CHICAGO 4, MINNESOTA 0 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Thursday, September 11.

Batting stars:  None.

Pitching star:  Bob Miller pitched three shutout innings of relief, giving up one hit and two walks and striking out two.

Opposition stars:  Joel Horlen pitched a complete game shutout, giving up three hits and one walk and striking out four.  Tom McCraw was 2-for-4 and scored twice.  Ed Herrmann was 1-for-2 with two walks.

The game:  The White Sox opened the scoring in the second.  With one out, McCraw and Herrmann singled.  Bob Christian struck out, but Bobby Knoop singled to left to give Chicago a 1-0 lead.  The took a substantially bigger lead in the third.  With one out, Luis Aparicio walked and Walt Williams singled.  Bill Melton struck out, but McCraw singled home a run to make it 2-0.  Herrmann reached on an error to load the bases, and Christian delivered a two-run single to put the White Sox up 4-0.

The Twins never did mount a threat.  They had so few baserunners that we can list them all.  Tony Oliva had a two-out single-plus-error in the first.  Cesar Tovar had a one-out single in the second.  Johnny Roseboro had a one-out single in the fifth.  Ted Uhlaender drew a one-out walk in the ninth.

WP:  Horlen (11-15).  LP:  Dave Boswell (16-11).  S:  None.

Notes:  The Twins used their regular lineup.  Rod Carew was 0-for-4 to drop his average to .343.  Rich Reese was 0-for-3 and was batting .326.  Oliva was 1-for-4 and was batting .316.

Boswell started and pitched five innings, giving up four runs (two earned) on six hits and a walk and striking out four.

By game scores, this was Horlen's best game of the season.  He had one other shutout, in Baltimore on May 6.

There were no extra-base hits in the game.  The Twins had three singles and Chicago had seven.  I don't think that's rare, exactly, but it is unusual.

Tom McCraw played a long time for a guy who really wasn't all that good.  He was primarily a first baseman, although he also played some outfield.  He had a really good year in AAA Indianapolis in 1962, batting .326/.408/.463 at age twenty-one.  He only hit seven home runs, but still, that's a solid season.  He started 1963 in AAA but came up to the White Sox in early June and stayed for eight years.  He did that despite never posting an OPS as high as .700.  His career numbers for Chicago are .240/.300/.354.  Even granted that it was 1960s baseball, that's not very good, especially for a first baseman.  Still, the Sox kept him in the lineup through 1969.  He moved to more of a reserve role in 1970, then was traded to Washington for Ed Stroud.  He moved to Cleveland for 1972, was traded to California for Leo Cardenas in 1973, then went back to the Indians in mid-1974.  He batted better as a reserve--he hit .294/.343/.442 in 1974 and .275/.362/.451 in 1975.  The 1975 totals, however, were in just 59 plate appearances, and he was released at the end of June.  One assumes he was considered a good defender and also was a nice guy, because he couldn't have played so long if he wasn't.  When the Indians released him they kept him around as a batting coach, and he was a batting coach for one major league team or another through 2005, when he retired.  He apparently was a good friend of Frank Robinson, as he was Robinson's batting coach with four different teams.

Record:  The Twins were 86-56, in first place in the American League West, 8.5 games ahead of Oakland.

CHICAGO 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Wednesday, September 10.

Batting stars:  Tom Hall was 2-for-3.  Rod Carew was 2-for-5 with two stolen bases, his seventeenth and eighteenth.

Pitching star:  Hall pitched 7.2 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on eight hits and five walks and striking out three.

Opposition stars:  Tommy John pitched eight innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on eleven hits and five walks and striking out seven.  Don Pavletich was 2-for-2 with a home run (his sixth) and a walk, driving in two.  Bobby Knoop was 2-for-4 with a double.

The game:  Walt Williams opened the first inning.  He was still on first with two out, but back-to-back singles by Bill Melton and Pavletich put the White Sox on the board with a 1-0 lead.

The Twins loaded the bases with two out in the second, but did not score.  They loaded the bases with one out in the third, but Carew was caught stealing home and the Twins again did not score.  Consecutive one-out singles by Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, and Bob Allison loaded the bases with one out in the fifth, but Rick Renick hit into a double play and the Twins once more did not score.  In the sixh, Pavletich homered to give the White Sox a 2-0 lead.

The Twins finally broke through in the seventh.  With one out, Carew singled, Killebrew walked, and John threw two wild pitches to bring home a run.  The Twins could not get him to throw a third one, however, and they still trailed 2-1.  With two out in the Chicago eighth, Bob Christian singled and scored on Knoop's single-plus-error to get the run back for the White Sox and put their lead back to two.

George Mitterwald and Cesar Tovar opened the ninth with singles.  A passed ball put Herman Hill, who pinch-ran for Mitterwald, on third.  An error scored him, but Tovar was thrown out trying to score on the play and the Twins trailed 3-2.  The error put Carew on second with one out and he stole third, putting the tying run ninety feet away.  But there he stayed, as Killebrew struck out and Oliva bounced back to the pitcher.

WP:  John (7-11).  LP:  Hall (8-5).  S:  Wilbur Wood (12).

Notes:  Renick was at third, with Killebrew moving to first and Rich Reese out of the lineup.  Allison was in left field with Ted Uhlaender out of the lineup.  Tom Tischinski caught, with Johnny Roseboro out of the lineup.

Carew was batting .346.  Oliva was batting .316.

The Twins stranded eleven men and were 2-for-11 with men in scoring position.  Chicago stranded eight and was 1-for-8 with men in scoring position.

Tommy John was in his fifth full season.  He would last another twenty years, with his last year coming in 1989 with the Yankees at age forty-six.  Wilbur Wood was in his fifth full season.  He would last only nine more years, with his last year coming with the White Sox at the young age of thirty-six.

Hall had allowed more than three earned runs in a start only twice since April 25, and both of those times he allowed exactly four earned runs.  He was not in the rotation all that time--he made twelve starts and eight relief appearances over that span.  One of the relief appearances was an eight-inning win in which he allowed one run.

Bob Christian got his biggest chance in 1969.  He had gone 1-for-3 in three games for Detroit in 1968.   He spent a week with the White Sox in June, then came up in early August for two weeks, then got a September call-up.  He was Chicago's regular left fielder in September, taking over for Carlos May.  It did not go well, as he batted .217/.273/.318 in 143 plate appearances for the season.  it went better in September, when he had regular play, but he still batted just .250/.306/.364 in that span.  On the other hand, he was just twenty-three.  He got sixteen more plate appearances in 1970, then his major league career was over.  He'd had an excellent 1970 season in AAA Tucson, batting .335/.418/.445, and at age twenty-four one would've thought he looked like  a prospect.  Instead, they let him go to Japan for two seasons.  Sadly, Bob Christian passed away in 1974 from leukemia at the young age of twenty-eight.

Record:  The Twins were 86-55, in first place in the American League West, 9.5 games ahead of Oakland.

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.