MINNESOTA TWINS 6, CHICAGO WHITE SOX 0 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Sunday, April 11, 1971.

Batting star:  Cesar Tovar was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.  Jim Kaat was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-5 with a double.  Rod Carew was 2-for-5.  Jim Holt was 2-for-5.  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-5.

Pitching star:  Jim Kaat pitched a complete game shutout, giving up eleven hits and one walk and striking out three.

Opposition stars:  tom Egan was 2-for-4 with two doubles.  Jay Johnstone was 2-for-4.  Bill Melton was 2-for-4.  Carlos May was 2-for-4.  

The game:  The Twins got a two-out double from Tony Oliva in the first, but he was stranded on second.  In the second, Bill Melton and Carols May led off with singles, but Melton was thrown out trying to go to third.  Rick Reichardt then walked, but the next two batters went out and the inning ended.

The Twins got on the board in the third.  Jim Kaat doubled with one out.  With two down, Rod Carew delivered an RBI single and went to second on the throw home.  That enabled him to score on Tony Oliva’s single, making it 2-0 Twins.  It went to 4-0 in the fourth.  With one out, Jim Holt singled, stole second, and went to third on a wild pitch.  Leo Cardenas and George Mitterwald walked, loading the bases, and Jim Kaat delivered a two-run single.

Chicago got leadoff singles in the fourth from Mike Andrews and Bill Melton, but a double play and a strikeout ended the threat.  The Twins added another run in the sixth when Leo Cardenas led off with a double and scored on a two-out single by Cesar Tovar.

The White Sox continued to threaten and get turned aside.  Singles by Jay Johnstone and Carlos May in the sixth amounted to nothing.  A one-out double by Tom Egan in the seventh was similarly fruitless.  The Twins tallied once more in the eighth when Leo Cardenas walked, stole second, was bunted to third, and scored on a Cesar Tovar double.  Chicago got a two-out double from Tom Egan in the ninth, but Jim Kaat retired the next batter to complete the shutout.

WP:  Jim Kaat (1-0).

LP:  Bart Johnson (1-1).

S:  None.

Notes:  Rich Reese was at first base.  He shared first base with Harmon Killebrew, with Killebrew moving to third when Reese was at first.  When Killebrew played first, Steve Braun was on third.  

This early in the season, of course, the batting averages are skewed.  Jim Kaat was batting .500.  He would finish at .161.  Cesar Tovar was batting .478.  He would finish at .311.  Tony Oliva was batting .450.  He would finish at a league-leading .337.  Harmon Killebrew was batting .444.  He would finish at .254.

Jim Kaat had an ERA of 1.93.  He would finish at 3.32.

It appears that no Chicago player in this game ever played for the Twins.

This was Jim Kaat’s first start of the season, but not his first game.  He had appeared in relief in the season opener of April 6.  That would be his only relief appearance of the season.

Jim Kaat was known as a good hitter, but it was more “good hitter for a pitcher” than good hitter.  For his career hit batted .185/.227/.267 with 16 home runs in 1251 at-bats.

Bart Johnson had two very good years.  This one, in which he went 12-10, 2.93 and led the league in fewest homers per nine innings, and 10-4, 2.74, 1.13 WHIP.  For his career, however, he was 43-51, 3.94, 1.43 WHIP.  

Danny Thompson came in as a defensive replacement for Harmon Killebrew in the ninth inning.  This was the fourth of five consecutive appearances in which he would come in as a defensive replacement and not bat.  He would finally bat for the first time in his sixth game, on April 16.

Tom Egan was a part-time catcher for ten major league seasons, making his major league debut at age eighteen.  He played in 373 major league games and batted .200/.266/.299.  He was probably considered a very good defensive catcher.

Record:  Chicago was 3-2, tied for second with Minnesota in the AL West, a half game behind Milwaukee.  They would finish 79-83, in third place, 22.5 games behind Oakland.

The Twins were 3-2, tied for second with Chicago in the AL West, a half game behind Milwaukee.  They would finish 74-86, in fifth place, 26.5 games behind Oakland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 29-32 (.475).