MINNESOTA 3, NEW YORK 2 IN NEW YORK (GAME 2 OF DOUBLEHEADER)

Date:  Sunday, May 25.

Batting stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 3-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Charlie Manuel was 2-for-3 with a home run (his second) and a walk.  Rod Carew was 2-for-3 with a double, two walks, and a stolen base (his ninth).

Pitching star:  Dick Woodson struck out nine in eight innings, giving up one run on four hits and two walks.

Opposition stars:  Stan Bahnsen struck out six in 5.2 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and five walks.  Johnny Ellis was 1-for-1 with two RBIs.

The game:  The Yankees put men on first and second in the third but did not score.  In the fourth, the Twins loaded the bases with one out as Carew walked, Killebrew doubled, and Manuel was intentionally walked.  They only scored one, as Leo Cardenas hit a fielders' choice and Cesar Tovar grounded out.  Still, it was a 1-0 Minnesota lead.

The Twins again loaded the bases in the fifth, this time with two out.  Woodson hit a one-out single, Carew had a two-out double, and Tony Oliva was intentionally walked.  Killebrew flied out, however, and the Twins did not score.

The Twins got another run in the sixth, but again missed a bigger chance.  Manuel led off with a home run.  Tovar doubled, Johnny Roseboro was intentionally walked, and the two pulled off a double steal of second and third with one out.  It went for naught, however, as Woodson struck out and Ted Uhlaender lined to center.  Still, the score was now 2-0.

The Twins added a run in the seventh.  Carew led off with a single and Oliva bunted him to second.  New York elected to pitch to Killebrew, and he delivered an RBI single to make the score 3-0.

The Yankees got back into it in the ninth.  Jerry Kenney led off with a walk, which resulted in Woodson being pulled in favor of Ron Perranoski.  He walked Bobby Murcer, and a ground out put men on second and third.  Ellis pinch-hit for Jimmie Hall and brought them both home with a single to make it 3-2.  Perranoski came back to strike out Frank Fernandez and get Tom Tresh on a grounder to end the game.

WP:  Woodson (2-1).  LP:  Bahnsen (1-7).  S:  Perranoski (9).

Notes:  Tovar again played third base.  He moved to left in the seventh, replacing Manuel, with Frank Quilici coming in to play third.

Woodson made only ten starts in 1969, coming out of the bullpen thirty-four times.  By game scores, this was his best so far and would be his second-best of the season. It was topped only by a complete game he would pitch on June 19 against California.  His fifth-inning single was one of only two hits (in twenty-seven at-bats) that he would have in 1969.

Carew was now batting .391.  Manuel was now hitting .347.  Woodson's ERA was now 2.85.

Killebrew had been in something of a batting slump.  From an average of .316 on May 4, he was down to .259 prior to this game.  He did not take a prolonged 0-for, but this was only his second multi-hit game since May 7.  Killer's calling card was power, of course, not batting average, but he had not hit for much power, either.  He had hit only one home run since May 9 and his double here was only his third in that span.

The Twins won three of four from the Yankees despite scoring just eight runs.  They out-scored New York by eight to seven in the series.  They had scored just eighteen runs in their last ten games but managed to win four of them.

Record:  The Twins were 23-16, in first place in the American League West, 1.5 games ahead of Oakland.

MINNESOTA 2, NEW YORK 1 IN NEW YORK (GAME 1 OF DOUBLEHEADER)

Date:  Sunday, May 25.

Batting stars:  George Mitterwald was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Dave Boswell pitched a complete game, giving up one run on three hits and eight walks (!) and striking out four.

Opposition stars:  Fritz Peterson pitched seven innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on six hits and a walk and striking out two.  Ex-Twin Jimmie Hall was 1-for-2 with two walks.

The game:  There was no score, and really not much of a threat to score, until the bottom of the fifth.  Tom Tresh led off with a walk, went to second on a ground out, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on Horace Clarke's sacrifice fly to put the Yankees up 1-0.

The lead didn't last long.  In the sixth, Boswell helped his own cause (one of the sad things about the DH is that in the American League we no longer get to say a pitcher "helped his own cause") with a one-out double.  Cesar Tovar brought him home with a single-plus-error to tie the score.  Leo Cardenas' bunt single put men on first and third, and Harmon Killebrew brought home the lead run with a sacrifice fly.  The Twins led 2-1.

That's where the score stayed.  Only once did a team advance a man as far as second base the rest of the game.  That came in the seventh, when Yankee catcher Frank Fernandez doubled with two out.  Tresh walked, but Jim Lyttle struck out to end the inning.

WP:  Boswell (5-5).  LP:  Peterson (6-5).  S:  None.

The game:  Tovar started this game in center field, with Bob Allison in left.  Ted Uhlaender came in for defense in the seventh, with Tovar moving to left.  Frank Quilici started at second base, with Rick Renick at third.  Rod Carew came in for defense in the seventh, with Quilici moving to third.  Mitterwald caught, with Johnny Roseboro given the day off.

I hadn't really thought about it much, but another thing deep bullpens and short benches has done is make late-inning defensive changes much less common.  They still happen, but not nearly with the frequency that they used to.  So far, at least, in 1969, Billy Martin routinely put Quilici at third and Tovar in left in the late innings when the Twins were ahead, usually replacing Graig Nettles in left and Rich Reese in the infield (Killebrew would move from third to first).  I wonder if Martin thought Killebrew was a superior defensive first baseman or if he just was reluctant to take his bat out of the lineup, no matter what the score was.

Boswell was never known for great control--his career record is 4.1 walks per nine innings.  Eight was a little extreme, obviously.  Interestingly, he only once walked more than one in an inning in this game, and that was they fifth when the Yankees scored their lone run.  1969 was actually his best year for walks per nine, at 3.5.

The Twins had now scored fifteen runs in their last nine games.  They won three of them.

This was Hall's lone season with the Yankees, and it wasn't even a full season--he was traded to the Cubs in September.  He would struggle through the 1970 season, then he was done.

Fritz Peterson's given name is Fred Ingles Peterson.  Just in case you were wondering.

Record:  The Twins were 22-16, one game ahead of Oakland in the American League West, pending the playing of the second game of the doubleheader.