MINNESOTA 3, CALIFORNIA 2 IN CALIFORNIA
Date: Wednesday, June 25.
Batting stars: Johnny Roseboro was 2-for-3 with a double. Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a double. Charlie Manuel was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: Jim Perry pitched 6.2 innings, giving up two runs on six hits and four walks and striking out one. Ron Perranoski pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out two.
Opposition stars: Jim Spencer was 2-for-2. Andy Messersmith pitched 7.2 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and three walks and striking out five. Ken Tatum struck out three in 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.
The game: the Twins got two in the first inning. Ted Uhlaender walked and went to third on a Cesar Tovar single. Oliva doubled home the first run. Harmon Killebrew was intentionally walked, and Rich Reese hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. Manuel singled to load the bases, but Roseboro hit into a fly out/double play.
It stayed 2-0 until the fifth. The Angels loaded the bases with none out on singles by Sandy Alomar and Bill Voss and a walk to Jim Fregosi. Rick Reichardt hit a sacrifice fly to bring home one, but a popup and a ground out limited the damage. The Twins still led 2-1.
California tied it in the seventh. Aurelio Rodriguez hit a two-out single and scored on Spencer's single-plus-error. An intentional walk to Joe Azcue and an accidental walk to Messersmith loaded the bases and brought Perranoski in to replace Perry. He got Alomar to fly out to leave the score tied.
The Twins took the lead for good in the eighth. Again the damage came with two out and none on. Oliva singled and went to second on a wild pitch. Killebrew was again intentionally walked, and Reese again came through, delivering a single that put Minnesota up 3-2. The Angels threatened in the ninth, getting a leadoff double from Winston Llenas, but he did not advance past second.
WP: Perranoski (4-2). LP: Messersmith (3-6). S: None.
Notes: Rod Carew was held out of the lineup, with Tovar at second. Frank Quilici came in to play second in the ninth inning, with Tovar moving to left to replace Manuel.
Oliva raised his average to .303. Over his last five games, he was 13-for-24 with eight doubles and two home runs.
This was Perranoski's fifth consecutive appearance in which he'd pitched two innings or more.
Winston Llenas spent his entire career in the Angels' organization, other than when he played in Mexico. He had only two full seasons in the majors, 1972 and 1974, but he played in parts of four others. He was a reserve throughout his career, and was often used as a pinch-hitter: 197 of his 592 plate appearances came in a pinch-hitting role. He was fairly good at it, batting .259/.294/.339 as a pinch-hitter. When he did play in the field he played all over: 49 games at second base, 48 in the outfield, 44 at third base, 6 at first base. His career high in games was 78 in 1973, but his career high in at-bats was 138 in 1974. In his six major league seasons, he had 531 at-bats and batted .230/.277/.279, so he actually batted better as a pinch-hitter than he did when he was actually playing. He finished with the Angels in 1975, but played in Mexico through 1982. He managed in the Mexican League from 1978-1982 and managed in the minors for the Angels from 1983-1986. A native of the Dominican Republic, he ran the Cleveland Indians Dominican Baseball Academy for several years.
Record: The Twins were 38-30, in first place in the American League West, a half game ahead of Oakland.