MINNESOTA 11, CALIFORNIA 7 IN CALIFORNIA
Date: Tuesday, September 9.
Batting stars: Leo Cardenas was 3-for-4 with a home run (his ninth), a double, and three RBIs. Rich Reese was 3-for-5 with a triple, scoring twice and driving in two. Ted Uhlaender was 3-for-6 with two runs. Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk, scoring twice. Tony Oliva was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. Johnny Roseboro was 2-for-5. Cesar Tovar was 2-for-5.
Pitching star: Jim Kaat pitched five innings of relief, giving up one run on four hits and two walks and striking out two.
Opposition stars: Rick Reichardt was 2-for-3 with a walk, a hit-by-pitch, and a stolen base (his third), scoring twice. Sandy Alomar was 2-for-4 with a walk and two stolen bases, his thirteenth and fourteenth. Jay Johnstone was 2-for-5 and scored twice. Joe Azcue was 2-for-5.
The game: In the first, Alomar walked leading off the inning and was on third with two out. The Angels then got singles from Johnstone and Reichardt and a double by Bill Voss to take a 3-0 lead. The Twins got one back in the second when Killebrew doubled and scored on a single by Roseboro. They cut the margin to 3-2 in the fourth when Reese singled, went to third on a Tovar single, and scored on Cardenas' double. The Twins might have had more, but Tovar was caught trying to steal second before Cardenas doubled.
The Angels got one in the fourth when Vern Geishert hit into a force out but went to second on an error and scored on Alomar's single. The Twins got the run back in the fifth when Uhlaender doubled and scored on Killebrew's two-out single, making the score 4-3.
California appeared to take control of the game in the fifth. Johnstone and Reichardt led off the game with singles. A pickoff error allowed Johnstone to score and put Reichardt on second. With one out, Aurelio Rodriguez was intentionally walked. Azcue then delivered an RBI single and Bubba Morton came through with a sacrifice fly, giving the Angels a 7-3 advantage.
It turned out to be no problem at all for the Twins. Tovar led off the sixth with a single and with one out, Cardenas hit a two-run homer to cut the lead to 7-5. With two out, Uhlaender singled and Rod Carew reached on an error. Oliva doubled them both home to tie the score. Killebrew walked, and Reese circled the bases on a triple-plus-error, putting the Twins up 10-7.
The Twins added a run in the seventh on singles by Roseboro, Kaat, and Uhlaender. California put a man on base in each of the last three innings, but did not have two on until the ninth, when Billy Cowan doubled and Rodriguez singled with one out. Azcue hit into a double play to end the game.
WP: Kaat (13-11). LP: Tom Bradley (0-1). S: None.
Notes: Carew returned to the lineup at second base. Tovar went back to center field and Uhlaender went back to left.
Carew was 1-for-5 and was batting .345. Reese raised his average to .329. Oliva was batting .317.
Kaat was used in relief eight times in 1969. He pitched 28 innings in those eight appearances, pitching anywhere from 0.1 innings to 9.1 innings.
Dean Chance started for the Twins and pitched three innings, giving up three runs on three hits and two walks and striking out one. Vern Geishert was the Angels starter. He went five innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and striking out two.
This was the second of three starts Geishert would make in his career. He came up in late August of 1969 and stayed the rest of the season. It would be his only time in the major leagues. He was 1-1, 4.65, 1.26 WHIP. He did extremely well as a starter in Class A in 1966, at age 20, and did pretty well as a reliever in AAA in 1967 at age 21. Moved back to starting in 1968, he struggled at AA. He both started and relieved in AAA in 1969 and did fairly well, although I don't know what his starting/relieving splits might have been. The Angels sent him to Cincinnati after that season, and he was in AAA as a starter through 1971. He made just seven starts in AAA in 1971 and then was traded, along with Frank Duffy, to San Francisco for George Foster, a trade that worked pretty well for the Reds. Geishert did not appear in a game for the Giants--his b-r.com biography simply says that "he decided to leave pro ball". It does appear that he is still living in retirement in his native Wisconsin.
Record: The Twins were 86-54, in first place in the American League West, 9.5 games ahead of Oakland.