KANSAS CITY 7, MINNESOTA 2 IN KANSAS CITY (GAME ONE)

Date:  Sunday, June 29.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 3-for-4.  Graig Nettles was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fourth.  Ted Uhlaender was 2-for-4 with a double.  Johnny Roseboro was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Danny Morris pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Wally Bunker pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on eleven hits and no walks and striking out three.  Bob Oliver was 3-for-5 with a two-run homer, his eighth.  Joe Foy was 3-for-5 with a stolen base, his twenty-third.  Lou Piniella was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Jackie Hernandez was 2-for-4.  Mike Fiore was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer and two walks.

The game:  The Royals jumped on Jim Perry for three runs in the first three batters.  Foy singled, Pat Kelly walked, and Fiore hit a three-run homer to put Kansas City up 3-0.

The Twins did not get a baserunner until the third, when Roseboro singled, and he was immediately erased by a double play.  They got on the board in the fourth when Uhlaender doubled and scored on Oliva's single.  The Royals got the run back in the bottom of the fourth when Hernandez singled, was bunted to second, and scored on a Foy single, making the score 4-1.

Kansas City kept adding on runs.  They scored in the fifth when Kelly singled, Eliseo Rodriguez walked, and Piniella delivered an RBI single.  They scored two in the sixth when Fiore walked and Oliver hit a two-run homer, making the score 7-1.

The Twins would score only once more, on Nettles' solo homer in the seventh.  They had chances.  They had men on first and third in the sixth and had men on second and third in the ninth.  They would've had two on in the seventh, but they had a man thrown out on the bases.

WP:  Bunker (4-4).  LP:  Perry (6-4).  S:  None.

Notes:  Rod Carew was back in the lineup but went 0-for-4, making his average .375.  Oliva raised his average to .310.  Rich Reese went 0-for-4 and was batting .308.

Despite pitching two shutout innings, Danny Morris was sent back to AAA Denver after this game.  It would be his last major league appearance of the season, his last as a Twin, and in fact his last of his career.  He would be in the Twins' organization through 1972, but would never get another shot at the majors.

So far in this series, Hernandez was 6-for-12 with two doubles.  He would bat .222/.278/.282 for the season.

"Joe Foy" has to be one of the shortest names in baseball history.  Ed Ott has him beat, and I'm sure there are a few others, but I wouldn't think there are very many.

For an expansion team, the Royals had a darn good starting rotation.  Bunker was their best, going 12-11, 3.23, 1.17 WHIP.  But they also had Dick Drago (11-13, 3.77, 1.27), Bill Butler (9-10, 3.90, 1.37), Roger Nelson (7-13, 3.31, 1.22), and Jim Rooker (4-16, 3.75, 1.32).  They couldn't hit (team average:  .240, team OPS:  .648), which is why they didn't win a lot of games, but their rotation kept them in the game most of the time.

Record:  The Twins were 39-32, second in the American League West, two games behind Oakland.