KANSAS CITY 9, MINNESOTA 8 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Friday, June 27.

Batting stars:  Rich Reese was 2-for-5 with a three-run homer, his fourth.  Cesar Tovar was 2-for-5 with two runs.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer and two walks, scoring twice.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Joe Foy was 3-for-5 with a walk, scoring twice and driving in two.  Mike Fiore was 2-for-3.  Ex-Twin Jackie Hernandez was 2-for-4 with two doubles.  Bob Oliver was 2-for-5 with a double.  Jerry Adair was 2-for-5.  Future Twin Tom Burgmeier pitched three shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.

The game:  It looked good early.  In the first, Ted Uhlaender reached on an error, Tovar singled, and Oliva hit a three-run homer, giving the Twins a 3-0 lead three batters into the game.  Kansas City got on the board in the second on back-to-back two-out doubles by Eliseo Rodriguez and Hernandez.  With one out in the third, Tovar singled and Oliva walked.  Harmon Killebrew flied out, but Reese hit a three-run homer to give the Twins a 6-1 lead through three innings.

The Royals opened the fifth with a walk to Foy and a single by Pat Kelly, but a fly out and a ground out held them to second and third with two down.  Then, however, Twins starter Dick Woodson uncorked a wild pitch (wild pitches are always "uncorked") which somehow allowed both runners to score, cutting the Twins lead to 6-3.  In the sixth, Hernandez doubled and was still on second with two out.  Foy singled him home, there was a walk to Kelly, Ed Kirkpatrick had an RBI single, and Oliver drove in a run with a double, tying the score 6-6.

The Twins had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh, but Killebrew popped up and Reese bounced back to the pitcher.  Minnesota did take the lead in the eighth, however.  With men on second and third and one out, Ron Perranoski laid down a squeeze bunt to put the Twins up 7-6.  Uhlaender followed with a double to make it 8-6.  In the bottom of the eighth, Oliver singled home Kelly to cut the lead to 8-7.

There it stood going to the bottom of the ninth.  Perranoski, in his third inning of work, gave up a single to Adair and walked Rodriguez.  Hernandez flied out and Dennis Paepke struck out, and it looked like he might work out of the jam.  Joe Foy singled to tie the score, however, and Kelly was hit by a pitch, loading the bases.  Al Worthington came in, but Hawk Taylor singled to left to win the game for the Royals.

WP:  Moe Drawbowsky (5-5).  LP:  Perranoski (4-3)  S:  None.

Notes:  Tovar was again at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Graig Nettles was in left.  Frank Quilici came in for defense in the ninth, but this time Billy Martin did not use him to send Tovar to the outfield.  Instead, Quilici came in to play third, Killebrew moved from third to first, Reese came out of the game, and Nettles remained in left field.

Perranoski had not pitched in the previous game, but had pitched 2.1 innings the day before.  This was his sixth consecutive appearance of two innings or more.

Twins starter Woodson pitched 5.2 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and five walks and striking out five.  Kansas City starter Dick Drago pitched three innings, allowing six runs (five earned) on four hits and a walk and striking out one.

Jackie Hernandez was a major league player from 1965-1973 (1967-1968 with the Twins), but this was the only season he was a regular.  In fact, it was the only season he had more than 250 at-bats.  He didn't do much with the chance, batting .222/.278/.282.

Catcher Eliseo Rodriguez was the Royals' lone all-star representative in 1969.  He batted just .236/.333/.296 that season, although in fairness it should be noted that he batted much better in the first half--.260/.342/.339.  Interestingly, Lou Piniella, who won the Rookie of the Year award, did not make the all-star team.  Rodriguez was also an all-star in 1972, when he was with Milwaukee and batted .285/.382/.352.  Oddly for a two-time all-star, he never had as many as four hundred at-bats in a season, and the season in which he came the closest--1974, with 395--he did not make the all-star team.  In addition to the Royals and Brewers, he played for the Yankees (9 games in 1968), California, and the Dodgers.  His lifetime numbers are .245/.356/.308.  He may have had the least distinguished career of any two-time all-star in the history of baseball, but at least he got there, which is more than a lot of players can say.

Record:  The Twins were 39-31, in second place in the American League West, a half game behind Oakland.

MINNESOTA 7, CALIFORNIA 4 IN CALIFORNIA

Date:  Thursday, June 26.

Batting stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-3 with a home run (his eighteenth) and a walk, scoring twice and driving in two.  Rich Reese was 2-for-4.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-5 with two doubles, scoring twice and driving in two.  Cesar Tovar was 2-for-5 with two doubles and two runs.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat pitched six innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits and a walk and striking out two.  Al Worthington struck out four in three shutout innings, giving up four hits.

Opposition stars:  Bubba Morton was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Rick Reichardt was 2-for-4.  Sandy Alomar was 2-for-5 with a double.  Jim Fregosi was 2-for-5.

The game:  Sandy Alomar led off the first with a double and scored on an error by left fielder Charlie Manuel, putting the Angels up 1-0.  The Twins had only one hit through the first three innings, but Killebrew homered with one out in the fourth to tie the score 1-1.

Jim Hicks led off the fifth with a home run to give California a 2-1 lead.  It was short-lived, however, as the Twins came back with two in the sixth.  Tovar and Oliva hit back-to-back one-out doubles to tie it and Killebrew followed with an RBI single to give Minnesota a 3-2 lead.  That lead was short-lived as well, as the Angels got two in the bottom of the sixth.  Singles by Fregosi and Aurelio Rodriguez and a two-run double by Morton gave California the lead, 4-3.

The Twins went into the lead to stay with a four-run eighth.  Tovar and Oliva again hit back-to-back one-out doubles to tie the score.  Killebrew was intentionally walked, but Reese singled to bring home the go-ahead run.  A wild pitch moved the runners up to second and third, a walk to Manuel loaded the bases, and a passed ball brought home the third run of the inning.  Johnny Roseboro then delivered an RBi single to make the score 7-4.

The Angels got three hits in the last two innings, but thanks to a double play never got a man past first base.

WP:  Worthington (1-0).  LP:  Jim McGlothlin (5-7).  S:  None.

Notes:  Rod Carew was out of the lineup, with Tovar at second base.  In the eighth, Frank Quilici came in to play second, with Tovar moving to left to replace Manuel.

Oliva raised his average to .305.  Over his last six games he was 15-for-28 with 9 doubles and 2 home runs.  Reese raised his average to .313.  He was 7-for-11 in his last three games.

The Twins' two-through-five batters were 8-for-17 with a home run, four doubles, and a walk.  They scored seven runs and drove in five.

After giving up six runs in two-thirds of an inning on June 17, Worthington had pitched 7.1 scoreless innings over five games.  His ERA fell from 17.18 to 5.73.

Kaat's ERA was now 2.70.

They say that everybody loves a Bubba, but Bubba Morton batted well enough to make on think he should've gotten more of a chance than he did.  He was the first black player signed by the Detroit Tigers.  He batted .324 as a twenty-four-year old in Class D in 1956, but was promoted only to Class B in 1957, where he batted .310.  He batted .285 in AAA Charleston in 1959, but was made to repeat AAA in 1960.  He finally got to the majors in 1961, at age thirty, but was used primarily as a pinch-hitter, appearing in 77 games but getting only 108 at-bats.  Remarkably, he batted .287/.382/.407 in that role.  He had another solid year in 1962.  In fairness to the Tigers, it should be pointed out that Morton was a corner outfielder, and they had Al Kaline and Rocky Colavito to play corner outfield at the time, so there wasn't much room for Morton.

In 1963 he went 1-for-11 to start the season and was sold to Milwaukee.  The Braves had Hank Aaron in their outfield, but their other outfielders were Don Dillard, Mack Jones, Ty Cline, and Hawk Taylor, so you'd think they might have given Morton a shot.  Instead, they continued to use him as a pinch-hitter and sent him to the minors after just twenty-eight at-bats.  He didn't get back to the majors until 1966.  He batted .303 with an OPS of .843 in AAA in 1964, and all it got him was a sale to Cleveland.  He batted .319 With an OPS of .836 in AAA in 1965, and all it got him was a sale to California.  He got a September call-up with them in 1966 and stayed with them through 1969.  He was still often used as a pinch-hitter, but at least got some playing time in the outfield, making forty to fifty starts a season.  With the Angels, he batted .267/.351/.436 in 586 at-bats.  He played in Japan in 1970, then was done as a player.  He was the head coach at the University of Washington from 1972-1976, then worked for Boeing.  He passed away in 2006.

His career numbers were .267/.351/.370, numbers compiled in the 1960s when offense was very low.  His career numbers as a pinch-hitter are .281/.378/.331 in 189 pinch-hitting appearances.  I don't know why he didn't get more of a chance to play.  Was racism involved?  Was he a very poor defensive player?  Was he such a good pinch-hitter that teams didn't want to take him out of that role?  Was it a matter of age?  It would be an interesting thing to research by someone who had the time.

Record:  The Twins were 39-30, in first place in the American League West, a half game ahead of Oakland.