MINNESOTA 3, OAKLAND 1 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Thursday, September 9.
Batting stars: Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. Brant Alyea was 2-for-3 with a double.
Pitching stars: Jim Perry pitched eight innings, giving up one run on five hits and four walks and striking out five. Stan Williams struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Don Mincher was 2-for-3 with a home run, his twenty-sixth. Chuck Dobson pitched 7.1 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and three walks and striking out four.
The game: Mincher homered with two out in the fourth to open the scoring. It stayed 1-0 through six innings, with the Twins getting just three singles in those first six innings.
The Twins finally got it going in the seventh. Killebrew led off with a double and scored when Alyea hit a one-out double. George Mitterwald walked, a force out put men on first and third, and Perry delivered an RBI single to put the Twins ahead 2-1.
The Athletics had men on second and third with one out in the eighth, but a strikeout and a fly out ended the inning. The Twins got an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth when Oliva doubled and scored on a Rich Reese single.
Sal Bando doubled with one out in the ninth, bringing the tying run to the plate. But Reggie Jackson and Gene Tenace each struck out to end the game.
WP: Perry (22-10).
LP: Dobson (15-13).
S: Williams (12).
Notes: Frank Quilici was at second base in place of Rod Carew. Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Quilici in the seventh. Danny Thompson then pinch-ran for Manuel and stayed in the game at second base. Jim Holt pinch-ran for Alyea in the seventh and stayed in the game at center field, with Cesar Tovar moving to left. Rick Renick pinch-hit for Holt in the eighth. Herman Hill then pinch-ran for Renick and stayed in the game in center field.
Tony Oliva was 1-for-3 and was batting .318. Perry had an ERA of 2.93. Williams had an ERA of 2.11.
Oakland started the series five and a half games behind. Realistically, they had to sweep the series to have much chance. Obviously, they failed to do that, and could only hope to win two out of three now.
The Twins had won six out of seven and eight out of ten.
Record: The Twins were 84-56, in first place in the American League West, 6.5 games ahead of Oakland.