NEW YORK 10, MINNESOTA 3 IN NEW YORK
Date: Tuesday, August 12.
Batting stars: Jim Kaat was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer (his second) and a double. Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4. Leo Cardenas was 1-for-3 with a home run (his eighth) and a walk, scoring twice.
Pitching star: Bill Zepp retired all four batters he faced, striking out one.
Opposition stars: Horace Clarke was 3-for-4 with a triple and a walk, scoring twice and driving in two. Len Boehmer was 2-for-4. Gene Michael was 2-for-5 with a triple and a double, scoring twice.
The game: The Yankees jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first. Clarke singled, Michael doubled, Roy White hit a sacrifice fly, and an error brought home the second run. It stayed 2-0 until the third, when Cardenas walked and Kaat hit a two-run homer to tie it 2-2.
The Yankees had two on with two out in the third and the fourth, but did not score. The Twins had two on with one out in the fourth, but did not score. So, we were still 2-2 going to the seventh.
Cardenas broke the tie with two out in the seventh, hitting a home run to put the Twins up 3-2. Then the roof fell in (if there had been a roof). With one out, Clarke walked and Michael tripled, tying the score at three. White was intentionally walked and Al Worthington came in to pitch. He faced three batters and walked them all, two of them with the bases loaded, giving the Yankees a 5-3 lead. Ron Perranoski came in. He struck out Bobby Cox but gave up singles to Boehmer and Bill Robinson and a triple to Clarke. Zepp came in to get the last out, but it was 10-3 New York by that time and there it stayed.
WP: Steve Hamilton (3-3). LP: Kaat (11-9). S: Lindy McDaniel (3).
Notes: Rod Carew was back to play second base, with Cesar Tovar returning to center field and Ted Uhlaender going to left.
Carew was 0-for-4 and was batting .352. Rich Reese was 1-for-4 and was batting .329. Tony Oliva was 0-for-4 and was batting .326.
Perranoski was charged with two runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning. His ERA went up to 2.02.
Hamilton faced one man to get the win, striking out Carew with men on first and second and one out in the seventh. The starters were Kaat and Stan Bahnsen. Kaat pitched 6.1 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on seven hits and five walks, striking out one. Bahnsen pitched 6.2 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and three walks and striking out two.
This was the major league debut for Bill Zepp. He made four appearances with the Twins in 1969; this was the only one in which he did not allow a run. He had a fine year for them in 1970, however, going 9-4, 3.22 in 151 innings. In his twenty starts that season, he was 6-4, 3.68, 1.50 WHIP. In his twenty-six relief appearances, however, he was 3-0, 2 saves, 1.75, 0.92 WHIP. It was only thirty-six innings, but that still looks like a darn good reliever, and that was his age twenty-three season. According to wikipedia, however, Zepp refused to sign a contract for 1971 and threatened to retire unless he was traded to Detroit, where he was from. The Twins ultimately obliged, trading him for Mike Adams and a player to be named later (Arthur Clifford). It did not go well for him there. He went 1-1, 5.12, 1.83 WHIP in 16 appearances and finished the season in the minors. He later said that he had torn a tendon in his pitching arm. Rather than have what was then a new and risky "Tommy John" surgery, he chose to retire.
I had no idea that there was once a major league player named "Len Boehmer". He was primarily a first baseman. He went 0-for-3 for Cincinnati in 1967, but 1969 was the only year in which he got any noticeable playing time as a backup for Joe Pepitone. He appeared in forty-five games for the Yankees that year, batting .176/.233/.213 in 108 at-bats. He would get five more at-bats with the Yankees in 1971, going 0-for-5. After baseball, he went back to his home town of Flint Hill, Missouri and joined his family's plumbing supply business. He is retired now, but two of his sons still run the business.
Record: The Twins were 68-47, in first place in the American League West, one game ahead of Oakland. They had lost five in a row and six of their last seven.