CALIFORNIA 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Friday, April 22.
Batting stars: Tony Oliva was 2-for-4. Rick Renick was 1-for-4 with a home run, his second.
Pitching stars: Jim Perry pitched 6.1 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks and striking out three. Stan Williams struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up a walk.
Opposition stars: Ken McMullen was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fourth) and a walk. Jim Spencer was 1-for-4 with a home run, his third. Clyde Wright pitched 7.1 innings, giving up one run on seven hits and two walks and striking out three.
The game: The Twins missed a chance in the first. Cesar Tovar led off with an infield hit and went to third with none out on a pickoff error. Unfortunately for the Twins, he was then thrown out trying to score on a grounder to second, so the game remained scoreless.
McMullen changed that in the second, hitting a home run to put the Angels up 1-0. The Twins got one-out singles in the fifth from Leo Cardenas and George Mitterwald and Perry bunted to move the runners to second and third, but Tovar grounded out to end the inning. The Twins did tie it in the sixth, however, on consecutive one-out singles by Harmon Killebrew, Oliva, and Brant Alyea. They missed a chance for more, however, as Oliva was thrown out trying to go to third on Alyea's single.
California went ahead to stay in the seventh. Spencer led off with a home run to put them ahead 2-1. With one out, the Angels got consecutive singles from Bill Voss, Joe Azcue, and pitcher Wright to make it 3-1. Renick homered in the ninth to cut the lead to 3-2, but the Twins could not get the tying run on base.
WP: Wright (6-2).
LP: Perry (6-3).
S: Ken Tatum (7).
Notes: Minnie Mendoza pinch-hit for Tom Hall in the seventh. Rich Reese pinch-hit for Mitterwald in the ninth.
Carew was 0-for-3 and was batting .418. Oliva was batting .324. Killebrew was 1-for-3 and was batting .315. Renick was 1-for-4 and was batting .300. Perry had an ERA of 2.70. Williams had an ERA of 1.64.
Mitterwald was 1-for-3 and was batting .185.
It was a battle of the top two teams in the division. There will, of course, be two more games in the series. it's early to talk about a "big series", but I'm sure there was a lot of interest in this one.
Angels closer Tatum had an ERA of 0.86 at this point in the season and had given up just twelve hits in twenty-one innings.
Williams had not pitched since May 16.
Record: The Twins were 25-11, in first place in the American League West, a half game ahead of California.