MINNESOTA 6, OAKLAND 3 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Monday, September 15.
Batting stars: Cesar Tovar was 3-for-4 with a double and a stolen base, his thirty-eighth. Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-2 with a two-run homer (his forty-third) and two walks, scoring twice. Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with two doubles.
Pitching star: Dave Boswell pitched a complete game, giving up three runs (two earned) on six hits and three walks and striking out eight.
Opposition stars: Rick Monday was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his eleventh) and a walk.
The game: The Twins missed a chance in the first, failing to score despite two walks and a double. The first walk was wiped on by a double play. The Athletics got on the board in the second when Tito Francona hit a one-out single and Monday hit a two-out home run, putting Oakland up 2-0.
The Twins got on the board in the third. Rod Carew got an infield single with two out and scored from first on Oliva's double. Killebrew followed with a two-run homer and the Twins led 3-2. The Athletics tied it in the fifth. Rollie Fingers led off with an infield single-plus error and scored on Jose Tartabull's single to make the score 3-3.
Minnesota went ahead to stay in the sixth. Killebrew led off with a single and advanced to third on Tovar's one-out double. Johnny Roseboro was intentionally walked, but Leo Cardenas hit a sacrifice fly to give the Twins a 4-3 advantage.
The Twins put it out of reach in the eighth. Killebrew walked and was replaced by pinch-runner Herman Hill. A wild pitch moved Hill to second and he went to third when Rich Reese reached on a sacrifice/fielder's choice. Tovar then delivered an RBI single. A double play gave Oakland a chance to get out of the inning. Cardenas was intentionally walked to bring up Boswell, who wrecked the strategy with a run-scoring single. The Athletics did not get a hit after Tartabull's RBI single in the fifth.
WP: Boswell (17-11). LP: Fingers (6-6). S: None.
Notes: Carew was 1-for-3 with a walk and was batting .337. Reese was 0-for-3 and was batting .320. Oliva was batting .314.
It's understandable why you'd walk Cardenas to pitch to Boswell, but Boswell wasn't a bad hitter. His career numbers are .202/.222/.283, which sounds like "good hitter for a pitcher", but much of his career was in the 1960s, when there were regular players who didn't hit .200. His best offensive year was 1965, when he batted .316/.333/.368 in 39 plate appearances. He also had a good year in 1968, when he batted .233/.254/.367 in 68 plate appearances.
Fingers was the starter for Oakland. He pitched six innings, allowing four runs on eight hits and three walks and striking out two. This was his fifth start of the season. He would make three more, as he was apparently in the rotation for the last three weeks of the season. He would be in the rotation for about half of 1970 and six weeks in 1971, then would make a permanent transition to the bullpen.
Entering the series down eight games with seventeen to play, Oakland pretty much had to sweep the series to have a realistic chance to get back into the race. The Twins took care of that chance on the first day.
Record: The Twins were 88-58, in first place in the American League West, nine games ahead of Oakland.