MINNESOTA TWINS 2, CALIFORNIA ANGELS 1 IN CALIFORNIA

Date:  Sunday, August 8, 1971.

Batting star:  Leo Cardenas was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourteenth) and two runs.

Pitching star:  Bert Blyleven pitched a complete game, giving up one run on six hits and striking out five.

Opposition star:  Ken McMullen was 2-for-4 with a double.  Tom Murphy pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on six hits and three walks and striking out one.

The game:  The Twins got on the board in the second inning, when Leo Cardenas hit a two-out single, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a Jim Holt single.  The Angels tied it in the fourth when Ken McMullen hit a two-out double and scored on a Jim Spencer single.

Steve Braun hit a leadoff double in the seventh but was stranded on second.  Meanwhile, California was not getting anyone past first base.  With two out in the ninth, Leo Cardenas hit a home run to give the Twins a 2-1 lead.  California did not get a man on base after a Mickey Rivers one-out single in the sixth.

WP:  Bert Blyleven (9-13).

LP:  Tom Murphy (6-13).

S:  None.

Notes:  Phil Roof was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.

Tony Oliva was batting .370.  He would finish at a league-leading .337.  Cesar Tovar was batting .303.  He would finish at .311.

This was one of seventeen complete games for Bert Blyleven in 1971.  He had 242 in his career.  This was one of seven complete games for Tom Murphy.  He had twenty-two in his career.  I wonder when the last time is that both pitchers pitched a complete game in the same game.

Tony Oliva won the last of his three batting titles in 1971.

I don’t remember Leo Cardenas as a home run hitter, and he wasn’t, really, but he hit eighteen in 1971 and hit twenty in 1969.  He hit 118 home runs in his career.  So while he wasn’t a home run hitter, he could go deep when the situation called for it.

Record:  California was 54-62, in fourth place in the AL West, 18.5 games behind Oakland.  They would finish 76-86, in fourth place, 25.5 games behind Oakland.

The Twins were 51-61, in fifth place in the AL West, 19.5 games behind Oakland.  They would finish 74-86, in fifth place, 26.5 games behind Oakland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 55-53 (.509).

MINNESOTA TWINS 2, SEATTLE PILOTS 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, September 19, 1969.

Batting star:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Dave Boswell struck out fourteen in a complete game, giving up one run on five hits and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Steve Barber pitched five innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on seven hits and striking out two.  John Gelnar pitched two perfect innings, striking out one.

The game:  The Twins got one-out singles from Tony Oliva and Harmon Killebrew in the first, but a double play took them out of the inning.  In the second, Rick Renick singled, Leo Cardenas reached on an error, and Rod Carew singled, loading the bases with none out.  They only scored one, on a double play, but it gave them a 1-0 lead.

John Donaldson led off the fourth with a triple, but he was stranded on third.  In the fourth, singles by Bob Allison and Leo Cardenas put men on first and third with one out and a ground out scored a run to make it 2-0.

Seattle got on the board in the seventh.  Danny Walton hit a one-out double and with two out, Jerry McNertney singled him home, cutting the margin to 2-1.  With two out in the eighth Tommy Harper singled, stole second, and went to third on a wild pitch, but that was as far as he got.  The Pilots went down in order in the ninth.

WP:  Dave Boswell (18-11).

LP:  Steve Barber (3-6).

S:  None.

Notes:  George Mitterwald was behind the plate in place of John Roseboro.  Harmon Killebrew was at first base.  Rich Reese played the most games there with 118, followed by Killebrew with 81.  Rick Renick was at third.  Killebrew played the most games there with 105, followed by Frank Quilici with 84.  Cesar Tovar was in center.  Ted Uhlaender played the most games there with 111, followed by Tovar with 69.

Rod Carew was batting .330.  He would finish at a league-leading .332.  Rich Reese was batting .322.  He would finish at .322.  Tony Oliva was batting .312.  He would finish at .309.

Danny Walton was in left for Seattle.  He would play for the Twins in 1973 and 1975.  Don Mincher was at first base.  He had played for the Twins from 1962-1966.  Sandy Valdespino pinch-hit.  He had played for the Twins from 1965-1967.  Ron Clark came in to play short late in the game.  He had played for the Twins from 1966-1969, sold to Seattle in July of 1969.

This was the last good year Dave Boswell had.  He went 20-12, 3.23, 1.23 WHIP in 256.1 innings.  He was injured in the playoffs and never really recovered.  But for five seasons, 1965-1969, he was 62-47, 3.26.  That’s pretty good.

Ray Oyler played for six seasons and batted .175/.258/.251 in 1265 at-bats.  Even for the 1960s, that’s awful.  His highest batting average was .207 in 1967.  His highest OPS was .559 in 1965.  One assumes he was considered an excellent defender.  One also assumes he was a good guy, because a jerk with those numbers would have been sent down the road.

It was Don Mincher’s bad luck to come up to the Twins when they simply did not have a spot for a first baseman.  They had Vic Power and Harmon Killebrew, and when Power left they gave time at first base to Bob Allison.  He had an OPS of well over .800 every season from 1962-1965, but never got as many as 350 at-bats in any of those seasons.  When he was traded to California in 1967 he made the all-star team.  One wonders if the Twins might have been better off to trade him sooner, as they weren’t going to give him a regular job.  Certainly Mincher would have been better off.

Record:  Seattle was 58-92, in sixth (last) place in the AL West, thirty-two games behind Minnesota.  They would finish 64-98, in sixth place, thirty-two games behind Minnesota.

The Twins were 90-60, in first place in the AL West, ten games ahead of Oakland.  They would finish 97-65, in first place, nine games ahead of Oakland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 54-53 (.505).