MINNESOTA 4, CALIFORNIA 3 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Thursday, September 17.
Batting stars: Cesar Tovar was 2-for-3 with a triple, a walk, and two runs. Leo Cardenas was 2-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs.
Pitching stars: Jim Perry pitched 7.1 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and one walk and striking out two. Stan Williams pitched 1.2 innings, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Tony Gonzalez was 2-for-4. Lloyd Allen pitched two perfect innings, striking out one.
The game: Tovar led off the bottom of the first with a triple and scored on a Cardenas single to put the Twins up 1-0. In the third Tovar drew a one-out walk. Cardenas followed with an RBI triple and Tony Oliva followed that with a run-scoring double, giving the Twins a 3-0 lead. In the fourth George Mitterwald hit a one-out double and scored on a Danny Thompson single to make it 4-0.
The Angels did not advance a man past first base in the first five innings. In the sixth Mickey Rivers drew a one-out walk and got to second on Gonzalez' single, but that was as far as he'd go. In the seventh, California did get on the board, but missed a chance for more. Alex Johnson was hit by a pitch and Jim Spencer doubled, putting men on second and third with none out. Jay Johnstone hit an RBI ground out, but a strikeout and a foul out followed, so the Twins still had a 4-1 lead.
In the eighth, Bill Voss led off with a single and Gonzalez singled with one out. Jim Fregosi followed with an RBI double and Johnson hit a sacrifice fly, making it 4-3 with the tying run on second. Spencer flied out to end the inning. In the ninth Mel Queen delivered a two-out pinch-hit single, but Voss flied out to end the game.
WP: Perry (23-11).
LP: Tom Murphy (14-13).
S: Williams (14).
Notes: Jim Holt was in center field, with Tovar moving to third base and Harmon Killebrew given a rare day off. Charlie Manuel was given a rare start in left in place of Brant Alyea. Thompson was at second in place of Rod Carew. Herman Hill went to left in place of Manuel in the seventh. Jim Nettles went to left in place of Hill in the ninth.
Oliva was 1-for-3 and was batting .317. Tovar raised his average to .301, the first time he'd been over .300 since August 4. Williams had an ERA of 2.03.
I don't know why Nettles replaced Hill in the ninth, unless Bill Rigney just wanted to get him in the game. It does not appear that Hill was injured--he would be used in a game just two days later. It could have been a minor injury, of course, and that he was removed as a precaution. Not that it makes a lot of difference--it's just kind of a curious thing.
I have no idea why Angels manager Lefty Phillips used a pitcher, Mel Queen to pinch-hit in the ninth. Queen was not a particularly good batter--his lifetime numbers are .179/.233/.226. That's not bad for a pitcher, but it's bad for a batter. The Angels had already used a number of bench players--Roger Repoz, Randy Brown, Mickey Rivers, and Bill Voss--but teams had bigger benches back then, and besides it was September, with expanded rosters. In fact, Jarvis Tatum came in to pinch-run for Queen, so we know that he was available. There had to be some others, too. Using Queen as a pinch-hitter makes no sense to me at all. But having said all that, it worked. Queen got a pinch-hit single. Does that mean that Phillips made a smart move, or does it mean that he got lucky? Who knows? But the payoff is always in results, and the result was good, whether I think it was dumb thing to do or not.
Oakland did not play, so the Twins gained a half game in the standings.
Record: The Twins were 89-60, in first place in the American League West, 7.5 games ahead of Oakland. Their magic number was six.