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.

BOSTON 5, MINNESOTA 2 IN BOSTON

Date:  Sunday, June 1.

Batting star:  Leo Cardenas was 3-for-3 with a home run (his third) and a double.

Pitching star:  Jerry Crider struck out two in a scoreless inning.

Opposition stars:  Tony Conigliaro was 4-for-4 with a home run (his tenth) and two doubles, driving in two.  Dalton Jones was 2-for-4 with two doubles.  Rico Petrocelli was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fifteenth) and a walk.  Ray Culp struck out seven in seven innings, giving up two runs on five hits and a walk.  Sparky Lyle pitched two shutout innings, giving up two walks and striking out one.

The game:  The Red Sox threatened in the second, when with one out Petrocelli walked, Conigliaro doubled, and George Scott was intentionally walked.  Russ Gibson popped to the catcher and Culp struck out to end the threat.  Boston again loaded the bases with one out in the third, but this time it paid off.  Dick Schofield was hit by a pitch, Jones doubled, and Reggie Smith drew a walk.  Petrocelli's force out started the scoring and Conigliaro doubled in a run, putting the Red Sox up 2-0.

There was no more scoring until the fifth, when Conigliaro homered to make the score 3-0.  Cardenas answered with a home run of his own in the sixth to cut the margin to 3-1.  With two out in the seventh, Smith singled and Petrocelli homered to boost the Boston lead to 5-1.

The Twins made on last attempt to get back into it in the eighth.  Graig Nettles led off with a walk, and singles by Cardenas and Johnny Roseboro made the score 5-2 with men on first and third and brought Lyle in to pitch.  A wild pitch moved Roseboro to second.  Rich Reese pinch-hit and struck out, but Bob Allison drew a pinch-hit walk, loading the bases and bringing the go-ahead run to the plate in Rod Carew.  Unfortunately, Carew hit into a double play to end the inning.  The Twins got nothing more than a one-out walk in the ninth.

WP:  Culp (9-2).  LP:  Jim Perry (4-2).  S:  Lyle (5).

Notes:  Manuel was again in left and Nettles at third.  As the Twins trailed, there were no defensive substitutions made, but Quilici was used as a pinch-hitter for Nettles in the ninth inning.  I understand that Nettles wasn't a star then, and that it gained a platoon advantage, but Quilici was never a strong batter.  That seems at best a questionable move.

Carew was 0-for-4, dropping his average to .392.  Oliva was 0-for-4 and went down to .305.  Roseboro was 1-for-3 and was batting .303.

Perry started and pitched five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and four walks and striking out three.  His ERA went up to 2.95.  Crider still had not given up a run in three major league appearances (four innings).

I don't really remember Petrocelli as a home run hitter, but he hit 210 of them in a thirteen-year career.  He had three big home run seasons:  1969 (40), 1970 (29), and 1971 (28).  He never topped twenty in any other season.

Ray Culp was another pretty good pitcher for a while.  He was a rookie for Philadelphia in 1963 and had one of the best two seasons of his career at age twenty-one, going 14-11, 2.97, making the all-star team and finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting (behind Pete Rose and Ron Hunt).  He was up and down with the Phillies, having good season in 1963 and 1965 but poor ones in 1964 and 1966.  He was with the Cubs in 1967, then was traded to Boston for Bill Schlesinger, Al Montreuil, and cash.  I hope the Cubs got a lot of cash, because Boston definitely got the best of that deal.  Culp was a solid rotation starter for the Red Sox from 1968-1971, going 64-44, 3.35, never missing a start and pitching between 216 and 252 innings every season.  He made one all-star team, in 1969.  He was with Boston through 1973, but his last two seasons were not good ones.  After baseball, he had a successful career in real estate.  His career numbers were 122-101, 3.58 in eleven seasons (1898.1 innings).

Record:  The Twins were 25-20, in first place in the American League West, one game ahead of Oakland.

MINNESOTA 10, BOSTON 4 IN BOSTON

Date:  Saturday, May 31.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 3-for-5.  Johnny Roseboro was 3-for-5.  Charlie Manuel was 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs.

Pitching stars:  Dick Woodson pitched eight innings, giving up four runs on eight hits and four walks and striking out five.  Ron Perranoski struck out two in a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Ex-Twin Garry Roggenburk struck out three in three shutout innings, giving up two hits.  Tony Conigliaro was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his ninth.  Carl Yastrzemski was 1-for-4 with a home run (his eleventh) and a walk.

The game:  The Red Sox threatened in the bottom of the first.  Dick Schofield led off the game with a single, and with two out Rico Petrocelli singled and Dalton Jones walked, loading the bases.  Conigliaro struck out to end the threat.

The Twins then broke through for seven runs in the second, taking control of the game right there.  Harmon Killebrew walked, Manuel singled, and Graig Nettles singled home the first run.  An error made it 2-0 and Roseboro singled to make it 3-0.  Following a force out, Ted Uhlaender singled home the fourth run of the inning.  An error loaded the bases, a ground out brought home the fifth run, and Killebrew delivered a two-run double for a 7-0 lead.

Yastrzemski homered in the third to get Boston on the board, but they stranded two runners in the inning.  The Twins got the run back plus another in the fifth, as Manuel walked, Leo Cardenas doubled, and a wild pitch-plus-error brought them both home and made the score 9-1.  In the bottom of the fifth, two walks preceded Conigliaro's three-run homer, cutting the margin to 9-4.

The Twins remained in control, though.  In the sixth, singles by Carew and Oliva and a walk to Killebrew loaded the bases with none out.  Manuel then singled to increase the lead to 10-4.  A strikeout and a double play ended the inning, but it didn't matter, as the Red Sox did not threaten the rest of the game.

WP:  Woodson (3-1).  LP:  Sonny Siebert (4-5).  S:  Perranoski (10).

Notes:  Graig Nettles was at third base in this game, with Manuel in left field.  The standard defensive change of Frank Quilici at third and Cesar Tovar in left was made in the seventh inning.

Woodson was shuttled between the rotation and the bullpen frequently in the first half of 1969.  He made on appearance as a reliever, one as a starter, relieved five times, started twice, made a bullpen appearance, a start, two relief appearances, two starts, a relief appearance, a start, two relief appearances, and three starts.  Finally, on the first of July, he went to the bullpen for the rest of the season.  He did much better as a reliever, going 4-3, 4.61, 1.48 WHIP as a starter and 3-2, 2.75, 1.20 WHIP as a reliever.  From our persepctive It seems like a tough thing to do to a rookie, keep moving him back and forth like that, but it wasn't considered all that important for a pitcher to have a defined role back then.

Carew went 1-for-4 and was batting .403.  Oliva was batting .312.  Manuel was at .311.  Roseboro was batting .303.

The Red Sox used two ex-Twins in relief, Roggenburk and Lee Stange.

Sonny Siebert (given name:  Wilfred Charles Siebert) pitched in the majors for twelve years, almost entirely as a starter.  He came up with Cleveland in 1964 and stayed there until early 1969, when he was traded to Boston.  He had an ERA of under three and a WHIP of under 1.14 each season from 1965-1968.  Even granting that it was "the year of the pitcher", the Indians had a pretty awesome rotation in 1968:  Luis Tiant (21-9, 1.60), Sam McDowell, 15-14, 1.81, Stan Williams, (13-11, 2.50) and Siebert (12-10, 2.97).  Siebert had the highest WHIP of the group at 1.13.  He was not quite as good with the Red Sox, but was still an effective pitcher for them through 1972.  He was traded to Texas early in 1973 and continued to be a solid starter.  He was with St. Louis in 1974 and while his ERA was still decent at 3.84, he had a WHIP of 1.50.  He struggled through a 1975 season with San Diego and Oakland, then was finished.  He made two all-star teams and his final numbers are 140-114, 3.21, 1.21 WHIP.  He also is the last American League pitcher to hit two home runs in a game--he hit twelve in his career, six of them in 1971.  He was a minor league pitching coach for several years.  I'm not nominating him for the Hall of Fame, but he had a pretty solid major league career.  It's kind of sad that hardly anybody remembers him now.

Record:  Minnesota was 25-19, in first place in the American League West, leading Oakland by two games.