SEATTLE 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN SEATTLE (14 INNINGS)

Date:  Friday, September 26.

Batting stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-4 with a home run, his forty-eighth.  Ted Uhlaender was 1-for-4 with a double and two walks.  Graig Nettles was 1-for-4 with a double and two walks.

Pitching stars:  Jim Perry pitched three innings, giving up one run on three hits and a walk and striking out two.  Dick Woodson pitched two perfect innings, striking out one.  Ron Perranoski pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up four hits and a walk.  Joe Grzenda pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Wayne Comer was 3-for-6 with a home run (his fifteenth) and a walk.  Greg Goossen was 2-for-6 with a home run (his ninth) and a double.  Ex-Twin Sandy Valdespino was 2-for-6.  John Kennedy was 2-for-6.  Diego Segui pitched two shutout innings, giving up a walk.  Bob Locker struck out four in three shutout innings, giving up one hit and two walks.

The game:  Uhlaender led off the game with a double and was on third with one out, but when Oliva hit what appeared to be a sacrifice fly he was called out on appeal for leaving third base too soon.  The Twins got on the board in the second, however.  Killebrew led off with a home run.  With one out, Cesar Tovar singled, stole second and third, and scored on a Johnny Roseboro single, putting the Twins in front 2-0.

Goossen led off the bottom of the second, cutting the lead to 2-1.  The Twins got the run back in the third.  Uhlaender walked, Rod Carew singled, and Graig Nettles delivered a two-out RBI double to make the score 3-1.

It stayed 3-1 until the seventh.  Jerry McNertney started the inning with a single and Valdespino hit a single-plus-error, putting men on second and third with none out.  Fred Stanley had a run scoring ground out followed by a Tommy Harper sacrifice fly, and that quickly the score was tied 3-3.

The Pilots started the eighth with singles by John Donaldson and Comer, but a double play took them out of the inning.  An error and a walk gave them two on with two out in the ninth, but Kennedy lined out to end the inning.  In the tenth, Steve Hovley advanced to third on a single and a stolen base-plus-error, but was stranded there.

Both teams missed chances in the twelfth.  Rick Dempsey led off the top of the inning with a double but remained on second.  Steve Whitaker started the bottom of the second with a single and was bunted to second, but got no farther.  Seattle had another chance in the thirteenth.  Goossen led off with a double.  An intentional walk and a force out left men on first and third with one down.  Stanley then hit back to the pitcher, who threw Goossen out at the plate.  A fly ball ended the inning.

The game finally ended in the fourteenth.  In the top of the inning Renick hit a one-out double but was thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple.  With two out in the bottom of the inning, Comer homered to end the game.

WP:  John Gelnar (3-10).  LP:  Tom Hall (8-7). S:  None.

Notes:  I wonder if Rich Reese had a minor injury.  He hasn't played since September 24 and was not used in this game despite the fact that the Twins used nine substitutes, including Jim Kaat as a pinch-hitter.

The Twins started with their regular lineup.  In the third, Frank Quilici replaced Carew at second base.  Herman Hill pinch-hit for Perry in the fourth.  Tom Tischinski replaced Roseboro in the sixth.  Renick replaced Leo Cardenas at shortstop in the seventh.  Charlie Manuel replaced Tovar in the seventh but went to left, with Uhlaender moving to center.  Bob Allison pinch-ran for Tischinski in the tenth, with Rick Dempsey going in to catch.  In the eleventh, Cotton Nash replaced Killebrew at first base and Jim Holt went to right to replace Oliva.  Kaat pinch-hit for Joe Grzenda in the twelfth.

Carew was 1-for-2 and was batting .333.  Oliva was 0-for-5 and was batting .307.  Perry's ERA was 2.85.  Perranoski dropped his ERA to 2.18.

Darrell Brandon made the last of his three appearances as a Twin in this game.  He had made two in July.  He had started the season with Seattle, but was sold to the Twins on July 8.  b-r.com refers to him as "Bucky" Brandon--perhaps that was his nickname, but I don't remember him being called that when he played.  On the other hand, we didn't have the media coverage that we do now, so if Herb Carneal didn't use the nickname I probably wouldn't have heard about it.

Speaking of nicknames, I'd completely forgotten that Fred "Chicken" Stanley started his career as a Seattle Pilot.

The starting pitcher for Seattle was Claude "Skip" Lockwood.  He pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out two.

Record:  The Twins were 94-63, in first place in the American League West, leading Oakland by nine games.  They had clinched the division.

SEATTLE 5, MINNESOTA 1 IN SEATTLE

Date:  Thursday, September 25.

Batting stars:  Rick Renick was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.  Tom Tischinski was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Greg Goossen was 3-for-4 with two home runs (his seventh and eighth) and a double, scoring three times and driving in three.  Steve Barber struck out ten in eight innings, giving up one run on nine hits and three walks.

The game:  The Twins had men on first and second with one out in the first, but Bob Allison and Renick both struck out.  It cost them, as the Pilots scored two in the bottom of the first.  John Kennedy walked and Goossen hit a two-out two-run homer to give Seattle a 2-0 lead.

The Twins missed another chance in the fourth, as singles by Leo Cardenas and Tischinski put men on first and second with two out but Jim Kaat struck out.  Again, the Pilots scored in the bottom of the inning.  With one out, Goossen doubled, Jerry McNertney was intentionally walked, and John Donaldson singled to load the bases.  Steve Whitaker delivered a sacrifice fly and Seattle led 3-0.

The Twins opened the sixth with singles by Renick and Cotton Nash, putting men on first and third with none out.  They were turned aside once more, as Rod Carew grounded out, Tischinski popped up, and Tony Oliva grounded out.  The Pilots did not score right away in the sixth this time, but they did add a run in the seventh, as triples by Whitaker and Kennedy made the score 4-0.

The Twins finally got on the board in the eighth as Renick hit a solo homer.  Goossen got the run back with a homer in the bottom of the eighth to make it 5-1.  The Twins got their first two men on base in the ninth, but that was as close as they would come.

WP:  Barber (4-6).  LP:  Kaat (13-13).  S:  John O'Donoghue (6).

Notes:  The Twins kind of treated this like a spring training game.   Renick started the game in left field and Allison was in right, with both Ted Uhlaender and Oliva on the bench.  Frank Quilici started at third base, with Harmon Killebrew moving to first and Rich Reese on the bench.  Tischinski was behind the plate, with Johnny Roseboro again out.

Oliva was used as a pinch-hitter.  In the sixth, Nash replaced Cardenas and went to left field, with Renick going to shortstop.  In the eighth, Graig Nettles went to center field, replacing Cesar Tovar.  In the eighth, Jim Holt replaced Killebrew and went to right field, with Allison moving to left and Nash to first base.  Also, Herman Hill went to center field in place of Carew, with Nettles moving to third base and Quilici going to second.

Carew was 1-for-4 and was batting .333.

Kaat struck out six in five innings, but gave up three runs on three hits and three walks.  Tom Hall pitched the last three innings, giving up two runs on four hits and striking out one.

This was the only outfield appearance of Nash's career, although he did see time there in the minors.  This was the second and last appearance in center field of Nettles' career--he had played four innings there in 1968.

Greg Goossen is best remembered for the Casey Stengel quote (when both were with the Mets) "I've got a kid here named Goossen, he's twenty years old and in ten years he's got a chance to be thirty."  He actually had a fine year in 1969 (when he was twenty-three), batting .309/.385/.597, although in just 157 plate appearances.  He had hit well in AAA Vancouver in 1969, too, and one would've thought he looked like a star in the making.  He started 1970 in the majors but played sporadically.  He did well when he was given the chance, batting .255/.407/.353 in 59 plate appearances, but the Brewers preferred Mike Hegan  at first base and sent him to the minors in mid-May, then sold him to Washington.  The Senators had Mike Epstein at first base, so he never got much chance there, either.  He was in AAA in 1971, played in Mexico in 1972, then was done.  My recollection from "Ball Four" is that Goossen was kind of a character, and characters weren't always welcome in baseball back then.  Still, one wonders what would've happened if he'd just been put in the lineup and given a chance to play.

Record:  The Twins were 94-62, in first place in the American League West, ten games ahead of Oakland.  They had clinched first place in the division.