CLEVELAND INDIANS 6, MINNESOTA TWINS 5 IN CLEVELAND
Date: Wednesday, May 4, 1977.
Batting stars: Rod Carew was 2-for-4 with a home run (his second) and a walk. Larry Hisle hit a three-run homer, his sixth.
Pitching star: Jeff Holly pitched three innings, giving up one run on two hits and a walk and striking out two.
Opposition stars: Johnny Grubb was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Duane Kuiper was 2-for-4.
The game: Lyman Bostock led off the second with a double. With one out Mike Cubbage was intentionally walked to pitch to Larry Hisle(!), who hit a three-run homer to put the Twins ahead 3-0.
Rick Manning hit a one-out triple and scored on a ground out in the bottom of the second to make it 3-1. In the third, Larvell Blanks led off with a double and scored on a Fred Kendall single. With two out, Jim Norris singled and went to second on a throw, putting men on second and third. Johnny Grubb then delivered a two-run single to give Cleveland a 4-3 lead.
Rod Carew homered with one out in the fifth to tie it 4-4. In the sixth Larry Hisle walked, stole second, and scored on a two-out single by Rich Chiles to give the Twins a 5-4 lead.
In the sixth, Rick Manning drew a two-out walk and scored on a Rico Carty double to tie it 5-5. With one out in the seventh Fred Kendall walked and Duane Kuiper and Buddy Bell followed with singles, putting the Indians up 6-5.
The Twins did not get a hit in the final three innings. They did draw three walks, and put the potential tying run on third with two out in the eighth, but the score remained 6-5 Cleveland.
WP: Don Hood (1-0).
LP: Tom Johnson (3-2).
S: Dave LaRoche (3).
Notes: Rob Wilfong was at second. He shared the position with Bobby Randall, with Randall playing the most games there, 101 to 66. Rich Chiles was the DH. He shared the position with Craig Kusick and Glenn Adams. Kusick played the most games there with 85, followed by Chiles (62) and Adams (46).
Mike Cubbage was batting .350. He would finish at .264. Rod Carew was batting .343. He would finish at a league-leading .388. Rob Wilfong was batting .333. He would finish at .246. Butch Wynegar was batting .317. He would finish at .261. Lyman Bostock was batting .310. He would finish at .336.
Jeff Holly had an ERA of 0.90. He would finish at 6.89. Tom Johnson had an ERA of 1.29. He would finish at 3.13.
Dave LaRoche had pitched for the Twins in 1972.
As you can see, the Twins had a lot of players get off to hot starts, which propelled them in to first place early in the season. Obviously, they did not stay there, but they were in contention for the first half of the season.
You may be wondering, as I was, why in the world you would walk Mike Cubbage to pitch to Larry Hisle. Yes, it set up the double play, and yes, Cubbage was batting .350. But Hisle was batting .290, so it’s not like he was in a slump. And even with the difference in batting average, Hisle had the better OPS. Frank Robinson was the Cleveland manager at that time, and he obviously knows more about baseball than I do, but it does not seem like a smart decision to me.
Record: Cleveland was 8-13, in sixth place in the AL East, 5.5 games behind Milwaukee. They would finish 71-90, in fifth place, 28.5 games behind New York.
The Twins were 15-10, in first place in the AL West, a half game ahead of Chicago. They would finish 84-77, in fourth place, 17.5 games behind Kansas City.
Random Record: The Random Twins are 49-50 (.495).