosi was 2-for-4. Jim McGlothlin pitched seven innings, giving up one run on two hits and two walks and striking out four.
The game: The Angels had men on first and third with one out in the first inning, but Rick Reichardt hit into a double play to end the threat. The Twins got a two-out double from Johnny Roseboro in the second but couldn't do anything with it. California got a pair of one out singles in the fifth but again were thwarted by a double play, this one hit into by Jay Johnstone.
The Twins got on the board in the fifth when Kaat hit a two-out home run. It looked like that might be the only run he would need, but the Angels tied it in the eighth. With two out and none on Winston Llenas got an infield single, Lou Johnson got a pinch-hit single, and Alomar singled to bring home the tying run. Aurelio Rodriguez flied out to end the inning, but the score was tied 1-1.
Hoyt Wilhelm came in to pitch the eighth. Leo Cardenas greeted him with a single. Kaat struck out, but Ted Uhlaender singled, sending pinch-runner Cesar Tovar to third. A stolen base and an intentional walk to Tony Oliva loaded the bases. Harmon Killebrew then came through with a two-run double to right-center to put the Twins up to stay. California went down in order in the ninth.
WP: Kaat (7-5). LP: Wilhelm (2-6). S: None.
Notes: Charlie Manuel was in left in this game, with Killebrew at third and Rich Reese at first. Frank Quilici pinch-ran for Killebrew in the eighth, so the defensive changes were a little different. Tovar still went to left and Quilici to third, but Reese stayed at first. Rick Renick went in to play shortstop for Cardenas, who had been removed when Tovar came in to pinch-run. Renick played a total of forty-eight games at short in his career, forty of them in 1969.
Rod Carew was 0-for-4, dropping his average to .372.
It was Kaat's sixth complete game of the season and his third in his last five starts. He also, of course, had two non-complete games in which he pitched eleven and twelve innings, respectively. His ERA went down to 2.31, which was as low as it would be for the rest of the season.
Killebrew was quoted as saying the way to hit a knuckleball was to look for the seams and hit in-between them. It must have worked in this game.
Record: The Twins were 33-27, in second place in the American League West, a half-game behind Oakland.