KANSAS CITY 5, MINNESOTA 0 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Saturday, September 26.

Batting stars:  Leo Cardenas was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Rick Renick was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Pete Hamm pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.  Steve Barber pitched two perfect innings and struck out one.

Opposition stars:  Bob Johnson pitched a complete game shutout, giving up four hits and three walks and striking out eight.  Cookie Rojas was 3-for-4.  Amos Otis was 2-for-5 with a double.  Bob Oliver was 1-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-seventh) and two RBIs.

The game:  All the scoring came early.  In the first, Otis singled, George Spriggs walked, Lou Piniella had an RBI single, and a ground out scored another, making it 2-0 Royals.  In the second Rojas and Tommy Matchick singled, a bunt moved them to second and third, and Spriggs delivered a two-run single.  Oliver homered in the third to make it 5-0.

And that was it.  The Twins got a one-out double from Cardenas in the first.  They had men on first and second with none out in the fifth on a walk and a hit batsman.  Their biggest threat came in the seventh, when Rick Dempsey walked, Renick singled, and a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third with none out.  But a foul pop, a strikeout, and a ground out ended the inning.

WP:  Johnson (8-12).

LP:  Bert Blyleven (10-9).

S:  None.

Notes:  Jim Nettles was in left field in place of Brant Alyea.  Jim Holt was in center field in place of Cesar Tovar.  Paul Ratliff was at catcher in place of George Mitterwald.  Rick Renick was at third base in place of Harmon Killebrew.  Danny Thompson was at second base in place of Rod Carew.

Carew pinch-hit for Blyleven in the third inning.  Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Thompson in the fifth and stayed in the game in left field, with Frank Quilici replacing Nettles and going to second base.  Tovar pinch-hit for Hal Haydel.  Rick Dempsey went in to catch in the fifth, replacing Ratliff.  Alyea pinch-hit for Hamm in the seventh.

Carew was 0-for-1 and was batting .372.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 and was batting .321.

Dempsey was 0-for-1 and was batting zero.  Manuel was 0-for-2 and was batting .193.  Hamm pitched two shutout innings and had an ERA of 5.28.

Blyleven pitched just two innings, giving up four runs on five hits and two walks and striking out none.

The Twins some relievers who hadn't pitched for quite a while.  Haydel hadn't pitched since September 12.  Hamm hadn't pitched since August 23, although he may have appeared in some minor league games.  Barber hadn't pitched in the majors since July 26, although he presumably was pitching in the minors.  The minor league seasons ended around Labor Day, though, so it had still been a while.

I probably knew this at the time and forgot it, but Dempsey is the uncle of long-time major league catcher Gregg Zaun.

Record:  The Twins were 95-62, in first place in the American League West, 8.5 games ahead of Oakland.