OAKLAND 5, MINNESOTA 4 IN OAKLAND
Date: Friday, September 5.
Batting stars: Rich Reese was 3-for-4 with a double. Johnny Roseboro was 2-for-4. Tony Oliva was 1-for-5 with a home run, his nineteenth.
Pitching star: Dean Chance pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on five hits and three walks and striking out three.
Opposition stars: Bert Campaneris was 2-for-5 with two stolen bases, his forty-eighth and forty-ninth. Tito Francona was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fourth) and a walk. Paul Lindblad struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.
The game: The Athletics threatened in the first, as Jose Tartabull singled and stole second with one out, but he was stranded there. They got on the board in the second, as Dick Green led off with a double and scored on a Danny Cater single. The Twins could do nothing with a two-out double by Ted Uhlaender in the third. Oakland increased its lead to 2-0 when Francona led off the fourth with a home run.
The Twins got a run in the fifth. Roseboro led off with a single. With one out, Chance laid down a sacrifice bunt-plus-error, putting men on second and third. They could only get one, though, as Uhlaender grounded out, leaving the Athletics ahead 2-1.
Oakland threatened in the fifth. Campaneris hit a one-out single and promptly stole second and third. Tartabull walked and Sal Bando was hit by a pitch with two out, loading the bases, but Francona grounded out. It looked like it would cost them, as the Twins took the lead with three in the sixth. Oliva tied the score with a home run. Reese hit a one-out double, Graig Nettles walked, and Roseboro delivered an RBI single to give the Twins the lead. Leo Cardenas followed with a sacrifice fly and the Twins were up 4-2.
The lead lasted until the eighth. Chance again hit Bando with a pitch leading off the inning, bringing on Ron Perranoski. He walked Francona, putting the tying run on base. With one out, Cater hit a grounder to first. The Twins got a force at second, but a throwing error on Cardenas cut the lead to 4-3 and put the tying run on second. Pinch-hitter Bob Johnson was intentionally walked, but the strategy failed as Tommie Reynolds and Campaneris hit consecutive RBI singles to put the Athletics ahead 5-4. The Twins went down in order in the ninth and did not get the ball out of the infield.
WP: Lindblad (9-4). LP: Perranoski (9-9). S: Marcel Lachemann (2).
Notes: Nettles was the left fielder, with Uhlaender moving to center, Cesar Tovar to second base, and Rod Carew out of the lineup.
Reese raised his average to .331. Oliva was now batting .317. Chance now had an ERA of 2.78. Perranoski's ERA went up to 2.17.
This was Perranoski's ninth blown save. To be fair, he pitched 2.2 innings or more in five of them.
The Twins used just ten players, their eight position players and two pitchers. Oakland, on the other hand, used nineteen players. They used four pitchers, three pinch-hitters, two pinch-runners, and two defensive replacements.
Before there was Herb Washington, there was Allan Lewis. Nominally an outfielder, he appeared as a pinch-runner in 139 of his 156 career games. In the minors he had hit for a decent average, but didn't draw many walks and had little power. He could run, though. In 1963 he stole 57 bases. In 1965 he stole 76 bases (in 90 attempts). In 1966 he stole 116 bases (in 134 attempts). By that time, however, he was twenty-four and had not risen above Class A. Despite that, he opened 1967 in the major leagues with the Athletics and stayed there through the end of July, appearing in thirty-four games but getting just six plate appearances. He was 14-for-19 in stolen bases and scored seven runs. That was pretty much the story of his career--he never spent a full season in the majors, but he would be up for part of almost every season through 1973 and be used almost exclusively as a pinch-runner. For his career, he appeared in 156 games and had 31 plate appearances. He was 44-for-61 in stolen bases and scored forty-seven runs. His batting numbers were .207/.233/.345. In the minors, he scored 486 bases in 581 attempts. After his playing career ended, he was a scout and coach in his native Panama until his retirement.
Record: The Twins were 83-53, in first place in the American League West, 6.5 games ahead of Oakland.