1970 Rewind: Game Sixty-seven

MINNESOTA 9, CHICAGO 1 IN CHICAGO (GAME 1 OF DOUBLEHEADER)

Date:  Sunday, June 28.

Batting stars:  Jim Holt was 3-for-4.  Leo Cardenas was 3-for-5.  Cesar Tovar was 3-for-5.  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his nineteenth and twentieth) and three RBIs.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-5 with a home run (his tenth), two home runs, and two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Tom Hall struck out seven in 6.2 innings, giving up one run on seven hits and two walks.  Bill Zepp pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Luis Aparicio was 2-for-4 with a double.  Walt Williams was 2-for-5.  Jim Magnuson pitched two perfect innings, striking out one.

The game:  Consecutive singles by Paul RatliffHolt, and Danny Thompson put the Twins on the board in the second.  In the third Oliva hit a two-out single and Killebrew followed with a two-run homer, making it 3-0.

The Twins continued to build the lead.  In the fourth Holt singled, went to second on a ground out, and scored on a Hall single.  Singles by Tovar and Cardenas followed, making it 5-0 Twins.  Oliva homered leading off the sixth to make it 6-0.

The White Sox had two singles leading off the first and had a single and a walk in the fifth, but otherwise did not threaten through six innings.  Finally in the seventh, Ken Berry hit a one-out single.  With two down Williams singled and Aparicio followed with an RBI double, getting Chicago on the board at 6-1.

That was all the White Sox did, though.  In the eighth Killebrew homered.  Later in the inning Ratliff walked, went to third on a Holt single, and scored on a sacrifice fly.  In the ninth Tovar singled, took third on a Cardenas single, and scored on a fielder's choice to bring the total to 9-1.

WP:  Hall (3-2).

LP:  Joel Horlen (6-9).

S:  Zepp (1).

Notes:  Ratliff was at catcher in place of George Mitterwald.  Holt was once again in left in place of Brant Alyea.  Thompson was again at second in place of Rod Carew.  Frank Quilici came in for defense in the eighth, going to second with Thompson moving to third and Killebrew coming out of the game.  Herman Hill pinch-ran for Oliva in the ninth and remained in the game in right field.

Oliva was batting .322.  Killebrew was batting .306.  Hall had an ERA of 2.23.  Zepp had an ERA of 2.55.

Quilici was 0-for-1 and was batting .169.

This was the first start of the season for Hall.  They clearly weren't worried about stretching him out, as he pitched 6.2 innings.  He had pitched multiple innings in relief several times, pitching more than three innings five times, with a high of five innings.  He had pitched 3.2 innings as recently as June 25.  He was not taking anyone's place in the rotation at this point, but instead was making a spot start due to a doubleheader.

This was the first career save for Zepp.  He would end up with four, two in 1970 and two in 1971.  The save rule was clearly different then, as he entered the game with two out in the seventh with the Twins leading 6-1.

Horlen pitched five innings, allowing six runs on twelve hits and no walks and striking out one.  Horlen was having the worst year of his career.  He would not win a game the rest of the season, finishing 6-16, 4.86, 1.39 WHIP.  The weak Chicago offense didn't help him--in his next six starts, the White Sox would score a total of eight runs, with a high of two.  He missed all of August, leading one to believe he may have been pitching with an injury much of the season.  He had pitched over two hundred innings in six consecutive seasons prior to 1970, when he pitched 172.  He was a fine pitcher from 1963-1969, and also had a good year out of the bullpen for Oakland in 1972, his last season.

After scoring nine runs over their previous four games, the Twins scored eighteen in their next two.  That's baseball.

Record:  The Twins were 43-24, in first place in the American League West, three and a half games ahead of California.

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