MINNESOTA 9, SEATTLE 3 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Friday, July 11.
Batting stars: Harmon Killebrew was 3-for-4 with two home runs (his twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh) and a double, scoring three times and driving in four. Rich Reese was 3-for-4 with a triple and a double. Ted Uhlaender was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer (his third), a walk, and a hit-by-pitch.
Pitching star: Tom Hall, making his first appearance in a month and his first start in a month plus a week, pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on four hits and four walks and striking out four.
Opposition stars: Tommy Davis was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk, scoring twice. John O'Donoghue pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out two.
The game: With two out and none on in the first, Tony Oliva walked and Killebrew followed with a two-run homer, putting the Twins up 2-0. The Pilots put men on first and third with none out in the second, but could only score one on a double play. In the second, Cesar Tovar was hit by a pitch and Uhlaender hit a two-out two-run homer to give the Twins a 4-1 lead.
Seattle loaded the bases with none out in the fourth. A wild pitch brough home one run but left men on first and third, as Don Mincher did not advance from first for some reason. It cost the Pilots, as Jerry McNertney hit into a double play. It scored a run, but it took Seattle out of a possible big inning and left the Twins ahead 4-3.
The Twins took control of the game in the fifth. It again happened with two out and none on. Rod Carew singled, Oliva tripled, Killebrew doubled, and Reese had an RBI single. It all resulted in three runs, giving the Twins a 7-3 lead. The Twins added two more in the eighth, as Killebrew homered, Reese tripled, and Johnny Roseboro singled. The Pilots did not get a hit after the fourth inning.
WP: Hall (4-4). LP: Gene Brabender (7-6). S: None.
Notes: Tovar was again in center with Uhlaender in left. Frank Quilici replaced Killebrew at third base in the ninth.
Carew was 1-for-5 and was batting .353. Oliva was 1-for-3 with a walk and was batting .351. Reese raised his average to .321.
I understand that we're looking back fifty years later, and a lot has changed in the way we see things in those years. Still, it seems inexcusable that Hall would pitch a complete game in this situation. Coming back from an injury. His first appearance in a month. His first start since June 4. A blowout game. Again, I know Men Were Men back then, but didn't it occur to anyone that having Hall throw a complete game, especially when there was no reason for him to, might not be the smartest idea? Apparently not, or if it did Billy Martin overruled them. There's a difference between being "tough" and being stupid.
This game featured the major league debut of twenty-two-year-old Seattle reliever Dick Baney. He was greeted by the Killebrew home run, the Reese triple, and the Roseboro single, not exactly the way you want to make your major league debut. He did settle down and retire the side with no further runs, although he left the bases loaded. He made three more appearances, two of them against the Twins, then went back down to AAA, getting a September call-up. He did quite well in that September call-up, including winning his only start against the Twins. He had not pitched particularly well in AAA, and he would continue to not pitch well there through 1972. It was starting to look like 1969 would be his only big league experience, but in 1973, when he was twenty-six and in the Cincinnati organization, he went 8-4, 3.39 in AAA and got a September call-up. He pitched well out of the Reds bullpen, but in 1974 found himself back in Indianapolis at the start of the season. He got back to the majors in early June and stayed the rest of the season, although he did not do much to justify that. He pitched in Indianapolis again in 1975, popped up in something called the Inter-American Baseball League in 1979, then was done. He posed nude for Playgirl in 1977, which probably got him more publicity than anything he'd done on a ball field. In his major league career, he was 4-1, 4.28, 3 saves, 1.42 WHIP in 90.1 innings (42 games, 3 starts). His AAA numbers are 42-34, 4.27, 1.42 WHIP, so it's hard to argue he deserved more of a chance. He appears to have had a successful career as a real estate investor and a property manager and was living in Tustin, California at last report.
Record: The Twins were 50-35, in first place, in the American League West, 3.5 games ahead of Oakland.