MINNESOTA 4, KANSAS CITY 0 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Monday, April 28.
Batting stars: Rich Reese was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer, his second. Johnny Roseboro was 2-for-4 with a double. Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-0 with three walks.
Pitching star: Jim Perry pitched a complete game shutout, giving up seven hits and one walk and striking out six.
Opposition stars: Mike Fiore was 2-for-4 with a double. Future Twin Tom Burgmeier pitched three shutout innings, giving up two hits and three walks and striking out one.
The game: An error, a walk, and a single loaded the bases for the Twins with none out in the first inning. Killebrew hit a sacrifice fly, but it was the only run the Twins got in the inning. It did not come back to haunt them. Killebrew and Graig Nettles started the fourth with walks and Reese delivered a three-run homer to make it 4-0.
The Royals threatened in the fifth. Ellie Rodriguez doubled and Juan Rios had a bunt single, putting men on first and third with one out. Ed Kirkpatrick struck out, however, and Pat Kelly flied out to end the inning. The Twins had men on first and second in both the fifth and the sixth, but were turned aside each time. No more runs were needed, however, as Perry did not allow more than one baserunner in any inning after the fifth.
WP: Perry (2-1). LP: Mike Hedlund (1-1). S: None.
Notes: Carew was 1-for-3 with a walk to "drop" his batting average to .409. Oliva was 1-for-3 and was batting .351. Cardenas was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .329. Uhlaender was 0-for-4 and was batting .318.
Frank Quilici and Cesar Tovar were again used as defensive replacements for Killebrew and Graig Nettles, respectively.
Perry was making just his second start of the season. He had started the third game of the season, then made five appearances out of the bullpen, the last one an outing of 2.1 innings just three days earlier on April 25. He would make one more start on May 3, then go back to the bullpen.
Reese was caught stealing for the third time this season. For the year he would go 1-for-6 in stolen bases, indicating that Billy Martin eventually figured out that having him try to steal bases might not be a good idea.
Hedlund, the Royals starter, was in his first full season in the majors, having gotten cups of coffee with Cleveland in 1965 and 1968. He started 16 games and relieved in 18, and really did pretty well--only 3-6, but with an ERA of 3.24 and a WHIP of 1.30. He wasn't bad as a starter, but was excellent as a reliever, posting an ERA of 1.69 and a WHIP of 1.03 out of the pen. His best year in the majors was 1971, when he was in the Kansas City rotation all season. He went 15-8, 2.71, 1.17 WHIP that year. The next year, however, he went 5-7, 4.78 and was through as a big-leaguer. He played in AAA two more seasons, but was done after 1974. Just looking at his record, one suspects he may have had injury problems. His career numbers are 25-24, 3.56, 1.30 WHIP. He pitched 465.2 innings in 113 games, 62 of them starts.
Record: The Twins had won three in a row and were 11-7, in first place, leading Oakland by one game.