MINNESOTA TWINS 1, OAKLAND ATHLETICS 0 IN OAKLAND
Date: Friday, July 7, 1978 (Game 2).
Batting star: Glenn Adams was 2-for-3. Rich Chiles was 2-for-4.
Pitching star: Darrell Jackson pitched a complete game shutout, giving up three hits and a walk and striking out seven.
Opposition stars: Rick Langford pitched a complete game, giving up an unearned run on five hits and a walk and striking out four.
The game: Neither team advanced a man past first base for the first four innings. In the fifth, Glenn Adams hit a two-out single. Rob Wilfong then singled to center, and an error allowed Adams to score, with Wilfong taking second.
And that was the extent of the scoring. The Twins got a man to second in the eighth, when Glenn Adams led off with a single and was bunted to second, but he never advanced farther. With two out in the ninth Mike Cubbage was hit by a pitch and Rich Chiles followed with a single, but that was the extent of it. Oakland never did advance a man past first base, as Darrell Jackson was in complete control throughout the game.
WP: Darrell Jackson (2-1).
LP: Rick Langford (1-7).
S: None.
Notes: Glenn Borgmann was behind the plate in place of Butch Wynegar. Rob Wilfong shared second base with Bobby Randall, with Randall appearing in more games, 115 to 80. Obviously, there were games when both played, usually due to platoon switches. Rich Chiles was in left in place of Willie Norwood.
Rod Carew was batting 343. He would finish at a league-leading .333. He also led the league in OBP at .411. Mike Cubbage was batting .321. He would finish at .282.
Darrell Jackson had an ERA of 2.73. He would finish at 4.48.
The lone substitute of the game was Mike Adams, who pinch-hit for Mike Edwards in the ninth. He had played for the Twins in 1972-1973.
This was the fourth start of Darrell Jackson’s career, and it would be his only shutout. It was his only complete game of 1978, although he would have one more in 1979 and another in 1980. Through his first seven starts he had an ERA of 3.28. The rest of the season, it was 6.11. He had a pretty good season in 1980, going 9-9, 3.87. I remember Twins’ broadcaster Joe McConnell calling him “the little left-hander”, and it was true–he’s listed as 5’10”, 150 lbs.
Don’t let Rick Langford’s 1-7 record fool you–he was pitching well. His ERA after this game was 2.61. In his seven losses, his team had scored a grand total of eight runs. They were shut out three times, and two of the losses (including this one) were 1-0. He would finish the season 7-13, 3.43, 1.28 WHIP.
Record: Oakland was 43-42, in fourth place in the AL West, two games behind California. They would finish 69-93, in sixth place, twenty-three games behind Kansas City. Oakland had the worst record in baseball after this game, 26-51.
The Twins were 37-42, in fifth place in the AL West, five games behind California. They would finish 73-89, in fourth place, nineteen games behind California.
Random Record: The Random Twins are 42-45 (.483).