MINNESOTA 5, KANSAS CITY 4 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Monday, June 29.
Batting stars: Cesar Tovar was 4-for-5 with a triple. Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-3 with a walk. Herman Hill was 2-for-4 with two runs. Tony Oliva was 2-for-4.
Pitching star: Jim Perry pitched 8.2 innings, giving up four runs on ten hits and two walks and striking out seven.
Opposition stars: Lou Piniella was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs. Ex-Twin Pat Kelly was 2-for-5 with a double. Future Twin Tom Burgmeier pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and two walks.
The game: Most of the action came early. With one out in the top of the first, Cookie Rojas and Amos Otis singled, followed by doubles by Ed Kirkpatrick and Piniella to make it 3-0. With two out Tommy Matchick added an RBI single to make it 4-0 after a half inning.
The Twins responded in the bottom of the first. They started the inning with consecutive singles by Tovar, Hill, Oliva, and Killebrew, plating two runs. A sacrifice fly later in the inning cut the lead to 4-3 after one.
The Royals put two on in the second and third but could not score. Hill and Oliva started the bottom of the third with singles. The next two batters went out, but Jim Holt delivered an RBI single to tie it 4-4. With two out in the fifth, Perry doubled and Tovar followed with an RBI triple to give the Twins their first lead at 5-4.
And that's where it stayed. Kansas City had only two hits after the third inning and did not put a man past first base, leaving the Twins with a 5-4 victory.
WP: Perry (11-6).
LP: Dick Drago (6-5).
S: Ron Perranoski (18).
Notes: Hill was in center field, with Tovar moving to second base in place of Rod Carew. Holt was in left in place of Brant Alyea. Interestingly, Frank Quilici was not used as a defensive replacement for Killebrew.
Perry was 1-for-4 and was batting .357. Oliva was batting .330. Killebrew was batting .309. Tovar was batting .301. Perranoski had an ERA of 1.74.
These were the first two hits of Herman Hill's career. In fact, they were the only two hits of Herman Hill's career. He had been 0-for-2 in 1969 and was 2-for-22 in 1970. His career batting line was ,083/.083/.083. He had batted .300 in AAA Denver in 1969, but batted just .248 in AAA Evansville in 1970.
The two Twins pitchers shared the first four letters of their last names--Perry and Perranoski. What's the significance of that? Well, nothing, as far as I know. I just found it interesting.
Drago pitched 5.2 innings, allowing five runs on twelve hits and a walk and striking out two. He's largely forgotten now, but Dick Drago was a pretty fair pitcher for quite a while. He was with Kansas City from 1969-1973, posting double digit wins in four of the five seasons and nine in the other. He was with Boston from 1974-1975 and 1978-1980, with stops in California and Baltimore in between. He closed out his career in Seattle in 1981. He posted sub-four ERAs in nine of his thirteen seasons. His career numbers are 108-117, 3.62, 1.31 WHIP. He pitched 1875 innings and appeared in 519 games, 189 of them starts. He never made an all-star team, never led the league in anything, and only once got Cy Young consideration (fifth in 1971), but for over ten years he was a pitcher you'd be happy to have on your team.
Record: The Twins were 44-25, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of California.