CALIFORNIA 5, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA (GAME 2 OF DOUBLEHEADER)

Date:  Tuesday, September 15.

Batting stars:  Cesar Tovar was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Rich Reese was 2-for-4 with a home run (his tenth), a triple, and two RBIs.

Pitching star:  Tom Hall struck out twelve in eight innings, giving up two runs on three hits and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Tony Gonzalez was 1-for-1 with a double and two RBIs.  Dave LaRoche struck out three in 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

The game:  Reese started the scoring in the second with a home run that gave the Twins a 1-0 lead.  The two teams combined for a total of two baserunners in innings three through five, neither of which got past first base.  In the sixth Tovar walked, was bunted to second, went to third on a fly ball, and scored when Harmon Killebrew reached on an error.  Reese followed with an RBI triple to make the score 3-0 Twins.

Hall had been in total control for eight innings.  In the ninth, however, Jarvis Tatum led off with a single and Sandy Alomar walked.  Ron Perranoski then came in and gave up an RBI single to Doug Griffin.  The next two batters hit into force outs, scoring a run to make the score 3-2 and leaving the tying run on first base.  But then came a single by Billy Cowan and an RBI single by Ken McMullen, tying the score.  Stan Williams then came in and gave up a two-run double to pinch-hitter Gonzalez, putting the Angels up 5-3.  The Twins went down in order in the bottom of the ninth.

WP:  LaRoche (4-1).

LP:  Perranoski (7-8).

S:  Ken Tatum (17).

Notes:  Jim Holt was in center field, with Tovar moving to left.  Danny Thompson was at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Frank Quilici went to second base in the ninth, with Thompson moving to third and Killebrew coming out of the game.  Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for George Mitterwald in the ninth.

Tony Oliva was 1-for-3 and was batting .319.  Hall had an ERA of 2.51.  Perranoski allowed three runs in two-thirds of an inning and had an ERA of 2.27.  Williams gave up no runs in a third of an inning and had an ERA of 2.06.

I know times were different back then, but using both Perranoski and Williams in this game was just dumb.  Each had pitched three innings in the first game of the doubleheader.  Not only were they likely to be ineffective in the second game (and they were), there was also the risk of injury.  In addition, it's not like this was a must-win game for the Twins.  They had a big lead in the division (as seen below) and were essentially marking time until the playoffs.  Using the two best relievers on the team in this game simply made no sense whatsoever.

Eddie Fisher (probably not the '50s singer) started an pitched 5.2 innings, giving up three runs (one earned) on four hits and two walks and striking out none.

In the history of major league baseball, there have been six players with the last name "Tatum".  Two of them played for the Angels in 1970, and both appeared in this game.

Oakland split a doubleheader with Milwaukee, so the Twins lead remained the same on the day while their magic number went down.

Record:  The Twins were 88-59, in first place in the American League West, eight games ahead of Oakland.  Their magic number was seven.